New challenges to trajectory design by the use of electric propulsion and other new means of wandering in the solar system (Q1405363)

To visit a solar-system planet, a proper trajectory should be used. The gravity-assisted trajectories opened a new way of wandering through the solar system by exploiting the gravitational filed of some planets. The advent of other propulsion techniques as electric or ion propulsion and solar sail also opened a new dimension to the planetary trajectory. The optimization of such trajectories is a new field of flight dynamics which involves complex treatments as in the lunar transfer trajectory. The authors exploit these gravitational perturbations to save fuel or to reduce time of flight.