Dynamics and Mission Design Near Libration Points (Q4493067)

Publisher's description (no review copy received): It is well known that the restricted three-body problem has triangular equilibrium points. These points are linearly stable for values of the mass parameter, \(m\), below Routh's critical value, \(m_1\). It is also known that in the spatial case they are nonlinearly stable, not for all the initial conditions in a neighborhood of the equilibrium points \(L_4\), \(L_5\), but for a set of relatively large measures. This follows from the celebrated Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theorem. In fact, there are neighborhoods of computable size for which one obtains ``practical stability'' in the sense that the massless particle remains close to the equilibrium point for a long time interval (some millions of years, for example). According to the literature, what has been done in the problem follows two approaches: (a) numerical simulations of more or less accurate models of the real solar system; (b) study of periodic or quasi-periodic orbits of some much simpler problems. The concrete questions that are studied in this volume are: (a) Is there some orbit of the real solar system which looks like the periodic orbit of the second approach? (That is, are there orbits performing revolutions around \(L_4\) covering eventually a thick strip? Furthermore, it would be good if those orbits turn out to be quasi-periodic. However, there is no guarantee that such orbits exist or will be quasi-periodic). (b) If the orbit of (a) exists and two particles (spacecrafts) are put close to it, how do the mutual distance and orientation change with time? As a final conclusion of the work, there is evidence that orbits moving in a somewhat large annulus around \(L_4\) and \(L_5\) exist, that these orbits have small components out of the plane of the Earth-Moon system, and that they are at most mildly unstable.