Invariant Manifolds, Lagrangian Trajectories and Space Mission Design

Abstract

The last 30 years have produced an explosion in the capabilities of designing and managing libration point missions. The starting point was the ground-breaking mission of the third International Sun-Earth Explorer spacecraft (ISEE--3). The ISEE-3 was launched August 12, 1978 to pursue studies of the Earth--Sun interactions, in a first step of what now is known as Space Weather. After a direct transfer of the ISEE-3 to the vicinity of the Sun-Earth Lagrange point, it was inserted into a nearly-periodic halo orbit, in order to monitor the solar wind about 1 h before it reached the Earth's magneto-sphere as well as the ISEE--1 and 2 spacecraft (which where in an elliptical orbit around the Earth).