Earth--Mars Transfers with Ballistic Capture · HackerPapers discussions

Earth--Mars Transfers with Ballistic Capture — mentioned by kartikkumar

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 20:19:02 GMT

My boss co-authored that paper [1] :) Ballistic capture is interesting: makes use of fuzzy/chaotic dynamics in the 3-Body Problem. I worked on analysis of the Weak Stability Boundary, which is the mathematical set of all points in phase-space that lie at this fuzzy boundary, for my Masters thesis [2]. It has been used in a few missions, including SMART-1, Stardust, and Hiten. ESA's Bepi-Colombo mission will also be using it to ensure that there isn't a single point-of-failure to enter orbit around Mercury. The big problem with ballistic capture is that it doesn't guarantee a more optimal…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Earth--Mars Transfers with Ballistic Capture — mentioned by kartikkumar

Mon, 22 Dec 2014 22:58:36 GMT

The paper itself provides much more insight into the actual physics behind this [1]. The article doesn't really do the paper justice in my mind, based on my knowledge of the subject matter (although I appreciate the intent of providing an accessible means to introduce the topic). I wrote my MSc thesis on weak capture trajectories and the concept of the Weak Stability Boundary [2] that was introduced by Ed Belbruno. It's a fantastic aspect of the gravitational 3-body problem and has been probed from a number of different perspectives over the last two decades, including tying in the phenomenon…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.