Optimal trajectory design to Halo orbits via pseudo-invariant manifolds using a nonlinear four body formulation

This paper investigates the problem of optimal transfer trajectory design towards the L2 centered Halo orbit of the Sun-Earth three body system, where the initial launch is to start from a low Earth parking orbit (LEO). The proposed optimal transfer trajectory consists of an active part with low-thrust propulsion and a passive coasting part with no thrust or fuel consumption. In this respect a pseudo-stable manifold (SM) is initially determined through backward time integration of the bicircular four body (BCFB) equations of motion, whose initial states are obtained via stable manifolds of the restricted three body problem (R3BP). The optimal transfer trajectories are extracted via a hybrid direct-indirect optimization formulation applied on both R3BP as well as the BCFB models for comparative purposes. The optimal transfer trajectories are designed and analyzed for different Halo injection points (HOI), different Moon's final anomaly (FMA) and also for different locations of the burn-out conditions.