# Direct and indirect capture of near-Earth asteroids in the Earth–Moon system

Direct and indirect capture of near-Earth asteroids in the Earth–Moon system Near-Earth asteroids have attracted attention for both scientific and commercial mission applications. Due to the fact that the Earth–Moon $$\hbox {L}_{1}$$ L 1 and $$\hbox {L}_{2}$$ L 2 points are candidates for gateway stations for lunar exploration, and an ideal location for space science, capturing asteroids and inserting them into periodic orbits around these points is of significant interest for the future. In this paper, we define a new type of lunar asteroid capture, termed direct capture. In this capture strategy, the candidate asteroid leaves its heliocentric orbit after an initial impulse, with its dynamics modeled using the Sun–Earth–Moon restricted four-body problem until its insertion, with a second impulse, onto the $$\hbox {L}_{2}$$ L 2 stable manifold in the Earth–Moon circular restricted three-body problem. A Lambert arc in the Sun-asteroid two-body problem is used as an initial guess and a differential corrector used to generate the transfer trajectory from the asteroid’s initial obit to the stable manifold associated with Earth–Moon $$\hbox {L}_{2}$$ L 2 point. Results show that the direct asteroid capture strategy needs a shorter flight time compared to an indirect asteroid capture, which couples capture in the Sun–Earth circular restricted three-body problem and subsequent transfer to the Earth–Moon circular restricted three-body problem. Finally, the direct and indirect asteroid capture strategies are also applied to consider capture of asteroids at the triangular libration points in the Earth–Moon system. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy Springer Journals

# Direct and indirect capture of near-Earth asteroids in the Earth–Moon system

, Volume 129 (2) – Apr 19, 2017
32 pages

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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Subject
Physics; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory; Aerospace Technology and Astronautics; Geophysics/Geodesy; Classical Mechanics
ISSN
0923-2958
eISSN
1572-9478
D.O.I.
10.1007/s10569-017-9764-x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

### Abstract

Near-Earth asteroids have attracted attention for both scientific and commercial mission applications. Due to the fact that the Earth–Moon $$\hbox {L}_{1}$$ L 1 and $$\hbox {L}_{2}$$ L 2 points are candidates for gateway stations for lunar exploration, and an ideal location for space science, capturing asteroids and inserting them into periodic orbits around these points is of significant interest for the future. In this paper, we define a new type of lunar asteroid capture, termed direct capture. In this capture strategy, the candidate asteroid leaves its heliocentric orbit after an initial impulse, with its dynamics modeled using the Sun–Earth–Moon restricted four-body problem until its insertion, with a second impulse, onto the $$\hbox {L}_{2}$$ L 2 stable manifold in the Earth–Moon circular restricted three-body problem. A Lambert arc in the Sun-asteroid two-body problem is used as an initial guess and a differential corrector used to generate the transfer trajectory from the asteroid’s initial obit to the stable manifold associated with Earth–Moon $$\hbox {L}_{2}$$ L 2 point. Results show that the direct asteroid capture strategy needs a shorter flight time compared to an indirect asteroid capture, which couples capture in the Sun–Earth circular restricted three-body problem and subsequent transfer to the Earth–Moon circular restricted three-body problem. Finally, the direct and indirect asteroid capture strategies are also applied to consider capture of asteroids at the triangular libration points in the Earth–Moon system.

### Journal

Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical AstronomySpringer Journals

Published: Apr 19, 2017

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