Patent ID: 8322659

Claim:
A method for reducing a weight of fuel stowed onboard during an interplanetary mission, comprising the steps of: launching a first orbiter spacecraft from the Earth on a first interplanetary trajectory towards a target planet to be explored for recovering a load to be transported from the target planet to the Earth, and launching a second orbiter spacecraft from the Earth on a second interplanetary trajectory towards a rendezvous spot with the first orbiter spacecraft for effecting a docking of the two orbiter spacecraft and recovering the load by the second orbiter spacecraft at the rendezvous spot, wherein said rendezvous spot is located on said second interplanetary trajectory, not in a terrestrial orbit, and wherein the second interplanetary trajectory does not comprise any phase of placing the second orbiter spacecraft in orbit around the target planet, nor around any other planet, then returning at least the second orbiter spacecraft and the load, from the rendezvous spot to a terrestrial orbit.