Patent ID: 8781741

Claim:
A method for generating efficient transfer orbits, comprising: for a spacecraft, identifying an initial orbit about a first celestial body, wherein the first celestial body is the Earth and the initial orbit has a perigee altitude of less than 2000 kilometers; identifying a target orbit for the spacecraft about the first celestial body; and using a processor running a transfer orbit generator to generate a transfer orbit for the spacecraft from the initial orbit to the target orbit using gravitational effects of a second celestial body larger in mass than the first celestial body, the transfer orbit generating by the transfer orbit generator including: building a stable three-body, three-dimensional manifold that intersects the initial orbit; and building an unstable three-body, three-dimensional manifold that intersects the target orbit, wherein the stable and unstable three-body, three-dimensional manifolds each defines a three-dimensional shape that encapsulates a set of possible transfer orbits or trajectories originating from or terminating on an unstable three-body orbit; wherein the method further comprises moving the spacecraft along the transfer orbit.