Out-of-plane orbital maneuvers using swing-bys with the Moon

Abstract

Abstract. This paper has the goal of showing some cases of plane change maneuvers using a swing-by with the Moon to decrease the magnitude of the impulses used, when compared to a classical Hohmann maneuver. The analytical model is based on the "patched-conics" approach, where a series of "two-body" problems is considered to build the whole maneuver. A study of the effects of the semi-major axes of the transfer orbits were made, to complete some previous studies made in the literature. The results show that, for some final inclinations, the use of the swing-by in the Moon is really advantageous.