Constructing a Low Energy Transfer Between Jovian Moons 292, pp.
129-145, 2002 There has recently been considerable interest in
sending a spacecraft to orbit Europa, the smallest of the four
Galilean moons of Jupiter. The trajectory design involved in
ecting a capture by Europa presents formidable challenges to
traditional conic analysis since the regimes of motion involved
depend heavily on three-body dynamics. New three-body
perspectives are required to design successful and earthcient
missions which take full advantage of the natural dynamics. Not
only does a three-body approach provide low-fuel trajectories,
but it also increases the exibility and versatility of missions.
We apply this approach to design a new mission concept wherein a
spacecraft moons, orbiting each for a desired duration in a
temporary capture orbit. We call this concept the "Petit Grand
Tour." For this application, we apply dynamical systems
techniques developed in a previous paper to design a Europa
capture orbit. We show how it is po