Heteroclinic, homoclinic connections between the Sun-Earth triangular points and quasi-satellite orbits for solar observations

Abstract

Investigation of new orbit geometries exhibits a very attractive behavior for a spacecraft to monitor space weather coming from the Sun. Several orbit transfer mechanisms are analyzed as potential alternatives to monitor solar activity such as a sub-solar orbit or quasi-satellite orbit and short and long heteroclinic and homoclinic connections between the triangular points L₄ and L₅ and the collinear point L₃ of the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (CRTBP) in the Sun-Earth system.