• moon
• lunar
• lunar trajectories
• design
• transfer

During the last 50 years, the Moon has developed a dual role in human thought. As the Apollo explorations and other relevant missions have shown, the Moon is a scientifically important body. It preserves a unique history of planetary formation and early development, and also serves as a probe that has recorded the space environment and cosmic radiation for billions of years. Because of its closeness to Earth, the Moon is also an obvious target for long-term human exploration beyond Earth. Knowledge of the Moon’s characteristics, especially its potential usefulness and resources, has become critical for planning the human future in space.
Although the computation of precision lunar trajectories can only be done by numerical integration of the equations of motion due to the great number of external factors that may affect the trajectory, the present work can easily be applied to gain some insight into the great complexity of the orbital mechanics of a lunar mission.