Low-energy, three-dimensional, symmetric jumping Trojan trajectories for the exploration of the Earth-Moon triangular libration point regions

<title>Abstract</title> <p>The triangular libration point regions in the Earth-Moon system offer unique opportunities for science missions due to the possible existence of the Kordylewski dust clouds. Low-energy transfer solutions leveraging the multi-body gravitational environment may be helpful in exploring the regions with little fuel cost. This paper studies a trajectory option mimicking the jumping Trojan asteroids, which ballistically transfer between tadpole orbits around each triangular point. Low-energy, symmetric, jumping Trojan trajectories in the spatial circular restricted three-body problem are comprehensively investigated based on newly developed criteria for distinguishing tadpole orbits from other orbits. A variety of jumping Trojan trajectories is found, their orbital characteristics are presented, and a strategy for extracting candidate jumping Trojan trajectories for a mission application is developed.</p>