Hi all,
Please forgive this simple question if the answer is obvious to anyone around here who isn't a newbie like myself...
I've been looking into information about lunar insertion for a few days now for a personal project, and it seems all the illustrations I find on the net about your typical Apollo flight path show an "S-shaped" curve:
- slingshotting out of Earth along the direction of the Earth's rotation (emerging from the "right-hand side of Earth" when looking at the Moon)
- being captured on what I guess I would call the leading hemisphere of the Moon ("to the left of the Moon" as seen from Earth)
- wrapping around the Moon in the direction of the body's rotation...
As shown here:
Now, I've come across this 1 illustration (following next) showing a "C-shaped" trajectory, where the takeoff and Earth departure are the same as what I previously described, but the capture by the Moon occurs "to the right of the Moon" as seen from Earth... I'm probably wrong here, but it strikes me as strange that one would manage to "go against" the rotation of the Moon. Unless this is a better way to lose energy for landing?
Could anyone confirm that this is not a fluke, and that such insertions actually do exist?
If so, what is their purpose in comparison to the typical "S-shaped" Apollo-era insertion?
Benefits and drawbacks?
Again, please forgive my layman's terminology, and many thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.
Michel
Please forgive this simple question if the answer is obvious to anyone around here who isn't a newbie like myself...
I've been looking into information about lunar insertion for a few days now for a personal project, and it seems all the illustrations I find on the net about your typical Apollo flight path show an "S-shaped" curve:
- slingshotting out of Earth along the direction of the Earth's rotation (emerging from the "right-hand side of Earth" when looking at the Moon)
- being captured on what I guess I would call the leading hemisphere of the Moon ("to the left of the Moon" as seen from Earth)
- wrapping around the Moon in the direction of the body's rotation...
As shown here:
Now, I've come across this 1 illustration (following next) showing a "C-shaped" trajectory, where the takeoff and Earth departure are the same as what I previously described, but the capture by the Moon occurs "to the right of the Moon" as seen from Earth... I'm probably wrong here, but it strikes me as strange that one would manage to "go against" the rotation of the Moon. Unless this is a better way to lose energy for landing?
Could anyone confirm that this is not a fluke, and that such insertions actually do exist?
If so, what is their purpose in comparison to the typical "S-shaped" Apollo-era insertion?
Benefits and drawbacks?
Again, please forgive my layman's terminology, and many thanks in advance for any help that can be provided.
Michel