The winner of the Intel Science Talent Search is Erika DeBenedictis. She won for a program that calculates low-energy trajectories through the solar system, much faster than previous approaches have found.
I can't evaluate her claims or her code, but I bet some of our MFD wizards could adapt her approach (assuming it holds up to scrutiny) to a navigational tool for Orbiter.
Her report is at http://www.debenedictis.org/erika/ and is titled "An Optimization Algorithm for Space Mission Design: Dynamically Simulating Energy-Efficient Trajectories"
A video interview is at
Volunteers?
I can't evaluate her claims or her code, but I bet some of our MFD wizards could adapt her approach (assuming it holds up to scrutiny) to a navigational tool for Orbiter.
Her report is at http://www.debenedictis.org/erika/ and is titled "An Optimization Algorithm for Space Mission Design: Dynamically Simulating Energy-Efficient Trajectories"
A video interview is at
Volunteers?