Earth escape Regions near the Moon.
by J. Pike.
AAIA Journal, Vol 9,No 5, May 1971, pp. 948-950.

Comment.
It has been shown previously that spacecraft powered by microthrust can escape the earth's gravitational field using a Moon flyby in a direction opposite to the Moon's motion. The contra-rotating orbit is difficult to achieve, but it is shown in this paper that Earth escape velocity can be obtained for a spacecraft approaching the Moon at any angle of more than 24 degrees to the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth, in the same direction as the Moon. Such orbits are more easily achieved. The maximum velocity (some 1.4 times escape velocity) occurs for a flyby approach at 45 degrees to the Moon's plane of rotation. The same principle can be applied more generally to the flyby of other moons or planets.

Availability.
The AIAA or technical libraries holding the Journal
or email J A C K @ J A C K P I KE . C O . U K

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Last amended: Dec 2013.