When a spacecraft is circling a planet or crusing amongst a set of moons, navigating between completely different orbits could be powerful – however a trick from knot theory could help. It can be utilized to determine factors referred to as heteroclinic connections, the place a craft can switch from one orbit to a different with out burning any of its treasured gasoline.
“These heteroclinic connections, plenty of the time we all know there are some for a pair of orbits, however…