Ballistic Capture Transfers from the Earth to Mars

We construct a new type of transfer from the Earth to Mars, which ends in ballistic capture. This results in a substantial savings in capture Delta v from that of a classical Hohmann transfer under certain conditions as well as an alternate way for spacecraft to transfer to Mars, with a flexible launch window. This is accomplished by first becoming captured at Mars, very distant from the planet, and then from there, following a ballistic capture transfer to a desired altitude within a ballistic capture set. This is achieved by manipulating the stable sets, or sets of initial conditions whose orbits satisfy a simple definition of stability. This transfer type may be of interest for Mars missions because of lower capture Delta v, moderate flight time, and flexibility of launch period from the Earth.