TL cyclers

ToughSF has linked muh cuz S. D. Ross, along with his minion Michael Roberts-Tsoukkas, on prograde Earth-Moon cycler orbits. Prograde means we can inject sats into there more easily.

The key as ever is the Jacobi. First you have to raise that sat. This altitude - potential-energy - is high, in order to shift toward the Moon easily. It also meanwhile has to be kicked to an orbital cycler trajectory.

Once done, a class of TL cyclers opens up. Among them: (1,1) and (2,1) and (3,1). Last is thrice about Tellus here; once, Luna there. 45, 84, 64 days period respectively. The (3,1) cuts closest Earth and Moon; also doesn't skim the direct Earth-Moon line. Former two intersect close to L1, so will need diverted from any spaceline. Third one looks pentagrammy, skating the far edges of L4 and L5 haloes. Ross with Abdullah Braik lately suspect (2,1) as hard-access. (1,1) retains the lowest flight time so prioritises small journeys toward the Moon and back, like Aldrin to/from Mars.

The team might be settling upon (3,2) although this does clip the spaceline.

As for their use, I expect that's for what Mike Collins was doing in 1969, picking up and dropping off, in a safely-shielded capsule. Maybe big enough to be shielded and have spin'grav.

To test, that's standard Falcon-9 injection into orbit followed by space-tuggery; we're doing a lot of similar Lunar orbitals. For the cyclers proper, would require something more. Like the SLS, but I don't really like that. An assemblage in some HEO shipyard would be better.