ON THE USE OF LUNAR GRAVITATION IN-SPACE FLIGHTS TO ASTEROIDS APPROACHING THE EARTHS ORBIT

It is shown that for many variants of space flights to asteroids appro aching the Earth's orbit, it would be advantageous to choose flight tr ajectories passing close to the Moon. If the required velocity of the spacecraft in the region of the Earth's attraction ranges between 1.3 and 2.5 km/s, gravitational maneuvering near the Moon will save more t han 150 m/s of the characteristic velocity. As an example, the 1998 - 1999 flight trajectory from the Earth to die asteroid (3352) McAuliffe , in which the spacecraft will pass close to die Moon, is computed. In this case, a significant fraction (183 m/s) of the characteristic vel ocity would be saved.