The interplanetary transport network: mechanisms of fast transport in the solar system

The competing gravitational pull between celestial bodies creates a vast array of passageways that winds around the sun, planets and moons. These corridors often take the form of hyper-cylindrical structures in phase space connecting unstable regions of near-equilibrium or unstable periodic motion in interlinked three- and four-body problems. An interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers has been exploring this complex interplanetary transport network, which not only influences the fate of comets, but may facilitate the exploration of the Moon, the asteroids, and other parts of the solar system. The talk will summarize these ideas, including their relationship to other dynamical systems problems in chemistry and engineering, both theoretical and experimental.