Arctic Spaceport Advantage: Validation of Gooding and Lancaster-Blanchard Lambert Algorithms Against ESA GODOT for Trans-Lunar Injection

This study compares two analytical Lambert Solvers, Lancaster-Blanchard (1969) and Gooding (1990) methods, against ESA GODOT Lambert Solver for trans-lunar injection trajectories supporting the proposed ESA Máni Mission to the lunar south pole. Using the pork-chop method, the algorithms were implemented through LambertHub and a translated MATLAB function. Both were then evaluated for launches from the Arctic sites Andøya, Norway at 69.29 degrees to the North and Esrange, Sweden at 67.89 degrees to the North against equatorial Kourou, French Guiyana at 5.17 degrees to the North. A two-phase patched conic was used (LEO to Lunar Sphere of Influence (LSOI), and from LSOI to Lunar Polar Orbit (LPLO)) with target inclination of 60 degrees LSOI using JPL ephemeris data (2025.10.04 00:00:00.00). Both algorithms produced identical results. Arctic launch sites achieved approximately 59% delta-V savings, approximately 8km/s, versus Kourou at approximate 19.4 km/s due to reduced plane changes. ESA GODOT validation, shows 23-27% savings with optimal launch windows at 180-200 degrees true anomaly of the elliptic orbit. The apparent deviation between GODOT and the analytical solvers reflect differences in reference geometry, rather than computational efficiency. Results highlight that the polar-adjacent spaceports for lunar polar mission offer advantages for strategic fuel efficiency. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Jens Frydenvang (KU/NBI) for enabling us to conduct this research through the student membership of the Máni Science Team.