# How to find the transfer orbit from a initial circular orbit to a final elliptical orbit

Is a hohmann transfer or bi-elliptical transfer more efficient for this case? How can I find the transfer orbit that conserves the most deltaV?

I will be going from a circular Earth centered orbit to an elliptical sun centered orbit. Assuming the orbits are coplanar.

• Neither Hohmann or bi-elliptical transfers are appropriate. This would be a bi-tangential transfer, where the first burn is complicated by also being an escape from Earth. – JCRM May 11 at 11:03
• I found other posts on this cite about the bi-tangential orbit but wasnt sure about the deltaV that will be needed for the maneuver – Freddy May 12 at 2:37

## 1 Answer

The semi-major axis and eccentricity of your target orbit will determine whether a Hohmann transfer (i.e. bi-impulse transfer) or bi-elliptic transfer (i.e. tri-impulse transfer) is more $$\Delta$$V efficient.

Here is a paper that explains the equations governing this problem.

• not sure if it is just me but the article listed has a lot of the equations with symbols that didnt transfer properly so it looks like gibberish in some places – Freddy May 9 at 1:23
• This is what's called a link-only answer. If the link breaks (and they do), there is no answer here for future readers to see. It's much better to at least summarize the material in the link so that it will still constitute a proper answer to the question if/when the link breaks. – uhoh May 10 at 0:26