Mathematician Edward Belbruno says he's made calculations using ballistic capture to bring spacecraft to Mars more cheaply and safely.

The cost of sending a spacecraft to Mars can exceed hundreds of millions of dollars. A large portion of that cost is directly related to the heavy and expensive rocket fuel a spacecraft must carry to slow itself down once it gets to its target destination such as Mars.

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Spacecraft are usually traveling tens of thousands of miles per hour when they approach Mars and have to fire their retrorockets for minutes to slow down. This is the penalty for using the Hohmann transfer that requires a spacecraft to chase then intercept its target destination.

By using ballistic capture, however, a spacecraft launches ahead of its target. This means the spacecraft takes its time, eats-up less fuel and slows down to a speed below the speed of its target. The target then catches up to the spacecraft and sucks it into orbit around itself using its own gravity.

Ballistic capture is also known as low-energy transfer and it's possible between bodies in the inner solar system.

Belbruno and a colleague, Francesco Topputo, plotted a ballistic capture trajectory designed to get a spacecraft into orbit around Mars. They estimated their method could use 25 percent less fuel, although it would also take more time to reach Mars than a spacecraft using a Hohmann transfer.

Researchers, however, still need to figure out how the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies such as Jupiter will affect their calculations.

"It's an eye-opener. It could be a pretty big step for us and really save us resources and capability, which is always what we're looking for," said James Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA.

The new study appeared in the journal, Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.

TagsMars, NASA, red planet, spacecraft, cheaper way to arrive at Mars, space exploration, Ballistic capture, low-energy transfer