Scientists found a hidden highway to the Moon, and it could make space travel much cheaper

Getting to the moon is expensive.

Every kilogram of fuel that a spacecraft carries has to be lifted off Earth, which itself burns more fuel.

This is why aerospace engineers and orbital mechanics researchers spend enormous amounts of time hunting for even the smallest efficiencies in how a spacecraft travels.

A few meters per second shaved off here and there can translate into millions of dollars saved per mission.

Now, an international team of researchers say they have found exactly that, a more efficient route between Earth and the moon, calculated using advanced computer modelling, and it was hiding in plain sight all along.How gravity powers spacecraft for free through the interplanetary transportation network To understand why this discovery matters, it helps to understand how spacecraft actually move.