As humanity seeks to expand its presence at and around the Moon, researchers have been hard at work fine-tuning small details that could make or break a lunar mission. One team says it has mathematically mapped out the most fuel-efficient route to the Moon yet.

According to a recent Astrodynamics paper, the new route lowers the costs of fuel consumption by 58.80 meters per second (m/s) compared to known calculations. For the analysis, the team employed the theory of functional connections , a mathematical framework that solves constrained optimization problems without requiring costly spaceflight computer simulations.…