There have even been trajectory optimization competitions. http://sophia.estec.esa.int/gtoc_portal/ http://sophia.estec.esa.int/gtoc_portal/ Also, there was a

There have even been trajectory optimization competitions. http://sophia.estec.esa.int/gtoc_portal/ http://sophia.estec.esa.int/gtoc_portal/ Also, there was a crowd-sourcing space game with a nifty javascript interface for trajectory design where they looked at how people came up with good trajectories. http://sophia.estec.esa.int/thespacegame/game/ http://sophia.estec.esa.int/thespacegame/game/ It's a fascinating field!