Michael Andrew Minovitch ( 1936 - 16 September 2022)
was an American
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
who developed
gravity assist
A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby (spaceflight), flyby which makes use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gra ...
technique when he was a
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
graduate student
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...
and working summers at
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...
. He claimed that he invented the technique, even though multiple publications preceded his own. He later sued several people, including
Richard Battin
Richard "Dick" Horace Battin (March 3, 1925 – February 8, 2014) was an American engineer, applied mathematician and educator who led the design of the Apollo guidance computer during the Apollo missions during the 1960s.
Battin was born on Mar ...
who published a paper on gravity assists in 1958, for stealing his ideas, but lost.
In 1961 Minovitch began using the fastest available computer at the time, the
IBM 7090
The IBM 7090 is a second-generation Transistor computer, transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computer that was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 is the fourth member o ...
, to solve the
three-body problem
In physics, specifically classical mechanics, the three-body problem is to take the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses orbiting each other in space and then calculate their subsequent trajectories using Newton' ...
. He ran simulations and developed his own solution by 1962.
The first mission to use a gravity assist was
Pioneer 10
''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed ...
, which increased its velocity from 52,000 km/h to 132,000 km/h as it passed by Jupiter in December, 1973.
Minovitch patented a vehicle for space travel under the patent title ''Magnetic propulsion system and operating method'', US Patent 6193194 B1.
References
External links
*
Jupiter swing-by trajectories passing near the earth Includes comprehensive history of the development of gravity-assist trajectories.
*
Gravity-assist "Slingshot", Background, principle, applications, Part 1 and 2o
EEWorldOnline.com
1930s births
Living people
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
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