Michael Andrew Minovitch (born c. 1936) is 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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

who developed

gravity assist In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the p ...

technique when he was a

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

graduate student Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

and working summers at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

. In 1961 Minovitch began using the fastest available computer at the time, the

IBM 7090 The IBM 7090 is a second-generation 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 of the IBM 700/7000 ser ...

, to solve the

three-body problem In physics and classical mechanics, the three-body problem is the problem of taking the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses and solving for their subsequent motion according to Newton's laws of motion and Newton's ...

. 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 an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to ach ...

, 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 2
o
EEWorldOnline.com
20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 1930s births Living people University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni {{US-mathematician-stub