Michael Minovitch

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Michael Andrew Minovitch (* 1935 or 1936 ) is an American mathematician who has shown that the trajectory (flight path) of space probes can gain speed as they fly past planets by means of a swing-by maneuver ("Gravity Assist").

He developed and proved this knowledge in 1961 with the help of what was then the fastest mainframe computer as a 25-year-old student at the University of California ( UCLA ) while he was doing a semester break job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the summer .

Previous studies on comets in the late 19th century had shown that their orbits changed when they passed close to Jupiter . This suggested that an energy transfer had taken place during the encounter. But it was only Minovitch's work that showed that this could be useful in planning an interplanetary journey. The first mission that used this technique was the journey of Mariner 10 to Venus and Mercury in 1973. Later, she was the Voyager program used to achieve sufficient speed to the outer planets Uranus and Neptune to fly . By Gary Flandro found grand tour program has been possible.

Sources / individual references

  1. ^ Mark Wolverton, The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Planetary Probes, 2004, Joseph Henry Press, ISBN 0-309-09050-4
  2. ↑ Michael Minovitch: An Alternative Method for Determination of Elliptic and Hyperbolic Trajectories , Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technical Memos No. TM-312-118, Jul 11, 1961, PDF file 20 MB, accessed August 26, 2013
  3. ↑ Michael Minovitch: A Method For Determining Interplanetary Free-Fall Reconnaissance Trajectories , Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technical Memos, No. TM-312-130 pp. 38-44, August 23, 1961, PDF file 20 MB, accessed August 27 2013

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personal data
SURNAME Minovitch, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Minovitch, Michael Andrew (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mathematician and inventor of swing-by maneuvers
DATE OF BIRTH 1935 or 1936