At a great lost to the world, unfortunately Dr. Michael A Minovitch now resides in heaven. He passed away on September 16th, 2022
For information pertaining to Dr. Minovitch's inventions, discoveries, patents, historial papers, etc., please contact:
Bill Cress, CEO & CFO
AccessAerospace, LLC
Tel 973-489-5701 or email Bill@AccessAerospace.com
28 Worcester Dr, Wayne NJ 07470 US
Background Information and Purpose of this Web Site
The Classical Theory of Space Travel and the
Impossibility of Exploring Most of the Solar System
The Creation of a new Theory of Space Travel -- Gravity
Propelled Space Travel
How Did Minovitch Discover (Create) His New Theory Of
Space Travel?
A Technical Explanation of Minovitch’s Theory of
Gravity Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel.
The Missions That Minovitch’s New Theory of Space
Travel Made Possible
The IAF Project
Design of the Web Site
How The Web Site Can Be Used To Obtain
The Most Technically and Historically Correct Description of the
Invention
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The history behind the exploration and
determination of the structure of atomic and subatomic particles is
well known and described in countless science books. The fact that it
required the invention of various particle accelerators such as linear
accelerators and cyclotrons in order to generate the high kinetic
energies is taught in every high school and college physics class.
However, the history behind the exploration and determination of the
structure of the Solar System using instrumented spacecraft is very
hard to find and virtually unknown. Although the accumulated
scientific information obtained from these spacecraft is filling row
after row of professional journals in astrophysics, and space science
in every large science library, an accurate description of the history
behind the technical breakthrough that made it possible to circumvent
the classical high-energy barriers of reaction propulsion cannot be
found in a single book. The purpose of this Web Site is intended to
correct this problem by identifying the key technical papers and
references describing this breakthrough.
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The Classical Theory of space travel
was based on Newton’s Third Law of Motion -- For Every Action There
is An Equal And Opposite Reaction. Thus, by burning a combustible
fuel (propellant) using an oxidizer and expelling the combustion
products in one direction at high velocity, an equal and opposite
reaction thrust is generated in the opposite direction. This thrust
generating principle is independent of any surrounding medium, and
works best when there is no surrounding medium such as the vacuum of
space. This concept was so elementary it became the basic principle
for achieving vehicle propulsion above the Earth’s atmosphere, and
hence the theoretical possibilities of achieving interplanetary space
travel. It became known as “reaction propulsion,”
When this classical theory of space
travel became an engineering research and development effort in the
1930s, it became apparent that only a small fraction of the Solar
System could ever be reached with space vehicles. The propulsive
energy required to send a vehicle to distant targets in the Solar
System was enormous. The problem was that this energy had to be
generated off the Earth’s surface by the combustible fuel that had to
be carried by the vehicle itself along with the oxidizer. The
relatively low energy densities of chemical propellants required huge
amounts of propellant to generate any significant amount of propulsive
energy. Unfortunately, this increased the vehicle’s inertial mass
which required even more energy to overcome. Thus, the exploration of
the entire Solar System was believed to be a technical impossibility
by all of the early pioneers. A casual investigation of the early
history of interplanetary space travel reveals that one of the most
famous pioneers who contributed in formulating the basic theory,
Professor Hermann Oberth, actually proved mathematically that the
exploration of most of the Solar System would not be possible.
With the advent of nuclear power
generation after World War II the theoretical possibility of breaking
the high-energy barriers of classical space travel based on reaction
propulsion and exploring the entire Solar System changed. If certain
technical problems could be solved, it would indeed be possible to
explore the entire Solar System. Although the United States spent
about two billion dollars over a period of many years beginning in the
1950s in an effort to solve these technical problems, they were simply
too difficult to surmount. (The Soviet Union and other countries also
tried to solve the problems, but were also unsuccessful.) The
required advanced nuclear propulsion systems were simply beyond
engineering feasibility. When this information became an undeniable
fact in the mid-1960s, it appeared that most of the Solar System would
indeed remain unknown. However, in a relatively short period of time
beginning in the 1970s, most of the major bodies and regions of the
Solar System were explored, and it was achieved with relatively small
launch vehicles and conventional chemical rocket propulsion. And this
included regions close to the sun, regions far above and below the
ecliptic plane over the sun’s polar regions, and deep space far beyond
the orbit of Pluto. The entire three-dimensional particle and field
structure of the Solar System was essentially completely determined.
How was this achieved? How was it
possible to penetrate one of the most fundamental energy barriers of
space science? What was the technical breakthrough that made it
possible? The answer to these questions is very simple but virtually
unknown. It was achieved by a fundamentally new theory of space
travel invented by Dr. Michael A. Minovitch in 1961 which he calls
“Gravity Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel.”
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The Invention of Minovitch’s theory of
Gravity Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel was so radical it did
not require any rocket fuel or any on-board energy generating system,
but was capable of generating vehicle velocities far greater than the
most advanced nuclear propulsion system, and was independent of the
vehicle’s mass. Moreover, it was not even based on Newton’s Third Law
of Motion. When Minovitch presented it to JPL in the form of 47 page
technical paper dated August 23, 1961, it was dismissed by the head of
JPL’s Trajectory Group as impossible. How could a young graduate
student in mathematics and physics who never studied the problem of
space propulsion, space travel or astrodynamics before the summer of
1961 ever invent a completely new theory of space travel that could
not only be fundamentally different from the classical theory based on
reaction propulsion which all of the professionals took for granted as
the “only possible theory” but far surpass it in terms of what it
could achieve? The answer to this question is because Minovitch
invented his theory by using his fields of expertise which were
advanced mathematics and advanced physics and not using anything from
the classical theory of reaction propulsion. It was such a radical
departure from the classical theory of space travel that it didn’t
even use any of the most basic operating principles in the classical
theory.
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JPL did not hire Minovitch in June 1961
to create a new theory of space travel. He was assigned to work on a
specific problem in JPL’s Trajectory Group. It involved formulating
an alternative method for solving a relatively straight-forward
problem that any graduate student in mathematics or physics could have
solved at that time. The problem was to determine the parameters of a
conic trajectory (semi-major axis and eccentricity) of a free-fall
vehicle passing between two given points with a given flight time
moving under the gravitational field of the sun. Minovitch solved the
problem and presented his solution in the form of his first JPL paper
dated July 21, 1961. His supervisor liked the
paper and instructed him to prepare the paper as a formal external
laboratory publication known as a JPL Technical Report.
During this process, Minovitch became
interested in a much more difficult trajectory problem that was still
unsolved at that time. It was the problem of determining the exact
three-dimensional approach trajectory of a free-fall space vehicle
approaching some target planet (Mars) such that the effect of its
gravitational field, acting simultaneously and continuously with
the gravitational field of the sun, will deflect the vehicle’s
trajectory without rocket propulsion onto a new trajectory such that
the vehicle will return to the launch planet at some unknown future
time. The problem was difficult because it required solving one of
the most difficult and famous problems of celestial mechanics known as
the “Restricted Three-Body Problem” for motion through the solar
system. (The Restricted Three-Body Problem of celestial mechanics
involved determining the trajectory of a body having negligible mass
moving under the simultaneous gravitational influence of two other
bodies having much larger mass moving under the influence of their
mutual gravitational fields.) Minovitch believed that he could solve
this round-trip trajectory problem by developing a different method
for defining a conic orbit in three-dimensional space and using a
technique for numerically solving complicated differential equations
known as “differential corrections.” He began working 12 to 16 hours
a day both at JPL and at home in July 1961.
While working on this problem, he
discovered something while converting from a planet centered reference
frame to a sun centered reference frame that he immediately recognized
could be used as the basis for creating an entirely new theory for
achieving unlimited interplanetary space travel throughout the entire
solar system without using any rocket propulsion whatsoever -- his
theory of gravity propelled interplanetary space travel. What he
discovered is that relative to the sun centered reference frame, the
vehicle’s orbital energy after the planetary flyby will always be
different from the vehicle’s pre-encounter orbital energy which can be
very large depending on the distance of closest approach, and the mass
of the flyby planet. Mathematically, he still did not know if his new
analytical techniques represented the first numerical solution of the
unsolved Restricted Three-Body Problem. But he knew that if he did
solve this problem, he could apply his solution serially and hence his
new theory for achieving unlimited interplanetary space travel
throughout the entire solar system would become a reality.
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With the ability to determine the
precise approach trajectory that a free-fall space vehicle needed to
have while approaching a target planet such that the effect of its
gravitational field, together with the gravitational field of the sun
acting continuously and simultaneously brings the vehicle back to
Earth, Minovitch recognized that the energy change generated by the
planetary flyby itself could be used as a propulsive source to
catapult the vehicle to a more distant planet instead of returning it
back to Earth (which could always be achieved without any change in
orbital energy). This change in orbital energy provided a means for
reaching a distant planet using only an initial amount of launch
energy that was a small fraction of what would ordinarily be required
using the traditional “minimum-energy” Hohmann direct-transfer
trajectory which all the professionals believed represented the
minimum-energy trajectory required for reaching any planet in the
Solar System. What Minovitch recognized was that a distant,
hard-to-reach planet, could be reached by launching a free-fall
vehicle to an easy-to-reach near-by planet and using the gravitational
field of that planet to catapult the vehicle to the distant target
planet without using any additional rocket propulsion beyond the
relatively little amount needed for reaching the intermediate planet.
It was a significant discovery because it represented a means for
reaching a distant target planet using an amount of launch energy way
below that of the famous Hohmann “minimum-energy” co-tangential
trajectory which was one of the most important and oldest principles
of the classical theory of space travel. But Minovitch recognized
much more than this.
Minovitch also recognized that the more
distant planet could be utilized in the same manner to change the
trajectory without rocket propulsion and catapult it to another more
distant planet in a process that could be continued indefinitely.
Once the vehicle is launched from Earth, it became possible to achieve
unlimited interplanetary space travel to explore the entire Solar
System without using any rocket propulsion beyond that needed for the
initial escape from Earth. Thus, the new theory of space travel that
Minovitch invented during the summer of 1961 could be represented by a
non-stop multiplanetary trajectory having the form P1 – P2
– P3 –
···
– PN where P1 represents the launch planet, P2,
P3, ... ,PN-1 represents N-2 intermediate
“gravity propulsion planets” and PN represents the final
planet or target body in the trajectory. It is achieved by
applying the mathematical solution of the Restricted Three-Body
Problem serially to determine the precise approach trajectory
to each successive flyby planet Pi (i = 2, 3, ... N-1) such
that its gravitational field will catapult the vehicle to the next
planet Pi+1 in the series. It is a problem much more
difficult than the classical Restricted Three-Body Problem because
there are N-1 flybys instead of only one, and each flyby had to have a
distance of closest approach to the center to each planet greater than
the planet’s radius to avoid crashing into the planet’s surface. The
theory represented one of the most elegant and sophisticated
applications of analytical mechanics ever conceived, and one of the
most mathematically difficult to solve. At that time, (1961) the much
easier Restricted Three-Body Problem for motion through the Solar
System was unsolved and regarded as one of the most difficult of all
the unsolved problems of celestial mechanics. Minovitch received
confirmation that he solved the much more difficult problem of
determining gravity propelled interplanetary trajectories necessary to
implement his new theory of space travel near the end of April 1962.
Home
One of the most important facts in the
history of space travel is that the advanced nuclear propulsion
systems were never developed. (And they have still not been
developed.) By the mid 1960s, after spending over two billion dollars
in the effort (and huge amounts by other countries), it became evident
that the advanced systems were beyond engineering feasibility. The
exploration of most of the Solar System appeared to be beyond
technical possibility. One of the most ironic and little known facts
in the history of space travel is the fact that the exploration of
most the Solar System could not be achieved within the classical
theory laid down by the founding pioneers. But most of the Solar
System was explored, and it was carried out with ordinary chemical
rocket propulsion and relatively small launch vehicles in a short
period of about 35 years. This is what Minovitch’s invention of
gravity propelled interplanetary space travel accomplished -- it made
it possible to explore the entire Solar System with instrumented space
vehicles. It achieved what was believed to be impossible within the
classical theory set forth by Tsiolkovsky, Goddard and Oberth.
The gravity propelled trajectories and
their names that were made possible by this new theory of space travel
were: Earth-Venus-Mercury (Mariner 10); Earth-Jupiter-Interstellar
(Pioneer 10); Earth-Jupiter-Saturn-Interstellar (Pioneer 11);
Earth-Jupiter-Saturn-Interstellar (Voyager 1);
Earth-Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune-Interstellar (Voyager 2);
Earth-Jupiter-Out-Of-Ecliptic (Ulysses); and the low launch-energy
mission, Earth-Venus-Earth-Earth-Jupiter (Galileo). The combined
scientific information obtained from these missions filled many books
on astrophysics, space science, and geology, and essentially
represented the first detailed information on the structure of the
Solar System. There are also new gravity propelled missions such as
the Earth-Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter-Saturn (Cassini) mission that
enabled a spacecraft to be placed into orbit around Saturn using a
relatively small launch vehicle, and the exploration of Pluto using an
Earth-Jupiter-Pluto trajectory. And there are other gravity-assist
missions to small bodies such as comets and asteroids in various
stages of planning.
The invention, therefore, was one of
the most important in the history of space travel because it literally
made it possible to explore most of the Solar System. It was the
invention that broke the minimum-energy requirements set by Hohmann’s
direct-transfer trajectory that were previously believed to be
unbreakable. It is therefore critically important for the history of
space travel to thoroughly document the invention. Minovitch believes
that he has a responsibility to accurately explain the historical and
technical aspects of the invention and provide this information, along
with the all-important documentation, to the entire world via the
Internet so that it can be accurately preserved as part of our common
space heritage.
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It is believed that the advancement of
science and technology has two important components. First, the
benefits that the inventions bring to society as a whole and secondly;
the human story behind the invention that represents the human
advancement of Civilization. The invention of gravity propelled space
travel was fundamentally important in the advancement of science
because it made it possible to explore the entire Solar System with
instrumented spacecraft. Most of the physical and field structure of
Solar System was made possible by this invention. However, the
invention could never have taken place if it were not for achieving
the technical means that made it possible -- discovering the first
analytical solution of the Restricted Three Body Problem of celestial
mechanics for motion through the solar system. Thus, the invention
represented a significant technical achievement in its own rite and a
significant achievement in terms of what it accomplished in the
technical ability to discover new scientific information previously
believed to be unattainable for a very long time. The detailed story
behind this invention has been presented and documented in three very
detailed professional papers published by the IAF (International
Astronautical Federation based in Paris France) in a project that
spanned almost 10 years.
In 1989, while the Voyager 2 spacecraft
was approaching Neptune, JPL and NASA published a book entitled The Voyager Neptune Travel
Guide, which explained the technical and historical details of
this particular gravity propelled mission that was one example of
Minovitch’s invention. It was 267 pages long with an entire chapter
explaining the fact that the mission was made possible by Minovitch’s
invention. Minovitch was invited to participate in the August 26, 1989 celebrations at JPL as
an honored guest during the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune. During that
time Minovitch met three individuals who expressed great interest in
the history behind the invention. Two were technical support
engineers on the Voyager 2 mission named William Kosmann and Rex
Ridenhoure. The third was a space historian and member of the IAF
named Richard Dowling. These three individuals suggested that the
technical and historical details of invention should be made known by
publishing a series of papers on the invention by the International
Astronautical Federation. Dr. Frederick Ordway III who was friend of
Mr. Dowling and an important member of this international space
society concurred and encouraged the project. These papers were
entitled:
1. Dowling, R.L. et al, “The Origin of
Gravity-Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel,” 41stCongress of The
International Astronautical Federation, October 6-12, 1990, Dresden,
Germany, IAA Paper No. 90-630. (Published in, History of Rocketry
and Astronautics, (ed. J.D. Huntly),
AAS History Series,
Volume 19, (Donald C. Elder, Series Editor), American Astronautical
Society, 1997, Ch. 2, pp. 63-102.)
Click Here for Download Information and
References: The Origin of
Gravity-Propelled Interplanetary Space
Travel
2. Dowling, R.L. et al, "Gravity
Propulsion Research at UCLA and JPL 1962-1964," 42nd Congress of The
International Astronautical Federation, October 5-11, 1991, Montreal,
Canada, IAA Paper No. 91-677. (Published in, History of Rocketry
and Astronautics, (ed. J.D. Huntly),
AAS History Series,
Volume 20, (Donald C. Elder, Series Editor), American Astronautical
Society, 1997, Ch. 2, pp. 27-106.)
Click Here for Download Information and
References: Gravity Propulsion Research at USCL and JPL
3. Dowling, R.L. et al, "The Effect of
Gravity-Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel on the Exploration of
the Solar System -- Historical Survey, 1961 to 2000,” 50th
International Astronautical Congress, 4-8 Oct 1999/Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, IAA Paper No. IAA-99-IAA.2.1.08.
Click Here for Download Information and
References: The Effect of
Gravity-Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel on the Exploration of
the Solar System.
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Since these papers were intended to
document the invention by citing numerous professional papers from the
archival literature, and many unpublished documents from JPL and UCLA,
the IAF papers represented one of the most thoroughly documented and
accurate accounts of the invention ever published. Unfortunately, the
papers were academically oriented and hard to find. Therefore, since
the invention was still relatively unknown and technically
misunderstood, even after the third paper was published in 1999, it
was recognized that one way to correct the situation was to make the
papers easily accessible to the entire world by presenting them on the
Internet with the domain name “www.gravityassist.org.” However, this
project became very large because not only were the three IAF papers
presented, but the hundreds of source documents (i.e. all the
references for each paper) were also presented. This represented an
unprecedented source of the most accurate technical and historical
information describing the invention. Thus, all of Minovitch’s JPL
papers that he wrote during the summer of 1961 were presented. In
fact, all the papers he wrote at JPL and UCLA during the time period
1961-64 were presented. Therefore, when reading any one of the IAF
papers, each reference can be examined on an individual basis by
simply selecting it from the corresponding list of references. The
Web Sight is set up as a “non-profit” educational Web Sight.
Therefore, by using the provisions of the “fair use provision” of the
1977 copyright law, most of the references in all the Reports can be
individually downloaded for detailed personal use and examination.
(Care is suggested to avoid any commercial use of any downloaded
copyrighted material.) All government Reports that have been
copyrighted by the US Government can be downloaded. All
non-copyrighted documents such as letters, JPL technical papers, and
various JPL Interoffice memorandums (IOM’s) can be downloaded provided that they will not be used for commercial
use.
Thus, the Web Site is designed and
presented as an academic Web Site for the specific purpose
of describing the invention of gravity propelled interplanetary space
travel and its historical and technical significance by presenting
essentially all of the published and unpublished documents relating to
it.
How The Web Site Can Be Used To Obtain The Most Technically and
Historically Correct Description of the Invention:
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It should be pointed out and emphasized
that the most accurate information describing the facts behind and
surrounding any invention can only be obtained by examining the
original source documents (or reproductions of them). For example,
several professional astrodynamicists from JPL have, for over 30
years, tried to describe the invention as an old idea invented by
Walter Hohmann during the 1920's by citing his famous book “Die
Erreichbarkeit der Himmelskorper,” R. Oldenbourg, Munich - Berlin,
1925. However, there is an English translation of this book that is
rarely cited. It is NASA Technical Translation F-44, “The
Attainability Of Heavenly Bodies,” Nov. 1960. On pages 79-89 of this
NASA document one finds how Hohmann actually designed his
multiplanetary trajectories and, in particular, how he regarded the
effects of planetary gravitational perturbations generated during the
planetary flybys.
Hohmann’s own descriptions reveal that he regarded
them as annoying disturbances that had to be canceled out by using
on-board rocket propulsion. This NASA English translation is only one
of hundreds of documents presented on this Web Site. When it is
examined one will be able so see that all the previous publications
describing Minovitch’s invention as an old idea invented by Hohmann
are completely false. This is only one example of many. Others have
tried to give the credit to the Russian astrodynamicist A. F. Tsander
also working during the 1920's by citing his papers written in
Russian. Problema poleta pri pomoshchi reaktivnykh apparatova:
Mezhplanetnve poletv 1925. But this book of collected papers of
Tsander has also been translated into English by NASA entitled
Problems of Flight by Jet Propulsion: Interplanetary Flights --NASA
Technical Translation F-147, 1964.
An examination of this book
reveals the fact that Tsander never wrote a single paper describing
the possibility of multiplanetary trajectories and hence, could not
have invented or anticipated Minovitch’s theory of gravity propelled
interplanetary space travel. (A close reading of the English
translation of Tsander’s papers reveal that he regarded the effects of
planetary perturbations as dangerous disturbances that should be
avoided as much as possible.) These facts from the NASA English
translation are also part of the cited reference collection of the IAF
papers given in this Web Site and prove that all the papers that have
been published over the past several decades giving the credit to
Tsander are also erroneous. Still other papers have tried to give the
credit to Crocco by citing his 1956 multiplanetary Earth – Mars –
Venus – Earth trajectory presented at the VII International Astronautical Congress. However, by examining a copy of
that paper, which is also made available on the present Web Site, one
finds that Crocco’s multiplanetary trajectory was designed by
canceling out the effects of planetary perturbations to obtain an
“ideal” trajectory close to a trajectory where there are no effects of
planetary perturbations.
Hence, Crocco’s multiplanetary trajectory
was not an example of a gravity-assist trajectory and all the papers
published in the “professional literature” (by professional
astrodynamicists) over the past several decades giving the credit to
Crocco are also erroneous. One will discover that an extraordinary
effort has been made by a few professional astrodynamicists to cover
up Minovitch’s invention for over 40 years by claiming that it was an
old idea invented by others. And these professionals had important
positions at JPL and in various professional aerospace societies such
as the AIAA (American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics).
Thus, the user of this Web Site will
have the documented evidence to correct many completely erroneous
accounts of the invention that were published decades ago that are
still being published in the professional literature by professional
astrodynamicists.
Chapter 7 entitled “Slingshot Magic,”
published in, The Voyager Neptune Travel Guide, JPL/NASA
Publication 89-24, June 1, 1989, pp. 103-109 is also presented to show
that JPL/NASA does understand the revolutionary significance of the
invention and the fact that Minovitch was the inventor. However, for
some reason, JPL Management has denied Minovitch the “official credit”
for his invention that JPL routinely grants their previous employees for
making important scientific discoveries. This may be due to the fact
that JPL began publishing erroneous accounts of the invention attempting
to give the credit to other JPL employees many years ago. Although
Minovitch has presented JPL upper management with overwhelming
documentation hoping that JPL will officially grant him “official
credit” before he dies, JPL has never granted Minovitch the official
credit for his revolutionary invention -- and this was the invention
that JPL has been using since 1973 to explore the entire Solar System.
Minovitch therefore believes that there may be a small group at JPL that
may attempt to claim the credit for his invention after he dies. This is
another reason why this Web Site was created. Minovitch is hoping that
the documentation presented in the Web Site will induce some other
scientific organization to grant him the honor and credit for his
invention before he dies.
To assist anyone or any organization in
helping Minovitch obtain this recognition, the Web Site is also
presenting the actual paper that Minovitch personally delivered to JPL’s
entire upper management in 1997 containing the documentation proving
that he was the person who invented gravity propelled interplanetary
space travel (gravity-assist trajectories) and that JPL has a moral
obligation to formally grant him this recognition and the honor that
goes with it. The paper is entitled “The Invention of Gravity Propelled
Interplanetary Space Travel: A Technical And Historical Presentation To
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” October 30, 1997. It contains 170
references (a reproduction of each reference is included with this paper
as in the case of all the IAF papers).
In 1991, the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences (together with NHK Japan) produced a 6-Part documentary series
on the history of space travel entitled Space Age WQED/Pittsburgh
narrated by Patrick Stewart. Minovitch’s invention was explained in
Episode 3: The Unexpected Universe. The segment included an interview
with Dr. Minovitch showing some of his original research material and
trajectory computations from the 1961-1964 time period. The segment
also included some excellent footage of an IBM 7090 computer in operation during the early 1960's. This 3rd
Part can be obtained from Public Media Video by calling (800) 262-8600.
Thank you for visiting this Web Site.
Please inform others interested in the history of space travel about this Web Site
.
Several photographs of Minovitch are
presented on the Web Site that can also be downloaded free of charge. Home
