Gravitational Slingshot
Julie Daffron
Contents
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Who discovered the theory?
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How is it used?
Mariner 10
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What are the benefits of using gravity?
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Where is it applied?
Who Discovered it?
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In the early 19-teens and the 20’s Yuri Kondratyuk and
Friedrich Zander both proposed similar arguments that said
‘that a spacecraft traveling between two planets could be
accelerated at the beginning of its trajectory and decelerated at
the end of its trajectory.’
What neither of them realized was that you could use this force
to propel a spacecraft forward with this gravity. This
discovery was made by Michael Minovitch until the early
60’s.
How and why it is used

A gravational assist, or ‘slingshot,’ is when a spacecraft uses the gravity of
a planet or moon to pull itself around the mass at a faster speed. That speed
is about 2U+v.

A gravitational assist can be used in the place of using fuel to power the
engine because it is much more efficient. Therefore if a spacecraft is
accelerating and time it takes getting to your destination is shortened.

This method was first used in 1974 to propel Mariner 10 around Venus to
become the first spacecraft to explore Mercury.
Summary

Gravitational slingshot is a benefit that should
and will be used in our space travel in the
future. It is very efficient and has proven that
it can be a great aid in helping us travel
through space and at the same time conserve
fuel. The gravitational assist is a clever
discovery and will always apply.
Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_slingshot
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http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Gravitatio
nal_slingshot#encyclopedia

http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath114.htm
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