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"Surfing the Solar System", by Gary Taubes. Discover, June 1999, pages 88-93.
This article discusses work by astronautical engineers that uses mathematics to improve the design of trajectories for spacecraft. Central to this effort is the mathematical notion of a libration point, which is a point in space where all gravitational forces cancel. This notion was first explored by the 18th century mathematicians Lagrange and Euler. The recent work on spacecraft trajectories has inspired researchers at Caltech to tackle more general problems about the nature of the solar system.
--- Allyn Jackson
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