PaintingToTheMoon Princeton mathematician Ed Belbruno

2128   11 years ago
justgenius | 0 subscribers
2128   11 years ago
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"Painting the Way to the Moon" is a feature documentary in progress about Princeton mathematician and artist Ed Belbruno.
****************************************­***/nThe film is the first hand account of how Ed pioneered a new form of space travel while working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in the 1980's./nEd used chaos theory to find a way for satellites to travel (for example, from the earth to the moon) using very little fuel. Also known as "ballistic capture", this would allow satellites to "surf the gravitational field" to get from one point to the next. What made Ed's idea different is that it would require much less energy than the typical route./nBut Ed's theory was rejected, and he had to give up trying to convince his peers that his work was worthwhile. Just then, Ed was given the chance of a lifetime. A JPL engineer, Jim Miller, knocked on Ed's door to discuss how his theory could be used to rescue a Japanese satellite called Hiten, which had malfunctioned on its way to the moon./nThe film shows the many ups and downs of Ed's career, culminating in the dramatic Hiten rescue mission. Equally important, the film focuses on creativity and how art and science share a common process.
This scene shows you the setting and premise of the film. But there is much more to this story.
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