The manner into which the mechanical design affects the stiffness of a gravitational oscillator in the Moon-Earth-Sun gravitational field is investigated. A model of the oscillator is presented. It is shown that gravitation effects are very tinny and the scalar, inverse square-low model of the gravity does not explain the eclipse effect. Innovative improvements in the theory are required, based on much refined experiments, both on Earth and the Moon.

The SEATTLER solar power plant, consisting of a tall tower where the atmospheric air is heated by a heliostat array through a solar receiver and drives an air turbine by the new mechanism of cold air gravity draught, is modeled into a mathematical integral equivalent. The all-air working fluid principle is proposed as the result of an encouraging previous, small scale research sponsored by the CNCSIS Grant No. 27642 of 14 March 2005 in Romania. The

Robert H. Goddard was the first to observe, by physical reasoning, that, if a rational ascent speed policy is followed, a rocket vehicle might reach a given altitude with a minimal starting mass, meaning with the least possible fuel consumption. He published his observations in 1919, suggesting a variational approach could be used to find the solution, but gave any. This is the famous Goddard problem of rocket ascent. Only four years later, Hermann

Space debris consist a major challenge for future projects on the space elevator as on regular space flight itself. The mechanics of large spaces (MLS) is here used to anticipate the dynamics of membrane tethers, proposed as a genuine solution to be deployed in orbit for recovery of these dangerous space debris. Made of super-strong, light materials like M5 or carbon nano-tube ribbons, they are proposed to be extended at LEO altitudes with a span

A lower cost landing and return vehicle for Titan is proposed, with a new, optimal escape program from the dense atmosphere by the Singular Deviators (SD) method. It is a decisive extension to the classical calculus of variations and allows solving discontinuous problems never permitted before. It is specially suited to the optimization of atmospheric ascent of rocket vehicles, where the integrand in the functional possesses week discontinuities

In this paper, a simple and convenient method – Recursive Matrix method – is proposed for kinematic and dynamic analysis of all types of complex manipulators. After addressing the principle of the method, an example – a 3-DOF parallel manipulator with prismatic actuators – is demonstrated for the efficiency of the method in solving kinematic and dynamic problems of complex manipulators. With the inverse kinematic solutions, the inverse dynamic