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25.01.2008 Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh
Category: Mathematics
(1911-1978)
Mathematician
COSMONAUTICS THEORIST
The remarkable mathematician Mstislav Keldysh was born on February 10, 1911.
His paternal grandfather rose to the rank of general of the medical service, and his maternal grandfather was a full general of artillery.
The grandson of two generals, Mstislav Keldysh never hid his noble origin and even in the fatal thirties wrote in questionnaires -" from the nobles".
In 1931, Mstislav Vsevolodovich brilliantly graduated from the Physics and mathematics department of Moscow State University and "distributed" to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI).
Here he immediately proved to be a very promising specialist.
Solving purely practical problems facing aviation, Keldysh already in his first works outlined completely new approaches in the application of mathematical methods for aerodynamics.
In the thirties, the aircraft industry of all advanced countries faced the phenomenon of flutter.
It suddenly appeared when the speed of the aircraft increased and led to its destruction in the air.
In fact, the flutter is a self oscillation of aircraft structures.
Based on complex mathematical calculations, Keldysh formulated practical tips for designers, following which it was possible to avoid flutter.
Thanks to the work of a young mathematician, the Soviet aircraft industry got rid of this difficult problem that stood in the way of the development of high — speed aviation by the beginning of World War II, and the scientist himself received the State Prize of the II degree for this work in 1942, and in 1943 the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
During the entire war, he, being already the head of the TsAGI department, supervised anti flutter structures at aviation enterprises.
Higher aircraft speeds required a longer runway length, which, in turn, led to the need for a three support (instead of a two support, as in the first generation aircraft) landing gear system that resembled a tricycle for children.
However, when a certain take off speed was reached, the tricycle landing gear system suddenly broke at the front rack.
There were self oscillations in it, which led to destruction.
This phenomenon was called "shimmy" in aircraft science — this was the name of a fashionable dance of those times, the main "step" of which was dangerously repeated by airplane wheels.
In 1945, Keldysh in the work "Shimmy" of the front wheel of a three wheeled chassis " not only completely solved this problem theoretically, but also formulated practical engineering recommendations.
For this, he was awarded the second State Prize in 1946.
In 1938, Mstislav Keldysh defended his doctoral dissertation at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the topic "On the representation of functions of complex variables and harmonic functions by series of polynomials".
This study was recognized as a landmark in the development of mathematics.
In general, in the pre war years, Mstislav Vsevolodovich performed a number of brilliant works in the field of fundamental mathematics.
His research concerned various branches of this science: the theory of approximations, functional analysis, differential equations.
Keldysh knew how to make his works beautiful.
He found unexpected analogies, used both the mathematical apparatus created by his predecessors and his own innovations.
Colleagues emphasized Keldysh's ability to formulate very complex tasks in a simple and understandable way.
It should be noted that a number of his fundamental developments came from specific applied problems, such as the "shimmy"problem.
Keldysh was able to return to fundamental research only towards the end of the war.
In April 1944, the Department of Mechanics was created at the Mathematical Institute, which Keldysh began to head concurrently.
In 1943, Mstislav Vsevolodovich was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1946 — an academician.
The beginning of the cold war set new tasks for the country and its scientists — in particular, to create atomic weapons and their means of delivery.
Keldysh was involved in the implementation of both " programs.
He created and headed the calculation bureau, which, together with the mechanics department of the Mathematical Institute, later joined the Department of Applied Mathematics.
At the same time, in 1946, Keldysh was appointed head of the Jet Research Institute.
At this stage of his activity, Academician Keldysh was not so much directly engaged in scientific developments, as he managed global projects.
He was at the head of large scientific and technical teams with the mysterious names of Research Institute 1 and OPMMIAN, chaired various responsible commissions, held senior positions in the Academy of Sciences.
But despite the huge workload and chronic lack of time, the academician did not cease to be a great mathematician.
The creation of high power jet propulsion systems for equipping cruise missiles required the development of new mathematical approaches to the problems of supersonic gas dynamics, heat and mass transfer, and thermal protection.
Time was running out: the Americans were developing their own version of the Navajo cruise missile.
But the world's first "krylatka" still appeared in the USSR — in 1959, it showed higher characteristics in the testing process than its overseas rival.
The rocket was unaware that back in 1940, a decade before its first flight, a team of mathematicians led by Keldysh had launched research on rocket dynamics and applied celestial mechanics that had no prehistory in world science.
In 1953, the employees of OPMMIAN analyzed the optimal schemes of composite rockets developed by themselves, the ballistic descent from the orbit of the spacecraft on which the astronauts were to return to Earth, the possible stabilization of the device by means of the Earth's gravity field, and many other revolutionary ideas without exaggeration.
In 1954, a letter was sent to the Government of the USSR on the creation of an artificial Earth satellite signed by then almost unknown, classified, and now famous scientists M. Keldysh, S. Korolev and M. Tikhonravov.
Academician Keldysh was appointed chairman of the special commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences on this problem.
The brainchild of this program was a miniature satellite created in record time.
It was launched in 1957, causing a stir around the world.
With the launch, Keldysh's "contact" with the satellite did not end.
It was necessary to monitor the" newborn", predict the trajectory of its movement, and these observations were supposed to contribute, for example, to the ballistic design of interplanetary flights of spacecraft with minimal energy costs.
Keldysh searched and found brilliant solutions to the most difficult problems.
Such were the scheme of acceleration of spacecraft with the entry into an intermediate orbit of an artificial satellite or the use of the gravitational field of the planet for purposefully changing the trajectory of movement.
These calculations have become universal in the design of subsequent spacecraft.
They made Academician Keldysh a cosmonautics theorist.
In 1959, the interdepartmental Scientific and Technical Council for Space Research under the USSR Academy of Sciences was formed.
It was headed by Mstislav Keldysh.
It was hardly possible to find a more suitable candidate for coordinating all aspects of space exploration.
In 1961, Academician Keldysh was elected President of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
He held this post for fourteen years.
But let's not get ahead of events.
In parallel with space problems, Keldysh actively participated in epochal developments of atomic topics.
So, connecting macro - and microcosms, the academician worked for more than one decade!
Back in 1946, he began to cooperate with a group of Soviet nuclear physicists.
In parallel with the physical experiments, the construction of physical and mathematical models and their subsequent reproduction in calculations were carried out.
The amount of calculations required by the atomic problem was so enormous that the computing tools that existed in the middle of the century could not cope with them.
Academician Keldysh deeply understood the essence of the obstacle that had arisen.
He organized the creation and production of electronic computers, and the scientific departments led by him were the first major customers and consumers of this technology.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich personally developed new computational methods and algorithms, primarily numerical methods for solving problems of mathematical physics.
"Computer ization on Keldysh" provided another notable step forward for Soviet applied mathematics.
Academician Keldysh was not only a brilliant mathematician, but also a talented organizer.
No matter what team he led small or huge this team certainly achieved outstanding results.
It was under President Keldysh that the Academy of Sciences flourished.
The academician managed to carry out deep transformations in the temple of Soviet science from the foundation to the dome.
Such important disciplines as genetics and cybernetics were rehabilitated, the foundations were laid for the development of new directions — quantum electronics, molecular biology and many other disciplines, "people's academicians"left the scientific process, in particular, biology.
Fundamental science has become the main driving force in the development of society.
In 1975, Academician Keldysh left the post of president of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
He acted like a real Russian intellectual: he found it impossible to remain in such a responsible post, since a serious illness entered his life.
Mstislav Vsevolodovich died on June 24, 1978.
The only mathematician, Mstislav Keldysh became a Hero of Socialist Labor three times (1957, 1961, 1971).
The dates when the stars were lit on the academician's chest coincided with the greatest achievements of Soviet science, which the grandson of two Russian generals selflessly served.
One of the stars was lit in honor of the conquest of the atom, the second — in commemoration of cosmic victories, and the third crowned the glory of the Academy of Sciences, carefully nurtured by its talented president.
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