Hi Mr. Jubber,
I did a simple search on Google for the origins of Ocampo’s Copernicus. The results are in the attached PDF file (along with my prompts so you can try it).
The first problem Ocampo worked on for Copernicus was the final approach to Mars. He targeted the L1 point. He used reverse integration to get the final solution. This is the first problem he used to set up Copernicus; then get massive funding from NASA in November 2002.
This “breakthrough” of Ocampo happened exactly after my seminar. None of his prior research or papers were even remotely in this context. As in my previous email, this is exactly what I was doing: Mars – the final approach – the L1 point (where the figure-8 crosses) – reverse integration for the final solution.
I did some more research: Copernicus was built on reverse integration from the start, and expanded thereafter. Every trajectory problem started as a three-body problem – as I explained – then added planets; exactly as my model was set up to do (3-4 lines of code and another planet could be added to include in the model).
Bill Clark
NOTE: A man from NASA was at my November 2000 Mars seminar in Houston; not that every orbits professor at UT Austin isn’t basically a NASA rep. I remember very well being introduced to him; I talked about an energy audit program I had created that could be modified to design buildings on Mars.