> Flandro calculated that the repeated gravity assists, as they are called, would cut the flight time between Earth and Neptune from 30 years to 12. There was j

> Flandro calculated that the repeated gravity assists, as they are called, would cut the flight time between Earth and Neptune from 30 years to 12. There was just one catch: the alignment happened only once every 176 years. To reach the planets while the lineup lasted, a spacecraft would have to be launched by the mid-1970s. How many of such startling discoveries get noticed by bureaucracy/administration nowadays? Back then, it seems ideas percolated to execution stage pretty fast. I wonder if a part-time working grad student's serendipitous finds will be taken seriously to action in today's environment.