Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Leeds, M. W..
The Cassini Spacecraft will be launched on an expedition to Saturn in October 1997. The mission is an eleven year operation, the first seven years traveling to Saturn via a combination of propulsion burns and Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter gravity-assist, and the remaining four years orbiting Saturn while exploring the planet, it's moons, rings, and nearby icy satellites.
The market potential for a portable geothermal wellhead power conversion device is assessed. Major study objectives included identifying the most promising applications for such a system, the potential impediments confronting their industrialization, and the various government actions needed to overcome these impediments. The heart of the study was a series of structured interviews with key decision-making individual in the various disciplines of the geothermal community. In addition, some technical and economic analyses of a candidate system were performed to support the feasibility of the basic concept.
The configuration of the Viking 75 Spacecraft, which was used in two missions related to the exploration of the planet Mars, is examined and a description of the orbiter propulsion subsystem is provided. The propellants utilized were nitrogen tetroxide and monomethylhydrazine. Gaseous helium was used for pressurization. Orbiter maneuver durations ranged from the 39.4 minute Mars orbit insertion on VO-2, the longest engine firing in space to date, to the 1.7-second station keeping trim on VO-1. Total engine operating time was 2748.2 seconds for VO-1 and 2814.5 seconds for VO-2.