Trajectory analysis of a 1970 mission to Mercury via a close encounter with Venus.

Cutting, E.; Sturms, F. M.

doi:10.2514/3.28505

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…Automating the theoretical work of UCLA mathematician Michael Minovitch, in 1964 JPL engineers working in the Trajectories and Performance Group (nicknamed the 'Cheap Missions Office') identified a golden opportunity for the exploration of Mercury (Cutting, 1973;Sturms and Cutting, 1966). Using a close encounter at Venus, a spacecraft could reach Mercury at one-third to one-half of the launch energy of comparable direct mission (Ekman and Cole, 1969: 109).…”

Section: Mariner 10: Flying To Mercury Economy-classmentioning

confidence: 99%

When funding fails: Planetary exploration at NASA in an era of austerity, 1967–1976

Reinecke

2021

Soc Stud Sci

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We can learn most about how science funding works when it stops working. Like moments of breakdown surfacing the inner workings of infrastructure, periodic fiscal crises reveal the social life of science funds at the level of everyday practice. Through a case study of NASA-funded planetary science in an era of austerity, the article explores how scientists navigate uncertain funding environments and articulate financially defensible projects. Examining the development of the Mariner 10 mission to Venus and Mercury in the aftermath of a significant downturn in science support, the article offers a middle path between the macro-politics of government funding and the micro-politics of doing science. In shaping how the mission was conceived and later operated, Mariner 10’s cost-driven paradigm translated the austerity of the period into the projectized work of robotic spaceflight missions.

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Section: Mariner 10: Flying To Mercury Economy-classmentioning

confidence: 99%