Below Mercury (43 page)

Level:

in mining, a horizontal or near-horizontal passage.

LO2:

common abbreviation for liquid oxygen.

Localiser:

a radio-based navigation aid that establishes an accurate horizontal course to a runway or landing pad threshold.

Mission Management System
(MMS):

a computerised avionics system to assist pilots in navigating and managing a spacecraft. The MMS works with the autopilot to guide the craft through the series of speed, course and altitude changes in the planned route.

Mode Control Panel
(MCP):

situated between the pilots, below the forward windows, the MCP is used to select and activate autopilot and autothrottle modes and establish altitudes, speeds and climb/descent profiles.

Navigation Display
(ND):

information from the
MMS
, external navigation aids and geographical databases are combined to create a display of the craft’s position and course.

Orebody:

region of rock that contains economically significant concentrations of a mineral.

Perihelion:

closest approach of an orbiting body to the Sun.

Primary Flight Display
(PFD):

situated in front of each pilot, the PFD provides all the flight information needed by the pilot for each phase of the mission. The PFD shows relevant information for each mode of flight,
e.g.
takeoff, atmospheric flight, suborbital climb, and planetary approach and landing.

Propane:

gaseous hydrocarbon of the alkane family, chemical formula C
₃
H
₈
. Can be liquefied at
cryogenic
temperatures.

Radionuclide:

an atom with an unstable nucleus, which can undergo radioactive decay, and emit gamma rays and/or subatomic particles.

Raise:

in mining, a shaft that is begun from a level and is excavated upwards, as opposed to being sunk downwards. Once completed, there is no real difference between a shaft and a raise, other than the method of its construction.

Regolith:

the layer of loose, soil-like material covering solid rock on the terrestrial planets. On airless bodies such as Mercury and the Moon, the regolith is formed by the action of micrometeoroids breaking down surface rocks into a powder, and can be many metres thick.

Return shaft:

in deep mining, the shaft through which spent air leaves a mine.

Rock bolt:

a long anchor bolt, for stabilizing openings or passages in rock.

Shaft station:

in mining, any location in a shaft where the cage can be halted, and men, materials or ore loaded or unloaded.

Sidestick:

evolution of the more traditional control yoke, for controlling an aircraft in pitch and roll. A sidestick is controlled by small wrist and arm movements, and can be operated even under high-g conditions.

Stope(s):

in mining, rooms supported by surrounding areas of standing rock.

Terminator:

the line separating night and day on a planetary surface.

UTC:

Coordinated Universal Time. A high-precision time standard used in aviation and space navigation, broadly equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

VHF:

Very High Frequency, typically applied to radio communication.

X-band:

a region of the electromagnetic spectrum between about 7.0–12.5 GHz, used for voice and data radio communications between spacecraft and planetary bases and Earth.

Zulu:

Zulu Time, a standard aviation term for
UTC
.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING

Beatty, J. Kelly (ed.), Carolyn Petersen (ed.) and Andrew Chaikin (ed.)

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Blyth, F.G.H. and M.H. De Freitas.

A Geology for Engineers.
7th edn. Butterworth-Heinemann 1984.

Cummins, A.B. (ed.), I.A. Given, and H.L. Hartman (ed.)

SME Mining Engineering Handbook.
2nd edn. Society for Mining Metallurgy & Exploration, 1992.

Davies, Merton,
et al.

Atlas of Mercury.
SP-423. NASA, 1978.

Dunne, James, and Eric Burgess.

The Voyage of Mariner 10.
SP-424. NASA, 1978.

Harmon, J.K.,
et al.

‘Radar mapping of Mercury’s polar anomalies’.
Nature
369 (1994): 213-215.

Heppenheimer, T.A.

Facing the Heat Barrier: A History of Hypersonics.
SP-2007-4232. NASA, 2007.

Heppenheimer, T.A.

The Space Shuttle Decision. NASA’s Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle.
SP-4221. NASA, 1999.

Huzel, Dieter, and David Huang.

Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines.
Revised edition. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1992.

Jenkins, Dennis R. and Tony R. Landis.

Hypersonic: The Story of the North American X-15.
Specialty Press, 2008.

Jenkins, Dennis R.

Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System.
3rd edn. Specialty Press, 2001.

Lewis, John S.

Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets
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Miller, R., and Frederick C. Durant III.

The art of Chesley Bonestell.
Paper Tiger, 2001.

Oates, Gordon C. (ed.)

Aircraft Propulsion Systems Technology and Design.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1989.

Strom, Robert, and Anne Sprague.

Exploring Mercury: The Iron Planet.
Springer-Praxis, 2003.

Strom, Robert, Michael Malin, and Martha Leake.

Geologic Map of the Bach (H-15) Quadrangle of Mercury.
USGS Map I-2015. US Geological Survey, 1990.

Sutton, George P.

Rocket Propulsion Elements.
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Thomson, William.

Introduction to Space Dynamics.
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Woods, W. David.

How Apollo Flew to the Moon.
Springer-Praxis, 2007.