LEROS
LEROS is a family of chemical rocket engines manufactured by Nammo[1] at Westcott, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. LEROS engines have been used as primary apogee engines for telecommunications satellites such as the Lockheed Martin A2100[2] as well as deep space missions such as Juno.[3] The LEROS engines are made of niobium alloy, which is traditionally used for liquid rocket engines such as the attitude control thrusters of the Apollo Lunar Module.
Types
[edit | edit source]| Engine | Propellant | Thrust | Isp | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LEROS 1c [4] | Hydrazine / MON | 460 N | 325 | ||
| LEROS 1b | Hydrazine / MON | 635 N | 318 | ||
| LEROS 2b | MMH / MON | 407 N | 318 | ||
| LEROS 4 | MMH / MON | 1100 N | 323 [5] | Developed c. 2014 for European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Robotic Exploration Program [6] | |
| LEROS 4-ET | MMH / MON | 1310 N | 323 | Extended Thrust version of LEROS 4[7] |
History
[edit | edit source]The family of engines derives from the LEROS 1 which was developed and qualified in the 1990s by Royal Ordnance. The in-space propulsion business was acquired by British Aerospace, then had a sequence of owners including American Pacific Corporation, Moog[8] (from 2012) and Nammo (2017). As of 2011, more than 70 LEROS 1 series engines had been flown successfully.[9]
Uses
[edit | edit source]
LEROS engines have been used on a number of NASA and other space agency missions:
- NEAR Shoemaker (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous)
- Mars Global Surveyor[10]
- MESSENGER[11]
- Juno
- JCSAT-5A[12]
- Sirius 4
- Nimiq 1[13]
- SBIRS GEO 1 and GEO 2[14][15]
- Intelsat 33e[16]
- Beresheet lunar lander[17]
- EnVision Venus orbiter (ESA)[18]
- Blue Ghost lunar lander
Incidents
[edit | edit source]There have been helium check valve problems on Juno leading to postponed maneuvers, and a failure after the first burn on Intelsat 33e requiring backup low-thrust jets to be used to bring the satellite to its intended orbit.[16]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Spaceflight Now - LEROS 1c First Firing
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Moog ISP Apogee/Upper Stage Thrusters Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Astronautix - Mars Global Surveyor Archived 2009-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Spacenews feed - NASA Mercury Messenger Orbit Insertion
- ^ Spaceflight101 - Ariane 5 Flight VA206 Archived 2013-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Astronautix - A2100 Platform Archived 2013-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Skyrocket - SBIRS Geo 1
- ^ Spaceflight101 - Atlas V SBIRS Geo 2 Launch Archived 2014-09-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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