Exploration And Engineering

Getting to Mars required engineering genius, scientific strategy, and the drive to persevere in the face of failure. Although the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has become synonymous with the United States’ planetary exploration during the past half century, its most recent focus has been on Mars. Beginning in the 1990s and continuing through the Mars Phoenix mission of 2007, JPL led the way in engineering an impressive, rapidly evolving succession of Mars orbiters and landers, including roving robotic vehicles whose successful deployment onto the Martian surface posed some of the most complicated technical problems in space flight history. In Exploration and Engineering, Erik M. Conway reveals how JPL engineers’ creative technological feats led to major breakthroughs in Mars exploration. He takes readers into the heart of the lab’s problem-solving approach and management structure, where talented scientists grappled with technical challenges while also coping, not always successfully, with funding shortfalls, unrealistic schedules, and managerial turmoil. Conway, JPL’s historian, offers an insider’s perspective into the changing goals of Mars exploration, the ways in which sophisticated computer simulations drove the design process, and the remarkable evolution of landing technologies over a thirty-year period.

Methods and Applications in Petroleum and Mineral Exploration and Engineering Geology is an interdisciplinary book bridging the fields of earth sciences and engineering. It covers topics on natural resources exploration as well as the application of geological exploration methods and techniques to engineering problems. Each topic is presented through theoretical approaches that are illustrated by case studies from around the globe. Methods and Applications in Petroleum and Mineral Exploration and Engineering Geology is a key resource for both academics and professionals, offering both practical and applied knowledge in resources exploration and engineering geology. Features new exploration technologies including seismic, satellite images, basin studies, geochemical modeling and analysis Presents cases studies from different countries such as the Hoggar area (Algeria), Urals and Siberia (Russia), North of Chile (II and III regions), and North of Italy (Trentino Alto adige) Includes applications of the novel methods discussed

This book is an introduction to oil and gas designed to be both accessible to absolute beginners who know nothing about the subject, and at the same time interesting to people who work in one area (such as drilling or seismic exploration) and would like to know about other areas (such as production offshore, or how oil and gas were formed, or what can go wrong). It begins by discussing oil and gas in the broader context of human society, and goes on to examine what they consist of, how and where they were formed, how we find them, how we drill for them and how we measure them. It describes production onshore and offshore, and examines in detail some instructive mishaps, including some that are well known, such as Deepwater Horizon and Piper Alpha, and other lesser known incidents. It looks at recent developments, such as shale oil, and concludes with some speculation about the future. It includes many references for readers who would like to read further. Mathematical content is minimal.

"How do you land a car-sized rover on the surface of Mars, resolve a five-hour traffic jam or save a herd of caribou from near extinction? Ask an engineer! Engineers are problem solvers. They use their math, science and technology skills to find creative solutions to problems that need fixing. In Engineered! bestselling author Shannon Hunt explores nine feats of engineering and the step-by-step process that engineers followed to get to a winning solution. The book opens with an illustrated flow chart that explains the engineering design process in seven easy-to-follow steps (e.g., define the problem, identify requirements, build and test a prototype, etc.). Then, these steps are applied to nine real-life engineering stories - each from a different field, such as civil, mechanical or environmental engineering. By following a step-by-step process, engineers are able to come up with some ingenious (and sometimes crazy!) ideas that really work, like building a bridge taller than the Eiffel Tower to fix that five-hour long traffic jam. With direct curriculum applications, and following the guidelines in the Next Generation Science Standards, Engineered! is a must-have for schools, libraries and anywhere a maker space is found!"--

The scope of engineering seismology includes geotechnical site investigations for buildings and engineering infrastructures, such as dams, levees, bridges, and tunnels, landslide and active-fault investigations, seismic microzonation, and geophysical investigations of historic buildings. These projects require multidisciplinary participation by the geologist, geophysicist, and geotechnical and earthquake engineers. A key objective of this book (SEG Investigations in Geophysics Series No. 17) by Öz Yilmaz is to encourage the specialists from these disciplines to apply the seismic method to solve the many challenging engineering problems they face. The broader scope of engineering seismology also includes exploration of earth resources, including groundwater exploration, coal and mineral exploration, and geothermal exploration. While focusing on the application of the seismic method to geotechnical site investigations, this book includes many case studies in all of the applications of engineering seismology.

A historical look at styles of technological research and design. If it is true, as Tocqueville suggested, that social and class systems shape technology, research, and knowledge, then the effects should be visible both at the individual level and at the level of technical institutions and local environments. That is the central issue addressed in Constructing a Bridge, a tale of two cultures that investigates how national traditions shape technological communities and their institutions and become embedded in everyday engineering practice. Eda Kranakis first examines these issues in the work of two suspension bridge designers of the early nineteenth century: the American inventor James Finley and the French engineer Claude-Louis-Marie-Henri Navier. Finley--who was oriented toward the needs of rural, frontier communities--designed a bridge that could be easily reproduced and constructed by carpenters and blacksmiths. Navier--whose professional training and career reflected a tradition of monumental architecture and had linked him closely to the Parisian scientific community--designed an elegant, costly, and technically sophisticated structure to be built in an elite district of Paris. Charting the careers of these two technologists and tracing the stories of their bridges, Kranakis reveals how local environments can shape design goals, research practices, and design-to-construction processes. Kranakis then offers a broader look at the technological communities and institutions of nineteenth-century France and America and at their ties to technological practice. She shows how conditions that led to Finley's and Navier's distinct designs also fostered different systems of technical education as well as distinct ideologies and traditions of engineering research.The result of this two-tiered, comparative approach is a reorientation of a historiographic tradition initiated by Tocqueville (and explored more recently by Eugene Ferguson, John Kasson, and others) toward a finer-grained analysis of institutional and local environments as mediators between national traditions and individual styles of technological research and design.

A human-centric guide to solving complex problems in engineering management, from sizing teams to handling technical debt. There’s a saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Management is a key part of any organization, yet the discipline is often self-taught and unstructured. Getting to the good solutions for complex management challenges can make the difference between fulfillment and frustration for teams—and, ultimately, between the success and failure of companies. Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle focuses on the particular challenges of engineering management—from sizing teams to handling technical debt to performing succession planning—and provides a path to the good solutions. Drawing from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe, Larson has developed a thoughtful approach to engineering management for leaders of all levels at companies of all sizes. An Elegant Puzzle balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in.