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US 11,077,964 B1Granted
High-temperature electrothermal propulsion system
AssigneeH.C. Starck GmbH
InventorsAngelo Niko Grubisic, Federico Romei
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In various embodiments, an electrothermal propulsion system for imparting velocity to a spacecraft features a joint-free monolithic integrated thruster component including an inlet section, a resistively heated heat-exchanger section, and a nozzle section.
Claims25
An electrothermal propulsion system for imparting velocity to a spacecraft, the electrothermal propulsion system comprising:
- a joint-free, monolithic, integrated thruster component defining:
- an inlet section for receiving fluidic propellant,
- a heat-exchanger section for heating the fluidic propellant received from the inlet section, thereby forming heated propellant, the heat-exchanger section comprising four or more concentric tubes fluidly and electrically connected to each other, and
- a nozzle section for receiving the heated propellant from the heat-exchanger section and expelling the heated propellant, wherein the four or more concentric tubes of the heat-exchanger section form a single fluidic path for flow of the heated propellant to the nozzle section;
- and
- a power source for applying an electrical potential between the inlet section and the nozzle section to resistively heat the heat-exchanger section to an operating temperature of 3000 K or higher,
- wherein (i) no joints are present between any of the inlet section, the heat-exchanger section, and the nozzle section of the joint-free, monolithic, integrated thruster component and (ii) a wall thickness of each tube of the four or more concentric tubes is no more than 800 μm.
4 more elements
A method of controlling motion of a spacecraft, the method comprising:
- supplying a fluidic propellant to an inlet section of a joint-free, monolithic, integrated thruster component, the joint-free, monolithic, integrated thruster component defining, without any joints therebetween, the inlet section, a nozzle section, and a heat-exchanger section fluidly coupled to the inlet section and the nozzle section;
- applying an electrical potential across at least a portion of the joint-free, monolithic, integrated thruster component to resistively heat the heat-exchanger section to an operating temperature of 3000 K or higher, wherein (i) the heat-exchanger section comprises a plurality of four or more concentric tubes fluidly and electrically connected to each other, (ii) a wall thickness of each tube of the four or more concentric tubes is no more than 800 μm, and (iii) the fluidic propellant received from the inlet section is heated only by the heat-exchanger section, thereby forming heated propellant;
- and
- expelling only the heated propellant from the nozzle section to impart velocity to the spacecraft.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.