Cold gas thruster with solid propellant
AssigneeThrustme
InventorsDmytro Rafalskyi, Javier Martinez Martinez, Elena Zorzoli Rossi
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Abstract
Disclosed is a space cold gas thruster operating with a solid propellant. The cold gas thruster includes a tank suitable for containing a solid propellant and a tank heating device suitable for sublimating the solid propellant and forming gaseous propellant, the tank having an aperture for transferring the gaseous propellant outside the tank, such as a nozzle. Also disclosed is a process for determining the amount of remaining propellant in the propellant tank of the disclosed cold gas thruster.
Claims1
A process for determining an amount of remaining propellant in a propellant tank of a cold gas thruster, comprising:
- (a′) disposing a shock generator and a displacement or an acoustic sensor in contact with the propellant tank,
- (b′) generating a shock with the shock generator,
- (c′) measuring a frequency response with the displacement or the acoustic sensor,
- (d′) comparing the measured frequency response with frequency values in a pre-established mass vs oscillation frequency response table, and
- (e′) determining the amount of remaining propellant in the propellant tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.