Methods and systems for propellant reconditioning for short-duration thrusters burns

Abstract

Systems and methods for reconditioning a small amount of propellant for a rocket thruster are disclosed. The propellant may be liquid hydrogen (LH2). Reconditioning LH2 propellant may involve ensuring the propellant has a favorable temperature and pressure for use in a thruster. Embodiments involve temperature and pressure management of the propellant. Reconditioning may be performed subsequent to a long-duration burn by a thruster or after long-term storage of the propellant, which may experience boiloff. For short-duration thruster burns, pressurizing a relatively large supply tank may be considered excessive in the sense that more effort than necessary is expended for this large-scale pressurization. Thus, the systems and methods described herein may avoid such large-scale pressurization and instead pressurize a relatively small propellant tank, which is sufficient for short-duration thruster burns and requires relatively little effort to pressurize.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.