Multiple phase power supply for rocket engines
AssigneeAerojet-General Corporation
InventorsGeoffrey N. Drummond, Jeffery M. Monheiser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Conventional power supplies that actify the grids of electric rockets use an output capacitor to smooth the output DC voltage signal. Large capacitors tend to store a great amount of energy. Arcing acts to transfer this energy to create a well or pit on an accelerator grid of the electric rockets that may eventually cause repeating arcing or perforation on the accelerator grid. Various embodiments of the present invention eliminate or reduce the need to use an output capacitor. Additionally, various embodiments of the present invention use multiple phases of an input signal into the power supply to cause the output DC voltage signal to be substantially smooth.
Claims20
A system for propelling a rocket, comprising:
- grids for attracting and accelerating charged particles;
- and
- a power supply that excludes an output filter, the power supply using multiple phase input signals for generating an output DC voltage signal for creating an electrostatic field interposed between the grids for attracting and accelerating charged particles so as to propel the rocket.
A system for providing power to grids of a rocket for propulsion, comprising:
- a power converter for converting multiple phase input signals into a DC output signal for powering the grids of the rocket;
- a controller for generating multiple drive signals, the multiple drive signals being shifted in phase;
- and
- gate drivers for producing multiple phase input signals based on the multiple drive signals being shifted in phase.
A circuit for powering a set of grids of an electric rocket, comprising:
- multiple phase inverter stages for generating multiple phase square wave signals;
- a multiple phase resonant network for receiving the square wave signals with multiple phases for generating sinusoidal signals with multiple phases;
- and
- multiple phase rectifier stages for receiving the sinusoidal signals with multiple phases and further for generating a DC voltage output signal to power the set of grids of the electric rocket.
A method for generating power for rocket engines, comprising:
- generating multiple phase signals as input into a resonant network;
- controlling power transfer via the frequency of the multiple phase signals;
- and
- generating a DC signal used for powering rocket engines.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.