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US 2024/0025567 A1Published application
Thermal Capacitor Block with Integrated Fluidic Channels
AssigneeMomentus Space LLC
InventorMikhail Kokorich
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A spacecraft propulsion system comprises an attitude adjustment thruster system with multiple thrusters (488a-d) receiving heated propellant via a shared thermal capacitance block (275). The thermal capacitance block (275) with integrated fluidic channels receives energy from a solar concentrator (320) and stores the heat.
Claims20
A device for heating a propellant in a spacecraft, the device including:
- a thermal capacitor block of a certain volume, the thermal capacitor block configured to operate in a low-pressure environment and including at least one material to store thermal energy;
- and
- one or more integrated fluidic channels traversing the thermal capacitor block and configured to carry the propellant so as to transfer heat from the at least one material to the propellant, wherein the one or more fluidic channels occupy a minority of the volume, and the material occupies a majority of the volume.
A spacecraft comprising:
- a propellant tank;
- at least one thruster;
- and
- a heating device configured to receive propellant from the propellant tank and supply the propellant to the thruster, the heating device including:
- a thermal capacitor block of a certain volume, the thermal capacitor block configured to operate in a low-pressure environment and including at least one material to store thermal energy, and
- one or more fluidic channels traversing the thermal capacitor block and configured to carry the propellant so as to transfer heat from the thermal capacitor block to the propellant, wherein the one or more fluidic channels occupy a minority of the volume, and the material occupies a majority of the volume.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.