Liquid-propellant management apparatus

Abstract

A liquid-propellant tank for a spacecraft is symmetric about a longitudinal axis, and has a transverse partition (15) and a truncated conical partition (16), which divide the interior of the tank into a remote chamber (20), a proximate peripheral chamber (21) and a proximate axial chamber (22). Communication between the remote chamber (20) and the proximate peripheral chamber (21) is provided by a port structure (23), and communication between the proximate peripheral chamber (21) and the proximate axial chamber (22) is provided by a port structure (24). As liquid propellant is withdrawn from the tank, pressurant gas in the remote chamber (20) causes liquid propellant to pass from the remote chamber (20) into the proximate peripheral chamber (21) to replace liquid propellant thereby forced from the proximate peripheral chamber (21) into the proximate axial chamber (22), which replaces the liquid propellant withdrawn from the tank. Emptying of the three chambers in sequence limits the extent of migration of liquid propellant within the tank, thereby minimizing the effects of liquid-propellant migration on attitude stability of the spacecraft.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.