Lubrication system for a mechanism, in particular for a rotary bearing in a spacecraft

Lubrication system for a mechanism, comprising a non pressurized tank, containing a lubrication fluid, and a distribution channel for said fluid having a first port and a second port, opening through the first port into said tank and supplying through the second port said mechanism to be lubricated, wherein said lubrication system comprises:

• a piston reciprocating inside the tank in translation along its longitudinal axis, so as to provide two determined states, a first state in which said piston obturates said first port of the distribution channel, and a second state in which said piston is at a determined distance from said first port of the distribution channel, so as to create a pumping enclosure, of a determined volume, communicating by capillarity in said second state with the tank, and allow said lubricating fluid penetrating therein, and
• control means for said piston causing a motion from said first state to said second state, so as to fill said pumping enclosure by capillarity effect, and a motion in the opposite direction from said second state to said first state, so as to expel via said distribution channel a determined volume of lubricating fluid towards said mechanism to be lubricated.