The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 20, 1990
Filed:
Oct. 03, 1988
John A Miller, Jr, San Jose, CA (US);
R K Grove, Los Altos, CA (US);
Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
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 As liquid propellant is withdrawn from the tank, pressurant gas in the remote chamber (20) causes liquid propellant to pass from the remote chamber (20) into the proximate peripheral chamber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from the proximate peripheral chamber (21) into the proximate axial chamber (22), which replaces the liquid propellant withdrawn from the tank.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.