Thermal Gauging and Rebalancing of Propellant in Multiple Tank Satellites
| Autor: | Timothy A. Martin, Boris Yendler, Steven H. Collicott |
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| Rok vydání: | 2007 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. 44:878-883 |
| ISSN: | 1533-6794 0022-4650 |
| Popis: | An unbalanced propellant load in a geosynchronous communications satellite with multiple tanks can reduce satellite life. Depending on the details of the propellant plumbing system, significant fuelmay become unusable in the more full tanks when the least full tank empties. If undetected and uncorrected, such an imbalance will reduce revenue andmay even cause a premature loss of service. An improved thermal propellant gauging system is applied to detect imbalances in a pair of satellites and to design and implement new technology: the thermal pumping procedures to correct the imbalances. Thermal pumping is achieved through ground-based control algorithms to create the necessary differences in the heating rates of the four propellant tanks. The ground-based algorithm uses temperature telemetry andheater status telemetry to sendheater commands to the satellites. This differential heating approach was employed successfully on two satellites, which were neither designed nor built with these thermal gauging and pumping operations in mind, enabling a considerable extension of profitable operational lifetime for both satellites. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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