Aeronautics and astronautics – Spacecraft – Spacecraft formation – orbit – or interplanetary path
Patent
1989-04-14
1990-07-24
Peters, Jr., Joseph F.
Aeronautics and astronautics
Spacecraft
Spacecraft formation, orbit, or interplanetary path
244160, 244169, 244172, B64G 126, B64G 110
Patent
active
049430149
ABSTRACT:
A spacecraft, and related method for its operation, for transporting a payload, such as a satellite, from a space shuttle in a low-altitude parking orbit, to an operational orbit. Housekeeping functions, such as communications, attitude control, and power-supply, are performed by subsystems integrated into the spacecraft and employed both while in the operational orbit and during ascent from the parking orbit. The payload is secured forward of a payload platform having forward and aft faces of isogrid construction, and the housekeeping subsystems are stored between the faces, an interface of electrical and other connections being provided to the payload through the forward platform face. A liquid bipropellant rocket engine secured behind the payload platform provides low thrust and relatively low acceleration, and is operated in a succession of short perigee burns to extend the orbit to a desired altitude, and then in one or more apogee burns to circularize the orbit, if the payload is a satellite. Tanks of fuel and oxidizer are also secured behind the payload platform, disposed about the engine in balanced pairs, each oxidizer tank being paired with a fuel tank located further from the center of mass than the heavier oxidizer tank, to preserve balance as the pair of tanks is depleted. Propellants are fed to the engine from one tank pair at a time, each pair, or stage, being jettisoned when its contents are consumed.
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Harwood Oliver P.
Love John A.
Kannofsky James M.
Peters Jr. Joseph F.
TRW Inc.
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