A lightweight pumped hydrazine maneuvering vehicle

Conference · Fri Jan 31 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5831737

Whitehead, J C

A miniature maneuvering vehicle has a pair of opposed cylindrical piston tanks for hydrazine, and four transverse maneuvering thrusters in the plane of longitudinal symmetry. A bridging structure connects the tanks, and has thruster mounting pads which carry the loads directly into a continuous tubular beam formed by the tanks and bridge. A new kind of pumped propulsion provides maneuvering thrust on demand, and free-piston pumps which can rapidly start and stop are radially oriented between thrusters. A major advantage of this configuration is that the tanks can be close together, which maximizes the vehicle's longitudinal bending stiffness while minimizing the mass of the central bridging structure. The impulses from pump exhaust and piston reciprocation are directed through the system mass center, so they apply no disturbance torques. All high-temperature components are located on the outside of the central structure, where they are free to expand and radiate heat without detrimental effects. Virtually all lightweight components have been fabricated and tested, and photographs of hardware subassemblies are presented.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5831737
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-109568; CONF-920273--1; ON: DE92008239
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420200 -- Engineering-- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
450000* -- Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense
CONFIGURATION
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
DESIGN
HYDRAZINE
MEDIUM PRESSURE
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PROPELLANTS
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
PUMPS
ROCKETS
SIZE
THRUSTERS