Rockets have big tanks for liquid fuel, but wouldn’t the fuel float freely in the tank while sitting idle in orbit? Like when one is aligned and waiting to burn, what is making sure that the fuel is being piped into the engine?
In: Engineering
>wouldn’t the fuel float freely in the tank while sitting idle in orbit?
Yup, that’s part of why rockets always have a basic thruster on them called an Ullage Motor. The Falcon 9 uses cold gas thrusters which fire for a bit just before main engine start to force the liquid in the tank back down to the bottom where the piping is
Pressurization doesn’t help because there’s still no designated “down” for the gas to be over the liquid so every rocket expected to start up again in 0g has cold gas thrusters, monopropellant engines, or small solid rocket motors to get everything sorted out
Latest Answers