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
In zero G, there are two ways to get the fuel to the engine:
1) They can use the maneuvering thrusters to give some forward acceleration before starting the main engine pumps to make sure the fuel is at the pickup.
or
2) they can keep the fuel in a bladder inside the tank and pressurize the tank outside the bladder to ensure that there are no gas bubbles inside the bladder to ensure the fuel is at the pickup for the pumps.
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