FuelLink| Let's Connect
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A Futuristic Way of Refueling Spacecrafts🛸
Summary
Future expeditions away from the Earth will require a huge amount of fuel and propellent for which in-orbit re-fueling is the way.We can launch the spacecraft first without the fuel for the expedition and then send other rockets with only fuel which will be used to refuel the spacecraft. Through orbit raising maneuvers and velocity adjustments we bring them close together. For this we need a reliable and easy way to connect the fuel tank to the spacecraft.
How I Addressed This Challenge
For this I developed a concept of an autonomous fuel delivery connector which will be the new way of refueling.
It will be a long tube with from the fuel tank with its head mounted with cold gas thrusters. It can be controlled by a computer and also manually by a human.
The thrusters will give the connector direction for it to move towards the spacecraft in space. We will use nitrogen as the gas in the thrusters. There will be parallel nitrogen lines along the tube to the head where the 8 thrusters will be put on axle for control.
Advantages of cold gas thrusters:
1) A lack of combustion in the nozzle of a cold gas thruster eliminates the need to engineer heat management systems.
2) The simple design allows the thrusters to be smaller than regular rocket engines, which makes them a suitable choice for missions with limited volume and weight requirements.
3) The cold gas system and its fuel are inexpensive compared to other rocket engines.
4) The simple design is less prone to failures than a traditional rocket engine.
5) The fuels used in a cold gas system are safe to handle both before and after firing the engine. If inert fuel is used the cold gas system is one of the safest possible rocket engines.
6) Cold gas thrusters require very little electrical energy to operate, which is useful, for example, when a spacecraft is in the shadow of the planet it is orbiting.
It will be connected to the spacecraft with the help of an adapter which will have electromagnetic lock rather than mechanical lock which is inefficient.
How I Developed This Project
In-orbit refueling is the future of space missions. This can be new way of how we send our deep space missions and future crew expeditions. This allows more payload in initial rocket without worrying about the fuel weight.
The rising enthusiasm about space and technology and demand of better and efficient methods in space travel inspired me to develop this concept.
I did research on the web on cold gas thrusters and in orbit maneuvers to come up with make my project. Also I learned a lot about the other ways of connection in space and tried to improve on their drawbacks.
Problems I faced was the weight of the cold gas which adds to the weight of the fuel rockets and finding an efficient lock system for the connector.
How I Used Space Agency Data in This Project
I used the resources given on Let's Connect resources tab in my project. It helped in making my project more practical and space-friendly.
Project Demo
www.fuellink.in
Data & Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP4_Q7iIlb0
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/zipnuts.html
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exep/technology/in-space-assembly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_gas_thruster