[AR] propane on satellites (was Re: arocket Digest V11 #72)
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2023 21:27:44 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 19 Apr 2023, roxanna Mason wrote:
> [Doug] Propane is storable at modest pressure at room temperature, it
> was to be the fuel for both main and RCS.
But if propane is stored at LOx temp it's density matches that of
kerosene and with higher performance.
Yeah, but you don't want to have to keep your whole spacecraft at cryo
temperatures -- it's difficult in the inner solar system and virtually
impossible in LEO, and too much hardware isn't built or tested to work
that cold -- and keeping the tanks much colder than the rest of the
spacecraft for many months is tricky. In practice you want fuels that
store at typical satellite-interior temperatures, roughly room
temperature.
Henry
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