Cryogenic propellant depot and deployable sunshield

A cryogenic propellant depot and sunshield are provided for operation in earth orbit to fuel or refuel other space vehicles. The sunshield is deployed to effectively mitigate solar radiation emanating from the earth and the sun thereby providing a long term storage solution for cryogenic fluids pron...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Kutter, Bernard Friedrich, Zegler, Frank Charles, Willey, Cliff E, Lin, John K, Ragab, Mohamed M, Dew, Michael W
Format: Patent
Sprache:eng
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:A cryogenic propellant depot and sunshield are provided for operation in earth orbit to fuel or refuel other space vehicles. The sunshield is deployed to effectively mitigate solar radiation emanating from the earth and the sun thereby providing a long term storage solution for cryogenic fluids prone to boil-off. The depot has supporting subsystems to include station keeping equipment and communication equipment so that the depot can be independently controlled. Inflatable booms are used to deploy the sunshield in a desired pattern around the depot.