A thermal management system includes a slurry generator, an injector pump coupled to the slurry generator, a heat exchanger reactor coupled to the injector pump, wherein the heat exchanger reactor is adapted to subject a thermally expendable heat absorption material to a temperature above 60° C. and a pressure below 3 kPa, and wherein the expendable heat absorption material endothermically decomposes into a gaseous by-product. A vapor cycle system is coupled to the heat exchanger reactor and is operatively connected to a thermal load. A thermal energy storage system may be coupled to the vapor cycle system and the thermal load. The thermal energy storage system may isolate the heat exchanger reactor from thermal load transients of the thermal load.

A fuel cell-based power system comprises a fuel cell configured for continuously receiving a first reactant and a second reactant to produce chemical reactions that generate electrical power, water, and heat, a coolant subsystem configured for circulating a primary coolant in association with the fuel cell, thereby absorbing the generated heat, a tank configured for storing a reactant, and a reactant distribution subsystem configured for conveying the reactant from the tank to an independent system, the fuel cell as the first reactant, and the coolant subsystem as a secondary coolant to remove the absorbed heat from the primary coolant and/or a water accumulator. The secondary coolant may be conveyed to a gas thruster as a gas after the absorbed heat has been removed from the secondary coolant. The reactant may be boil off of a cryogenic liquid or vapor or gas transformed from a cryogenic liquid via a heater.

A rocket propulsion system comprising a first cryogenic tank and a second cryogenic tank, wherein the first cryogenic tank is filled with a first propellant, and the second cryogenic tank is filled with a second propellant, for purposes of feeding at least one repeatedly ignitable main propulsion unit in a propulsion phase of the rocket propulsion system. For purposes of tank pressurization via at least a low level of acceleration in a ballistic phase, a first auxiliary propulsion unit can be operated by means of a first gas pressure accumulator, and at least one further auxiliary propulsion unit can be operated by means of a further gas pressure accumulator, and the rocket propulsion system is assigned an energy conversion unit, which is designed at least to charge the first and the second gas pressure accumulator, preferably in the ballistic phase.

A fuel cell-based power system comprises a fuel cell configured for continuously receiving a first reactant and a second reactant to produce chemical reactions that generate electrical power, water, and heat, a coolant subsystem configured for circulating a primary coolant in association with the fuel cell, thereby absorbing the generated heat, a tank configured for storing a reactant, and a reactant distribution subsystem configured for conveying the reactant from the tank to an independent system, the fuel cell as the first reactant, and the coolant subsystem as a secondary coolant to remove the absorbed heat from the primary coolant and/or a water accumulator. The secondary coolant may be conveyed to a gas thruster as a gas after the absorbed heat has been removed from the secondary coolant. The reactant may boil off of a cryogenic liquid or vapor or gas transformed from a cryogenic liquid via a heater.

A system operating in a spacecraft includes a tank storing a propellant, a thermal receiver configured to change the propellant from a first phase to a second phase by providing heat to the propellant, and an energy conversion device fluidically coupled to the tank and configured to generate electric energy using the propellant in the second phase.

A spacecraft propulsion system comprises two thrusters, each operating in accordance to a corresponding propulsion technique. A controller is configured to direct collected solar energy to heat a propellant for consumption in one of the two thrusters, or to generate electric energy for the other one of the two thrusters.

A thermal management system includes a slurry generator, an injector pump coupled to the slurry generator, a heat exchanger reactor coupled to the injector pump, wherein the heat exchanger reactor is adapted to subject a thermally expendable heat absorption material to a temperature above 60° C. and a pressure below 3 kPa, and wherein the expendable heat absorption material endothermically decomposes into a gaseous by-product. A vapor cycle system is coupled to the heat exchanger reactor and is operatively connected to a thermal load. A thermal energy storage system may be coupled to the vapor cycle system and the thermal load. The thermal energy storage system may isolate the heat exchanger reactor from thermal load transients of the thermal load.

A thermal management system includes a slurry generator, an injector pump coupled to the slurry generator, a heat exchanger reactor coupled to the injector pump, wherein the heat exchanger reactor is adapted to subject a thermally expendable heat absorption material to a temperature above 60° C. and a pressure below 3 kPa, and wherein the expendable heat absorption material endothermically decomposes into a gaseous by-product. A vapor cycle system is coupled to the heat exchanger reactor and is operatively connected to a thermal load. A thermal energy storage system may be coupled to the vapor cycle system and the thermal load. The thermal energy storage system may isolate the heat exchanger reactor from thermal load transients of the thermal load.

A spacecraft propulsion system comprises two thrusters, each operating in accordance to a corresponding propulsion technique. A controller is configured to direct collected solar energy to heat a propellant for consumption in one of the two thrusters, or to generate electric energy for the other one of the two thrusters.

The present invention discloses a pulsed electric field propulsion system for spacecraft. The system includes a capacitor stack comprising an array of supercapacitors. Solid-state electronic circuits generate high time-rate-of-change currents and pulsed electric fields in pulse coils. The pulse coils direct the electric fields onto separated electric charges stored in the capacitor stack. The resulting unidirectional Lorentz Forces thereby generate thrust without reaction mass. Reaction momentum is carried away by Poynting Vector fields in conformity with the currently understood principles of electrodynamics. The design is scalable down to micro-chip sized thrusters.