Performance of a Solar Thermal Propulsion Featuring Latent Heat Storage and Subsequent Hydrogen Burning

The study deals with performance of solar thermal propulsion featuring hydrogen heating in a high-temperature system consisting of a concentrator, a sunlight absorber and latent heat storage, and subsequent hydrogen burning in oxygen. Oxygen and hydrogen form a high-energy fuel-oxidant system with a high stoichiometric oxidiser-to-fuel ratio. This makes it possible to make the system, which consists of a concentrator, a sunlight absorber and latent heat storage, more compact and simplify its design during initial stages of engine development. Considering the problem of a multi-burn spacecraft transfer from a low Earth orbit into a geostationary one with the mission lasting from 20 to 90 days, we selected a boron and silicon eutectic alloy B*Si for our phase-change heat storage material. We plotted mass, size and performance characteristics of the system consisting of solar thermal propulsion and spacecraft as functions of mission time, for various oxidizer-to-fuel ratios. We show the zones of rational oxygen consumption and determine feasible component mass flow ratios that ensure high efficiency of the transportation operation in terms of mass and performance when mission time is fixed and engine size and mass are limited

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