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Completed TRL 6 (started at 2, targeting 6)
Develop a propellant-configuration-model-free mass-gauging technology based on non-intrusive actuation and detection of acoustic response of a cryogenic propellant tank.
Deep-space exploration requires tank propellant mass-gauging in the conditions of reduced and zero-gravity. Accurate modeling of the configuration of propellant in a tank in these conditions is challenging and the results can be unreliable. As a consequence, mass-gauging technologies which are based on modeling the configuration of propellant in the tank may fail in such conditions. A propellant-configuration-model-free mass-gauging approach is, by construction, free of such potential failures and can be applied to situations where the state of propellant in unknown.
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