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Objectives
The objective of the project was to design, manufacture and qualify a high accuracy flow meter for a liquid propulsion system. The flow meter should be non-intrusive in essence and should be able to measure the flowrate of propellants feeding the thrusters with a target accuracy better than 0.1%FS during the Liquid Apogee Engine Firing (LAEF).
On geostationary telecommunications satellites, the use of accurate flow metering during the main engine firing would considerably improve the knowledge on remaining propellant at beginning of life and thus improve the on-orbit propellant monitoring. Flow meters are already being embarked on the U.S. satellite TELSTAR-4 (Pitot design) and on the Japanese satellite ETS-VI (Turbine flow meter).
The advantages of the ultrasonic solution are its non-intrusive nature and potential accuracy. The typical flow meter package comprises an ultrasonic sensors assembly with the associated control electronics.
Challenges
Main challenge of the project was to upgrade commercial UFM equipment for space applications, thereby improving the signal processing electronics to comply with the stringent accuracy requirements.
Plan
During the programme, a Development Model (DM) was manufacturing and tested, followed by the manufacturing and qualification testing of a Qualification Model (QM). The qualification tests have taken into account typical telecommunications satellites requirements and encompassed a life propellant test to verify the ability of the equipment to measure actual satellite propellants.
Current Status
Under the contract, qualification has been successfully closed and all objectives of the development program have been met. The design can be directly implemented as is for use on geostationary telecommunication satellites.