The monopropellant hydrazine propulsion subsystem for the Pioneer Venus spacecraft

The Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Multiprobe spacecraft propulsion subsystems and their performance are presented. Monopropellant hydrazine subsystems on each spacecraft provided the capability to spin up the spacecraft after separation and perform all spin rate, velocity, and attitude changes required by the control subsystem to satisfy mission objectives. The propulsion subsystem provides thrust on demand by supplying anhydrous hydrazine from the propellant tanks through manifolds, filters and valves to the thrust chamber assemblies where the hydrazine is catalytically decomposed and expanded in a conical nozzle. The subsystems consist of seven 1 lbf thrusters for the Orbiter and six 1 lbf thrusters for the multiprobe which are isolated by two latch valves from the two propellant tanks so that two redundant thruster clusters are provided to ensure mission completion in the event of a single point failure. The propellant feed system is of all-welded construction to minimize weight and leakage and titanium is used as the primary material of construction. The multiprobe burned up on entering the Venus atmosphere with enough propellant left for the mission and the Orbiter was inserted into Venus orbit with enough propellant remaining for more than 2 earth years of orbital operations.