Patent ID: 8381938

Claim:
A liquid storage tank arrangement for a spacecraft, adapted to store a liquid for operation of the spacecraft and a pressurized driving gas for driving the liquid out of said liquid storage tank arrangement, said liquid storage tank arrangement comprising: a liquid storage tank enclosing a tank interior space adapted to store the liquid and the driving gas therein, wherein said tank includes a concave tank wall that is concavely curved on a section plane and a convex tank wall that is convexly curved on said section plane, said convex tank wall is arranged radially outwardly around said concave tank wall, said convex tank wall and said concave tank wall converge toward one another and are joined together at a bottom vertex on said section plane, said tank interior space is bounded annularly between said convex tank wall and said concave tank wall and tapers toward a tank interior space bottom formed at said bottom vertex, and a selected area of said convex tank wall has plural throughholes penetrating therethrough; and a liquid extraction arrangement comprising features adapted to separate the liquid from the driving gas, a liquid reservoir that comprises a reservoir wall arranged radially outwardly on and protruding radially outwardly from said selected area of said convex tank wall such that a reservoir space is bounded between said reservoir wall and said selected area of said convex tank wall, and a liquid outlet pipe that communicates from said reservoir space out of said liquid reservoir, wherein said reservoir space communicates with said tank interior space through said throughholes in said selected area of said convex tank wall; wherein said selected area of said convex tank wall having said throuqhholes is limited to a limited circumferential portion of a periphery of said convex tank wall, and said reservoir wall extends partially circumferentially on only said limited circumferential portion of said periphery.