Patent ID: 8667776

Claim:
A rocket motor, comprising: a nozzle having a variable cross-sectional area, with a throat of the nozzle being at a smallest cross-sectional area; a plurality of combustion chambers directly coupled to the nozzle, each of the plurality of combustion chambers comprising: a case, with different of the combustion chambers having different cases; a propellant charge comprising a plurality of fuel pellets disposed within the case; an igniter disposed to ignite the propellant charge; a pellet retainer disposed to retain unignited fuel pellets within the case and having a plurality of perforations therein, with different of the chambers having different pellet retainers; and a burst disk disposed between the propellant charge and the nozzle, the burst disk adapted to rupture when the propellant charge is ignited and to not rupture when a propellant charge of any of the other combustion chambers is ignited; wherein for each of the plurality of combustion chambers the burst disk associated with the combustion chamber is operatively coupled to the propellant charge associated with the combustion chamber, such that ignition of the propellant charge causes the burst disk to rupture when pressure within the combustion chamber exceeds a predetermined pressure level; wherein the plurality of combustion chambers includes at least three combustion chambers; and wherein the propellant charges may be selectively ignited in different ways, with different individual of the propellant charges ignited individually, or different combinations of the propellant charges simultaneously or in sequence.