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Acceleration history during the 2010 insertion burn

Acceleration history during the 2010 insertion burn
Acceleration history during the 2010 insertion burn A brief ullage burn by the RCS thrusters settles the propellant at the bottom of the tanks and the main engine fires at t=0s. The acceleration of about 0.9 m/s2 (one tenth of a “g”) indicates the engine is producing over 400 newtons of thrust, given the spacecraft’s approximate mass of 500 kilograms. However, this thrust should be constant and so as the fuel mass declines, the acceleration should rise. Instead, the thrust falls slowly until a sudden drop at 152 seconds.