From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article ,   
   Josh Gigantino  wrote:   
   >This is research for my books. Any help would be appreciated, for any   
   >currently available launchers, esp Soyuz, Proton and Delta. I'm trying   
   >to spec out how much fuel would be available from burned out rocket   
   >stages for use by robotic "scavengers" in the storyline...   
      
   The usual rule of thumb, in the West at least, is that residual fuel left   
   in the tanks and plumbing is 1% of the initial load.  However, in the past   
   some stages have specified more aggressive residual percentages, e.g. 0.5%   
   for Titan II first stage, 0.25% for S-IV (and the S-IV, at least,   
   typically beat the spec substantially).  So you really need to know the   
   individual vehicle.  And it's information that often doesn't make it into   
   the user's manual, alas, which means there is no recourse except to talk   
   to the launch supplier.   
      
   >know how to find/calculate this info so that I can figure out how much   
   >delta-V they would have available.   
      
   About the only thing you can do is read the user's manuals and see if they   
   give a mass breakdown at cutoff.  They are mostly available on-line.   
   --   
   MOST launched 30 June; science observations running     |   Henry Spencer   
   since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending.        | henry@spsystems.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)