Victor M. Aguero

Development of a Thrust Stand Micro-Balance to Assess Micropropulsion Performance

Abstract : As proposed spacecraft and their associated thrusters have become smaller, technology has been developed to meet the demand for performance measurements for the extremely low force levels produced. For such thrusters, it is also desirable to measure the mass changes resulting from the utilization of propellant associated with either the steady state thrust or transient impulses. A thrust stand and novel data analysis method is presented to make both thrust (or impulse) and mass change measurements concurrently. It is shown that very accurate and repeatable measurements of mass can be made using an existing thrust stand system. Furthermore, it is shown that impulse and mass measurements can be resolved at the same time from a single thrust stand trace.