Development of a Direct Thrust Balance for Low Power Hollow Cathode Thrusters

摘要

A new direct thrust balance has been designed, manufactured, assembled and tested at the University of Southampton. The balance design allows for reliable direct thrust measurements in steady state conditions on light, small, low power thrusters. The measurements procedure allows for the cancellation of the thermal drifts. Measurements have been carried out in a range 0.1 mN to 3 mN on a T6 hollow cathode thruster with an uncertainty of 9.7%. The same device was tested at Aerospazio Tecnologie with their thrust balance: the comparison is in good agreement being only 6% the maximum difference.