Development of a cantilever beam thrust stand for electric propulsion thrusters

The application of electric thrusters on spacecrafts has become more and more extensive. Accurate, direct measurement of thrust is not only one of the most critical elements of electric thruster characterization but also one of the most difficult measurements to make in the ground test and verification of electric propulsion. It is hard to measure the thrust in a finite simulation environment due to small thrust and interference factors in the measurement. A cantilever beam thrust stand has been designed and tested in our propulsion laboratory. The device is used to measure the thrust of a plasma thruster multiple times a day. The thrust stand allows adjusting the instrument sensibility by changing the size of the cantilever beam. The range of thrust depends on the thrusters; e.g., for a 15 kg ion thruster, the thrust can vary from 10 mN up to 220 mN. Calibration of the system is carried out using calibrated mass. The balance results are compared to the thrust calculated using electrical parameters, showing an agreement within 3.16%.