Open AccessDevelopment of a Micro-Thruster Test Facility which fulfils the LISA requirements
Author(s) -
Franz Georg Hey,
Armin Keller,
Ulrich Johann,
Claus Braxmaier,
Martin Tajmar,
E. Fitzsimons,
Dennis Weise
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/610/1/012037
Subject(s) - thrust , aerospace engineering , propulsion , context (archaeology) , noise (video) , calibration , pendulum , computer science , acoustics , physics , engineering , mechanical engineering , geology , paleontology , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics)
In the context of investigations for a sucient attitude control thruster for LISA,\udwe have developed a thruster test facility which consists of a highly precise thrust balance\udcoupled with plasma diagnostics. In parallel to the test facility development, investigations\udto downscale a High Eciency Multistage Plasma Thruster (HEMP-T) are also being carried\udout. The thruster has been used to demonstrate the measurement capabilities of the facility.\udThe setup allows a parallel operation of all instruments and can also be used for other types\udof μN propulsion systems including cold gas thrusters. The thrust balance consists of two\udpendulums. As read out a heterodyne laser interferometer is used. Dierential wave front sensing\ud(DWS) enables the measurement of the pendulum tilt which, via suitable calibration using an\udelectrostatic comb, can be converted to a thrust. The whole setup is a symmetric conguration\udenabling a common-mode rejection of the dominant noise sources (e.g. seismic noise etc.).\udThe thrust balance has a demonstrated precision of 0:1 μN. Based on our unique design, this\udprecision can be attained down to 1