Marco Riccardo Inchingolo
Development of a thrust balance for microspacecraft electric propulsion units.
Rel. Lorenzo Casalino. Politecnico di Torino, Corso di laurea magistrale in Ingegneria Aerospaziale, 2019
Abstract
The development of satellite propulsion systems naturally requires the accurate measurement of the thrust level. Whereas such a task is relatively easy for chemical thrusters where forces in the order of kN are produced, complexity raises with electrical thrusters that show very low thrust-to-mass ratios. Currently the thrust of electric devices is in the µN to hundreds mN range, which makes measurements difficult and complicated. Moreover, thrust measurements must be carried out inside a vacuum chamber in order to comply with the effective environment in which satellites, then thrusters, operate. This Master thesis presents the development of a pendulum-type Thrust Balance able to measure the low thrust produced by miniature electric thrusters.
The work covers architecture selection, mechanical simulation, CAD, balance building, control unit and DAQ design, testing and preliminary measurements with a low-power Hall thruster
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