Development of an Apparatus for the Measurement of Space

Propulsion Systems
EG4301: B.ENG DISSERTATION
2016/17 SEMESTER 1
Assessment 1

Zhang Huichen

A0119419B

Table of Contents
Project Background .............................................................................................................................. 3
Project Objectives ................................................................................................................................. 3
Challenges of thrust measurement .................................................................................................. 4
Project Specifications........................................................................................................................ 5
Literature Review and Design Selection ............................................................................................. 5
Hanging Pendulum Thrust Stand.................................................................................................... 6
Inverted Pendulum ........................................................................................................................... 6
Torsional Balance.............................................................................................................................. 7
Design Selection................................................................................................................................. 7
Project Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 8
Project Outline and Milestones............................................................................................................ 9
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Reference ............................................................................................................................................. 10

Project Background
Propulsion system has been crucial in increasing the capabilities of the spacecraft, including
orbit manoeuver, attitude control, de-orbit, and even formation flying, proximity operations.
As CubeSats and other miniaturized spacecraft attracts increasing attention, development on
the propulsion system that caters to the needs of the smaller size spacecraft has been rapidly
evolving [1]. The common types of propulsion systems including cold gas propulsion system,
electrical propulsion system which features resistojet and many more.
Measurement of thrust is the most fundamental practice in characterizing the performance of
a propulsion system [2]. Traditional thrust measurement on aircraft jet engines and larger
spacecraft propulsion systems are carried out using load cells, but this will be impractical for
characterizing the low-thrust propulsion system as the thrust force is in the range of
milliNewton or microNewton, as the noises produced by the sensors will be in the same level
of magnitude as the thrust produced [3].
Hence, the direct thrust measurements of such propulsion system is challenging, yet
imperative as the low-thrust propulsion system has been greatly needed in CubeSats and
other miniaturized spacecraft.
NUS has been developing a cold gas thruster and a pulsed plasma thruster. While the
previous one produces thrust in the range of approximately 20, the latter one produces
even smaller thrust at the level of few milliNewton. Up to date, the characterization of the
thruster performance has not been performed analytically, as there is no available thrust stand
on campus that has the capability to measure such low thrust levels. Hence, it is at urgent
needs for NUS to develop a thrust measurement apparatus and relevant set-up as well as
measurement procedures to further the development of low thrust propulsion system.
Furthermore, future NUS satellite missions featuring formation flying will require accurate
understanding of the thrusters, either developed internally, or procured from suppliers, to
achieve precise movement control in the space. This further stresses the needs of developing
low-thrust measurement apparatus and mastering the techniques of such measurement.
Considerable effort has been invested in developing the state-of-art thrust measurement
stands and measurement techniques. In the literature review section, common types of thrust
measurement stands will be presented.

Project Objectives
Low-level thrust measurement is considered as one of the state-of-the-art technologies in the
field of satellite propulsion system development. So far, the thrust stand has not been off-theshelf commercially available. Therefore, to further develop the satellite propulsion system in
NUS and support future NUS satellite missions, a functional thrust measurement set-up, and
a set of rigorous testing procedure should be proposed.
It is true that to improve the measurement accuracy of the thrust stand, the thrust stand is
usually designed for a relatively small range of thrust. In this project, the measurement of
milliNewton will be carried out, due to its relatively low requirement on environmental noise
control. However, the key principle of such measurement is the same for both milliNewton

and microNewton thrust levels, and the development here will definitely have important
implications in microNewton thrust measurement in future.
Challenges of thrust measurement
To develop a concrete set of project specifications, acknowledging the challenges is
important. From literatures in the past, together with the current testing environment, the
following challenges are identified:
a) Displacement sensing
Displacement is the output of thrust stand, and it is usually pretty small, in terms of
millimetre, or even micrometre. In the meantime, the thrust output from the thruster is
not perfectly constant, the fluctuations will make the displacement sensing even more
difficult, as the sensors need to respond to the displacement fast, namely possessing a
high measurement rate. This hence imposes a challenging constraint on the project as
the available sensors may not have desired performance.
b) Environmental noises
Any thrust stand is subjected to environmental noises, and most of the time it is prone
to environmental noises. The lower the thrust level it measures, the more obvious
effect that environmental noises will lead to. This is another constraint on the project,
because if the capability of controlling environmental noises is limited, the thrust
stand is difficult to conduct lower-thrust level measurement.
c) Testing chamber
It is ideal to test the thrust stand in vacuum conditions to simulate space environment.
The testing thruster is usually designed to function in space environment as well.
However, the limited size of the vacuum chamber will greatly limit the size of the
thrust stand, and the limited size of thrust stand will give even smaller displacement
output, if other variables are fixed.
d) Testing thruster
Currently, NUS does not have a perfect functional thruster to test the thrust stand. The
newly developed cold gas thruster is not designed for vacuum conditions. Therefore,
the thruster for testing is uncertain. At the same time, in future more thrusters may be
tested on this thrust stand.
e) Complexity
The time and budget do not allow the project to be complex.
Requirements of Thrust Measurement and Formulated Project Statement
Hence, after acknowledging the above challenges, the designed thrust stand should satisfy the
following requirements:
1) Appropriate displacement sensing of great sensitivity and measurement rate.
2) Less prone to environment noises.
3) Relatively compact size. May develop a structure that allows easy modification on the
overall size.
4) Capability to mount different thrusters.
5) The project should hence be relatively simple in terms of design principles.
The project statement is then formulated as follow,
Develop an apparatus for the measurement of space propulsion systems.

Project Specifications
Quantifying the project specifications can be tough at the initial stage. According to IEPC
conference, a thrust stands performance metrics can be summarized as following [4],
1) Sensitivity
The deflection or displacement for a unit of produced thrust.
2) Repeatability and long-term stability
Thrust stand is repeatable, and its operational output is stable for long duration of
time.
3) Accuracy
A measure of the error between a thrust stand measurement and the true thrust force
value.
4) Resolution
Smallest difference between two thrust force values that can be clearly distinguished.
5) Noise spectrum
May refer to both the frequency-dependent thruster output noise level and the
frequency-dependent resolution of the thrust stand.
6) Response time
Thrust stand is a spring-damper system and hence characterized by a second order
equation. The response time usually refers to the time taken for the thrust stand to
give a relatively constant output within 2% variation of the steady state value.
7) Predictability of the response
It refers to the already known thrust stand output to input in function form through
calibration process, and hence the output can be predicted according to the input.
In specifying the project specifications at this stage, it is not possible to cover all variables in
the performance metrics. However, a few key specifications will be quantified as follow,
Measurement range: 0-100
Resolution: 0.5 (May even improve further with better sensor solutions).
Repeatability: 0.5
Sensitivity: 0.05m/N (Requires sensor to have resolution of 250 or lower).

Literature Review and Design Selection

Many organizations and universities working on miniaturized spacecraft propulsion have
already developed sensitive thrust stands, measuring -level and -level thrust, as well as
-level impulse bits. There are three common types of thrust stand, as summarized by Polk
et al. in his recommended practices for the design, calibration and operation of the mentioned
thrust stand [4]. They are named hanging pendulum, inverted pendulum, torsional pendulum
respectively.
In this literature review, an example of each type is presented. The working principles will be
elaborated and the limitation will be briefly discussed.

Hanging Pendulum Thrust Stand

Figure 1 Hanging Pendulum Thrust Stand TB-2m Developed by Delft University of Technology [5]

Hanging pendulum type refers to the pendulum with vertical arms connected with flexible
pivots at the top section, and thruster mounted at the bottom section. When a thrust force is
exerted, the thrust force will then produce an angular displacement of the pendulum arm. And
when an impulse bit is exerted, the pendulum arm will oscillate, usually in a decaying
manner. It should be noted that the thrust force moment here is balanced by both torsional
spring restoring moment and gravitational moment. From the displacement of the pendulum
arm, the motion can then be modelled and the thruster input can be deduced.
Inverted Pendulum

Figure 2 Inverted Pendulum Thrust Stand in Null-mode Configuration[6]

Inverted pendulum is a type of pendulum that places thruster at the top, and places the pivot
to arm connection at the bottom. Because the thrusters gravitational weight will produce
even larger rotational moment about the pivot, a smaller thrust force will produce very large
displacement. Because of such nature, inverted pendulum is inherently unstable and prone to
environmental noises, but it offers great sensitivity of measurement [6]. An example of
inverted pendulum is shown above.

Torsional Balance

Figure 3 A Torsional Balance Thrust Stand for microNewton Thruster [7]

Torsional balance is totally different from the previous two types of thrust stand in the aspect
that the balance arm is now in a horizontal plane. This completely removes the gravitational
restoring moment and the thrust force moment will now only be balanced by the torsional
restoring moment. This also implies that the torsional balance output is independent of
thruster mass. The modelling of such thrust stand hence becomes much simpler.
A benefit of torsional type of balance is that, it can be made less prone to environmental
vibration if the mass distribution is symmetric [8]. A figure explaining this is shown below. If
() represents the base excitation, it is clear that vertical pendulum will suffer more
vibration than the rotation balance.

Figure 4 Vibration response of two types of thrust stand

Design Selection
The selection of design concept should be based on the project requirement and
specifications, as well as the pros and cons of the different thrust stand types. A chart
compiled based on the evaluation performed by Mirczak [9] is presented below,
Pendulum Type
Displacement
Vibration sensitivity
Thruster mass
dependence
Complexity

Torsional
Normal
Less prone
Independent

Inverted
Relatively large
Very prone
Dependent

Hanging
Normal
Prone
Dependent

Simple

Complex

Simple

The above matrix corresponds to the constraints and design requirements. The size of the
thrust stand is skipped in this selection matrix because the size can always be compromised
with sensor performance, flex pivot spring constant. It is not absolutely certain to determine
the size of each type of thrust stand.

From the above evaluation, it can be seen that torsional thrust stand is the best choice. It
offers simple solution for testing different thrusters, without being too prone to environmental
noises. Though the displacement produced may be smaller than inverted pendulum, but the
displacement should be large enough to be sensed by the sensor.

Figure 5 Design Concept Selection and Basic Design Generation

Corresponding to the selected design concept, an initial design concept is generated, as

shown above. The pivot assembly features a separate rotating plate, which allows a balance
arm to mount on. This would enable the balance arm to be changed according to the different
thruster to be tested. Linear actuator will not only generate known-value precise controlled
force for calibration purpose, it will also be linked with displacement sensor to form a
feedback control system in Null-mode operation, where the displacement of the thrust stand
is zero because of the force balancing between the thruster and actuator. Levelling motor will
be used to ensure that the thrust stand is tested on a horizontal plane.

Project Methodology
The project begins with investigation on the needs of current propulsion system development.
The needs shape the direction of this project. From the needs, the requirements of thrust
measurement for current propulsion systems can be listed. The evaluation on the different
options leads to the final selection of design concept, based on the requirements.
A basic functional prototype will be built based on the selected design concept first. The
process involves sizing the flex pivot, balance arm, selecting appropriate sensor and linear
actuator, designing the structure and fabricating the parts. Calibration has to be performed
with a calibration tool, to understand the characteristics of the thrust stand. The calibration
procedure will be using both precise weights method and linear actuator method. Initial thrust
measurement will be conducted, and the data will be analysed and modelled through Matlab
and other tools. The values of thrust force should be obtained.

Second prototype will be built based on the first prototype, only replacing or adding some
parts. The second prototype will rectify the problems in the first round of testing, and also
with additional features installed, such as levelling motor system, which ensures that the
thrust stand is operating on a horizontal plane.
Third prototype aims to improve the capability of the thrust stand further. It will add
additional operational model null-mode to the thrust stand, which uses electromagnetic force
to balance the thrust force. This will then be compared with the previous measurement
technique.
Lastly, the project will be concluded with some recommendations for future improvement.

Project Outline and Milestones

The planning of project execution is presented in the table below.

Table 1 Project Outline and Milestones

Conclusion
In this first 6 weeks of the project, a clear project statement is formulated through investigating into
the needs of miniaturized propulsion system development. Within the realistic constraints, a set of
project requirements is determined, and project specifications are quantitatively defined, though not
complete because some of the parameters require few rounds of testing and refining. Through
reviewing the past work of thrust stand development in different organizations and comparing the
different design concept, torsional balance type is selected for the design. Basic structure design is
completed, and the options for displacement sensors and linear actuators are now in selection stage.
In the next stage, procurement of the components and fabrication of the parts will be carried out. The
assembly of displacement sensor subsystem, linear actuator subsystem and the assembly of the first
prototype will be completed.

Reference
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Small Spacecraft Technology State

of the Art, California, 2014
Wang, A., et al., Development and testing of a new thrust stand for micro-thrust
measurement in vacuum conditions. Vacuum, 2013. 91: p. 35-40.
Stark, K., et al., Design and Development of a Micropound Extended Range Thrust
Stand, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., 1971.
Polk, J., et al., Recommended Practices in Thrust Measurement, International Electric
Propulsion Conference, Washington,D.C., 2013.
Zandbergen, B.T.C., et al., Test Facility Development for testing of micro-thrusters at
TU Delft, Delft University of Technology, n.d.
Xu, K.G. and M.L. Walker, High-power, null-type, inverted pendulum thrust stand.
Rev Sci Instrum, 2009. 80(5): p. 055103.
Gamero-Castano, M., A torsional balance for the characterization of microNewton
thrusters. Review of Scientific Instruments, 2003. 74(10): p. 4509.
Janssens, S.M.J., Design of a micro propulsion test bench, Delft University of
Technology, n.d.
Mirczak, D.J., Milli Newton Thrust Stand for Electrical Propulsion, University of
California, Berkeley, 2001.