›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (5): 69-.

Thrust and specific impulse tests of miniature gallium field emission electric propulsion thruster

XU  Ming-Ming, LIU  Xin-Yu, KANG  Xiao-Ming, GUO  Deng-Shuai, HE  Wei-Guo

1. School of Mechanical Engineering，Shanghai Jiao Tong University，Shanghai200240，China
• Online:2019-10-25 Published:2019-10-25

Abstract: The development of electric propulsion technology has promoted the research process of micro thrust measurement technology and specific impulse measurement technology. In order to evaluate the performance of the developed miniature gallium field emission electric thruster, thrust and specific impulse measurements were made. A thrust measurement platform for field emission electric thrusters was developed, the LabVIEW development was carried out and the measurement platform was calibrated and analyzed. The measured values and theoretical values of the thrust were compared through experiments. The measured values range from 3 to 28μN. In addition, using the time of flight method, the thruster′s specific impulse data under different emission currents were measured, and the specific impulse′s range is 5917-8875s.