Design Improvement and Performance Demonstration of a Six-Degree-Of-Freedom Thrust Measurement System for High-Precision Formation Flying Missions

Design Improvement and Performance Demonstration of a Six-Degree-Of-Freedom Thrust Measurement System for High-Precision Formation Flying Missions

Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT

A six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) elastic pendulum thrust stand has been developed for comprehensive measurement of thrust and torque generated by micro-propulsion systems for future formation flying missions. This paper presents ongoing design improvements to the thrust stand, including the introduction of laser-scale displacement sensors and a supported mass design analysis. The analysis considered suspension spring stiffness, spring extension, and vacuum-chamber dimensional constraints. The results indicate that the proposed sensor configuration provides sufficient measurement resolution throughout the investigated design space, while the primary design constraints arise from suspension spring extension and equilibrium spring length. The analysis also provides design guidelines for supporting test articles with masses of approximately 20 kg. Current development status and future demonstration plans are presented.