Gas dynamic calibration of a nano-Newton thrust stand

The ability to measure extremely low thrust levels with unusual precision is becoming more critical as attempts are made to characterize the performance of emerging micropropulsion systems. Many new attitude control concepts for nanospacecraft involve the production of thrust below 1 muN. A simple, but uniquely successful thrust stand has been developed and used to measure thrust levels as low as 86.2 nano-Newtons (nN) with an estimated accuracy of +/-11%. Thrust levels in the range of 712 (nN) to 1 muN have been measured with an estimated accuracy of +/-2%. Thrust is measured from an underexpanded orifice operating in the free molecule flow regime with helium, argon, and nitrogen propellants. The thrust stand is calibrated using results from direct simulation Monte Carlo numerical models and analytical solutions for free molecule orifice flow. The accuracy of the gas dynamic calibration technique, using free molecule orifice flow, has also been investigated. It is shown that thrust stand calibration using high Knudsen number helium flow can be accurate to within a few percent in the 80 to 1 muN thrust range for thin walled orifices when the stagnation pressure is accurately measured. The thrust stand and calibration technique exhibit significant improvement for accurate, low thrust measurements compared to currently published results. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.