A micro-thrust stand developed by the National Physical Laboratory under ESA funding was calibrated and characterized. The balance is based on the nulled-pendulum principle. The thruster is positioned in a constrained pendulum that is free to move only along the line of thrust. A capacitive displacement sensor measures the movement of the pendulum and is connected via a servo closed loop to a f...

Small satellites are changing the space scene dramatically. By drastically reducing costs while still having impressive technological capabilities, their popularity among the space community is increasing at a very fast rate. Propulsion systems for these class of spacecraft are very limited. One promising technology is the ion Electrospray Propulsion System (iEPS) developed at the Space Propuls...

Small satellites are changing the space scene dramatically. By drastically reducing costs while still having impressive technological capabilities, their popularity among the space community is increasing at a very fast rate. Propulsion systems for these class of spacecraft are very limited. One promising technology is the ion Electrospray Propulsion System (iEPS) developed at the Space Propuls...

Unmanned aerial vehicles are being utilized by numerous groups around the world for various missions. Most of the smaller vehicles that have been developed use commercially-offthe-shelf parts, and little information about the performance characteristics of the propulsion systems is available in the archival literature. In light of this, the aim of the present research was to determine the perfo...

Today’s unmanned aerial vehicles are being utilized by numerous groups around the world for various missions. Most of the smaller vehicles that have been developed use commercially-off-the-shelf parts, and little information about the performance characteristics of the propulsion systems is available in the archival literature. In light of this, the aim of the present research was to determine ...