Development of a micro-thrust measurement system and ground thrust measurement of the micro Hall thruster for Taiji mission

The Taiji Laboratory for Gravitational Wave Universe has developed a micro-thrust measurement system specifically for ground thrust measurement of a micro Hall thruster. The thrust measurement system's core component is the thrust stand, which is designed based on a hanging pendulum topology and has undergone four generations of iterative optimization. This thrust measurement system is capable of measuring the thrust in the range of 0–100 μN with a resolution better than 0.1 μN. This study presents ground thrust measurements for a ground-optimized version of the micro Hall thruster on board the Taiji-1 satellite. The Taiji-1 micro Hall thruster is currently the lowest power level Hall thruster in orbit and has a unique physical design that allows it to operate without an external cathode. The thrust measurement results demonstrate that the ground-optimized thruster can provide continuous thrust modulation in the range of 0.94–104.67 μN, with a resolution superior to 0.2 μN. This research provides technical support for ground testing and iterative optimization of micro-thrusters for the Taiji gravitational wave detection mission. • This paper presents the iterative optimization process of the micro-thrust measurement system at Taiji Laboratory. • The ground measurement results of the micro Hall thruster are reported for the first time in this paper. • The study can provide technical support for the development of micro-thrusters for gravitational wave detection projects.