Electric Propulsion Lab
The Electric Propulsion Laboratory has different experimental stations located across the laboratory floor. These include an Electrospray station, propellant synthesis station, 2 smaller vacuum chamber stations, and a large vacuum chamber station.
Questions?
To inquire about pricing, obtain a quote or any other questions, please send a message to the PI: Josh Rovey, rovey@illinois.edu
Large Vacuum Chamber Experimental Station
The Electric Propulsion Laboratory has a large vacuum chamber configured to test and diagnose EP devices. Diagnostic capabilities include a mN range thrust stand, an array of plume diagnostic probes, a thermocouple array, and oscilloscopes.
Large Vacuum Chamber
- Size: 8’ ID, 13’ length
- Base pressure: 3.0e-7 Torr
- Pumpdown Time: ~6 hours
- Vent time: ~5 hours
- 3x COOLPOWER 250 MDi with a COOLPAK 5000i compressor each: 5,200 L/s of N2
- 2x COOLVAC 60000 iSL with four COOLPAK 5000i compressors each: 57,000 L/s of N2
Propellant Feed System
- Two propellant feeds into chamber
- 20 SCCM, 50 SCCM, 100 SCCM, 200 SCCM mass flow controllers
- 3 propellant tanks with mixing capability
Laboratory Protocols
- Laboratory SOPs, TPs
- Industry-inspired FOD control
Thrust Stand
- Liquid-cooled null-style inverted pendulum thrust stand with active leveling
- Liquid metal feedthrough for minimal friction in direction of motion
- Thrust Range: 1 mN – 100mN
- Configured for 13 mN of thrust with 4.9% uncertainty
Feedthroughs
- 5 thermocouple feeds
- BNC feedthroughs
- Copper barrel electrical feedthroughs
- ¼” fluid feedthroughs
- Thruster radial, angled, and axial viewports
- Industry-inspired FOD control
DAQ Rack
- 3x Tektronix DPO 2024 Oscilloscopes with 4 analog/16 digital channels, 1GS/s, 8bit vertical resolution
- Volt meters
- Amp meters
- NI cDAQ-9174
- Industry-inspired FOD control