DLR’s Electric Propulsion Test Facility – Status and Perspective

Kurzfassung

Since the end of 2011 DLR in Göttingen operates an electric propulsion test facility. After the inauguration, starting in 2012 mainly a RIT thruster has been operated in the facility. Recently, another similar but larger thruster was tested at DLR. The electric propulsion test facility has several special features tailored to electric space propulsion testing, like a large vacuum chamber with low vibration foundation, low sputtering beam dump target, and a performant pumping system. The vacuum chamber is more than 12m long and has a diameter of 5m, see Figure 1. With respect to thruster tests, the design focus was on accurate thrust measurement, plume diagnostics, and plume interaction with spacecraft components.