An Experimental and Conceptual Investigation of Laser Micro Propulsion

The laser micro‐impulse torsion pendulum has been developed in this lab. A thin glass plate of about 80μm thick is made as the target holder where the propellant film sticks on. Such structure can be used for both the R‐mode and the T‐mode measurements. The minimal resolution of this apparatus is 3×10−9N.s. A package, which combines a 2W single LD with its lenses, is evaluated by the pendulum under R‐mode and T‐mode conditions, respectively, in this lab. the momentum coupling coefficient Cm is about 2dyn/W and the specific impulsion Isp is about 170s. A new conceptual fiber‐distributed structure of laser micropropulsion system for microsatellites has been proposed and discussed in this article.