Title :
Digital control of an interferometric balance for micro-thrusters qualification
Author :
Canuto, Enrico ; ROLINO, Andrea
Author_Institution :
Dipt. di Autom. e Inf., Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Abstract :
The digital control of an interferometric balance for fine space thruster calibration is presented. The problem was suggested by new micro-thrusters generation aiming at thrusts with sub-micro-Newton resolution. The solution, the Nanobalance instrument, will be employed for on ground qualifying thrust time profile and noise. The digital control, designed and tested in parallel to instrument construction, is now currently employed for instrument calibration. First experimental results are encouraging.
Keywords :
balances; calibration; digital control; force measurement; light interferometry; physical instrumentation control; digital control; fine space thruster calibration; interferometric balance; microthruster generation; microthruster qualification; nanobalance instrument; noise; sub-microNewton resolution; Arm; Calibration; Digital control; Frequency; Instruments; Laser beams; Laser mode locking; Laser noise; Qualifications; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
American Control Conference, 2002. Proceedings of the 2002
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7298-0
DOI :
10.1109/ACC.2002.1024517
