Bangaluru based Pvt company called hhv also part of the drive,I thought its worth a mention
(Content from their official web page)
Integrated test facility to measure the thrust of ion-propulsion engines
The ‘
Mars Orbiter’ also known as “
Mangalyaan” bid adieu to its Earth orbit putting India in the elite club of countries venturing into space explorations and planetary studies. The secret of Indianspace programme's trailblazing affordability is its Indigenization. The successful Indian mars mission not only astonished the global space agencies but also promulgated the goldmine of technological development prowess in the country.
Xenon thruster engines
The indigenously evolved “Mangalyaan” will travel in its parabolic trajectory and is due to orbit Mars in September 2014. Indian space scientists & engineers will carry out mid-course corrections using the orbiters
xenon-propulsion thrusters, to ensure its trajectory to the red planet in a pre-determined atmospheric drag free path. These thrusters are also being used to control the spacecraft altitude and augment it’s thrust-level.
Ground-based test facility
These Ion-propulsion thrusters are being used to overcome -critical hurdles faced by the spaceflight. Therefore ground based test facilitiesare required to evaluate thruster characterization, plume interaction, endurance and acceptance testing. The study of the thruster efficiency enables to compute mean propellant exit velocities and specific impulse which are essential calculations for any deep-space missions.
HHVis a unique Indian company, with expertise in developing variety of technologically advanced ground-based test facilities for Indian space program for over four decades.
These
technical development capabilities of
HHV resulted in a recent order from the Indian Space Industry for a large size ground-based integrated test facility to measure the thrust of high power (8.0kW) ion-propulsion engines
HHV has in the past custom built two such a facilities to measure the thrust of 0.5 – 1.5 kW ion-propulsion engines for the Indian space centers. These xenon-thruster ground based testing systems are being used for their thruster engine developmental programme.
Integrated test facility to measure the thrust of Xenon-propulsion engines
The large integrated test facility to measure the thrust of high power xenon-propulsion engines has two horizontally mounted cylindrical chambers fabricated with a smooth inner surface of emissivity of 0.1 to prevent the adsorption .
Large size high vacuum chamber
The large size cylindrical chamber is of size 9.00m length and 3.5m diameter has;
· A set of cryogenic panels placed inside the top walls of
this chamber to absorb xenon ions to maintain the operational vacuum of 2 x10-5mbar in xenon atmosphere.
· A residual gas analyzer located inside this chamber measures the partial pressure of gases (Impurities).
· A set of mechanical, turbo and cryo-pumps based vacuum systems enables to create an ultimate vacuum level in the range of 1 x10-6 mbar in a clean environment.
Xenon-thruster chamber (Small chamber)
The Xenon- thruster engine to be tested will be mounted on a platform moving on a rail inside a small cylindrical chamber of size 1.50m length x 1.00m diameter.
An independent turbo-pump based vacuum system provided with the small chamber creates a vacuum in the range of 1 x10-6 mbar. It can be isolated from a main chamber by a 1m gate valve for loading and unloading the xenon-thruster engine without disturbing the vacuum level in the main chamber.
Operations
During the test, the xenon-thruster will be exposed into the main chamber by opening the isolation valve. This operation will be done with the PC interfaced vacuum compatible motorized mechanism that moves the xenon thruster engine back and forth inside the xenon thruster chamber along with the platform on which the xenon thruster engine is mounted. When the xenon thruster is in operation mode, the xenon-ion-plume generated from the xenonthruster will be travelling with high velocity inside the main chamber.
The intensity of the xenon-ion beams will be detected using sensors. These sensors are mounted on a PC interfaced vacuum compatible motorized
ion-diagnostic arms.
The
ion-diagnostic arms are mounted on a platformpositioned inside the large vacuum chamber. It can be moved XY axis and up and down in a predetermined angle in front of the plumes (ion-beams). The ion-diagnostic arms platform can be moved back and forth to place it at various distances from the xenon-thruster engine to measure the intensity of the plume at various distances.
The signal produced by the sensor will be amplified and measured to determine the vector and the thrust of the ion-beam.
In case the normal set up fails a redundant is foreseen with the pumping system, measuring instrumentations, emergency power supply which allows continuation of the on-going test until the unit(s) is/are set right. The PLC also has stand-by processors in hot redundant mode. These redundant facilities ensure continuous operation of chamber for a few weeks without shutdown.
A SCADA based data acquisition system, monitoring systems, control stations, safety controls, etc., are placed outside the system.
A number of trials have been conducted to ensure the repetitiveness of stringent measurements. Specialists and engineers of each operation from the Indian space organization have physically verified and cleared the systems for commissioning at their facility.
Summary
This large sized integrated thrust measuring xenon thruster engine is meant to develop a high power electrostatic thruster of 5.0 - 8.0 kW. These high powers Hall Effect Thrusters (HET) may be used in the future propulsion programmes.
HHV is proud of associating with the Indian Space industry and continues to support in indigenizing such facilities for space programme to make India self reliant.
HHV
www.hhv.in