Overview of known power methods for measuring the jet thrust of ion engines: torsion pendulums

The paper presents an overview of the majority of existing designs of power stands based on a torsion pendulum designed to measure the thrust of ion thruster. 23 unique stand designs developed by various scientific groups are presented. The presented stands cover the range of steady-state loads of 10 nN to 4.5 N and thrust pulses in the range from 1 µN · s to 10 N ·s. The temporary section from 1971 to 2019 is covered. The methods of recording micro displacement of the sensing element, damping of parasitic vibrations and calibration of stands are shown. Data on errors in the measurement of traction by stands are presented.