Overview of known power methods for measuring the jet thrust of ion engines: swing stands and elastic targets

The paper provides an overview of most existing designs of power stand based on a swing and an elastic target designed to measure the thrust of ion thruster. There are 7 unique design of a swing stands and 16 designs of aerodynamic stands based on an elastic target. The presented a swing stands cover the range of steady-state thrust from 50 µN to 1500 µN and thrust pulses in the range from 1 µN· s to 150 mN·s. Stands based on elastic targets cover the range of steady-state thrust from 3 µN to 1N. The time period from 1972 to 2023 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 measuring thrust by stands are presented.