Facilities and Testing
Experimentation and test facilities are key elements in electric and chemical propulsion R&D. To this purpose, Alta is equipped with a unique set of facilities, covering all sectors of its technology development activities:
- IV10 Space Vacuum Simulator
- IV 4 Vacuum Facility
- Micropropulsion Laboratory
- Cavitating Pump Rotordynamic Test Facility (CPRTF)
- Green Propellant Rocket Test Facility (GPRTF)
- High-Enthalpy Arc-heated Tunnel (HEAT)
- Laser Induced Fluorescence System (LIF)
IV10 Space Vacuum Facility
IV10 space simulator is Alta’s flagship facility, with world leading performance and a very advanced design for end to end characterization of EP subsystems. IV10 is Europe ’s largest and most powerful vacuum chamber for EP testing. IV10 main vacuum vessel, 6 m diameter and 10 m length, is fully lined internally with LN2 cooled shrouds. The cryogenic pumping system can achieve up to 1,500,000 l/s pumping speed on xenon and less than 3·10-9 mbar ultimate pressure.
IV4 Vacuum Facility
The IV4 vacuum facility is the cornerstone of Alta’s Hall thruster test activities. Operating since 2001, IV4 is one of the most flexible and cost effective EP test facilities in Europe, with a pumping speed of 130,000 l/s on xenon and a complete array of diagnostics, including plasma probes as well as non intrusive capability such as infrared thermography, ultra high speed imaging, spectroscopy.
Micropropulsion Laboratory
Alta’s Micropropulsion Laboratory operates six ultra-high vacuum (10-9 mbar) chambers, mainly used for FEEP and resistojet R&D and flight qualification tests. The laboratory features a class 100000 clean tent and a class 100 laminar flow bench used to perform the most contamination‑sensitive assembling and inspection activities. A special vacuum/controlled atmosphere chamber equipped with manipulator gloves is used for cesium propellant loading.
Cavitating Pump Rotordynamic Test Facility (CPRTF)
The Cavitating Pump Rotordynamic Test Facility (CPRTF) is an advanced test rig capable of fully characterizing turbopump flow phenomena and rotordynamic impeller whirl forces in both cavitating and non-cavitating conditions. Instead of dangerous and expensive real-life propellants, the facility runs on water under fluid dynamic and thermal cavitation similarity conditions, resulting in safe, economic and accurate testing opportunities. The facility can also be reconfigured into a small Thermal Cavitation Tunnel (TCT), suitable for thermal cavitation experiments on test bodies (hydrofoils, headforms, etc.).
Green Propellant Rocket Test Facility (GPRTF)
The Green Propellant Rocket Test Facility (GPRTF) is an easily reconfigurable and expandable experimental apparatus for performance characterization of liquid propellant rocket (LPR) engines. The entire system is mounted on a towable wheeled chassis, in order to best select the most appropriate location for intrusive and/or dangerous tests. The resulting operational effectiveness and flexibility makes the GPRTF ideally suited for detailed and economic R&D/qualification testing of small to medium thrust LPRs.
High-Enthalpy Arc-heated Tunnel (HEAT)
Alta’s High-Enthalpy Arc-heated Tunnel (HEAT) is a pulsed hypersonic wind tunnel operative since 1996. It can generate Mach 6 and 9 flows with specific enthalpies up to 6 kJ/kg in the low to medium Reynolds number range (104-106). The HEAT tunnel is typically used for small scale experiments in aerothermodynamics and Magneto-Hydro-Dynamics. Due to its high-quality diagnostics, coupled to a low cost-per-run, it is ideal for research test campaign as well as small scale detailed characterization activities for commercial or flight programmes.
Laser Induced Fluorescence System (LIF)
The Laser Induced Fluorescence system hosted in Alta's aerothermodynamics laboratory is a Two-photon Absorption LIF (TALIF) for concentration measurement of atomic O and N in hypersonic facility jets with Mach number in the range of 4-10 and total enthalpy between 1 and 6 MJ/kg.
