Electrospray Propulsion Based on Emitters Microfabricated in Porous Metals

indicating that the thrust density can be increased with emitter miniaturization and clustering. A two-dimensional emitter array is constructed from three linear arrays and experiments show that the device produces an average current of around 1 �A per emitter at the highest voltages. Direct thrust measurements using a torsional balance show that the test fixture produces between 0.05 to 0:1 � N of thrust per emitter, as anticipated by theoretical estimates.