The continuously growing number of micro and nanosatellites launched in recent years has stimulated research institutes and industries to find alternative and less expensive ways to reach Low Earth Orbits. Laser ablation propulsion is one of the most promising launching techniques, even though a dedicated and reliable testing system has not been discussed in literature. We present a simple and dependable apparatus for measurements of laser ablation generated impulse and ejected mass. Impulse measurements are performed by using a ballistic pendulum, specifically designed for Ns impulses, whose oscillations are accurately detected by means of a reflected probe laser with a long optical path, which leads to a measurement accuracy of around 1%. The apparatus provides fast and reliable measurements that take into account the variability in centre of mass and moment of inertia that occur by changing the target material on the pendulum. Ablated mass measurements exploit the programmable displacements of a dedicated target irradiated with a large number of laser shots to increase the resolution of the measurement. The apparatus is tested with a KrF excimer laser at 248 nm and pulse width of 20 ns onto an aluminum target: a highly reproducible series of measurements of momentum coupling coefficient () with a standard deviation of around 1% is presented, along with a specific impulse () in favourable accordance with the literature.

近年来发射的微型和纳米卫星的数量不断增长，这刺激了科研机构和行业寻找到达地球低轨道的替代且成本更低的方法。激光消融推进是最有前途的发射技术之一，尽管文献中尚未讨论专用且可靠的测试系统。我们提出了一种简单而可靠的仪器，用于测量激光烧蚀产生的脉冲和喷射质量。脉冲测量是通过专门为N s设计的弹道进行的脉冲，其振荡通过具有长光程的反射探针激光器精确检测到，因此测量精度约为1％。该设备提供了快速可靠的测量结果，其中考虑到了通过改变摆锤上的目标材料而发生的质心和惯性矩的变化。烧蚀质量测量利用了专用目标的可编程位移，该目标被大量激光照射后可以提高测量的分辨率。用KrF准分子激光在248 nm波长和20 ns脉冲宽度对铝靶材上测试了该装置：提出了一系列可重复性很高的动量耦合系数（）测量值，其标准偏差约为1％，并给出了冲动 （），并与文献相符。