Test Facilities

Find out about our Experimental Facilities for testing Space Propulsion Technologies

Chemical & Nuclear Propulsion

Electric Propulsion

SPL @ Bruno Guerrini Laboratory

Laboratorio B. Guerrini (ex Scalbatraio) · Via di Torretta, 56128 Pisa PI, Italy

The Bruno Guerrini Laboratory is a shared research facility of the University of Pisa. It is located just outside the city, in the middle of the natural reserve of San Rossore. It hosts numerous experimental research activities, from nuclear to mechanical and aerospace engineering.

It houses test stands for cryogenic methane journal bearing assessments for reusable turbopumps, monopropellant and bipropellant thrusters, catalyst decomposition testing and nuclear thermal propulsion with ammonia

DICI Laboratory

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Industriale - Sede di Aerospaziale ⋅ Via Girolamo Caruso, 8, 56122 Pisa PI

The Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering (home of the Aerospace Engineering programmes), located near the city center, is an academic and research hub supporting advanced education and research in aerospace systems, structures, fluid dynamics, and propulsion.

It hosts laboratories and computational facilities for aerodynamics and CFD, flight mechanics and control, aerospace structures and materials, and space systems engineering, providing an integrated environment for both fundamental research and educational activities.

BART Cryogenic Test Facility

BART test facility is designed to subcool liquid methane to 100 K using liquid nitrogen, throttling supply pressure and pressurize without contamination. Cryogenic feed lines are thermally insulated form the environment.

The rotating shaft is driven by an electric motor that can spin up to 20.000 rpm. Numerous sensors monitor the position and forces during the test.

A control room enables remote operation of the test benches, as well as real-time data acquisition from sensors (temperature, pressure, forces)

EPL-VF1

Fiberglass cylindrical chamber (Ø 800 mm, length 1000 mm, extendable to 1500 mm), equipped with Balzers DIFF500 diffusive pump (with a nominal pumping speed of 11000 l/S). Designed for low-power electric thrusters, hollow cathodes, and green propellant devices. Low electromagnetic interference environment.

EPL-VF2

Stainless-steel chamber (Ø 400 mm, length 1000 mm) with ISO-standard flanges, electrical feedthroughs, and thermocouples. Pumping system with Agilent DS602 primary pump and Agilent VHS-250 diffusion pump. Pressure monitoring via Pirani and wide-range gauges. Mobile aluminum-frame structure.

Chemical Propulsion Test Facility

The SPL team is working towards the realization of a versatile chemical propulsion test facility. Our propulsion systems will be tested here in order to gather experimental data on their performance, efficiency and combustion stability.

Artistic render of SPL Chemical propulsion test facility

EPL-VF3

The chamber features an AISI 304 stainless steel vessel with internal dimensions of 1 m in diameter and 2 m in length. The vacuum system is based on turbomolecular pumping, providing a nominal pumping speed of 6000 l/s, with the option to upgrade up to 28,000 l/s through the integration of cryopumps. A future upgrade including a water-cooled beam dump is also foreseen to support high-power EP testing.

EPL-VF4

Glass chamber (Ø 125 mm, height 260 mm). Edwards T-Station T300 with XDD1 oil-free diaphragm pump and nEXT T300 turbomolecular pump (down to 10⁻⁵ mbar). Wide-range pressure gauge. Used for thermal testing, thermionic emission, and outgassing experiments.

EPL-VF5

Pyrex vacuum chamber, (Ø 100 mm, height 5000 mm), equipped with a rotary pump. The chamber is particularly suitable to perform plasma discharges for educational purposes.