The preliminary feasibility of remote high-resolution infrared imagery of the space shuttle orbiter lower surface during entry to obtain accurate measurements of aerodynamic heat transfer to that vehicle was examined. In general, it was determined that such such images can be taken from an existing aircraft/telescope system (the C-141 AIRO) with a minimum modification or addition of systems using available technology. These images will have a spatial resolution of about 0.3 m and a temperature resolution much better than 2.5 percent. The data from these images will be at conditions and at a scale not reproducible in ground based facilities and should aid in the reduction of the prudent factors of safety required to account for phenomenological uncertainties on the thermal protection system design. Principal phenomena to be observed include laminar heating, boundary-layer transition, turbulent heating, surface catalysis, and flow separation and reattachment.
Preliminary Analysis of Remote Infrared Imagery of Shuttle During Entry: An Aerothermodynamic Flight Experiment
1977
30 pages
Report
No indication
English
Recent Aerothermodynamic Flight Measurements During Shuttle Orbiter Re-Entry
Online Contents | 1996
|Remote infrared imagery of shuttle during entry
Tema Archive | 1979
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