Chloe Dedic
University of Virginia
Vehicles entering a planetary atmosphere travel at hypersonic velocities, resulting in strong shock waves and highly reactive, high temperature gas near the vehicle surface. Such vehicles require a thermal protection system (TPS) to ensure the spacecraft survives atmospheric entry, but properly designing these systems requires knowledge of the reactive gas surrounding the vehicle. NASA uses ground-based test facilities to simulate this environment, but measuring the energy content and chemical species in the gas is challenging due to its high temperature and low density, the presence of shock waves, and the space- and time-varying behavior expected due to the reactivity of the gas. To meet these measurement requirements, we propose to develop an advanced, ultrafast laser-based measurement system for characterizing this high-enthalpy, reacting flowfield to help improve the design of future spacecraft TPS.