Optical Tomograph based on Holographic Interferometry for Fluid Research on the International Space Station

摘要

A modular optical tomograph under construction at ALENIA AEROSPAZIO (Torino, ITALY) and funded by the European Space Agency (ESA/ESTEC) is designed to be allocated inside an Experiment Container (EC) of the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), a multi-user facility which is under development by the same prime contractor. The Optical Tomograph (OT) generating six exploring laser beams is planned to be operated together with the real-time double-exposure holographic interferometer of the FSL and will convert this instrument into a three-dimensional, non-invasive measurement tool for temperature or concentration fields within transparent media. An experiment on Marangoni-Benard convection, set-up by the University of Brussels-Microgravity Research Centre, has been selected as a model experiment to verify the measurement performance of such a tomograph. The modular instrument will not be limited to applications in the field of Marangoni convection, but will become a multi-user optical diagnostic tool covering a wide application range in fluid physics.