Fan Beam Emission Tomography Demonstrated Successfully in the Reduced-Gravity Environment of Drop Towers

摘要

Fires onboard manned spacecraft and launch vehicles are a particularly feared hazard because one cannot jump ship while in orbit 240 nmi above the Earth at 17 000 mph Understanding the physical properties of fires in free fall and on orbit is, therefore, a very important endeavor for NASA s Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) enterprise. However, detailed information concerning the structure of microgravity fires remained elusive until recently since robustness, limited power, limited volume, and limited mass place severe constraints on diagnostic equipment for use in space and in NASA Glenn Research Center s reduced-gravity facilities. Under NASA Research Associate funding since 2001, En'Urga, Inc. (Dr. Sivathanu, principal investigator, and Dr. Lim, co-investigator) in collaboration with Glenn (Dr. Feikema, coinvestigator) have successfully demonstrated a new technology for use in microgravity combustion. A midinfrared scanning spectrometer has been developed by En'Urga and tested at Glenn to measure 30 spectra per second at different spatial locations in a flame from 1.8 to 4.8 microns.