Non-Intrusive Aerodynamic State Sensing for Hypersonic Flight Control

Hypersonic flight conditions are greatly affected by incoming air state so it is critical to understand incoming air properties to adequately control vehicles under the extreme pressures and temperatures associated with hypersonic flight. Hypersonic vehicle flight envelopes cover a wide range of flight conditions proving challenging to encompass measurements with a single sensing technology. It is necessary to fuse sensor locations at various points on a vehicle and develop control algorithms which utilize this collected data along with reference databases to determine an accurate representation of vehicle state across required flight envelopes. As stated in the solicitation for this topic,ĀōThus far, researchers have not identified a single technology capable of producing sufficient accuracy, precision, and bandwidth across the entire flight envelope of a hypersonic weapon, especially for weapons that cover subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic conditions in a single flight.ö Our team seeks to provide robust solutions to this technical challenge and bring a product to market which can benefit current and future hypersonic flight vehicles with more accurate state information across vehicle flight envelopes. Our technical team is comprised of GoHypersonic Inc. (GHI), a small-business concern with extensive expertise in hypersonic vehicle design, analysis, production, and testing, and Dr. Stephen Whitmore of Utah State University (USU), a subject matter expert in Flush Air Data Sensing (FADS) system development with over 40 years of technical expertise in relevant fields. The GHI team has been responsible for multiple hypersonic vehicle detailed design efforts including several programs which have scheduled flight tests planned to execute in 2023-2025. Previously, Dr. Whitmore was a Co-developer of the Flush airdata system for the Space Shuttle and was the technical lead for the reentry airdata system for the Sierra Nevada Space System's Dream Chaser Spacecraft. This team is pleased to propose an approach which will seek to fill the gaps identified above and will focus on conceptual FADS System development, including the flow theory, measurement technology, and estimation algorithms required to accurately and precisely produce the aerodynamic state of a hypersonic vehicle at rates sufficient for flight control.Ā The proposed Phase I program is broken into base and option efforts. The Phase I base effort will establish a FADS system development approach that can be adapted to multiple flight vehicles and produce a conceptual system with subscale experimental test data. The Phase I option will explore the benefits of implementing the conceptual FADS system implementation into notional vehicle control laws. The option effort will also focus on understanding the impacts on vehicle mission performance from implementing the conceptual FADS system into notional vehicle control laws via simulated atmospheric fluctuations, sensor dynamics and accuracy.