Ablation and Temperature Solutions for Hypersonic Vehicles

Luna’s novel sensing system will quantify in-flight TPS performance that will enable the development of next generation hypersonic vehicles. Current sensor technology with the ability to capture critical TPS material information, including surface temperatures and ablation data, is currently limited to laboratory testing. Luna’s approach is composed of a high temperature fiber optic and millimeter-wavelength radar sensors that leverage Luna’s core optics technologies. The sensing solution will be capable of measuring surface temperature and recession of Carbon-Carbon composite (C-C) structures. Both sensors have independent technical advantages and can be merged into the same physical volume to increase overall measurement accuracies. During Phase I, Luna will demonstrate the feasibility of the sensing system through laboratory testing with TPS material samples and develop a block-level design of a flight-ready data acquisition system. During Phase II, the team will refine the sensor integration into TPS materials and create a prototype for ground testing in a hypersonic vehicle. During Phase III, the technology will be transitioned to the field for flight and acceptance testing.