← Back to NASA Technology Projects
Completed
Determine feasibility of using the sky as a background for background oriented schlieren (BOS) type visualizations. Current flight test synthetic schlieren techniques, specifically BOS, work very well but have limitations. AirBOS is currently only downward looking but can get very close and excellent detail. BOSCO using the sun can get good side and wide angle views but is limited to 0.5° (sun disk size), so can't get very close. Potential result is being able to view shock waves, and other phenomena, close up at any angle and field of view desired. We plan on using the shock lab that was setup to test the plasma arc shock attenuation technique to test various optics and sensors feasibility for detecting some shock characteristic, back lighting for using shadowgraphy, and determine if low textured backgrounds are possible (to mimic daytime sky with some distant clouds for instance). For the potential of using the night sky we procured a low light relatively high speed camera and lens. We need to do additional testing to determine if enough background detail can be resolved in the time the high-speed target passes through the field. Promising techniques will be developed and advocated for flight demonstration.
If successful, this would make flight test schlieren much more valuable for X-59 and other high speed flight tests at AFRC, for NASA and also for others such as AFFTC and Navy flight tests
Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.
This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.
None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.