Robust Highly-Multiplexed Fiber Optic Sensor Array for Cryogenic Fluid Management

In response to NASA’s requirements for a distributed temperature measurement system for cryogenic fluid management (Cryogenic Fluid Management), Opterro proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of a scalable high-resolution temperature measurement system that can accurately measure temperature at multiple locations on a single optical fiber at least 1 meter long at cryogenic temperatures. Innovation is in the combination of features including interrogation and sensor array having ruggedness, reliability, sufficient number of sensors, high spatial resolution, high sensitivity, and excellent measurement repeatability in the cryogenic temperature range to meet the Cryogenic Fluid Management needs. In Phase I, Opterro will demonstrate an end-to-end fiber-optic cryogenic temperature measurement system comprising a photonic-integrated-circuit (PIC) based interrogator and a meter-long temperature measurement fiber with better than centimeter-scale spatial resolution and 0.5 K temperature measurement resolution down to liquid hydrogen temperature (20 K). Opterro will leverage its previous spectrally-multiplexed multipoint temperature sensing work, performed in cryomodules for the particle accelerator community, and translate the learnings and results to high-TRL application for NASA and commercial Cryogenic Fluid Management applications.

The proposed multipoint temperature measurement technology and end-to-end sensing solution will find application in Cryogenic Fluid Management systems vital to NASA's exploration plans for multiple architectures, whether hydrogen/oxygen or methane/oxygen systems, including chemical propulsion and nuclear thermal propulsion. Following possible demonstration in NASA’s Large Integrated Cryogenic Fluid Management demonstration, missions that could benefit include but are not limited to upper stages, ascent, and descent stages, refueling elements or aggregation stages, nuclear thermal propulsion, and in-situ resource utilization. A key example is Moon2Mars including cis-lunar transportation, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) especially propellant liquefaction systems and surface systems operation. Interest for cryogenic propulsion systems is nearing an all-time high across both the government and industry in both space and terrestrial applications (i.e., hydrogen aircraft). For both liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen/liquid methane systems, distributed temperature measurement will find application in Cryogenic Fluid Management systems required to store propellant for multiple years in various orbital environments for the growing private-sector access-to-space industry. Besides private-sector and public-private sector variants of the above NASA applications and earth-based propellant storage and transport, distributed cryogenic temperature measurement has important application for superconducting systems including superconducting magnets for particle accelerators, magnetically confined fusion energy systems, and MRI. The proposed work can also benefit sensing in extreme terrestrial conditions such as Antarctica.

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.

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