Hypersonic Flight Deflection Measurement System

Current SoA for deflection measurement in hypersonic vehicles is to infer deflections from temperature data and/or limited point measurements of strain (OGA programs), or from acceleration data (X-51). These methods have significant uncertainty.​ NASA AFRC has extensive history with camera-based flight deflection measurement systems (AAW, HiMAT, YF-12) up to Mach 2.52. This history is not well-understood by current flight programs.​ Packaging improvements and processing improvements in modern electronics will allow a similar architecture to be packaged in a small form factor even when ruggedized for hypersonic flight. Recent aero-optic characterization work performed for hypersonic seeker windows can be leveraged to increase the operating envelope of the architecture​

This project seeks to perform a laboratory demonstration of a reliable method for making deflection measurements on a hypersonic vehicle, generating data to inform a white paper for advocacy for infusion in NASA and/or DoD flight programs​

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.