Global Thermography of the Space Shuttle During Hypersonic Re-entry

Three dimensional surface thermography of the windward side of the Space Shuttle based on near infrared measurements is presented for STS-119, STS-125, STS-128, STS-132 and STS-133 reentries. A method used to project 2-D imagery to 3-D surface geometry is used to improve on previously used iterative method both in accuracy and in computational speed. Effects of material dependent surface spectral emissivities, image blurring and image-model alignment are all seen to have strong effects on the resultant temperature map. Results indicate best surface temperature accuracies in regions of small thermal gradients. Acronyms

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