Measurements of Atmospheric Radiation on Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and AircrafT at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

Measurements of Atmospheric Radiation on Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and AircrafT at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

MARS UAV AT AFRC

 

Scott Wiley¹, W. Kent Tobiska², Dave Bouwer², Justin Bailey², Leonid Didkovsky², Kevin Judge², Seth Wieman², William Atwell², Brad Gersey³, Richard Wilkins³, Stephen Bacon³, Albion Bowers⁴, Ed Teets⁴, Bryn Jones⁵, Geoff Crowley⁶, Irfan Azeem⁶, Antti Pulkkinen⁷, Tom Conroy⁸, Derek Abramson¹, and Robert Jensen¹

¹Jacobs, Inc. at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center,   ²Space Environment Technologies, 1676 Palisades Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, ³Prairie View A&M University, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center,   ⁵SolarMetrics, ⁶ASTRA, ⁷NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,   ⁸Far West Technology, Inc

Space weather measurements from aircraft at AFRC started during the 1990s with the ER-2. The primary concern was science, and the secondary was flight crew radiation dosing. In 2009, high altitude and high latitude flights in Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs) raised concerns about neutron flux impacting avionics and electronics that could cause Single Event Effects (SEEs) leading to serious impacts to flight missions. AFRC sought out space weather Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and asked for recommendations regarding impacts at aviation altitudes. This included defining limitations on flight during space weather events, Return To Base (RTB) criteria for aircraft, and route and altitude changes  to minimize radiation of AFRC’s fleet of aircraft, avionics and flight crew. A loaned Far West HAWK Tissue Equivalent Particle Counter (TEPC) dosimeter from SolarMetrics was provided to AFRC to measure actual human radiation dosing in flight. Concerns over size, weight, radiation calibrations sources, and securing the HAWK made integration into aircraft challenging. Efforts continued in flying the HAWK on AFRC aircraft, but it was first flown on the Reduced Gravity Flight Program, Zero G aircraft, and G-Force One (B727) in 2012. There we were running a side-by-side comparison both in flight and a proton beam with Prairie View A&M University’s HAWK dosimeter at the Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration (CRESSE).  AFRC requirements for space weather included: a real-time cockpit display, data distribution to the ground, linking avionics and electronics failures to the radiation environment, and measuring human dosing. In 2012, Space Environment Technologies (SET) developed instruments that measured the atmospheric radiation environment at aviation altitudes under a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) agreement and sought to piggyback SET’s Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) Flight Module (FM) 1 on AFRC aircraft. The feasibility to develop an ARMAS FM3 specifically for the ER-2 was agreed upon, and Honeywell expressed interest in flying ThermalIzed Neutron MeAsuremeNt Experiment (TinMan) thermal neutron detector simultaneously. NASA AFRC Center Innovation Fund proposal for 2014 was awarded to progress on this idea through Upper-atmospheric Space and Earth Weather eXperiment (USEWX). USEWX instrumentation has flown on AFRC C-20 (military G-III) and Stratospheric Observatory for Infra-red Astronomy (SOFIA, a B-747SP). ARMAS FM7 has been proposed for use in a small Unmanned Arial Vehicle (sUAV) called the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (PRANDTL-M). The Weather Hazard Alert and Awareness Technology Radiation Radiosonde (WHAATRR) Glider proposal plans on using this platform or another High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAV. The WHAATRR Glider aspires to produce a replacement for radiosondes with the ability to RTB, be reused, take routine atmospheric and radiation soundings. Other sought-after capabilities are to fly into, over and around weather hazards to develop a pilot decision-making tool for in-flight use. Data will be presented from the platforms flying. Future goals and project expansions will be discussed for both USEWX and WHAATRR Glider. USEWX has been applying for payload space through the NASA Flight Opportunities on rocketsondes, high altitude balloons, and sub-orbital flights. Other platforms such as CubeSat’s and the International Space Station have been discussed with our partners that have access to those assets.