Superfluid helium tanker instrumentation

Author

Woodhouse, C.E. ; Kashani, A. ; Lukemire, A.T.

Author_Institution

NASA/Goddard Space flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

1989

fDate

25-27 Apr 1989

Firstpage

372

Lastpage

376

Abstract

An instrumentation system for a 1992 Space Shuttle flight demonstration of superfluid-helium tanker and transfer technology is presented. The system measures helium temperatures, pressures, flow rates and mass and the amount of liquid or vapor present. It consists of analog and digital portions which provide a fault-tolerant, compact, relatively lightweight, space-qualified electronics system. The data-processing hardware and software are ground-commandable, perform measurements asynchronously, and format telemetry for transmission to the ground. A novel heat-pulse mass gaging technique is described, and a new liquid/vapor sensor is presented. Flowmeters for superfluid helium are discussed, and the superfluid helium fountain effect pump is described. Results of tests to date are presented

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; computerised instrumentation; flow measurement; low-temperature techniques; mass measurement; pressure measurement; superfluid helium-4; telemetering systems; temperature measurement; SHOOT; data-processing hardware; flow rates; fountain effect pump; heat-pulse mass gaging; liquid/vapor sensor; low temperature techniques; mass; pressures; software; space-qualified electronics; superfluid ⁴He; tanker instrumentation; telemetry; temperatures; transfer technology; Fault tolerant systems; Fluid flow measurement; Hardware; Helium; Instruments; Land surface temperature; Software performance; Space shuttles; Space technology; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 1989. IMTC-89. Conference Record., 6th IEEE

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IMTC.1989.36888

Filename

36888