Mobile Diagnostic Laboratory Measurements of the Transient Scattering Characteristics of a NASA Shuttle Booster Separation Motor Plume

Field-level RCS measurements are difficult to perform in rugged, unimproved environments, even under the best of conditions. Recently, NASA tasked AFRL to measure the scattering characteristics of a solid rocket booster (SRB) booster separation motor (BSM) plume at China Lake\´s "Skytop" measurement facility, as part of characterizations needed to return the shuttle to safe flight. AFRL\´s Mobile Diagnostic Laboratory (MDL) was used to measure the RCS of six sequential booster separation motor plume firings, a major technical challenge since each burn lasts only 0.8 s. The residual smoke plume RCS was also measured during the post-firing period. The experimental setup and scattering results are described