Multispectral imaging of a space shuttle primary reaction control system firing

A series of three-second firings of Space Shuttle Orbiter's 870-lbf Primary Reaction Control System thruster motors were photographed from the crew cabin with an intensified video camera. The spectral imager sequentially recorded 4 ms exposures at 30 Hz in six 20 to 30 nm FWHM channels centered from 400 to 800 nm, chosen specifically to study bi- propellant (monomethyl hydrazine fuel/nitrogen dioxide oxidizer) thruster exhaust chemistry. The species producing the visible radiance were earlier identified as CN, CH, C 2 , NO 2 , and HNO; the electronic bands originating from the same excited states of CN (B-X) and CH (A-X) extend into the near UV. Images of the vacuum core viewing within a few degrees of perpendicular to the first several meters from the exit plane were analyzed to relate the spatial distribution of exhaust product species and afterburning chemistry to a flowfield-kinetics model. Profiles of radiance transverse to the exhaust symmetry-axis show substantial limb brightening in all six channels, indicating that the distribution of the radiating species corresponds to a `zone'-type model of liquid-fuel film-cooled engine performance. Profiles of band radiance along the axis indicate the production and quenching of excited species as the exhaust gas adiabatically expands and cools.