Survey of optical diagnosis dedicated to fluid physics and materials science

Abstract The evolution of scientific requirements to improve knowledge and understanding of sophisticated phenomena occurring during microgravity experiences leads to implement a new generation of hardware with more than classical instrumentation such as temperature or pressure measurement; optical diagnosis for in situ characterization is the unavoidable answer to this problem. However, there are many ways to “observe” one experiment, and optical specifications are so different among the great panel of microgravity experiments. This paper deals with a survey, performed by CNES, for identifying each unique optical system with respect to each optical diagnosis selected to satisfy experimental scenarios such as crystal growth, directional solidification, fluid physics and physical chemistry. The survey pointed out the needs of high resolution video data links and “real time holography”. A new generation of advanced technology was raised from this study, especially the use of photorefractive crystals and polymer resins for hologram recordings. Such optical diagnosis will be implemented in a new multi-user facility (CHEOPS) developed by CNES for the next Columbus Orbital Facility.