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