NASA NTRS2024
This NASA Technical Memorandum summarizes windowpane optical analyses for the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security Regolith Explorer) mission [1] supported by the SCIFLI (Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery) team [2] at NASA Langley Research Center (NASA LaRC). The SCIFLI team led a NASA multi-center team in characterization of fused silica (FS) and anti-reflective coated (AR-coated) sapphire materials for use as aircraft windowpanes. These materials were needed for the Hypervelocity OSIRIS-REx Reentry Imaging & Spectroscopy (HORIS) mission and were tested to generate performance parameters relevant to the flight environment. Some of the assessed parameters included optical quality, transmittance, reflectance, color balance, birefringence, transmitted wavefront error, wedge, and haziness of the windows. In order to evaluate the material characteristics in a uniform manner, several criteria were held constant. For example, the physical dimensions of the test articles were held constant (i.e., 17-inch diameter aircraft windowpane and 2-inch diameter witness samples). In this way, the comparison of test results from one material specimen to another was invariant with regard to the manner in which the tests were conducted. This also reduced the variability in how the data were reported. As a result, the results shown in this report, including test data generated by NASA can be used for windowpane material evaluation and future material design trades. Window designers can use the data and the testing method along with the testing matrices to efficiently match material performance to their design and mission objectives and requirements. Standardized testing methodologies and data reduction procedures are described in this report. Unless otherwise noted in the data itself, all the windowpane materials were tested in order to characterize their performance for the HORIS mission. One appendix has been included in this report. These include detailed wavefront interferograms of transmitted wavefront error and optical wedge used in the generation of aggregated material performance.