News

2024::
High Speed Measurements of Velocity, Temperature, and Water Content in Hypersonic Flows

NASA has funded Southwest Sciences for a Phase I SBIR project to develop a high-speed, non-intrusive analyzer to measure velocity, pressure, temperature, and water content across a variety of the large-diameter NASA hypersonic wind tunnels. This diagnostic uses diode laser absorption spectroscopy where intelligent modifications to prior methods and the use of improved electronics and processing will permit time responses exceeding 10 kHz rates.

2024:
Instrumentation for Greenhouse Gas Flux Measurements

Southwest Sciences has recently received Phase IIB SBIR funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue development of an open path laser-based spectroscopic analyzer for fast (0.1 second) measurement of nitrous oxide concentrations. This instrumentation is used in eddy covariance measurement of fluxes of this important greenhouse gas. Prototype instruments are currently placed at two field sites operated by collaborating researchers at the University of Illinois and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. These instruments have a power requirement of only 3 W and can be configured for simultaneous measurements of N2O and H2O. At the end of Phase IIB, the goal is a proven instrument design that is ready for commercialization.

2023-2024:
Environmental Gas Analyzer for the International Space Station (ISS)

Southwest Sciences is currently constructing a portable tunable laser spectrometer (PTLS) for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  This compact gas analyzer measures the ambient concentrations of carbon dioxide, water vapor and oxygen over a wide range of temperatures and pressures.  It is expected to be deployed for testing on the ISS in 2025.  This handheld unit is only 8 x 8 x 13 cm in size with a mass of 700 g.  Using only 2.5 W of power, it provides real time readouts, wireless transmission and data storage.

2022-2023:
Environmental Sensing on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

We recently delivered three compact gas analyzers to the EPA (hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide, and methane), designed to make airborne environmental measurements on their UAS quadcopter. These sensors are 21×8×8 cm in size, weigh 780 g and use 1.2 W of power.  The system includes an SD card for data storage, GPS tracking and serial communications.  Contact: Joel Silver.

2019-2023:
Mass Capture Sensor for Hypersonic Engine Testing

In collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH, Southwest Sciences built and delivered a portable mass capture sensor for measuring static temperature T and flow velocity u in vitiated hypersonic test facilities.   This device measures the Doppler shifts and line shapes of molecular oxygen in the expansion region of the flow to find T and u.  The advantage of oxygen is that it can be used in non-vitiated flows, where heated ambient air better simulates the operation of these instruments at real, high altitude conditions.

2020-2024:
SWS Partners with Southwest Research Institute to Develop Instruments Under NASA Funded Space Science Programs

Southwest Sciences is partnering with Southwest Research Institute to develop planetary research instrumentation under NASA’s MatISSE and DALI programs. These projects involve development and maturation of a widely tunable infrared spectrometer based on multiple external cavity QCL lasers. Southwest Sciences is providing optical design and optical subsystems to these efforts as well as developing data reduction algorithms.