Temperature dependent performance of Schmidt–Boelter heat flux sensors

The total heat flux sensors for NASA’s Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) sensor suite on the Mars 2020 vehicle and the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) technology demonstration mission are passively cooled Schmidt–Boelter gauges. The output of these sensors has been experimentally demonstrated to be dependent on the temperature of the sensing element. The experimental results are shown to align with a model that assumes temperature-dependent material properties, specifically the Seebeck coefficient. The MEDLI2 and LOFTID flight total heat flux sensors did not undergo a full thermal calibration prior to being installed on the flight vehicles since the temperature dependence was unknown ahead of time. Additionally, the material properties are not known due to the designs being proprietary. For these reasons, an approximate correction factor was derived. The applicability and associated uncertainty of this temperature-dependent correction factor are presented. The error that would be introduced into the measurement if temperature effects were not accounted for would be as high as 9.5% and 16% for the MEDLI2 and LOFTID total heat flux sensors, respectively. As a best practice for future flight missions and ground-based applications that employ similar passively cooled heat flux sensors, it is recommended to individually calibrate each sensor across all applicable use temperatures to account for sensor-to-sensor variations and minimize measurement uncertainty.