The $1.25 million University of Queensland Hyshot project has passed its latest test by successfully blowing its nose.
In multiple ground tests at UQ's Centre for Hypersonics in Brisbane, researchers made the rocket nose cone eject to expose its payload - the fastest air-breathing engine ever built.
The Hyshot scramjet engine is expected to push along a Terrior Orion rocket at Mach 7.6 - 7.6 times the speed of sound, or 2.4km a second - during a flight experiment at Woomera on August 13, with a repeat experiment with a second rocket on August 20.
This is a mite faster than the more sophisticated $400 million NASA X-43 scramjet test plane experiment also scheduled to fly this year. X-43 is estimated to fly at Mach 7 or 2.2 km/sec.
Scramjets are air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet engines. They are set to revolutionise the launch of small space payloads, such as communications satellites, by substantially lowering costs.
The HyShot Program will help underscore Australia's position at the forefront of hypersonic technological research. If successful, it will open the door to a new way of flight testing.
Project leader Dr Allan Paull said a nose cone eject design provided by NASA had proved unsuitable because it used pyrotechnics - gunpowder - to dislodge the nose.
"However, this posed an unacceptable risk for ground tests on the UQ campus and didn't offer us the ability to do multiple tests," he said.
"So we developed a new system which uses compressed gas to fire off the nose cone, much like popping off a champagne cork."
Dr Paull said Hyshot would reach an altitude of more than 300km before separating from the Terrior Orion rocket and plunging back to earth.
The experiment will be conducted during the atmospheric re-entry phase of the flight. The nose cone must eject to expose the scramjet because on the downward flight path, about 35km above the earth, the scramjet will activate, sending back data during a small window of opportunity of about five seconds before crashing to ground.
It is hoped the experiment will validate information already captured in the University's T4 ground shock tunnel, one of the few facilities on earth capable of conducting ground based scramjet experiments for flight Mach numbers of the order of 8 or higher. Australia's first professor of space engineering, Emeritus Professor Ray Stalker, upgraded T4 for the project.
If the experiment works first time, the UQ researchers will use the second test flight to take measurements on a more complicated engine which has been proposed by DERA, (the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency). Otherwise, they will reserve both tests for the simpler UQ experiments.
Dr Paull said Hyshot had already passed severe shaking and endurance stress testing at BAE systems in Salisbury, near Adelaide. It returned to BAE May 14 to 16 to undergo thermal cycling tests. Both HyShot payloads were placed in a thermal chamber and for three days and survived 6 temperature cycles ranging from -24 degrees C to +61degrees C.
From now on the researchers will work to complete the software programs running the computer on board, and finalise paperwork for both their experiments and potentially also for the DERA work. There will be a final flight readiness review involving all concerned parties approximately one month prior to launch.
The UQ Hyshot team includes Dr Allan Paull (Project Leader), Dr Hans Alesi (Chief Engineer), Dr Susan Anderson (International Program Coordinator), PhD
student Judy Odam (Software Design), masters student Myles Frost (Ground testing), Neil Griffith, Neil Duncan, Rob Low, Kyle Hall (Mechanical Workshop), Barry Allsop, and John Peters (Electrical Workshop). Dr Paull's 73-year-old father Bert, a retired chief engineer for Birch Carroll and Coyle cinema chain has come out of retirement to assist with wiring problems on the project.
ARC research fellow in the Centre for Hypersonics Dr Russell Boyce has performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations to support the experiment on the scramjet intake and exhaust, crunching numbers through a UQ supercomputer. CFD has the advantage of highlighting potential problems before flight tests are conducted. A number of fourth year mechanical and space engineering students completed theoretical work on the nosecone eject system using a dummy test rig.
The two rockets which will carry the scramjets have arrived in Australia and are currently stored at Woomera. This was achieved after Astrotech Space Operations secured export licences. The assistance of the Australian Embassy in Washington was required to get the rocket motors on a suitable boat to transport them to Australia. They will be fitted with the prototype scramjets on site at Woomera.
The project uses the expertise of consortium partners such as:
- U.S. firms Astrotech Space Operations and GASL,
- DERA,
- NASA Langley Research Center,
- The DSTO (Defence Science and Technology, Organisation),
- Seoul National University,
- the DLR (German Aerospace Center),
- NAL (National Aerospace lab. Japan),
- AFOSR (Air Force Office of Scientific Research, USA), and
- Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI).
Australian firms, Alesi Technologies, NQEA, AECA, Luxfer Australia.
BAE Systems Australia assists by providing operational and logistic support. Funding has also been secured from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, the Australian Research Council and assistance and support from the Ministry of Defence.
Command of the trials will be relinquished to ARDU (Aircraft Research and Development Unit, Australian Defence) during the course of the one month campaign at Woomera. They will be providing the expertise to run such a complex campaign as well as the personnel to operate equipment vital to the campaign's success. In addition, DSCW (Defence Corporate Support, Woomera) who control the Woomera range, have provided the opportunities to liaise with Aboriginal and pastoral interests and have provided much needed support in these areas.
Media contact:
Dr Allan Paull, telephone 07 3365 3783, email:
allan@mech.uq.edu.au, Dr Susan Anderson, telephone 07 3365 3581, email: anderson@mech.uq.edu.au, or Jan King, UQ Communications, telephone 07 3365 1120/0413 601 248.
Additional contact details:
DSTO Mark Bateup phone 08 8259 7348 mark.bateup@dsto.defence.gov.au
Astrotech Morgan Windsor ph 301 982 7876 mwindsor@astrotechspace.com
DERA Dr Terry Cain ph 44 1252 395423, tcain@dera.gov.uk
NASA Dr Randy Voland r.t.voland@larc.nasa.gov
DLR Walter Beck ph 49-551-709 2470/2315 walter.beck@dlr.de
Pic 10.jpg of Dr Allan Paull and project chief engineer Hans Alesi at the
nose cone eject test is in the Hyshot ftp site: http://photos.cc.uq.edu.au/HYSHOT/
