University of Queensland postgraduate students Judy Odam and Myles Frost can claim to having one of the fastest-moving fields of study in the world.
Judy, 23, and Myles, 28, are members of an international team testing hypersonic scramjets at Woomera in South Australia. A successful launch of these vehicles could provide the next gateway to space.
Scramjets are air-breathing engines that work at hypersonic speeds. Hypersonics is the study of velocities of Mach number five (five times the speed of sound) or more.
First proposed in the Fifties and Sixties, they have never been tested in actual flight. A NASA flight test earlier this year ended in mishap, so the international scientific community is watching the Australian tests with great interest.
The Australian tests this month will be very fast, at almost Mach 7.6, or 7.6 times the speed of sound. They will not be measured in kilometres per hour, but kilometres per second.
Judy is undertaking a PhD, and Myles, a Master of Engineering Science in UQ’s Centre for Hypersonics. They are working side by side with an international team including scientists from Australia, Korea, Japan, the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Judy and Myles have been interested in space ships and rockets since they were small children. Myles said it was important that people considering University study should chose fields in which they were really interested, which made study fun.
"If you’re considering studies such as the Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical and Space) at UQ you should do Maths and Science subjects at school to keep your options open," Judy said.
"The exciting thing about this project is that younger engineers and scientists are getting a chance to learn first-hand from more experienced colleagues about the technical points of launching rockets. This guarantees that these skills will be passed on to the next generation for a strong future in the space industry."
Myles, who is developing the computer code to take radar data to predict the rocket trajectory, is also responsible for the safe operation of UQ’s T4 ground test facility.
"I can highly recommend studies at UQ’s Centre for Hypersonics," he said.
"There’s no other students in the world who have the range of opportunities offered by the Centre. This is the largest group of hypersonics researchers in Australia and the largest University-based hypersonics group in the world."
The group includes five academics, four research fellows, three research assistants, 20 research students and 100 undergraduate students in Space Engineering. It has close links and collaborative programs with other researchers in Australia and overseas.
For further information, visit www.studyatuq.net
