Australia had selected many of the wrong space projects for funding in the past, and needed to get back on track for the future if it was to compete successfully in a global sense.
The University of Queensland's first professor of space engineering Emeritus Professor Ray Stalker gave this message to Science Minister Peter McGauran who visited the University's Mechanical Engineering Department's space engineering group on May 1 (1997).
Professor Stalker said Australia would benefit if the Government supported projects such as scramjets which could economically launch small payloads, rather than projects that became viable only with large payloads.
He said Australia had been unable to get into space successfully because as a medium-sized and isolated country it could generate only smaller payloads.
'While the Europeans might put up a satellite weighing 10 tonnes we can only afford a satellite with a one-tonne payload to serve the same function,' he said.
'In aeroplanes, there is very little difference in cost per passenger in flying a 20-passenger aircraft and a 150-passenger vehicle.
'However, in space launches, the cost of launching is about the square root of the payload to be launched. That means that if you have a payload weight which is one-ninth the size of a European satellite, the launch cost is not one-ninth, but one-third - so we are paying more to launch smaller payloads.
'If we can use scramjets as launch vehicles then this ratio no longer applies because the costs are more like those of an aeroplane and the cost of launching smaller payloads becomes viable.'
University of Queensland researchers led by Professor Stalker have been researching scramjets, or hypersonic airbreathing vehicles, since 1980 and are world leaders in the field.
Professor Stalker, Dr David Mee and Dr Allan Paull of the University's Mechanical Engineering Department in 1993 were the first in the world to demonstrate that a scramjet-powered vehicle could produce enough thrust to fly.
In the past 10 years Professor Stalker and Dr Peter Jacobs have developed working scramjet engine shapes which have been tested in the University's 25 metre T4 shock tunnel, the only facility in the world capable of testing a complete model of a scramjet at the high velocities needed to launch vehicles to fly into space.
Professor Stalker has been instrumental in the design and manufacture of free piston shock tunnels - now known throughout the world as 'Stalker tubes' - since the 1960s. His shock tunnel design work, developed through the WBM Stalker company, has earned about $10 million in export income for Australia.
He said while it was good that American, German, French and Japanese groups were prospering from Australian space science and technological breakthroughs, it was important that Australia did not miss out on these benefits. Australia had a narrow international lead in scramjet and shock tunnel research which it would lose without continued Government support.
Professor Stalker retired in 1994 but is still actively involved in the Mechanical Engineering Department's space engineering research program, which includes 10 staff and research fellows, and 20 postgraduates.
Researchers in the group are currently developing sophisticated methods of measuring the performance of test vehicles, an important step towards measuring performance of satellite launchers, which no other research group in the world can currently achieve.
For further information, contact Professor Stalker, telephone 07 3365 3598 or Dr Allan Paull telephone 07 3365 3783.
