The University of Queensland's $1.5 million HyShot program is counting down to its Woomera launch in October with final flight reviews and testing of all components.
The international HyShot program involves the world's first flight tests of a scramjet using supersonic combustion. The flight has been rescheduled to October 23, with a repeat experiment with a second rocket on October 30.
"Our payloads are ready to go, but some partners are fulfilling additional requirements," said project leader Dr Allan Paull of UQ's Centre for Hypersonics.
The international focus is now firmly back on HyShot following the unexpected mishap on June 2 to the first flight in NASA's Phase 1, Hyper-X, X-43 $185 million scramjet mission.
The NASA flight was lost moments after the X-43A and its Pegasus booster rocket were released from the wing of a B-52 carrier aircraft. The combined booster and X-43A deviated from the flight path and were then deliberately terminated with an explosive charge off the coast of California.
Dr Paull said that it was unfortunate that this had occurred, but it served to demonstrate "how close to our technological limit we really are".
The first NASA flight was to be at Mach 7, seven times the speed of sound, with subsequent flights at higher speeds. The UQ HyShot scramjet engine is expected to undertake their experiment at Mach 7.6 - 7.6 times the speed of sound, or 2.4km a second.
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 providing information to use the range.
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.
HyShot International Program Coordinator Dr Susan Anderson said the team expected to complete the final flight reviews this week, with structural and environmental testing 90 percent complete.
"All components in the 113kg payload have been individually tested in a vacuum in the University's T4 shock tunnel, to simulate the vacuum of space. We are re-assembling for further testing. Other testing will include spin balancing and calibration of the fuel valve," she said.
Dr Anderson said the researchers planned to take the payloads with them to prepare for the two launches, uniting them with the Terrior Orion rockets on site. There will be a six hour count down, which will take into account many factors, including wind weighting, equipment checks, and arming of the rocket. During the 10 minute flight, HyShot would reach an altitude of more than 300km before 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.
"We'll be collecting data the whole time during the 10 minute launch, so it's not imperative that we recover the payload. However, as scientists, we would like to see how the payload fared," Dr Anderson said.
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 QinetiQ, formerly known as DERA, (the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency). Otherwise, they will reserve both tests for the simpler UQ experiments. The UQ HyShot team includes Dr Paull (Project Leader), Dr Hans Alesi (Chief Engineer), Dr Anderson (International Program Coordinator), PhD student Judy Odam (Software Design), masters student Myles Frost (ground testing), Neil Griffith, Rob Low, (Mechanical Workshop), Barry Allsop, and John Peters (Electrical Workshop). Dr Paull's 73-year-old father Bert is also assisting with wiring problems on the project.
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.
The project uses the expertise of consortium partners such as"
- U.S. firms Astrotech Space Operations and GASL,
- QinetiQ,
- NASA Langley Research Center,
-The DSTO (Defence Science and Technology, Organisation),
- Seoul National University,
- the DLR (German Aerospace Center),
- NAL (National Aerospace lab. Japan),
- AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory, 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.
Media contacts: 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:
o DSTO Mark Bateup phone 08 8259 7348 mark.bateup@dsto.defence.gov.au
o Astrotech Morgan Windsor ph 301 982 7876 mwindsor@astrotechspace.com
o QINETIQ Dr Terry Cain ph 44 1252 395423, tcain@dera.gov.uk
o NASA Dr Randy Voland r.t.voland@larc.nasa.gov
o DLR Walter Beck ph 49-551-709 2470/2315 walter.beck@dlr.de
The HyShot news release web site is: https://www.uq.edu.au/news/hyshot HyShot pix are available at: http://photos.cc.uq.edu.au/HYSHOT/
