Flight Demonstration of Detonation Engine System Using Sounding Rocket S-520-31: Flight Path and Attitude

Abstract

A joint project team of Nagoya University, Keio University, Muroran Institute of Technology, and Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency developed Detonation Engine System (DES) toward an in-space flight demonstration on a sounding rocket S-520-31. The flight experiment was conducted and a detonation engine system (DES), which was equipped with an rotating detonation engine (RDE) and a pulse detonation engine (PDE), was launched at 5:30 a.m. (Japan standard time) on July 27, 2021, from the Uchinoura Space Center (USC) in Kagoshima, Japan. All of the operations of RDE and PDE were conducted above 100 km in altitude as it was planned. The RDE generated average thrust of 518 N in the direction of movement. In addition, the angular velocity around the axis of the movement of DES during the RDE operation was changed and the torque by the rotating detonation was confirmed. The PDE operation despined the rocket and the change in the angular velocity in the direction of the movement of DES for three runs were 23.2, 23.5 and 23.5 deg/s, respectively.