System Design and Launch of a Hybrid Rocket with a Star-Fractal Swirl Fuel Grain Toward an Altitude of 15 km

Abstract

To achieve low-cost and on-demand launches of microsatellites, the authors have been researching and developing a micro hybrid rocket since 2014. In 2018, a ballistic launch experiment was performed using the developed hybrid rocket, where it reached an altitude of about 6.2 km. The rocket engine had a 3D-printed solid fuel grain made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin in combination with a nitrous oxide oxidizer. The fuel grain port had a star-fractal swirl geometry in order to increase the surface area of the port, to promote the laminar–turbulent transition by increasing the friction resistance, and to give a swirling velocity component to the oxidizer flow. This overcame the hybrid rocket’s drawback of a low fuel regression rate; i.e., it achieved a higher fuel gas generation rate compared with a classical port geometry. In 2021, the hybrid rocket engine was scaled up, and its total impulse was increased to over 50 kNs; it reached an altitude of 15 km. In addition to the engine, other components were also improved, such as through the incorporation of lightweight structures, low-shock separation devices, a high-reliability telemetry device, and a data logger, while keeping costs low. The rocket was launched and reached an altitude of about 10.1 km, which broke the previous Japanese altitude record of 8.3 km for hybrid rockets. This presentation will report on the developed components from the viewpoint of system design and the results of the ballistic launch experiments.