Reusable Sounding Rocket Research Articles

Preliminary design of a liquid propellant engine for a reusable sounding rocket

Sounding rocket (or Roket Sonda in Indonesian), is a type of rocket that carries instruments to conduct some scientific experiments in suborbital altitudes. Since the use of sounding rockets is constantly increased, there has been an idea to make it reusable. The development of a reusable sounding rockets should includes at least six key technologies, which from those, the development of a proper liquid propellant engine, which thrust can be intermittently controlled, is mandatory. This paper aims to contribute in Indonesia’s own reusable sounding rocket (RSR) development, by presenting an example of preliminary calculation for its liquid-propellant engine. To achieve the intended launch/flight profile to a targeted 120 km maximum altitude, and return safely to the ground, several design parameter is chosen, including the total mass of propellant for the powered ascent and descent that need to be at least 8700 kg, with the mass rate of 60 kg/s, producing 189 kN force. The force is produced by four nozzles to also provide control, where the exit area can be determined to be 0.164 m2. Finally, from these values, a rough estimation of the geometry of the reusable sounding rocket can be determined.

ARION 1 Reusable Sounding Rocket: The New Microgravity Platform in Europe

During Q2 of 2019, the European sounding rocket, ARION 1 will have its maiden flight. ARION 1, a liquid-propelled sounding rocket that is being developed by PLD Space, will lift off from the launch facilities in the South of Spain, concretely in Huelva. PLD Space, a Spanish start-up company established in 2011, has focused during the last years on the development of liquid-propulsion rocket engines that will power their rockets. After having tested successfully the first reusable rocket engine in their facilities at the airport of Teruel, PLD Space is concentrating its efforts on finalizing the entire ARION 1 sounding rocket. ARION 1, the first-ever reusable sounding rocket in Europe, will be able to provide around 4 min of microgravity conditions after reaching an apogee of 150 km in a nominal mission. This sounding rocket will have the capability of carrying up to 100 kg of payload, exposing scientific and technological payloads to low accelerations due to the liquid-propulsion technologies. With this paper, PLD SPACE wants to introduce the ARION 1 reusable sounding rocket, its capabilities as well as the advantages of a liquid-propelled-based sounding rocket with respect to other traditional solid-based sounding rockets. ARION 1 aims to be the sounding rocket reference in Europe, providing an affordable, flexible and simple microgravity platform to industry, space agencies, research centres and academia.

Reusable Rocket Engine: Firing Tests and Lifetime Analysis of Combustion Chamber

The main engine of the reusable sounding rocket has been developed at the Kakuda Space Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. A total of 54 engine firing experiments were conducted between June 2014 and February 2015. Throughout these experiments, the advanced capabilities and functions of this engine, such as wide-range throttling, accurate controllability, and health monitoring, were proved to be feasible. This rocket was also required to be reusable for over 100 flights. To confirm the long-life durability of this engine for over 100 flights in a limited experiment period, sequential multiple-firing tests were planned and conducted. Numerical analysis to evaluate damage of the main chamber due to firings was also conducted. The results of the durability tests and numerical analysis showed reuse of this engine for over 100 flights to be feasible.

Winged Test Rocket with Fully Autonomous Guidance and Control for Realizing Reusable Suborbital Vehicle

This paper presents the strategic development plan of winged rockets WIRES (WInged REusable Sounding rocket) aiming at unmanned suborbital winged rocket for demonstrating future fully reusable space transportation technologies, such as aerodynamics, Navigation, Guidance and Control (NGC), composite structure, propulsion system, and cryogenic tanks etc., by universities in collaboration with government and industries, as well as the past and current flight test results. Keywords—Autonomous guidance and control, reusable rocket, space transportation system, suborbital vehicle, winged rocket.

High-resolution X-ray CT Image Analysis Technology for the Deformation of the Main Combustion Chamber for Reusable Sounding Rocket Engines

High-resolution X-ray CT Image Analysis Technology for the Deformation of the Main Combustion Chamber for Reusable Sounding Rocket Engines

Development of Main Propulsion System for Reusable Sounding Rocket: Design Considerations and Technology Demonstration

Development of Main Propulsion System for Reusable Sounding Rocket: Design Considerations and Technology Demonstration

CAMUIハイブリッドロケットによる小型ロケット実験市場の創出

Small-scale reusable sounding rocket system is under development to provide means of stratosphere observation and three-minutes microgravity experiment. The propulsion system is a hybrid type that uses solid fuel (plastics) and liquid oxygen as propellants and free from explosives, resulting in the dramatically reduced launch cost. To enhance the burning rate of the solid fuel and to augment the thrust, the rocket has employed a new fuel grain design. This new design, named CAMUI as an abbreviation of "Cascaded Multistage Impinging-jet", allows mixing and combustion to occur around stagnation points on fuel surfaces. Successful launch experiments using a 50-kgf CAMUI engine have proved the feasibility of the basic idea of the system. Finally, possible configurations of the stratosphere observation vehicle and the microgravity test vehicle are presented.