Sounding Rocket Research Articles

Modelling and Simulation of Suborbital Launcher for Testing

The purpose of this paper is to present some aspects regarding the computational model and technical solutions for multistage suborbital launcher for testing (SLT) used to test spatial equipment and scientific measurements. The computational model consists in numerical simulation of SLT evolution for different start conditions. The launcher model presented will be with six degrees of freedom (6DOF) and variable mass. The results analysed will be the flight parameters and ballistic performances. The discussions area will focus around the technical possibility to realize a small multi-stage launcher, by recycling military rocket motors. From technical point of view, the paper is focused on national project “Suborbital Launcher for Testing” (SLT), which is based on hybrid propulsion and control systems, obtained through an original design. Therefore, while classical suborbital sounding rockets are unguided and they use as propulsion solid fuel motor having an uncontrolled ballistic flight, SLT project is introducing a different approach, by proposing the creation of a guided suborbital launcher, which is basically a satellite launcher at a smaller scale, containing its main subsystems. This is why the project itself can be considered an intermediary step in the development of a wider range of launching systems based on hybrid propulsion technology, which may have a major impact in the future European launchers programs. SLT project, as it is shown in the title, has two major objectives: first, a short term objective, which consists in obtaining a suborbital launching system which will be able to go into service in a predictable period of time, and a long term objective that consists in the development and testing of some unconventional sub-systems which will be integrated later in the satellite launcher as a part of the European space program. This is why the technical content of the project must be carried out beyond the range of the existing suborbital vehicle programs towards the current technological necessities in the space field, especially the European one.

Mesosphere and lower thermosphere zonal wind variations over low latitudes: Relation to local stratospheric zonal winds and global circulation anomalies

AbstractLong‐term observations from medium‐frequency and meteor radars (1993–2012) and rocket soundings (1979–1990 and 2002–2007) are used to study mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) zonal wind variations in relation to the stratospheric winds over northern low latitudes. The combined data set provides a complete height profile of amplitude of semiannual oscillation (SAO) up to 100 km, with an exception around 75–80 km. The SAO signal has maxima around 50 km and 82 km and a minimum around 65 km. The MLT zonal winds show remarkable interannual variability during northern hemispheric spring equinox and much less during fall equinox. Zonal wind mesospheric spring equinox enhancements (MSEE) appear with a periodicity of 2–3 years, suggesting a modulation by the quasi‐biennial oscillation, which we identified with the strength of stratospheric westward winds. Out of 20 years of observations, the stratospheric westward winds are strong during 11 years (non‐MSEE) and weak during 9 years. Six of these 9 years show large MLT winds (MSEE), and 3 years (1999, 2004, and 2006) show small MLT winds (missing MSEE). These unexpected small winds occur in years with global circulation anomalies associated with strong sudden stratospheric warmings and an early spring transition of zonal winds. With the proposed three MSEE classes, we take into account local and global forcing factors.

Ground-based real-time auto commanding system for ISRO advanced technology vehicles

In general, space transportation systems are expendable, resulting in huge launch cost. To meet the future challenge of low-cost access to space, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) envisaged plans to develop systems that are recoverable and reusable, besides adopting effcient propulsion systems like air-breathing rockets. Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV) D01 is ISRO's new-generation high-performance sounding rocket vehicle offering a cost-effective test bed for demonstrating air-breathing propulsion. Experiments with scramjet technology testing are carried out at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. For this experiment, ATV-D01 is confgured as a two-stage, un-guided, spinning, fn-stabilized vehicle with two protruding passive scramjet engines.

A Sounding Rocket Payload to Test the Weak Equivalence Principle

A Sounding Rocket Payload to Test the Weak Equivalence Principle

A Model for the Sounding Rocket Measurement on an Ionospheric E-F Valley at the Hainan Low Latitude Station

To understand the physics of an ionospheric E-F valley, a new overlapping three-Chapman-layer model is developed to interpret the sounding rocket measurement in the morning (sunrise) on May 7, 2011 at the Hainan low latitude ionospheric observation station (19.5°N, 109.1°E). From our model, the valley width, depth and height are 43.0 km, 62.9% and 121.0 km, respectively. From the sounding rocket observation, the valley width, depth and height are 42.2 km, 47.0% and 123.5 km, respectively. The model results are well consistent with the sounding rocket observation. The observed E-F valley at Hainan station is very wide and deep, and rapid development of the photochemical process in the ionosphere should be the underlying reason.

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

A Sensitivity Investigation on the Aeroelastic Dynamic Stability of Slender Spinning Sounding Rockets

Resumen en: The present work addresses a sensitivity analysis investigation of the aeroelastic stability margins for the VSB-30 sounding rocket during the atmospheri...

Development of narrow linewidth, micro-integrated extended cavity diode lasers for quantum optics experiments in space

We present a micro-integrated extended cavity diode laser module for experiments on rubidium Bose–Einstein condensates and atom interferometry at 780.24 nm onboard a sounding rocket. The micro-integration concept is optimized for space application. The laser chip, micro-lenses, a volume holographic Bragg grating, micro-temperature sensors and a micro-thermoelectric cooler are integrated on an aluminium nitride ceramic micro-optical bench with a foot print of only 50 × 10 mm2. Moveable parts are omitted to allow for a very compact and robust design. The laser module provides an output power of more than 120 mW at a short term (170 μs) linewidth of 54 kHz, both full-width-at-half-maximum. The laser can be coarsely tuned by 44 GHz with a continuous tuning range of 31 GHz. The micro-integration technology presented here can be transferred to other wavelengths.

Study of Inkjet Printing as an Ultra-Low-Cost Antenna Prototyping Method and Its Application to Conformal Wraparound Antennas for Sounding Rocket Sub-Payload

Study of Inkjet Printing as an Ultra-Low-Cost Antenna Prototyping Method and Its Application to Conformal Wraparound Antennas for Sounding Rocket Sub-Payload

Towards ever smaller length scales

Determining the real scale of structures in the Sun's corona has proved difficult because of limited spatial resolution. Now high-resolution imaging has allowed dynamic structures on scales of 150 kilometres to be observed. See Letter p.501 The Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is millions of degrees hotter than its surface. The search for mechanisms capable of transferring energy from the Sun's interior to the periphery on such a scale has identified two strong candidates: wave heating is thought to heat the corona to 1.5 million K, and the reconnection and unravelling of magnetic braids has been proposed as the means of boosting the temperature towards 4 million K. New evidence to support that latter mechanism is provided by a five-minute series of images obtained by a high-resolution camera on-board a sounding rocket. The images reveal fine-scale braiding to a resolution of about 150 km in a coronal active region, and the images are consistent with energy production sufficient for the observed heating.

Comprehensive assessment of the accuracy of the data from near space meteorological rocket sounding

We use the data obtained from empirical forecast model and satellite remote sensing to analyze and assess the accuracy of the data obtained from first near space meteorological rocket sounding in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) in November 2004. Analysis shows that the data of empirical forecast model has great difference from meteorological rocket sounding data for the middle-upper stratosphere. Because the empirical forecast model has low spatial and temporal resolution, especially it lacks of the sounding data for the middle-upper stratosphere in China, the deviation between the data of meteorological rocket and the satellite data is obviouslly lower than the empirical forecast model gave. The deviation is caused by the systematic error between the two and the difference of time, latitude and longitude. Comprehensive comparison results show that the data of meteorological rocket is of high accuracy and credibility compared to the data of the empirical forecast model and satellite remote sensing. These data can be used to specify the probe’s results from other ways.

Structure and dynamics of the nightside poleward boundary: Sounding rocket and ground‐based observations of auroral electron precipitation in a rayed curtain

The Cascades2 auroral sounding rocket provides a case study for comparing multipoint in situ ionospheric observations of a nightside auroral poleward boundary intensification with ground‐based optical observations of the same event. Cascades2 was launched northward from Poker Flat Alaska on 20 March 2009 at 11:04 UT. The 13 min flight reached an apogee of 564 km over the northern coast of Alaska. The experiment included a five‐payload array of in situ instrumentation, ground cameras at three different points under the trajectory, multiple ground magnetometers, the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) radar, and the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft in the magnetotail. The rays of the poleward boundary intensification (PBI) curtain have along‐arc motions of 8.5 km/s and along‐arc spacings of 16 km. Modulated maximum energy envelopes and energy fluxes of the associated electron precipitation correspond to this spatial structure of the visible rays. The electron precipitation is additionally modulated at a higher frequency, and velocity dispersion analysis of these 8 Hz signatures implies Alfvénic wave‐particle acceleration of an ambient ionospheric electron source occurring a few hundred km above the observation point. These observations parameterize the curtain of Alfvénic activity above the PBI event, both in the dispersive ionosphere and in the magnetotail reconnection region. The along‐arc variations in brightness correspond to variations in precipitating electron energy flux interpreted as an along‐arc modulation of the maximum energy of the Alfvénic wave‐particle acceleration process; this is a new interpretation of the formation of rayed structures in auroral curtains. We consider the various possible magnetospheric and ionospheric drivers for the control of the observed along‐arc structuring and motions.

Dispersion Reduction for a Sounding Rocket Scramjet Flight Experiment

A low cost method for reducing the dispersion in the trajectory of an unguided, spinstabilized, sounding rocket is developed and presented. The method is particularly suited to scramjet flight experimentation because the approach increases the likelihood of meeting Mach number and dynamic pressure objectives. The paper discusses the design and model of the scramjet payload, and two-stage launch vehicle, and the nominal trajectory, as well as a Monte Carlo analysis to quantify the likelihood of a successful scramjet test. Using the results of this analysis, a method is presented for reducing the dispersion in freestream conditions during the scramjet test window. The dispersion reduction is accomplished by modifying the time delay between the burnout of the first stage booster and the ignition of the second stage based on the vehicle state measured during the interstage coast. This method increases the likelihood of a successful test from 71% to 99% without adversely affecting range safety. Since the design and implementation of a vehicle guided control system is not required, this method is relatively inexpensive, making its use highly desirable for low cost scramjet flight experimentation.

Dispersion Reduction for a Sounding Rocket Scramjet Flight Experiment

Covers advancements in spacecraft and tactical and strategic missile systems, including subsystem design and application, mission design and analysis, materials and structures, developments in space sciences, space processing and manufacturing, space operations, and applications of space technologies to other fields.

The Diffuse Interstellar Cloud Experiment: a high-resolution far-ultraviolet spectrograph

We have designed, assembled, and launched a sounding rocket payload to perform high-resolution far-ultraviolet spectroscopy. The instrument is functionally a Cassegrain telescope followed by a modified Rowland spectrograph. The spectrograph was designed to achieve a resolving power (R=λ/δλ) of 60,000 in a compact package by adding a magnifying secondary optic. This is enabled by using a holographically ruled grating to minimize aberrations induced by the second optic. We designed the instrument to observe two stars on opposing sides of a nearby hot/cold gas interface. Obtaining spectra of the O VI doublet in absorption toward these stars can provide new insight into the processes governing hot gas in the local interstellar medium. Here we present the optical design and alignment of the telescope and spectrograph, as well as flight results.

特集 宇宙導電テザーの伸展実験] 観測ロケットによる導電ベアテザーの作動と荷電粒子収集理論検証実験

The experiment of charged particle collection experiment by bare electrodynamic tape tether was performed by using JAXA's sounding rocket S-520-25 on August 31, 2010. This was the first experiment of bare tether in space in the world. This paper shows the outline of the experimental apparatus and the initial experimental results of the verification of bare electrodynamic tether operation and the charged particle collection theory. As experimental results, Valuable data of electron collection by the induced electromotive force and ion collection by a space potential probe in space were obtained, although charged particle collection data by tether and boom were not obtained by a trouble of high voltage power source.

Research of Image Compression Algorithm for Sounding Rocket

结合探空火箭图像系统需求, 提出了一种基于小波变换编码, 即基于MSPIHT的自适应差分算术编码(MSPIHT Adaptive Differential Arithmetic Coding for image, MADAC)的图像压缩算法. 该算法对经过量化编码之后的数据 进行熵编码. 实验结果表明, MADAC算法具备探空火箭图像系统所要求的分辨 率、帧速率及压缩率可调的功能, 且易于硬件实现.

Using a CCD for the direct detection of electrons in a low energy space plasma spectrometer

An E2V CCD64 back-illuminated, ion-implanted CCD (charge-coupled device) has been used as a direct electron imaging detector with CATS (Conceptual And Tiny Spectrometer), a highly miniaturised prototype plasma analyser head. This is in place of an MCP (microchannel plate) with a position sensing anode which would more conventionally be used as a detector in traditional low energy space plasma analyser instruments. The small size of CATS however makes it well matched to the size of the CCD, and the ion implants reduce the depth of the CCD backside electron potential well making it more sensitive to lower energy electrons than standard untreated silicon.Despite ionisation damage from prolonged exposure to excessively energetic electrons, the CCD has been able to detect electrons with energies above 500eV, at temperatures around room temperature. Using both a long integration ‘current measuring’ mode and a short integration `electron counting' mode it has been used to image the low energy electrons exiting the analyser, enhancing our understanding of the CATS electrostatic optics.The CCD has been selected as the detector for use with CATS for an instrument on a low-altitude student sounding rocket flight. Although it cannot detect the lowest energy electrons that an MCP can detect, and it is more sensitive to stray light, the low voltages required, the lack of vacuum requirements and its novelty and availability made it the most attractive candidate detector.

Feasibility Study and Demonstration of an Aluminum and Ice Solid Propellant

Aluminum-water reactions have been proposed and studied for several decades for underwater propulsion systems and applications requiring hydrogen generation. Aluminum and water have also been proposed as a frozen propellant, and there have been proposals for other refrigerated propellants that could be mixed, frozen in situ, and used as solid propellants. However, little work has been done to determine the feasibility of these concepts. With the recent availability of nanoscale aluminum, a simple binary formulation with water is now feasible. Nanosized aluminum has a lower ignition temperature than micron-sized aluminum particles, partly due to its high surface area, and burning times are much faster than micron aluminum. Frozen nanoscale aluminum and water mixtures are stable, as well as insensitive to electrostatic discharge, impact, and shock. Here we report a study of the feasibility of an nAl-ice propellant in small-scale rocket experiments. The focus here is not to develop an optimized propellant; however improved formulations are possible. Several static motor experiments have been conducted, including using a flight-weight casing. The flight weight casing was used in the first sounding rocket test of an aluminum-ice propellant, establishing a proof of concept for simple propellant mixtures making use of nanoscale particles.

特集 宇宙導電テザーの伸展実験] S520-25号機観測ロケット実験におけるベア導電テープテザー展開実験

特集 宇宙導電テザーの伸展実験] S520-25号機観測ロケット実験におけるベア導電テープテザー展開実験