RESEARCH IMPACT

DISCOVER ENGAGE IMPACT

NEED FOR SPEED

UQ scientists are taking giant leaps for mankind in hypersonic flight research. And while travelling between Sydney and London in two hours may be off in the horizon, rumblings about UQ’s plans for small satellite launches using scramjet engines are being felt across the globe.

… Three, two, one. We have lift-off! “We’ve worked on scramjet engines at UQ “There’s a real commercial opportunity, and for more than 20 years, and we’ve developed that’s where a scramjet can be more cost-

them to the point where they can be used in effective than a rocket because it can be used Sixty years after the world’s first satellite was a space-launch system.” many times over. launched into space, those words continue to excite and intrigue those wondering what Professor Smart says all current satellites “UQ has developed the SPARTAN small else is out there. are launched by a rocket, but once launch satellite launcher concept to do just that.” systems have travelled their designated The space age officially began on 4 October trajectory, they drop away and fall into the 1957, when the then-Soviet Union launched ROCKET SCIENCE ocean. the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. This space UQ’s Centre for Hypersonics was formally craft lasted just three months in orbit before “A scramjet is like a plane. When it has established in 1997 by the Departments of burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. accelerated to its maximum velocity, the Mechanical Engineering (now the School upper-stage rocket carrying the satellite Now, hundreds of satellites are launched of Mechanical and Mining Engineering) and blasts off its back, and the scramjet simply across the globe each year. But the rockets Physics (now the School of Mathematics and turns around and flies back to base. We can that detach after launching the satellites are Physics). then re-fuel and launch it again.” often unable to be used again. It has become widely recognised as the Professor Smart says there’s an opportunity That’s where UQ comes in. leading university-based research group for UQ to leverage its world-leading scramjet in the field of hypersonics and has active Scientists at the University’s Centre for technology for commercial use. collaborations with international universities Hypersonics have been conducting research “A lot of profitable companies have and research groups, including those in into all aspects of hypersonic flight for more developed businesses using small satellites, France, Germany, Belgium, the United than 20 years. that is satellites weighing less than about Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and India. While there is no quick and easy way of 200 kilograms. But the problem for these The Centre’s areas of expertise lie in the launching satellites into space, Professor businesses is that there is no ‘dedicated development of test facilities based on shock- Michael Smart from UQ’s School of launch’ capability for small satellites,” he says. wave generations (shock tunnels, expansion Mechanical and Mining Engineering believes “They have to do what’s called a ‘tag along’, tunnels, light-gas guns, blast generators), a reusable scramjet launcher could reduce where their satellite is sent into orbit as scramjet propulsion (experiment, analysis and launch costs and improve launch-date part of a bigger launch, and they are simply design), and rocket-launched flight testing. flexibility. tossed out the side on the way up. They are The Centre also conducts research on “A scramjet is a supersonic combustion also constrained to the schedule of the main aerothermodynamic experimentation and engine that uses oxygen from the launch customer. It’s very frustrating. analysis, advanced instrumentation for atmosphere, making it lighter and more fuel- “We’d like to provide them with a dedicated aerodynamic measurements, computational efficient than rockets,” says Professor Smart. launch. We’d launch a couple of small fluid dynamic analysis of high-speed transient “The advantage of that is you could fly long satellites for a particular company – quickly and steady flows, and optical diagnostics for distances over the Earth very, very quickly, and in exactly the right spot – and later when hypervelocity superorbital flows. but it’s also useful as an alternative to a rocket that satellite reaches its end-of-life and is de- In May 2016, Professor Smart and other UQ for launching satellites into space.” orbited, we’d do it again for them. researchers were part of an international team that successfully launched a hypersonic internationally. These tests started in 2006 test flight from the Woomera Test Range in at speeds of Mach 8, and culminated with THE STORY SO FAR: South Australia. tests at speeds of Mach 12 in 2013. 1975: Australia’s first professor of space The experimental rocket, called HiFiRE 5B, hit Without the ability to recreate the exact engineering, Emeritus Professor Ray Stalker, targeted speeds of Mach 7.5 (9200km/h) and velocity, temperature and pressure of joins UQ from Australian National University reached a height of 278 kilometres above the hypersonic flight in the laboratory, UQ would 1988: The T4 Free-piston Driven Shock Tunnel earth. not be the world leader in scramjet research is commissioned at UQ that it is today. Researchers from UQ, the Defence Science and Technology Group of Australia, the US Air 1995: The first scramjet to provide positive Force Research Laboratory, and Boeing were REACHING NEW HEIGHTS thrust is reported after a test is conducted involved in the flight as part of the HiFiRE in the T4 shock tunnel. The X2 Super-Orbital Hypersonic flight has the potential to Expansion Tube is commissioned at UQ (Hypersonic International Flight Research provide immense social and economic Experimentation) Program. benefits and could revolutionise global air 1997: The HyShot Flight Program begins. Professor Smart says HiFiRE 5B is one of travel, such as flying from Sydney to London The program is an experiment designed 10 experimental flights that are part of (17,000 kilometres) in just two hours. to determine the accuracy of pressure the international collaboration which is measurements made of supersonic Flying over long distances at hypersonic investigating the physical phenomenon of combustion in the T4 shock tunnel compared speed (Mach 5 and above) requires a to those observed in flight flying at hypersonic speed – or faster than supersonic-combustion ramjet, or scramjet five times the speed of sound. More test engine. 2001: The X3 Free-piston Driven Expansion launches are scheduled for later this year. Tube is commissioned at UQ Instead of the rotating compressor and “The knowledge gained from these turbine in a jet engine, air is compressed experiments will be applied to develop 2002: HyShot 2 is launched and is the first by a system of shockwaves as it enters the future flight vehicles and the development scramjet flight test that produces supersonic scramjet. Once compressed, fuel must mix combustion of advanced air-breathing hypersonic and burn with the very high speed air that propulsion engines, like scramjets.” passes through the engine. The most difficult 2006: HyShot 3 and 4 are launched. Defence aspect of this is to complete the ‘supersonic Science and Technology Organisation’s applied HYPERSONIC FLOW IN THE LAB combustion’ within a short distance. hypersonics group forms with researchers from the UQ HyShot flight team. The first test of a The jewel in the crown of scramjet research at While the idea of flying between Sydney and three-dimensional scramjet is conducted at UQ UQ is the T4 Free-Piston Driven Shock Tunnel London in two hours is appealing, Professor (T4 Shock Tunnel). Smart admits the reality is still a long way off. 2007: The joint Australian/US HIFiRE Program commences. The program investigates the It was developed by Australia’s first professor “The use of hypersonic technology in science of hypersonics technology and its of space engineering, Emeritus Professor Ray commercial flights is more difficult than using potential for next-generation aeronautical Stalker, and with it scientists at the Centre a scramjet to launch small satellites,” he says. systems for Hypersonics can re-create the exact “The limitation of a scramjet is that you can’t conditions of hypersonic flight high in the sky. take off from the runway with it. 2009: HIFiRE 0, the first flight of HIFiRE Program is launched There have been more than 12,000 “It requires a means to reach speeds of Mach shots in the T4 Shock Tunnel since it was 5, and the easiest thing to do is to use a 2012: Professor Michael Smart receives an commissioned in 1988, and numerous rocket ... but not many people would want to ICAS award for International Co-operation in institutions have copied its design. So much fly from Sydney to London via rocket. Aerospace as part of the HIFiRE team so that this type of facility is now known internationally as a ‘Stalker Tube’. “Flying people internationally at 2013: A Mach 12 scramjet is tested in T4 shock hypersonic speed requires the tunnel The experiments have ranged from combination of a scramjet with a jet fundamental studies of how combustion engine in some way. The aircraft could 2014: The SPARTAN small satellite launcher is occurs in supersonic flows, to the first ever take off with a jet engine and then switch conceived scramjet that produced positive thrust in 1995. over to a scramjet engine, but that’s The HyShot research project, which actually more complicated than the space 2015: HIFiRE 7 is flown with two UQ-designed three-dimensional scramjets from the Andoya demonstrated the possibility of supersonic application.” Space Center in Norway at speeds of Mach 8 combustion under flight conditions, was also conducted in the T4 Shock Tunnel. uq.edu.au/research/impact: 2016: HiFiRE 5B, hits targeted speeds of Mach The scramjet engine that flew on HyShot 7.5 (9200kmph) and reaches a height of 278 2 was the first ever to produce supersonic Contact details: kilometres from earth, after it is launched from combustion in flight. the Woomera Test Range in South Australia

More recently, the T4 Shock Tunnel has Name: Professor Michael Smart 2017: Centre for Hypersonics Director been used to test state-of-the-art three- Email: [email protected] Professor Richard Morgan receives the dimensional scramjet engines for SPARTAN, Phone: +61 7 336 53783 American Institute of Aeronautics and a project designed to deliver satellites Web: hypersonics.mechmining.uq.edu.au, Astronautics (AIAA) Hypersonic Systems and weighing up to 250 kilograms into orbit and mechmining.uq.edu.au Technologies Award allowing them to be monitored nationally or CRICOS PROVIDER NUMBER: 00025B