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| Rocketing to the future |
| Shall we head to Hawaii for the weekend? Or pop to Paris, just for the night? The University of Queensland and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) aren’t packing their bags just yet, but they’re confident they’ll soon be blasting around at ten times the speed of sound, or a massive 11 000 kilometres an hour. They’re working on scramjet engines, short for Supersonic Combustion Ramjet engines. These engines breathe air, sucking their oxygen fuel from the atmosphere as they fly. This makes them lighter, faster, and a cheaper way to launch satellites and other space payloads. Already, in tests performed at Woomera in South Australia, HyShot rockets fitted with scramjet related experiments have been clocked at around 8000 kilometres an hour. Scramjet technology has also been tested in ground tests at Kakuda (Japan), and in the University of Queensland’s T4 shock tunnel in Brisbane (Australia). ‘We have chosen to work with the HyShot team at The University of Queensland because we believe this offers us the best chance for success’, says Dr Katsuhiro Itoh of JAXA’s High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel Team. ‘The HyShot team is technically very experienced, and well known for their success in ground and flight testing’. So keep your toothbrush handy, and your eyes to the skies. The next launch is scheduled for November 2005. Contact in Australia: Professor Allan Paull, Centre for Hypersonics, University of Queensland Email: allan@mech.eq.edu.au Website: http://www.mech.uq.edu.au/hyper/hyshot/ Ph: +61 7 3327 0218 Fax: +61 7 3327 0299 Contact in Japan: Katsuhiro Ito, Space Propulsion Research Center, Institute of Space Technology and Aeronautics, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Email: ito.katsuhiro@jaxa.jp Website: http://www.jaxa.jp/index_j.html Ph: +81-2-2468-4799 Fax: +81-2-2468-3900 |
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