QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

SCRAMSPACE!

Safe, economical and environmentally responsible access to space is one of the major technological challenges of the 21st century for all nations due to the dependence of the global economy on assured and secure access to space-based services. Actually getting there remains the single biggest impediment to humankind’s use of space for communications, positioning and timing, remote sensing, space science and so on. The most promising way to meet this challenge is to extend aeronautical technology to hyper sonic vehicles powered, at least partially, by supersonic combustion air breathing engines (scramjets). Scramjets can be combined with rockets to produce a more fuel-efficient hybrid launch system. They represent the cutting-edge of several disciplines and sectors.

Hypersonics is the study of flight at speeds greater than approximately five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5. It includes aerodynamics, propulsion, high temperature materials, and the coupling between them. Australia and Germany are world leaders in hypersonics, and have enjoyed a close research relationship in the field stretching back several decades. Australia’s present focus is to study, on the ground and in flight, the science and technology related to scramjet-powered vehicles designed for Mach 8 and above. The ultimate aim is to develop mature scramjets that can operate at very high Mach numbers, to accelerate a vehicle to the speed required to leave the earth’s atmosphere. No scramjet designs have been flight tested at these extreme speeds before now. The gap cannot be easily closed in one leap, and a stepping-stone approach is required. Left: The SCRAMSPACE team and scramjet half-scale rapid prototype.The project has enabled a flight team of 10 talented scientists and engineers to assemble at UQ, supported by the research of a further 13 PhD and post-doctoral students. Image courtesy UQ Below: Russell Boyce at work in the DLR shock tunnel in Göttingen, and (main background) an impression of SCRAMSPACE1 on the edge of space. Images courtesy of Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)

Dr Judith Reinhard and her team are a step closer to unlocking the mysteries of disorders like schizophrenia and autism – through peering into the brains of bees.

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