Australian Space Research Institute
Encyclopedia
The Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) came about in the early 1990s as the result of a merger between the AUSROC Launch Vehicle Development Group at Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....

 in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 and the Australian Space Engineering Research Association (ASERA).

The institute is a non-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. Most of the work at ASRI is done in collaboration with Australian universities such as the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....

, Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...

 and the University of Technology, Sydney
University of Technology, Sydney
The University of Technology Sydney is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1981, although its origins trace back to the 1870s. UTS is notable for its central location as the only university with its main campuses within the Sydney CBD...

. , ASRI is developing a vision for the future of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

's space community, including industry. ASRI does not receive any direct government funding.

The ASRI was created to provide opportunities for space-related industry and technology development for the Australian technical communinity.

History of space activities in Australia

During the heyday of rocketry research in the 1960s Australia was the seventh nation to launch a satellite, WRESAT
WRESAT
WRESAT was the name of the first Australian satellite. It was named after its designer....

, into orbit, and the third from its own soil.

The joint British-Australian Blue Streak
Blue Streak missile
The Blue Streak missile was a British medium range ballistic missile . The Operational Requirement for the missile was issued in 1955 and the design was complete by 1957...

program to develop Intercontinental ballistic missile
Intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...

s ended in the late 1960s.

Around the same time the European Launcher Development Organisation
European Launcher Development Organisation
The European Launcher Development Organisation was a multinational consortium formed in the 1960s to build an indigenous European space launch vehicle, Europa....

 (ELDO) was established to develop a European satellite launch vehicle. Woomera, Australia, was chosen as the launch site for the test vehicles. Australia was granted status as the only non-European member of ELDO (one of the precursors to the European Space Agency) in return for providing the launch facilities. A series of successful launches was conducted from 1964 to 1970 with the aim of reaching orbit and eventually orbiting an operational satellite. The final launch attempt of ELDO's Europa 1 launch vehicle took place at Woomera on 12 June 1970 however the satellite failed to reach orbit. No successful satellite launch was ever achieved by the ELDO and European satellite launch activities then shifted to the French site at Kourou
Kourou
Kourou is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America.Kourou is the location of the Guiana Space Centre, France and ESA's main spaceport.-Geography:...

, in French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

, which is now home to Ariane
Ariane (rocket)
Ariane is a series of a European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne....

 launchers.

Since then Australian space-related activities have been virtually nonexistent. The goal of the ASRI is to re-establish Australia as a significant player in the global space industry.

Sounding Rockets

The Small Sounding Rocket
Sounding rocket
A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

 Program (SSRP), initiated in the mid-1990s, provides Australian educational institutions with a low cost payload
Cargo
Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

 launch service. The service has expanded to include to individuals, companies, foreign universities and non-commercial organisations seeking assistance to launch their own vehicles.

Launches are conducted twice a year from Woomera, South Australia
Woomera, South Australia
The town, or village, of Woomera is located in the south east corner of the Woomera Prohibited Area ; colloquially known as the Woomera Rocket Range...

. Two types of rockets are used:
  • Sighter, a solid fuel rocket
    Solid rocket
    A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket engine that uses solid propellants . The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used by the Chinese in warfare as early as the 13th century and later by the Mongols, Arabs, and Indians.All rockets used some form of...

     capable of launching a 3 kg payload to an altitude of 5.9 km at speeds over Mach 1
    Mach number
    Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any other fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions, including those of temperature and pressure...

    , and
  • Zuni, a solid fuel rocket
    Solid rocket
    A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket engine that uses solid propellants . The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used by the Chinese in warfare as early as the 13th century and later by the Mongols, Arabs, and Indians.All rockets used some form of...

     capable of launching a heavier payload to an altitude of approximately 7 km, and reaching speeds of Mach 2.5.

Launch vehicle development

The aim of the Ausroc program is to develop a micro-satellite launch vehicle capable of being scaled up for use in heavier launch vehicles

Ausroc I

This stage of the program was complete with the launch of a hypergolic liquid fuelled acid-alcohol rocket in 1989.

Ausroc II

Ausroc 2 was a larger pressure fed kerosene-oxygen bipropellant rocket that was developed in the 1990s. It was designed to reach an altitude of 10 km. The first attempt at launching an AUSROC II suffered a spectacular failure on the launch pad in 1992. The subsequent rocket, named AUSROC II-2 was successfully launched in 1995 from Woomera, although it did not reach its target apogee due to pressurisation problems with the LOX tank.

Ausroc 2.5

Ausroc 2.5 is designed to provide an intermediate step between the Ausroc II and III programs. It uses the same size engine as the Ausroc III but with simpler and easier to implement cooling methods. The primary objective is to deliver a 10 kg payload to an altitude of 20 km and recover the rocket intact.

Ausroc 2.5 is the principal subject of current developments efforts. It is currently projected to launch in late 2007. Prior to that, a key milestone will be the ground testing of the propulsion subsystem.

The project is currently seeking volunteers to assist with manufacturing, integration and testing.

Ausroc III

Ausroc III is designed to launch a payload of 150 kg to an altitude of 500 km. It is a sounding rocket
Sounding rocket
A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

 that will incorporate active guidance for “live” steering, and a steerable parachute recovery system

Ausroc IV

Ausroc IV is the final stage of the Ausroc program and would consist of five Ausroc IIIs, four for the first stage and one for the second stage.

Ausroc IV is intended to place a small satellite (up to 35 kg) into a Low Earth Orbit.

Satellites

The discontinued Australis Microsatellite program aimed to develop a low-cost, autonomous satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 that could be used for a variety of applications such as low Earth orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

 communications, remote sensing and small scale science experiments.

JAESAT (Joint Australian Engineering Satellite) is a collaboration between ASRI, the Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems, the Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...

 and Ukrainian Youth Aerospace Association, Suzirya, that began in 1997. The project was put on hold in 2000 when CRCSS withdrew funds due to cost and schedule over-runs with a joint American-Australian venture, FedSat
FedSat
FedSat is an Australian scientific research satellite launched from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan by a NASDA H-IIA launch vehicle in December 2002...

.

Hypersonics

The hypersonics project, currently on hold is a joint effort between ASRI and the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

 to develop a free-flight scramjet
Scramjet
A scramjet is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow...

engine.

External links

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