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Hybrid Experimental Rocket Stuttgart: A Low-Cost Technology Demonstrator
Hybrid Experimental Rocket Stuttgart: A Low-Cost Technology Demonstrator
maximum airspeed of 720 m∕s and Mach 2.3. The rocket performed a soft landing with two parachutes and can be
reused. Flight data and engine performance data are published and analyzed. The flight data show excellent stability
of the rocket. Engine performance data prove very high efficiency and stable combustion. The subsystem design and
verification before the launch is reported. Engine and flight trajectory simulations show very good agreement with the
flight data. Furthermore, the overall project, rocket design, and subsystems, as well as the launch campaign,
are presented here in detail.
I. Introduction engine with a paraffin-based fuel and liquid N2 O as oxidizer. More than
150 hot-fire tests have been performed in the HyEnD project so far. The
H YBRID engine development (HyEnD) is a student-based project
located at the University of Stuttgart, founded in 2006. In the years
from 2006 to 2012, HyEnD focused on developing its own hybrid rocket
design of the HEROS hybrid sounding rocket is presented in detail
herein. A lot of improvements were made to the design of the different
subsystems during the development of the MIRAS demonstrator, which
engines in different scales from 250 to 2000 N thrust [1]. In 2012,
were applied to the HEROS rocket design until the end of the second
the project Studentische Experimentalraketen (student experimental
year. At that time, HyEnD also passed the critical design review. The
rockets) STERN was initiated by DLR, German Aerospace Center review board included experts from DLR Mobile Rocket Base, DLR
(DLR) and HyEnD applied for it with the Institute of Space Systems. Space Agency, and DLR Institute of Space Propulsion. Six reviews
The experience and knowledge of HyEnD in developing and testing were passed in total during the project. In early 2015, the MIRAS
hybrid rocket engines was the foundation to develop, construct, and demonstrator rocket was launched successfully, proving that the
build its own experimental hybrid sounding rocket within the STERN baseline concept is working. In the summer of 2015, a second flight of
project. MIRAS was done before the launch campaign of HEROS 1 in October
In September 2012, the rocket development began, starting from 2015. All HEROS flights took place at the European Space and
scratch. The previous experience with hybrid rocket engines was the Sounding Rocket Range (ESRANGE) near Kiruna, Sweden. A project
basis for the project. Within the first year, the concept of the rocket timeline is given in Table 1. The first launch of HEROS 1 in October
Hybrid Experimental Rocket Stuttgart (HEROS) was developed. 2015 ended prematurely due to combustion instability and a
Simultaneously, a smaller demonstrator rocket, Micro-Rakete burnthrough of the combustion chamber. Low temperature N2 O was the
Stuttgart (MIRAS), was initiated to test all subsystems in a smaller cause of the failure. However, a project extension for one year for a
scale before the launch of HEROS in 2015. HEROS was targeted to failure analysis was granted. After the successful failure analysis review,
have a thrust of 10 kN and to reach an altitude of more than 20 km. A it was decided to build and launch the slightly improved rockets HEROS
smaller scale was applied for MIRAS, which reaches altitudes of 2 and 3. Next to the engine, more improvements were made with an
around 2 km with a 500 N engine. This allows test flights of the rocket advanced onboard measurement system and a new telemetry (TM)
on German launch sites. Both MIRAS and HEROS use a hybrid rocket system and power control unit [2].
Table 1 Timeline of the HyEnD-STERN project at University of have also been performed, with the exception of SpaceShipOne,
Stuttgart mostly with problems [26]. Recent efforts from NASA Ames
Date Event Research Group, Stanford University, and the Space Propulsion
Group, Inc. (SPG) were aimed at developing the Peregrine sounding
June 2006 Foundation of HyEnD
rocket in a joint program. It uses a hybrid rocket engine with N2 O and
July 2008 First hybrid rocket engine test campaign
Sept. 2012 Beginning of STERN project funding a paraffin-based fuel to launch a 5 kg payload to an altitude of more
Sept. 2013 Beginning of MIRAS 500 N engine test campaign than 100 km. The development of the engine was challenging
Dec. 2013 Preliminary design review due to the occurrence of low-frequency instabilities based on feed
Nov. 2014 Beginning of HyRES 10000 N engine test campaign system coupling and acoustic instabilities [27]. The low-frequency
Nov. 2014 Critical design review instabilities were partially related to the injection conditions of the
Feb. 2015 First launch of MIRAS N2 O, especially its vapor pressure [28]. The latest tests showed stable
May 2015 Integration progress review operation at high efficiency. In the last years, SPG developed a high-
Aug. 2015 Second MIRAS launch performance hybrid rocket engine with LOX and paraffin-based fuels
Sept. 2015 Rocket acceptance review
Oct. 2015 Flight readiness review
as propellants [29]. Its application was proposed as an upper stage
Oct. 2015 HEROS 1 launch engine with an extrapolated vacuum specific impulse of 340 s. The
Nov. 2015 Postflight analysis technological challenges of combustion instabilities, which often
April 2016 Project extension arise with LOX hybrid rocket engines [30], were said to be solved
June 2016 Failure analysis review only by advanced combustion chamber and injector design and
July–Sept. 2016 Assembly of HEROS 2 and 3 passive devices. These instabilities were only solved partially in
31 Oct. 2016 HEROS 2 launch previous engines by injecting pyrophoric liquids, which increased the
7 Nov. 2016 ESRANGE safety board: go for return to flight complexity and decreased the inherent safety of hybrid rocket
8 Nov. 2016 HEROS 3 launch engines [31]. Often, low-frequency instabilities can arise in hybrids
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N2 O are compatible, and there are results indicating that parts of the
organic resin dissolves over time into the N2 O. This lowers the
temperature of self-ignition drastically and thereby affects the safety
[38,39]. This is also a problem with some commercially available liner
materials for CFRP tanks, which are mostly polymers. Instead, a
compromise regarding the system weight and safety was found by using
a welded aluminum liner and reinforced with CFRP. Thus, the total mass
of the oxidizer tank was reduced to about 25 kg, and at the same time, the
volume was increased to 130 liters. The welded aluminum liner was
produced out of four parts: two tubes of 1.85 m length (1.5 mm thick)
and two end caps with integrated threads for adapters. The 1.5-mm-thick
aluminum tubes were bent from sheet metal and welded with a
longitudinal welding seam. Future tanks could be produced by using
thinner sheet metal to save more weight, but the manufacturing process
would get more expensive. This might not be the most cost-effective
design for a prototype tank in an experimental rocket, but it is the best
approach concerning safety and feasibility. Figure 4 shows the welded
aluminum liner during the wrapping with CFRP.
plastic materials to reduce the dry mass. Elastic properties of the rocket’s
structure and fins were analyzed regarding possible dynamic and
aeroelastic effects that the rocket can encounter during flight. Fin flutter
and pitch oscillation related bending effects were studied with finite
element methods and analytic calculations to ensure structural integrity
in all flight phases. All parts made of fiber-reinforced plastic materials
use specially designed fiber layups. Filament wound CFRP tubes
optimized for maximum stiffness and good buckling performance are
used for the engine and recovery segment. The fins consist of a CFRP/
foam sandwich that is designed with high torsional and bending
frequencies to avoid aeroelastic flutter phenomena during flight. The
main design requirement was that the velocity of the rocket is below the
flutter velocity and the divergence velocity of the fins at any time during
flight.
The tubes were produced using the fiber winding process. The
orientation and thickness of the laminate layers were customized to
withstand the occurring loads during the burn and recovery phases.
The laminate had an overall thickness of 1.8 mm at an inner diameter
of 220 mm. The laminate was also optimized for the use of bolt
connections that are needed to join the rocket parts. Connector tubes
were used to conduct bending moments between sections to prevent
the bolts from getting asymmetrically loaded over the circumference
Fig. 1 HEROS mounted on the launcher.
of the rocket’s body. The self-made connections at the tank are seen in
Fig. 5. Aluminum rings were fitted inside the connector tubes and
were tightened with radial screws. As a result, a relatively small
amount of screws was needed for the assembly, which decreases the
Different injectors, operating conditions, and combustion chamber failure probability due to hole bearing or due to contact pressure in the
layouts were investigated to optimize this. Table 2 shows the key CFRP. The fins of the rocket are shown in Fig. 6. They were produced
operational data of HyRES. A hot-fire test at the DLR Lampoldshausen with CFRP in the sandwich construction type, which leads to highly
test site M11.5 is seen in Fig. 3. lightweight but also stiff structures. The fins were directly laminated
with CFRP on the hull segments.
B. Oxidizer Tank
The largest single component of the rocket is the oxidizer tank. It has D. Pyrotechnical Valve
a volume of 130 liters and a length of about 4 m. It contains up to 80 kg Almost no small-scale sounding rockets like HEROS exist.
of N2 O in liquid state at about 60 bar. HEROS uses the ability of self- Therefore, there is no commercial off-the-shelf valve available for this
pressurization of the N2 O, without a pump or secondary pressurization rocket size. HEROS needs an oxidizer mass flow of around 4 kg∕s at
with a gas. The vapor pressure of N2 O is at about 55 bar at an ambient about 55 bar. Commercially available valves suitable for this mass flow
temperature of 25°C [36]. According to the safety requirements of are much too heavy for the rocket. This was the reason for HyEnD to
ESRANGE, a safety factor of at least two has to be applied to all use a custom-designed valve. The design of HyEnD’s pyrotechnical
pressurized systems. From these requirements, it was concluded at the valve includes a burst disk, which withstands the pressure of N2 O with
beginning of the design of the rocket that the oxidizer tank needs to a safety factor of more than two. In other setups, the propellant is often
be optimized regarding lightweight construction. Initially, a simple pressurized to open the burst disk, but this requires a higher operating
aluminum tank was analyzed. It was a feasible option, but to reduce the pressure in the tank, which results in a greater dry mass due to thicker
dry mass, a tank of smaller size should have been chosen, resulting in a walls. Instead, a pyrotechnical charge is ignited to open the main valve
shorter burning time of the engine. Even then, the dry mass of a smaller for the start of the engine. The opening time is below 0.1 s. Another
aluminum tank would have been 35–40 kg. Therefore, the next step benefit of this valve design is that no hot gas gets in direct contact with
was taken to design a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) tank [37]. the N2 O. Thereby, the valve also allows for higher safety with the N2 O.
There were problems identified with the compatibility of N2 O and the Two pyrotechnical valves are used in HEROS. The main valve is used
organic components of CFRP resins. It is not proven that CFRP and to open the mass flow into the combustion chamber for ignition.
KOBALD ET AL. 487
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A second, smaller valve is used as an emergency purge valve in case of enables a wide recovery envelope. A brake drogue parachute opens
a countdown abort. This smaller valve was qualified as the main valve first at the apogee to decelerate the rocket vehicle to a lower airspeed
in the demonstrator rocket MIRAS. at which the toroidal main parachute is safely opened. Because of the
high descent rate in the drogue phase, the influence of jet streams and
E. Recovery System the wind drift is minimized so that a close proximity recovery is
performed. All parachutes are ejected from the rocket through a side
A two-stage recovery system, shown in Fig. 7, was designed to
door, as seen in Fig. 8.
decelerate the entire vehicle to a suitable landing speed. The system
comprises two types of parachutes with increasing drag area and
F. Electronics and Telemetry Systems
One goal of the STERN program was to include a telemetry
downlink from the rocket to a ground station. This was realized with a
Table 2 HyRES performance data commercially available flight computer, which is used mainly for high-
power model rocketry. This flight computer measures the rocket’s
Property Value acceleration along three axes and its rotation rate around three axes, as
Nominal thrust 10,000 N well as the ambient pressure. The attitude and altitude of the rocket is
Nominal burn time 20 s automatically calculated with this sensor onboard. Additionally, the
Nominal mass flow 5–5.5 kg∕s GPS position is recorded and transmitted to the ground station.
Chamber pressure 30–35 bar However, the GPS signal is restricted on the velocity of the rocket due
Solid paraffin-based fuel 12.5 kg to the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls
Combustion efficiency >98% (COCOM) limit. This requires the use of additional sensors and a
Dry mass 21 kg
Length 1,300 mm
Kalman filter for evaluation of the inertial measurement unit (IMU)
Fuel outer diameter 175 mm data to receive the rocket position. Link budget calculations showed
that more transmitting power was needed than the flight computer
488 KOBALD ET AL.
could provide. Thus, the data signal was amplified and then sent via a
rod antenna over a frequency in the 70 cm band.
In the rocket, a redundant configuration of two independent
branches was integrated, each containing one flight computer
sending its position data to the ground station. The ground station is
shown in Fig. 9, where one Yagi antenna per flight computer was Fig. 9 Yagi antenna setup.
KOBALD ET AL. 489
micro-SD cards during the flight and were then analyzed after the
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H. Payload
A payload compartment was located in the nose cone of the rocket.
A small satellite student experiment from Stuttgart University, Mikro
Rückkehrkapsel (MIRKA), was given a free-flight opportunity.
This electronic system provided additional flight data as well as
positioning data via the Iridium network for recovery.
Fig. 11 Electronics and telemetry system.
I. Ground Support Equipment
The GSE is a mobile and versatile setup, which can be used at
used. The most important task of the flight computers is the ejection different launch sites. It consists of a remote-controlled LabVIEW-
of the drogue parachutes at the apogee as well as the main parachute based measurement and control system. Heated intermediate tanks
near the ground. The electronic section also contained two onboard were used for the oxidizer loading process. The oxidizer was
video cameras. A power control and distribution unit, as shown in transferred using a loading arm that could be retracted with the
Fig. 10, was designed for controlling the flight computer, as well as LabVIEW system. A video system, consisting of seven cameras,
the onboard cameras and the payload before the launch from the recorded video material of the launch. A live feed was available to
GSE. During the flight, it supplies constant output voltage despite verify the retraction of the loading arm. The loaded amount of N2 O
the decreasing input voltage from the lithium polymer batteries. For into the rocket was measured redundantly: The intermediate tanks as
safety and stability reasons, the electronic components were integrated well as the rocket on the launcher were mounted on two separate load
in special casings and the whole electronics system was mounted on a cells. This additional measurement was used because load cell
special rapid prototyping structure. The whole system integrated in the measurements can be sensitive to temperature shifts and ambient
rocket is shown in Fig. 11. conditions, which could make them inaccurate. The connecting line
between the rocket and the intermediate tanks was equipped with a
G. Measurement System Coriolis flow meter. This redundancy enables a high accuracy, which
A self-built measurement system recorded pressure, temperature, is important for verifying the engine’s flight performance and the
and IMU data during the flight for postflight analysis. Usual flight rocket’s altitude simulations. Because the oxidizer temperature is
instrumentation units can be quite extensive, depending on the mission critical for the engine’s performance, both intermediate tanks and the
[40]. The system was designed at low cost and consisted of three rocket itself were heated before launch. Heating bands were used for
Genuino microcontrollers, located in the lower segment of the rocket, the heating of the intermediate tanks that could be switched via the
between the combustion chamber and the tank (shown in Fig. 12). All GSE. An air-heated Styrofoam box served as a housing for the rocket
the software programming was done with the Arduino software on the rail. Several temperature measurement points at the tanks and
environment. Combustion chamber, injector, and tank pressure were the rocket were used to monitor the heating process during the
measured at 1000 Hz to provide performance data and combustion countdown. Safe-arm connectors were used for the pyrotechnical
stability analysis of the engine. Temperatures were measured at 2 Hz in valves and the recovery system. They were removed during the
the injector, tank, rocket fin (2), and CFRP tank structure. A Bosch countdown and thereby the corresponding systems were armed.
BNO055 IMU sensor measured the rocket attitude in Eulerian
angles during the flight. Additionally, this sensor delivered the raw J. Safety During Handling and Project Costs
acceleration data, gravitational acceleration, magnetic field data, and The inherent safety of the hybrid rocket propulsion allowed
rotation rates. Each of them were given in three-body axes at a preparation and assembly of the complete rocket system at the launch
frequency of more than 90 Hz. Data of each Genuino were saved on site with much fewer safety requirements in comparison with solid
490 KOBALD ET AL.
reduces the operational costs greatly. This is not possible at the tank in blowdown
moment for solid rockets at ESRANGE. Also, no special storage is 14 HEROS 1 flight 5.5 Feed-system-coupled
needed for the fuel and the rockets loaded with the fuel, which instability
reduces the costs even further. Furthermore, the disposal of unused 15 Heavyweight chamber 10 Efficiency and stability
hybrid rocket motors is simple and cheap thanks to the nonexplosive 16 Flight tank in 5 Feed-system-coupled
nature. This is very different in comparison with solid rocket motors, blowdown, 14°C N2 O instability
which have to be fired at the site with special precautions. This is 17 Flight tank in 15 Stable combustion
especially dangerous for old solid rocket motors, which were stored blowdown, 24°C N2 O
18 Flight tank in 20 Stability over long burning
for a long time or when the storage life is already expired.
blowdown time
Electrostatic discharges, which happen often it the dry atmosphere 19 Flight chamber and 25 Combustion until liquid N2 O
at ESRANGE, are always a huge risk during all the time when tank in blowdown is emptied
handling a solid rocket motor. On the contrary, the risk is very small 20 HEROS 2 flight 15 Stable combustion
for a hybrid rocket. Therefore, the handling can be done without 21 HEROS 3 flight 15 Stable combustion and data
special antistatic clothing and without grounding of the personnel for recovered
most of the time, except when working with sensitive electronics.
Thanks to safe hybrid rocket propulsion, it was even possible to
generate voltage currents in lines and sparks next to the rocket on the
efficiency of the engine were gradually increased during the campaign.
launcher. This was done for the failure analysis of the electronics
The corresponding test matrix is shown in Table 4.
during the HEROS 2 launch (see also Sec. V.A).
Test number 3 was done with 10 s of burning time to verify the
The budget for the overall project was rather restricted. However,
thermal design of the engine. A modification in the postcombustion
thanks to the simple but efficient hybrid propulsion technology and
lightweight CFRP structures, costs could be minimized successfully. chamber was introduced in test 4 to increase the c efficiency. As a
All three rockets were identical and therefore used identical parts, next step, the full mass flow injector was used for test 5 and later tests.
enabling further savings, because larger quantities of every part Test 8 was at the design condition of the engine with a burning time of
could be bought. The costs for HEROS 3 are shown in Table 3. 12 s. The rocket’s flight tank, using the self-pressurization of N2 O,
Concerning the propellants, paraffin-based fuels offer very low costs was evaluated in tests 9–12. Test 13 was the final test before the
in combination with easy manufacturing and safe handling. A very launch of HEROS 1 with the flight-weight combustion chamber. The
high fuel utilization was possible, thanks to their single-port design. failure of the combustion chamber during the flight of HEROS 1 was
No dangerous materials or such with export restrictions were used. assumed to be caused by a low-frequency combustion instability
N2 O as an oxidizer is readily available at low costs compared with due to insufficient heating of the N2 O in the rocket. Other test
H2 O2 . Moreover, the transportation and handling of N2 O is much programs also experienced similar issues in ground tests [27,28].
simpler than that of cryogenic substances and also solid propellants, This assumption was proven successfully after the failure analysis
which further reduced handling and operational costs [36]. review in ground tests 16, 17, and later. Test 16 showed unstable
combustion exactly due to a low N2 O temperature. On the contrary,
test 17 showed very stable combustion with the same test settings,
IV. Subsystem Qualification Testing except for a higher initial oxidizer temperature. The remaining tests
A. HyRES Engine Tests were focused on high stability and efficiency over long burning times.
The time for the HyRES engine development and the test campaign Such a stable combustion is seen in test 18 in Fig. 13. This test
was rather limited, due to the short overall project time frame. was with the flight engine configuration in blowdown mode. The
Therefore, an extensive test campaign was realized with the subscale corresponding thrust is shown in Fig. 14. It was slightly lower than
500 N hybrid rocket engine. This enabled a high number of tests at low normal due to increased cavitation of the N2 O in the injector, caused
cost and a short time between two tests. More than 100 tests have been by a higher initial temperature of the N2 O in this test.
performed with this engine, including two flight demonstrations with Concluding, some of the most important results of the testing are the
the MIRAS rocket. Several important results were achieved that were characterization of combustion behavior of a wide number of different
used directly for the design of the scaled-up HyRES engine. The tests paraffin-based fuels. A tradeoff was made between regression rate and
were done at the same test facility and, if possible, under similar the mechanical strength. Special care was taken concerning the stability
operating conditions as in the 10,000 N tests. Thanks to these tests, of the combustion process. Combustion instability lowers the
many optimizations have been incorporated already into the first performance and increases the loads on the rocket structure and
design of the HyRES engine. Eighteen hot-fire tests on the ground payload. In general, the injector and precombustion chamber
were conducted with the 10 kN engine. The performance and configuration determine the stability of the motor [41]. An injector
KOBALD ET AL. 491
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Time [s]
Fig. 13 Combustion chamber pressure of HyRES hot-fire test 18.
1
Normalized Thrust [-]
0.5
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0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Time [s]
Fig. 14 Thrust profile (filtered) of HyRES hot-fire test 18.
with proper atomization of the oxidizer and sufficient pressure drop is showed no strong directional radiation pattern and the free-space
needed to avoid feed-system-coupled instabilities. Vortex shedding is losses were within the preliminary calculations. MIRKA 2, which
often linked to the formation of instabilities [42,43]. The combustion serves as a small payload for both HEROS 2 and 3, was also switched
chamber was optimized to provide a high c efficiency. All this on during the test. No significant interference could be measured,
summarized knowledge enabled the successful design of this large-scale showing the compatibility of the telemetry system and the payload.
engine with a very low number of tests, which also reduced greatly the The maximum transmission range was extrapolated to be 125 km
overall project costs. with those measurements. The dedicated power source of the
telemetry system also showed sufficient capacity.
B. Telemetry Tests
Range tests were conducted in August 2016 to verify the C. Thermal Tests of the Fins
performance of the telemetry system. The transmitter position was on The expected strong heating of the CFRP structure due to
top of one of Stuttgart University’s highest buildings. The receiving aerodynamic drag and convective heating from the compressed air in
antennas were positioned at Castle Teck and Castle Staufeneck with a regions of Mach 2 or higher was known to be important beforehand.
distance of 32.2 and 49.1 km from the transmission site, respectively. Therefore, a heating test with the air heater at the test bench M11.1 of
The transmission was reliable for both distances and there were only the DLR Lampoldshausen was conducted. Five thermocouples were
3 dB additional loss between the shorter and the longer distance, as placed inside a model of the rocket fin. An array of tests was conducted
calculated beforehand in the link budget. The additional noise with different total temperatures, total pressures, and test durations.
background in Stuttgart compared with the north of Sweden was a The measurements of the most representative test are displayed in
rather conservative approach. The transmitting telemetry system Fig. 15. These are crucial data to outline the maximum performance of
350
150
100
50
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time [s]
Fig. 15 Temperature measured at the five measurement points (Tt 600 K, pt 10 bar, t 15 s, M 2.5).
492 KOBALD ET AL.
0.8
Normalized Pressure [-]
0.6
0.4
-0.2
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [s]
Fig. 18 Measured combustion chamber pressure of HyRES hot-fire test 19 and comparison with simulated data.
KOBALD ET AL. 493
0.5
0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time [s]
Fig. 19 Dimensionless thrust profile (filtered) of HyRES hot-fire test 19 and comparison with simulated data.
Altitude [km]
burning time until N2 O depletion varied between 2 s for a 20 s test. 20
Similar results have also been achieved for other tests, as well as
the flight data of HEROS 3. During the flight, other effects also play a
significant role: The high acceleration increases the tank outlet 15
pressure. Therefore, the gas phase in the tank outflow has a much
smaller mass fraction of the total mass flow. This raises the oxidizer 10
density at the injector and thereby increases the total mass flow
through the injector. This effect cannot be reproduced at a test bench,
5
and therefore, the ESPSS simulations brought new understanding of
the processes in the propulsion system during flight. It is now
possible to predict the performance of a hybrid propulsion system 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
with self-pressurizing N2 O. This is an enormous advantage to
develop and design future hybrid rocket engines. Future ESPSS Time [s]
updates will have further improvements of the two-phase flow Fig. 20 Altitude simulation with ASTOS.
modeling, which could improve the simulation capabilities of N2 O
even more.
The recovery system was most likely affected by the failure as well. A apogee altitude of 32,300 m (106,000 ft). This set a new altitude
helicopter team searched at the nominal impact point, but due to the record for European student and amateur rocketry and a world
weather and sight conditions, it was impossible to find the rocket. The altitude record for hybrid rockets built by students. An onboard
video material and sound recordings were analyzed and all evidence camera image is shown in Fig. 23 from the flight at apogee. Launch
suggests that the hybrid rocket engine HyRES worked nominally permission was given by the ESRANGE safety board after an
during the whole ascent of the rocket. In the following days, the extensive failure analysis of the HEROS 2 launch. The remaining
failure was investigated in detail and it was shown that an electronic launch window was open just until 9 November. The rocket
interference with the main ignition impulse induced a voltage in configurations and the launch conditions are given in Tables 5 and
the connecting line between the ground support computer and the 6, respectively. The loaded oxidizer mass in Table 5 corresponds to
rocket’s onboard electronics. This voltage was high enough to a filling level of only about 70% N2 O in the oxidizer tank.
generate a shutoff signal in the command line. Several successful Moreover, the relatively flat launch angle of 80 deg further
improvements were made to prevent this malfunction for the third decreased the apogee altitude. This low angle was chosen by
HEROS flight. ESRANGE for increased safety during the launch, to let the rocket
move away quickly from the launch site. Thereby, a significantly
B. HEROS 3 Flight higher apogee is possible with HEROS 3, by loading more
On 8 November 2016 at 0930 hrs, the hybrid sounding rocket oxidizer and using a steeper launch angle. A detailed timeline of
HEROS 3 was launched from the ESRANGE Space Center to an the flight is seen in Table 7. The measured wind speeds for the
KOBALD ET AL. 495
launch are shown in Fig. 24. According to these measurements, illustrated in Fig. 25. GPS data are shown, as well as the simulated
shortly before launch, the flight-path calculations were updated as trajectory from ASTOS.
well as the launcher settings. The trajectory of the flight is
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-6
-8
-10
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Altitude [m]
Fig. 24 Measured wind speeds between 0 and 1 km altitude of HEROS 3 launch.
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Fig. 25 HEROS 3 flight: trajectory simulation (plain) and measured GPS flight data (contoured) (data shown in Google Earth).
The flight computer recorded IMU data consisting of are plotted in Fig. 28, as well as the same angles according to the
acceleration along three axes as well as the rotation rates around ASTOS simulations. It is clearly seen that the simulated and
the same. Using these data, the rockets attitude was calculated with a measured results fit almost perfectly. This confirms the applicability
self-developed MATLAB tool. The calculated yaw and pitch angles of the simulations and the used software tools. The main flight
events with the corresponding flight parameters are also shown in
Table 7.
The rocket acceleration along its three axes is shown in Fig. 29.
Table 8 HEROS 3 onboard sensors The liquid thrust phase and acceleration until 15 s is seen clearly.
Then, the acceleration was reduced due to the gas-phase
Sensor Amount combustion of N2 O. The rocket was in free-flight conditions, with
9-Degrees-of-freedom IMU sensors 4 very low residual accelerations after 40 s into the flight. Initially,
3-Axes magnetometers 4 the acceleration showed some vibrations up to 5 s. This was likely
Analog barometric sensors 4 related to structural vibrations inside the rocket at the mounting
Digital barometric sensor 1 structure of the sensor, because the combustion chamber pressure
Pressure sensors 3
GPS modules 3
data showed very stable combustion for the whole liquid burning
Temperature sensors 7 time (see also Fig. 26). The rocket was reaching supersonic
velocity at around 5.5 s. This is also the time when the oscillations
KOBALD ET AL. 497
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time [s]
Fig. 26 HEROS 3 flight combustion chamber pressure.
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100
50
IMU1
Pitch [°]
IMU2
0
ASTOS
-50
-100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time [s]
200
IMU1
100 IMU2
Yaw [°]
ASTOS
-100
0 10 20
50 30
60 40
70 80 90 100
Time [s]
Fig. 28 Rocket’s flight attitude, calculated from the onboard measurements, and the corresponding simulation results from ASTOS.
were decreasing. The rotation rates around the rocket’s main axes factors influencing the rotation of the rocket. In our case, thrust
are shown in Fig. 30. The maximum rotation rate around the misalignment seems to play a minor role because the decreasing
longitudinal axis was at 0.5 Hz at liquid N2 O burnout. After that engine thrust does not influence the rotation rate (see Figs. 29 and
time, the roll rate was decreasing steadily until the apogee at 30). The rotation rate around the x axis is almost proportional to
around 90 s. The decrease in roll rate around this axis at 5.5 s is the the velocity of the rocket. Therefore, the cause for the rotation is
time when supersonic velocity was reached. There are several dominated by aerodynamic misalignment.
498 KOBALD ET AL.
100
X-Acceleration
Y-Acceleration
50 Z-Acceleration
Acceleration [m/s2] 0
-50
-100
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Time [s]
Fig. 29 Acceleration in rocket-fixed coordinates.
Downloaded by 83.8.245.85 on January 10, 2021 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.A34035
50
0
Rotation Rate [°/s]
-50
-100
X-Rotation
-150
Y-Rotation
Z-Rotation
-200
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Time [s]
Fig. 30 Rotational rates in rocket-fixed coordinates.
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