Australia’s Hub for Cutting-Edge Technologies, Industry Solutions And Knowledge

Source: Sally Wood

From fixing jets to testing rockets, discovering planets to looking for aliens, the University of Southern Queensland is at the forefront of space and defence research.

RThe Institute for Advanced Engineering and Space Sciences is Australia’s hub for cutting-edge technologies, industry solutions and knowledge.

The facility boasts space and defence research specialising in hypersonic propulsion systems, rocket fuel development, astrophysics, and advanced materials.

The Institute is broken down into three research streams:

1. Hypersonic testing: researchers use the only long duration hypersonic wind tunnel in Australia to test in free-flight hypersonic aerodynamics.

2. Rocketry: the only solid propellant manufacturing facility within Australia is used for hypersonic research.

3. Diagnostics: researchers study high speed and high enthalpy flows.

Researchers understand the value of working with industry stakeholders. Therefore, the Institute partners with global companies like NASA; the US Air Force; Boeing; and John Deere.

Together, researchers work with end-users on commercial pathways to deliver impact in an ever-changing renowned for its hypersonic research, with its rocket laboratory, static rocket testing facility and long duration hypersonic wind tunnel.

“The work we’ve done to date, and continue to do, has put us on the map globally.”

“That’s really important for developing the profile of the university, attracting new students and helping develop the new generation of researchers,” he said.

The Institute’s Centre for Future Materials—one of Australia’s largest dedicated composite materials manufacturing and testing facilities—provides novel design, manufacture, and testing for industry.

Researchers are using next-generation composites in aircraft repairs and developing faster cycle time in composite aerostructure manufacturing for clients like the Defence Science and Technology Group, and Boeing Aerostructures Australia.

Funding Grants Opportunities Out of this World

Hypersonic innovation requires research that moves at high speeds. As such, the University of Southern Queensland recently received an Australian Research Council grant for over $1 million. The project will investigate remote diagnostics for space-access flight testing.

Professor David Buttsworth will lead the newly funded project to develop ways to maximise science outcomes from test flights.

“Aerospace flight testing is essential for assessing the reliability of space-access technologies including re-useable rockets and hypersonic air-breathing systems,” Buttsworth said. “These tests give us vital optical data in video and scientific formats, and we’re looking at ways to gain even more insight from these flights.”

The team will design a suite of new instruments suiting various platforms (airborne, ground-based and high-altitude drones) for observing high-speed flight tests conducted during research into launch-to-space and return-from-space technologies.

The project will also seek to fine-tune computational simulations of the flight tests and develop ways to deduce the aerodynamic and thermal conditions experienced during high-speed flight.

Buttsworth said by advancing essential optical diagnostic tools and techniques, his team aimed to establish an enduring capability for space-access flight testing in Australia.

“This work has the potential to accelerate the research and development pathways for Australian enterprises and will designate our country as a prime destination for international aerospace businesses.”

In addition, the University of Southern Queensland will work with Hypersonix Launch Systems, LSM Advanced Composites Romar Engineering on the DART CMP Airframe—a reusable hypersonic platform.

The project is funded by a $2.95 million Cooperative Research Centre grant from the Federal Government.

Together, they will develop an unmanned aerial vehicle that can travel at hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 12, which is twelve times the speed of sound.

It is powered by the SPARTAN hydrogen fuelled scramjet engine, which takes oxygen from the atmosphere, and reduces weight by 60 per cent compared to rockets.

The project will deliver a new sovereign manufacturing capability for high temperature ceramic matrix composites.

Hypersonix Managing Director David Waterhouse said DART CMP is the composite version of the DART AE due for launch this year.

“AE stands for Additive Engineering and is the fully 3D printed version out of high temperature alloys that are already available in Australia,” Waterhouse said.

“The type of high temperature composites we require for DART CMP are currently not available here, therefore there is an urgent need to develop these materials in Australia.”

“We are thankful that the government acknowledged this gap and responded with accepting our application. We can’t wait to have these materials ready in mid 2025,” Waterhouse explained.

Hypersonix is developing several hypersonic vehicles that fly at speeds between Mach 5 and Mach 12 with zero CO2 emissions, use water vapor, and have applications in both satellite launch and high-speed aviation.

The University of Southern Queensland boasts Australia’s only hypersonic wind tunnel, which is capable of testing up to Mach 8.

Need for Speed: Grant Propels Student in Hypersonics Space

Lachlan Noller is a PhD student who is focussed on things that move fast. As such, he has his sights on upgrading the University’s current hypersonic wind tunnel.

He said the facility should test the starting function of hypersonic inlets utilised on Scramjets—a form of airbreathing propulsion that gives the capability of moving five times the speed of sound.

“The new component will allow us to produce a larger airflow area which can generate a Mach 7 flow—which corresponds to a speed of approximately 8750kph,” Noller said.

“The main part, which requires the bulk of the research and development, is the hypersonic nozzle which is used to accelerate stagnate, pre-compressed air up to the desired speeds.”

Noller was recently awarded a Queensland Defence Science Alliance Higher Degree to turn this dream into a reality.

“To design the new nozzle, I’m using computations of fluid dynamic simulations to determine the required nozzle geometry coupled with analytical methods developed here at the University.”

“Using this design methodology will provide us with evidence that the designed nozzle will indeed generate the desired flow conditions,” he said.

The University of Southern Queensland’s Hypersonic Group has rallied behind Noller.

“Had the team not had the reputation it has, which was built up over many years, I feel like my chances of receiving the grant would have been significantly lower. Hypersonics research is a massively re-emerging field at the moment worldwide,” Noller said.