Over the past month, the DAWN team performed three full scale hot fire tests of their 10,000 N thrust / 200,000 Ns impulse DXH-200 “Aurora” motor. The Aurora motor is a hybrid rocket motor being developed for powering the Stratos II rocket to over 50 kilometer altitude beginning 2014.

During each of these performed motor tests, the burn time was progressively increased from 5 seconds, to 10 seconds and to 15 seconds. If engine performance was consistent during each of these burns a full 20 seconds burn was to be attempted. The 5 and 10 second burn tests were completed without incidents, successfully validating the basic engine design. Unfortunately, during the 15 seconds burn a crack was formed in the wall of the combustion chamber after about 5 seconds. Inspection of the test footage suggested that the failure might have been caused by inconsistencies of the fuel grain, allowing hot gases to get into contact with the combustion chamber wall. CT scans of another grain confirmed the presence of inconsistencies in parts of the grain, suggesting a revision of the casting process is required.

Overall the DAWN team is very satisfied with the results of the tests. Critical aspects like the igniter, engine performance and test setup were all validated. Using the obtained data and a revised grain casting procedure, the team is confident that performing a full 20 second test fire will be attainable in the next series of tests. More details including footage can be found on the Project Stratos website.

Friday the 7th of June, the NLD38 launch day organized by DARE and the NAVRO at ASK ‘t Harde at the Veluwe. Contrary to the previous launch day, the weather this time was beautiful: sunshine on both the Thursday and the Friday, nice and warm, with winds blowing from the North / North-East (i.e. favorable for launching at ‘t Harde).

It was a rather relaxed and quiet launch day with only four rockets to be launched. It was however not a list of unimportant rockets that were schedules: Launch window one featured the notorious CanSat V6.5 and the Morning Star, the first hybrid rocket that was launched by DARE. The second launch window held the NAVRO ‘Titan’ rocket and the second prototype of the CanSat V7.

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With great proud we announce that our subteam DAWN won the main UniversiteitsFonds teamwork prize! DAWN was awarded the prize for their efforts in designing the hybrid engine which is to power the Stratos II rocket. The team spent the last three years designing, building and validating various hybrid test engines. Virtually all work was performed in the free time of the team members and on a tight budget. These efforts are now cumulating in the upcoming hot fire tests of the massive 200.000 Ns Aurora engine which is to be the final flight model engine.

In total 15 student team applied for the UfD teamwork prize, which was this year sponsored by IHC Merwede. Team ATMOS which is developing an unmanned aerial vehicle and the Vertical Cities Asia team shared a common second and third prize.

DAWN team photo during UfD team prize award ceremony

Last Saturday the propulsion team performed a successful ignition test. During a rainy test day on the architecture field the full scale motor ignited on the first try. This is the build up for the full scale tests that the team will start with this week.

The ignition makes use of a bypass valve supplying the motor with a reduced flow of Nitrous oxide while a pyrocharge igniter is fired. It takes 4 seconds for the motor to be heated sufficiently before the main valve opens and starts the engine. During this test the combustion chamber was hooked up to a regular N₂O gas cylinder. With this the igniter and the heating up of the chamber could be tested.

This test is the last test before the full scale motor test scheduled for this week. On this Wednesday (the 15th) the tests will start, running on to Thursday. After that there will be a long weekend during which the team will be able to make spare parts and prepare possible solutions they may have encountered on the Wednesday and Thursday. Then the campaign will continue on Tuesday the 21st and will end on Wednesday the 22nd.

There will be plenty of updates coming up during these days to keep you posted, so keep checking the site for the most recent updates during the test campaign. For now however, you will need to satisfy yourselves with the video of the igniter test below.

Last Saturday, members of DARE’s liquid propulsion team have successfully conducted a first series of tests of a liquid fuel rocket engine. Between 1PM and 2PM, two so called hot fire tests were performed of the DEIMOS rocket engine. The DEIMOS rocket engine is fueled using liquid ethane and liquid nitrous oxide. This propellant combination is relatively easy in use and has many different applications ranging from being a test bed for new technologies to satellite thrusters.

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During the long weekend over Ascension Day (17 – 20 may) the hybrid propulsion team (Project Dawn) successfully launched “Morning Star”, the first ever hybrid-propelled rocket within DARE at the Model Rocket Flight Days (RJD 2012) in Roitzschjora, Germany.

This technology demonstration flight marks a milestone for project Dawn and was the final step in showing that the team is capable of designing, manufacturing, testing and flying a hybrid rocket engine.

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