During the last few weeks you have frequently been able to see updates of the Stratos II propulsion team working on the test engine for the project. Today the engine and the test setup were presented to the world.

In the afternoon DARE members, DARE alumni, TU Delft professors and other associates had been invited to come over to the DARE workshop to see the engine being unveiled by Tobias Knop, the team leader of the propulsion team. First a short introduction was given by him of the progress the hybrid team had made to get to the point where they are now. After that he thanked the people who helped with the design and construction of the engine and especially thanked his team who have worked very hard to get all materials and equipment arranged and in order.

Then finally the cloth was pulled off and the test bench and tank rig were revealed. As you can see on the pictures the whole setup consists of a horizontally placed combustion chamber (the black tube) on a test bench that will be used to hold down the engine and to measure the thrust. Vertically are two tanks to hold the N2O for the engine. The right tank has already got the heating wire wrapped around it to get the N2O up to the right temperature and pressure for the test. The tank rig also contains a load cell to measure the weight of the tanks and to so determine the oxidizer mass flow out of the tanks.

Some things still need to be done to make the whole setup ready for the testing campaign next week. Next Monday the whole test setup and equipment will be transported to the test location. Tuesday is Queensday in the Netherlands and no testing will be done then. All the test sequences are planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Monday the 6th of May the tests will be over. Keep your eyes open for more updates as we will be posting a lot of them during next week to you up to date with the progress of the tests.

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