MORABA Activities in Retrospect: New Flight Test Capabilities & Competences

Kurzfassung

Sounding rockets continue to form a cornerstone of flight testing capabilities in Europe. They support research areas such as microgravity, aerothermodynamics, atmospheric physics and astronomy. DLR's Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) develops and utilises technologies in medium and large sized sounding rocket vehicles in order to secure the testing capabilities for the established research fields. The continuous extension of the performance and flight envelopes through improvements in flight hardware of the vehicle, along with thermal protection systems, allow the advancement of sounding rockets into new experiment classes. Within the MAPHEUS program, rocket motor combinations like S31-IM and IM-IM are developed and flight qualified to form up-to-date vehicles. The very large S50 motor, consisting of twelve metric tons of composite propellant, will be the core stage for the suborbital VS-50 vehicle and the micro-satellite launcher VLM-1, developed through the international collaboration with DCTA/IAE. A new three-stage vehicle (S31-IM-IO), as part of the STORT program, will offer velocities up to Mach 10 at altitudes below 50 km, so called suppressed trajectories. MORABA has established a strong capability in customization and operation of flying testbeds for space transportation technologies. This capability serves the development of TVC systems as well as control strategies, materials and in-flight health monitoring. Mission design and operations is presently becoming a field of major interst as payload reusability with low maintenance requirements and immediate re-flight is gaining importance. Developments and modernisations in payload support technologies such as recovery and service systems ensure that the researcher is provided with state of the art capabilities and infrastructure for the conduct of experiments. Student programs such as REXUS/BEXUS and STERN ensure hands-on education and motivation of students in the field of space transportation. The success of the existing programs impressively demonstrates the usefulness of such programs and demands their further development.