STORT FLIGHT EXPERIMENT FOR HIGH SPEED TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION

Kurzfassung

Simulation based design of flight hardware is one of the longterm goals of the DLR’s research programs. In case of spacecraft development this task is very challenging, since the number of flight experiment and availability of the flight data is very limited. This requires a complementary validation approach using ground and flight testing for gathering reliable data and validation of numerical tools [1,2,3]. Numerical tools still have shortcomings in modelling high temperature gas phenomena and gas surface interaction in such an environment. This again requires data base on material characteristics in a very broad temperature range. Therefore, ground characterization and qualification of hot structures have to be carried out using modern diagnostic methods. Since ground experiments cannot duplicate the flight environment completely, performing successful flight experiments to achieve the a. m. goal is essential. The success of Space-X space transportation approach triggered a worldwide kick in reusable launcher activities. Multiple reuses of the most expensive first stage is the focus of most concepts. Recent studies show that reusability becomes feasible, if the separation of the first stage takes place at Mach numbers between 9 and 12. Simulation of this flight environment in ground facilities is limited and requires further data of flight experiments. Hypersonic flight experiments by means of multi stage sounding rocket configurations are the most cost-efficient options to gather valuable flight data. Using available two stage sounding rocket configurations the achievable Mach number for a payload mass of approx. 300 kg is limited to around 6. Therefore, the DLR’s flight experiment REFEX with the main focus in guidance and navigation during return flight will fly at Mach numbers from 5 down to subsonic speeds [4]. Therefore, aerothermal loads on hot structures are out of the REFEX goals. To close this gap and achieve higher Mach numbers the flight experiment STORT (Key Technologies for High Speed Return Flights of Launcher Stages) will use a three-stage sounding rocket configuration. In addition, the third stage will fly a suppressed trajectory to increase integral heat load on the structures.IAC-21,D2,6,5,x62714 2 of 10 The past DLR’s hypersonic flight experiments reached high numbers up to 10 [5, 6, 7]. But the test phase with high aerothermal loads were less than 30 seconds. Therefore, an additional maneuver will keep the third stage of the STORT configuration within a suppressed trajectory with high integral thermal loads. The main objectives of the STORT flight experiment will be described in the next chapter. After the explaining of main objectives of the STRORT flight experiment in the first chapter, the flight configuration with major payloads will be described. The flight trajectory and predicted aerothermal loads for the design of payloads and instrumentation follow this part. A big chapter is devoted to the experimental study concerning shock wave boundary layer interaction experiment (SWBLI) in the hypersonic wind tunnel H2K. The script will be concluded with the summary of major achievements until now and definition of next steps before the STORT flight experiment