An interdisciplinary team from Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University successfully launched two small rockets at a testing ground near Tainan City in the south of the country, scoring breakthroughs in GPS technology and multistage rocket decoupling, NCKU announced March 25.
The team, led by professor Juang Jyh-ching of Tainan City-based NCKU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and supported by the rocket and satellite program of the ROC Ministry of Science and Technology, launched and recovered two small hybrid rockets March 20 at Shalun Farm in the city. Following the success, the team said it will attempt to launch a 1,000-kilogram rocket to a height of 30 kilometers in May.
Many countries are currently researching hybrid rockets because of their low cost, greater safety and environmental friendliness, NCKU said. The university’s Aerospace Science and Technology Research Center and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics have already had notable successes in developing this field.
GPS systems are a critical component for accurately targeted rocket launch. Rockets are subject to extreme G-force as they accelerate, and GPS receivers commercially available in the market cannot be used on the rockets.
The team used a high dynamic GPS receiver it developed that can withstand G-forces of more than 10 G’s and properly track Doppler frequency shift during the launch.
Stage decoupling is a crucial process for any multistage rocket, with extremely reliable mechanisms a prerequisite, as later stages can only fire once expended fuel tanks have been jettisoned. The NCKU team successfully employed a V-shaped release mechanism.
According to Juang, successful recovery of the rockets enables a full record of flight details to be retrieved. A high-altitude balloon was also released before the launch to obtain prevailing atmospheric temperature and wind conditions for use in subsequent analysis of the launch.
More than 50 people participated in the launches. (SDH)
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