The company Hypersonix Launch Systems is betting on a hypersonic scramjet engine that should quickly, cheaply, and repeatedly take small satellites into space.
Image by Guillaume Preat from Pixabay
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The Australian company Hypersonix Launch Systems – as their name suggests – bets on a combination of a hypersonic engine and flying to orbit. They plan to carry small satellites into orbit cheaply, quickly, and environmentally friendly. To do so, they are developing a reusable hypersonic system that runs on hydrogen. Thanks to the green engine it should bring satellites into orbit without direct carbon emissions and problematic gases.
The hypersonic system Wirraway is made from three stages. The first is called Boomerang, the second Delta Velos Orbiter, and the third takes the final load into orbit. Boomerang is activated after the start as it speeds up the Wirraway system to about Mach 5. After that, it separates, opens its wings, and goes back to the spaceport just like a boomerang. Then Delta Velos Orbiter takes lead speeding up the system up to Mach 12 and reaching about 40 kilometers into the atmosphere. Sadly, the system cannot go much higher as the scramjet requires an atmosphere to work. There the final stage is released and it can reach either Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) or Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
After releasing the load the Orbiter should come back and land on the spaceport just like a normal airplane. All that needs to be done after is a bit of refueling and it can head back into space. Hypersonix placed a lot of emphasis on allowing repeated flights into space as quickly as possible.
Delta Velos Orbiter will use four Hypersonix Spartan scramjet engines that are a result of 30 years of research, more than 6,000 terrestrial engine ignitions, and 11 sub-orbital flights that happened as part of HiFiRe and HyShot programs. Parts of the Spartan engines were made by experts from the University of Sydney through an advanced 3D ceramic matrix composite printing technology. One of its biggest advantages is that it doesn’t have any moving parts making it much more reliable. As a fuel, it uses hydrogen which is turned into water vapor.
Over time, Hypersonix wants to test larger and larger models from the Dart AE which is 2.8 meters long and which uses a single Spartan engine to the full Delta Velos Orbiter with its 12 meters of length, 3.5 meters of wingspan, and four Spartan engines.
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