Dr Michael Smart
Hypersonix Launch Systems
Biography
Dr Smart is a world leader in scramjet design with particular interest in reusable space launch. He graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from The University of Queensland (UQ) in 1985 and completed a PhD at NYU-Poly in 1995. He then spent 10 years as a research scientist in the Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion Branch at NASA’s Langley Research Center. He returned to Australia in 2005 and spent 15 years in the UQ Centre for Hypersonics, being appointed Professor and Chair of Hypersonic Propulsion in 2007. In December 2019 he co-founded Hypersonix Launch Systems (Hypersonix). Hypersonix is an Australian company that is developing hydrogen fuelled scramjet technology for green access-to-space.
Modern Developments in the Design of Hypersonic Inlets
Hypersonic inlet designs have developed through a range of geometric configurations, from axi-symmertric, to two-dimensional to fully three-dimensional. The key to modern designs is to take advantage of the benefits of three dimensionality in ways that satisfy broader constraints such as capability, efficiency and startability. This talk will discuss current ideas in this area.
Dr. Andrew J. Brune
NASA Langley Research Center
Biography
Dr. Andrew Brune has an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph. D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology. Dr. Brune is currently a senior engineer for aerospace flight systems in the Structural and Thermal Systems Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia and has been working at Langley since 2012, beginning with some internships and fellowships through NASA. Since working at NASA, he has been primarily working in the area of hypersonic and entry systems, with focus on thermal protection and other high-temperature material systems. He currently serves as a technical lead and subject matter expert in planning, design, integration, hardware development, modelling, and simulation for test and evaluation of these material systems in multiple arc-jet facilities, and currently supports the Low Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator Project and Hypersonics Technology Project. His interests also include multidisciplinary simulations, high-temperature gas dynamics, and uncertainty quantification, management, validation, and calibration related to test methods, instrumentation, and analysis approaches.
Arc-jet Overview, Modeling, and Uncertainty for Hypersonic Material Environmental Test and Evaluation
Arc-jet test facilities are crucial for testing high-temperature material systems while simulating heating and flow environments experienced in atmospheric entry and hypersonic flight. This presentation will briefly provide background on simulation parameters and the unique capability of arc-jet facilities. The primary portion of the presentation will provide a general overview of an arc jet, including components, how it works, instrumentation, and types of testing. Technical challenges and considerations will also be discussed related to arc-jet modelling and uncertainties.
Dr. Sandy Tirtey
Director of Rocket Lab Australia
Biography
Dr. Sandy Tirtey is Rocket Lab’s Director of Global Commercial Launch Services and the company’s Launch Director.
Prior to Joining Rocket Lab, Dr. Tirtey did his PhD thesis in Hypersonics at the von Karman Institute (Belgium) and a Post-Doc in the group for Hypersonics at The University of Queensland (UQ) where he led the technical development of the SCRAMSPACE scramjet flight experiment from 2009 to 2013.
Dr. Tirtey joined Rocket Lab in 2013 as Vehicle Team Lead, where he supervised the development and construction of the Electron launch vehicle. In 2015, Dr. Tirtey took on the role of Vice President of Vehicle Systems, before becoming Rocket Lab’s Launch Conductor in 2016. In this role, Dr. Tirtey led mission operators through the successful launches of ‘It’s A Test’ and ‘Still Testing’ in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Today, Dr. Tirtey is the Director of Global Commercial Launch Services and is based in Brisbane, Australia. In this role he supports small satellite operators globally to access orbit through frequent and reliable launch opportunities on the Electron launch vehicle. In February 2023, Dr Sandy Tirtey became Director of the newly created Rocket Lab Australia subsidiary.
Rocket Lab’s HASTE vehicle – Electron for Hypersonic Flight Test
HASTE is a suborbital testbed launch vehicle derived from Rocket Lab’s heritage Electron rocket. HASTE provides reliable, high-cadence flight test opportunities needed to advance hypersonic and suborbital system technology development.
Prof. Zonglin Jiang
Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Theories and Technologies of Detonation-driven Hypervelocity Shock Tunnels
Prof. Isaac Boxx
RWTH Aachen University
Biography
Isaac Boxx is the Professor of Optical Diagnostics for Energy, Process and Chemical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany. He received a BSE in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University, and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. After completing postdoctoral research at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH (USA) he joined the laser diagnostics group at the Institute for Combustion Technology of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart, where he worked until 2022. Professor Boxx’s research group specializes in the development of laser and optical diagnostics for use in challenging technical environment such as engines, flow reactors and highspeed air vehicles. He is a Fellow of the Combustion Institute, Associate Fellow of the AIAA and awardee of the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.
Laser Diagnostics for the Study of Highspeed Vehicles
Laser imaging diagnostics offer a revolutionary way to experimentally isolate the effects of turbulence and chemistry in highspeed flows (both internal and external). The technical challenges and specialized infrastructure required to perform such measurements at flight-relevant conditions put the task well beyond the capabilities of the most combustion research laboratories. This talk will present some of the challenges and recent advances in the development of laser and optical diagnostics for highspeed propulsion systems.
Dr. Gerald Hagemann
Arianegroup
TBC (but related to reusability of launcher stages)
Prof. Ming Dong
Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Biography
Ming Dong, Professor of Institute of Mechanics, CAS. He received the PhD degree in fluid mechanics from Tianjin University, and worked there until 2021. During 2013-2014 and 2016-2018, he was working in Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London as an academic visitor and a Marie Curie Fellow, respectively. His main research interests include hydrodynamic instability, boundary-layer transition and turbulence theory. He is keen on revealing the intrinsic mechanism of flow motions by asymptotic techniques.
Impact of surface roughness on hypersonic boundary-layer transition: from asymptotics to numerics
Surface roughness would influence hypersonic boundary-layer transition through the local receptivity and local scattering mechanisms, which are formulated by the high-Reynolds-number asymptotic analysis. The asymptotic theory is confirmed to be accurate by numerics, which leads to a transition-prediction model for hypersonic boundary layers with surface imperfections.
