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Soupjoe5 OP t1_ix8nigj wrote

Article:

The Eris rocket developed by Australian company Gilmour Space will be the first Australian system to go into orbit if it successfully launches next year

Australian company Gilmour Space has nearly finished building a rocket that it will attempt to launch into space in April 2023. If successful, it will be Australia’s first homegrown orbital spacecraft.

“Space [technology] is one of the key enablers of society – it’s good for a nation to have access to space capability if it can,” says Adam Gilmour, a long-time space enthusiast who co-founded the company after working in banking for 20 years.

The rocket, called Eris, will stand 23 metres tall and weigh over 30 tonnes. It will be powered by five hybrid engines that contain a solid fuel and a liquid oxidiser.

A final test conducted in early November found that each engine could generate 115 kilonewtons of thrust – “enough to pick up three or four SUVs [sports utility vehicles] each”, says Gilmour.

The company expects to finish building Eris by March and is planning a test launch from a site near Bowen in north Queensland in April.

The rocket will be fitted with a lightweight satellite and aim to enter low Earth orbit.

“We’re confident it will take off the pad, but no first launch vehicle from a new company has ever successfully gone to space on the first try,” says Gilmour. “What generally happens is the second one works, so we’re building two of them so we can learn from the first and succeed with the second,” he says.

If the launch is successful, it will make Australia the 12th country in the world to send one of its own orbital rockets into space, joining the US, UK, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, France, Israel, India and Iran.

Most of the funding for the project has come from venture capital, with the Australian government contributing a small amount.

Following a successful launch, Gilmour Space plans to build bigger rockets that will be able to carry payloads of up to 1000 kilograms into low orbit. This would allow it to launch satellites for the Australian government and private companies for use in mining, agriculture, communications, defence, Earth observation and other areas.

“We’ve been using other countries’ rockets for the last 50 years, but there are a lot of restrictions,” says Gilmour. “If you’ve got an Australian launch vehicle, then if you’re an Australian company or the government, you’ve basically got unfettered access,” he says.

Aude Vignelles, the chief technology officer of the Australian Space Agency, says that having space capabilities would give a boost to Australia’s national well-being. “Australia’s geographical advantages and political stability [also] make us an attractive destination for launch activities,” she says.

If Eris successfully gets to orbit, it will be the first rocket with hybrid engines to do so, says Vignelles. Most rocket engines contain fuels and oxidisers that are both solids or liquids, since they tend to be more powerful. But several companies are developing hybrid engines that have one component in solid form and the other in liquid form, since they have the potential to be safer, simpler and cheaper.

Gilmour Space also has ambitions to build rockets that can carry astronauts by 2026.

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Hot_Teen_Girl t1_ix98uqp wrote

>If the launch is successful, it will make Australia the 12th country in the world to send one of its own orbital rockets into space, joining the US, UK, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, France, Israel, India and Iran.

Hilariously Australian to leave New Zealand off the list. RocketLab has sent up 32 rockets from Mahia Peninsula.

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robotical712 t1_ix99do7 wrote

For Australia, does a launch just consist of releasing the clamps?

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didi0625 t1_ix9hgw9 wrote

Let's hope for them it will be successful. Space is hard. Staying in orbit is harder. Sending payloads consistently in orbit is even harder. Many have failed before this point...

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untamedeuphoria t1_ixb63cb wrote

Not australia's first rocket. Australia's first rocket was for the launch of the WRESAT in 1967. Since then there has been a private a military launches, and even a few from NASA. WRESAT was a joint effort between the US the UK, and Australia. At that time the seperate countries did a lot of seperate and joint development. The rocket was a demestically modified redstone rocket from the US. The launch was from the Woomera testing range and spaceport. I have had a lot of trouble with my googlefu due to their efforts to make the search engine a marketing platform. But I am pretty sure that the payload was actually demestically developped.

There have also been a lot of space development in Australia over the years. But same old issue with every hightech industry here. The conservatives get in, pull funding, neglect international obligations, run the economy into a tight position, and them blame the centrist (which they call the left) for the economic situation. It's the reason why Australia almost pulled out of the square km array... atleast until it was made clear to our gov't it would be paying for it one way or another. Most of our tallent get exported to more fertile ground. As a result of this toxic lack of support between gov'ts. So much so that when I was getting my BS I was told that if I actually want to earn money I should think about moving somewhere else in the world. It's better these days. But the conservative dirtbags are looming again.

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untamedeuphoria t1_ixbdqfq wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#611,162)

I litterally said that it was an australian modified US rocket with a an AU payload in the text above. But if that's the rules we are playing by. Then I know of a 3D printed rocket company currently in NZ that did 80% of their dev work here before they bailed for greener pastures..

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untamedeuphoria t1_ixbkb67 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#611,264)

Um.... not true. The Redstone rocket arrived from the US in peices and unmodified and was a part of an arsenal of 10 rockets donated for civil aerospace by the US Air force. Each rocket was heavily modified in accordance to the missions they were to be used for. They were modified for factors such as payload aerodynamics and weight, trajectory requirements, and expected heat.

The modifications were carried out by the Weapons Research Establishment (now a part of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation) in the Australian military at the Woomera testing facility with designs and testing from the University of Adelaide. These modifications were also made in conjuction with TRW Inc in a mostly supervisory role focussing double checking and materials testing (the now defunct aerospace manufacturer that helped with the US modifications of the Redstone rockets for their early satelites in the 50s-early 60s such as the mercury and jupiter missions).

The Redstone rocket was originally a ballistic missile for nukes and was developed by the US military with german rocket engineers. At this point in time the US rocket tech was mostly german tech. The redstone rockets were a itteratively improved from an original design that came out of Army Ballistic Missile Agency and was manufactured by Chrysler from 1952 to 1961.

So you are wrong. While it was a US designed rocket (like I said), it was modified for each civil space mission in accordance to the needs. A task that was done by the Australian aerospace industry in Australia...

EDIT: A source https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwip34eh_MD7AhVXBYgKHVk8BpIQFnoECFAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.honeysucklecreek.net%2Fsupply%2FWRESAT%2FWRESAT_Images%2FWRESAT_booklet_Nov_1967.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1XPn5SDwlauNfZaDwr2xc-

Original Domain URL https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/

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The_Only_AL t1_ixd59g1 wrote

I’m actually thinking about moving to Bowen, just a few kms from the launch site.

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Decronym t1_ixd6g5j wrote

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

|Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |DSG|NASA Deep Space Gateway, proposed for lunar orbit| |DST|NASA Deep Space Transport operating from the proposed DSG| |ITAR|(US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations| |NRHO|Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit| |NRO|(US) National Reconnaissance Office| | |Near-Rectilinear Orbit, see NRHO|

^(3 acronyms in this thread; )^(the most compressed thread commented on today)^( has 36 acronyms.)
^([Thread #8327 for this sub, first seen 22nd Nov 2022, 15:42]) ^[FAQ] ^([Full list]) ^[Contact] ^([Source code])

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JornHorizons t1_ixdeax2 wrote

Replying to Screamingholt (#614,600)

Unfortunately alot of Australian history is forgotten like this example. Yes we were helped by the US in having quite an exciting space facility in Woomera with many achievements completed & in a slight sense ahead of the game, but politics was brought in as usual & we stopped it all & relied on US space program(s). Now we're paying the cost & having to catch up again & by creating the ASA in 2018.

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