- Gilmour Space will be manufacturing hybrid rockets for space launch vehicles in collaboration with the University of Queensland.
- Australia along with many other countries like India and Israel have been working towards independent space flight technology.
Australia plans to manufacture hybrid rockets to send satellites into the lower Earth orbit by the year 2022. The country has been keen to become independent in terms of spaceflight for quite a while now and this move is a positive sign building in that direction.
These rockets that will be able to launch satellites into lower Earth orbit are a project jointly undertaken by the University of Queensland and Gilmour Space. All the components for the rocket will be manufactured in Australia but the country will still depend on other nations to supply them the Engines for those rockets.
The University has been focusing its attention towards developing a fuel-efficient energy system for those rockets which as they describe is one of the most complicated challenges in rocket manufacturing.
Dr. Ingo Jahn, Professor at University of Queensland has said that working closely together with researchers is highly important for the Australian Space Industry. He described the move to build components for the rocket in Australia as an important one and this will be beneficial for the Space vehicle launch Agency of Queensland form which industry manufacturers also stand to benefit. He also described building a fuel-efficient system as one of the most difficult challenges in Engineering.
James Gilmour, the Chief Executive and co-founder of Gilmour space said that this year would be an extremely busy one for the company as it develops and test various rockets for the launch vehicle. He also said that he was grateful to the University of Queensland and the Queensland government for supporting Gilmour’s efforts and described this opportunity as a wonderful one as it will allow research conducted at the University to be transformed into application of national importance.
Currently USA, Russia, China are the countries dominating independent spaceflights along with the European Space Agency alliance with countries like India, Israel and Australia all been pushing towards developing a more independent and homegrown space industry.
Source Credits:https://www.engadget.com/australia-hybrid-rockets-gilmour-space[-191245091.html, https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2020/06/queensland-designed-rocket-system-boost-australian-space-industry
