Institute for Space Propulsion
The Institute for Space Propulsion in Lampoldshausen is one of 27 national research locations of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) .
At the Lampoldshausen site, around 220 employees work in research and in the experimental operation of rocket test benches. The focus of the work is the operation of test benches for space propulsion systems on behalf of ESA and in cooperation with the European space industry.
history
The German Aerospace Center in Lampoldshausen was founded in 1959 by Eugen Sänger to test liquid rocket engines and started operations three years later. The work of the Institute for Space Propulsion , as the facility is called today, is used for basic research. Above all, the combustion processes in the engines of liquid rockets are examined on the various test stands .
At the end of the 1960s, static burning tests with the upper stage of the Europa rocket were carried out on the test site, which is located in the Harthausen Forest east of the Autobahn 81 , which was built in the 1970s .
Since the project was discontinued, static combustion tests have been carried out there with the engines of the Ariane rocket carrier family . 1996 saw the first launch of an Ariane 5 rocket. The Ariane 5 is a European launcher that was developed on behalf of ESA. It is the most powerful European launch vehicle and enables heavy payloads to be put into orbit. DLR Lampoldshausen played a key role in the development of the rocket.
In 2013 the DLR Forum for Space Propulsion opened with an exhibition on German-European space history for interested visitors and with the DLR_School_Lab for children and young people.
In 2016, the institute began to set up a hydrogen- producing power-to-gas plant, which will serve to research and further develop this storage technology on an industrial scale. In addition to a PEM electrolyser with an output of 1 MW, a block-type thermal power station is also being built that can be operated with the hydrogen produced. This is intended to provide the institute with full power and heat with little power generation from wind power and photovoltaic systems . Part of the hydrogen is also to be used for research on rocket engines at the site.
Test stands
There are numerous test stands on the approximately 51 hectare site.
Test bench P1
Small engines up to a thrust of 600 N are tested on the P1 altitude test stand . In particular, engines for stabilizing satellites and their apogee engines fall into this category.
Test stand P2
The test stand P2 is used to test hypergolic engines with a thrust level of up to 100 kN thrust under ground conditions.
Test stand P3
The P3 test stand is a component test stand for cryogenic fuels. It is mainly used for testing the development of combustion chambers. These include the combustion chambers of the Vulcain 1 and Vinci engines for the European Ariane 5 launch vehicle .
Test stand P4 (P4.1 / P4.2)
The vacuum test stand P4 is divided into two test cells, P4.1 and P4.2. Tests with the Aestus engine can be carried out on the P4.2 , and the P4.1 is used for tests with the new Vinci upper stage engine . In order to extract the combustion gases of the engines and to maintain the vacuum during the operation of the engine, the exhaust gases are extracted by means of several steam-operated ejector stages.
Test stand P5
History of the Vulcain test stand P5:
- 1988–1990: Construction of the test bench
- 1990–1996: Development trials of the Vulcain engine of the cryogenic main stage of the European Ariane 5 launcher
- 1996–1998: Acceptance campaigns for aircraft engines
- 1998–1999: Conversion of the test bench for the Vulcain 2 engine
- 1999–2002: Development and qualification tests for the improved Vulcain 2 engine
- 2018: Seven-month test campaign for the Vulcain 2.1 of Ariane 6
Test stand P5.2
The entire upper stage of Ariane 6 , the so-called Upper Liquid Propulsion Module (ULPM), is tested on the P5.2 test stand.
Test stand P6
The P6 test stand is an altitude test stand for cold gas engines .
Test stand P8
As part of a Franco-German collaboration, the idea arose to build a joint European research and technology test bench P8. In 1992 the partners SNECMA, Astrium, CNES and DLR tackled this project. The main focus of this test stand is the research into the high pressure combustion of oxygen and hydrogen . Today, material tests are also carried out there and variants of the various drive components are tested.
ArianeGroup GmbH
The space company ArianeGroup operates the Lampoldshausen plant on the DLR site with around 260 employees. There they develop engines, tanks and feed lines for satellites.
literature
- 50 years of DLR Lampoldshausen: 1959–2009 . Institute for Space Propulsion Lampoldshausen, Hardthausen 2009 ( at dlr.de , PDF, 11.80 MB).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ariane 5 . In: Wikipedia . May 26, 2020 ( wikipedia.org [accessed June 18, 2020]).
- ↑ DLR is building hydrogen power plant . In: Renewable Energies. Das Magazin , July 25, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- ^ P2 Test Facility, Lampoldshausen, Germany
- ↑ DLR Portal: Test stand P3 ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ DLR Portal: Test stand P4 ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ DLR Portal: Successful test of the VINCI upper stage engine with a new type of ceramic nozzle ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Vacuum test stand P4.1 (PDF, 633 kB)
- ↑ First ignition for Europe's most powerful rocket engine Vulcain 2.1 on dlr.de.
- ↑ DLR portal: Altitude simulation ( memento of the original from November 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ DLR Portal: Test stand P8 ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Astrium in Germany ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 100 kB; accessed on January 17, 2010)
Coordinates: 49 ° 17 ′ 6 ″ N , 9 ° 22 ′ 30 ″ E