Scientific working group for rocket technology and space travel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Scientific Working Group for Rocket Technology and Space Travel ( WARR ) is a student group from the Technical University of Munich . It was founded in 1962 by Robert Schmucker . Originally, the group's goal was to make up for the lack of a chair in space technology . Since the establishment of this chair in 1966, WARR has mainly dealt with practical projects in the field of space travel. Today the aim of the group is that students from many disciplines can supplement the theoretical knowledge they have acquired during their studies with practical experience. Probably the greatest success of WARR so far is the construction and flight of the first German hybrid rocket called Barbarella on March 12, 1974. This rocket can be viewed today in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

history

1962 Founding of WARR by Robert Schmucker
1966-1974 Research on engines for hybrid missiles
1974 First flight of Barbarella (first German hybrid rocket , exhibit in the Deutsches Museum)
from 1975 Research on engines for liquid rockets
1985 Scientific payload OTUMAS on a sounding rocket
1985 Studies on its own sounding rocket called HARRY-1
2000 Construction of a hybrid demonstrator engine
2002 Moving into the new premises in Garching and setting up a test bench
2004 Presentation of the projects at the ILA in Berlin
from 2005 Scientific payload T-Rex on the Swedish sounding rocket Rexus in cooperation with the Chair of Space Technology and EADS Astrium GmbH.
Working on the Space Elevator ( elevator to space ), Cubesat (mini satellite) and Micro-Hybrid (miniature hybrid engine) projects
2006 1. WARR Winter Launch (WWL, model rocket competition ) and presentation of the projects at the ILA in Berlin
2009 Founding of the WARR Interstellar Flight Team
2011 Organization of and participation in the first European Space Elevator Challenge (EuSPEC for short) on the grounds of the TU Munich.
2012 Participation in the Ideas Park in Essen
2012 Participation in the SpaceUp unconference in Stuttgart
2012 Foundation of the satellite technology project group, start of work on Cubesat MOVE-II with funding from DLR
2013 Foundation of the STERN project group with the aim of setting a new height record for student rockets in Europe.
2013 Foundation of the "WARR Space Manufacturing" project group to research 3D printing possibilities under microgravity.
2013 Launch of the student satellite First-MOVE into polar earth orbit.
2013 The Interstellar Space Flight project group wins the international Icarus Design Competition for an unmanned interstellar space probe with fusion drive.
2015 Launch of the experimental rocket WARR-Ex 2 from CLBI in Brazil .
2015 The Interstellar Space Flight project group wins the international Dragonfly Design Competition for an unmanned interstellar space probe with laser sail propulsion.
2015 Foundation of the Hyperloop project group, start of the development of a prototype for a Hyperloop capsule for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.
2017 Wins the SpaceX Hyperloop competitions in January and August

Project groups

Rocket technology

The WARR-Ex 2 on its launch pad

Rocket Technology is the oldest project group in WARR and has existed since it was founded in 1962. After a great success was achieved with the launch of the first German hybrid rocket Barbarella in 1974, test engines were primarily built in the following decades. It was not until 2009 that the development of its own rocket under the name WARR-Ex 2 began again. The HYPER-1 hybrid engine developed by WARR with the polymer HTPB as fuel and nitrous oxide as oxidizer served as the drive. The rocket was successfully launched on May 20, 2015 from the CLBI rocket base on the Brazilian Atlantic coast and reached a maximum altitude of approx. 5 km.

Even before the start of WARR-Ex 2 , work on the successor WARR-Ex 3 began as part of the STERN (STudentische Experimental-RaketeN) project organized and financed by the German Aerospace Center . Since WARR-Ex 2 met the objectives of STERN already fulfilled, it was decided to build a larger rocket with the aim of breaking the European height record for student rockets. This is currently around 30 km. In order to be able to meet this goal, the WARR-Ex 3 should use liquid oxygen instead of nitrous oxide as an oxidizer, with HTPB still being used as fuel. The start of the WARR-Ex 3 is currently planned for the beginning of 2017.

Satellite technology

Rendering of the satellite bus from MOVE-II

After the Cubesat First-MOVE was mainly developed by doctoral students from the Chair of Space Technology (LRT) at TUM , the successor MOVE-II is increasingly focusing on the involvement of students. In order to be able to use the existing infrastructure of the WARR, a separate project group was founded, whose members work on all subsystems of the satellite. Only the project manager is an employee of the LRT. In 2012 the development of a mission concept began. After approval of funding by the German Aerospace Center at the beginning of 2015, a start is now expected at the end of 2017.

MOVE-II is a 10 × 10 × 20 cm satellite (2U- Cubesat ). Half of it consists of a bus , which is responsible for power supply, communication and position control, and half of a scientific payload. This is a particle detector which is currently being developed at the TUM Physics Faculty . The aim is to study low-energy antiprotons in Earth orbit.

In addition to the experience gained by working in a real space project, WARR also enables students to participate in international conferences and scientific publications.

Space elevator

Since it was founded in 2006, WARR Space-Elevator has been concerned with the conception and development of climber robots on the one hand and with the organization of the right competition on the other. The first climber was designed for the JSETEC2009 and was able to complete the 150 m distance in the shortest possible time. In 2011 the own competition "EUSPEC" was launched, with a rating that places a major focus on energy efficiency.

In the following year, this was carried out again, doubling the cable distance from 25 m to 50 m. A total of four teams from Japan, one from the USA and their own team were involved in both competitions. The winner in 2012 was the "Aoki Laboratory B" team from Nihon University in Japan.

Interstellar Flight

Rendering of the Dragonfly probe: This WARR design won the Project Dragonfly Design Competition

The WARR Interstellar Flight Team (ISF) deals with interstellar flight in general and in particular with manned interstellar flight . Under interstellar flight is meant to bridge the distance between stars by a spaceship. The WARR ISF has four main goals:

  • Research in the field of unmanned and manned interstellar flight
  • Application of engineering methods, especially from the field of interdisciplinary system development
  • Publication of the results at international conferences and in international journals
  • Presentation of the research results to a broad public

At the beginning of May 2013, the WARR Interstellar Flight's Ghost Team took part in the Project Icarus Concept Design Competition. The name "Ghost" stands for the sudden appearance of the team in the competition and the corresponding surprise of the other teams. The fusion drive, radiators for heat dissipation, the mission sequence, tanks and the overall configuration were worked out in working meetings and workshops. The team presented their concept in October 2013 on the premises of the British Interplanetary Society and was recognized for the best design among the four international teams.

In October 2014, the ISF team began work on an interstellar space probe with laser sail propulsion for the Project Dragonfly Design Competition of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (I4IS). In this competition too, the WARR team's design prevailed against international competition.

Hyperloop

The Hyperloop project group was founded in August 2015 to take part in the “Hyperloop Pod Competition” organized by SpaceX . From initially more than 700 participants, the team was able to prevail in January 2016 as one of 30 teams that is allowed to build a prototype for the final round of the competition in summer 2016.

The prototype developed by WARR uses an electrodynamic suspension system and a turbo compressor to minimize the flow resistance in the rough vacuum of the tube.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.warr.de/de/die-warr/ueber-die-warr
  2. ^ WARR Interstellar Space Flight. (No longer available online.) WARR, archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 27, 2013 .
  3. ^ Projects 2011. Klaus Höchstetter Foundation, accessed on November 27, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Pascal Hesse: Taking the elevator into space at the ideas park at Messe Essen. The West, August 14, 2012, accessed November 27, 2013 .
  5. ↑ AerospaceResearch.net: spaceup stuttgart 2012 20min talk michael deiml warr and their current projects. (No longer available online.) AerospaceResearch.net, January 29, 2013, archived from the original on December 4, 2013 ; accessed on January 8, 2014 .
  6. ↑ a b c WARR: WARR satellite technology. (No longer available online.) WARR January 29, 2013, archived from the original on December 4, 2013 ; accessed on September 20, 2015 .
  7. ↑ a b Rocket Technology - Cryosphere Project. (No longer available online.) WARR June 4, 2013, archived from the original on August 1, 2015 ; accessed on September 20, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Rocket Technology - Cryosphere Project. (No longer available online.) WARR, archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 27, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Two Bavarian university satellites in space. Heise, November 21, 2013, accessed November 27, 2013 .
  10. ↑ a b Facebook page for the start of WARR-Ex 2. WARR, June 4, 2015, accessed on September 20, 2015 .
  11. ↑ a b Small Interstellar Probes, Riding Laser Beams - The Project Dragonfly Design Competition Workshop. Centauri Dreams, July 17, 2015, accessed September 20, 2015 .
  12. ↑ a b Elon Musk has pneumatic tube travel tested. Zeit Online, February 18, 2016, accessed March 14, 2016 .
  13. ↑ With 200+ mph track run, German students win fastest reported Hyperloop pod - Ars Technica
  14. ^ STERN: The rocket program for students. DLR, accessed on September 20, 2015 .
  15. ↑ 3rd STERN campaign with height record for student rockets. DLR, accessed on December 19, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Results from Asia's first ever Space Elevator Competition. (PDF; 184 kB) (No longer available online.) Japan Space Elevator Association, August 13, 2009, archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; accessed on November 27, 2013 (English).
  17. ↑ EuroSpaceward announces EuSEC - the first European Space Elevator Challenge! The Space Elevator Blog, October 21, 2010, accessed November 27, 2013 .
  18. ↑ The European Space Elevator Challenge goes into the second round. ESA, September 14, 2012, accessed November 27, 2013 .
  19. ↑ Results of the European Space Elevator Challenge. WARR, November 12, 2012, accessed January 10, 2014 .
  20. ^ Interstellar Space Flight - Project Icarus. (No longer available online.) WARR, archived from the original on December 2, 2013 ; Retrieved November 27, 2013 .
  21. ↑ a b The WARR Ghost team. (No longer available online.) WARR, archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; Retrieved November 27, 2013 .
  22. ^ Hyperloop. SpaceX, accessed March 14, 2016 .
  23. ↑ The future of travel? How Munich students build the Hyperloop. The Huffington Post, February 3, 2016, accessed March 14, 2016 .