Media Releases 2010
10,000 km/h engines to be tested for space research program
Mackerras portrait hangs proudly in Academy Library
NASA balloon launch in Alice to reveal more about black holes
Award-winning research a step towards engine efficiency
For more information on any of these stories, please contact the Public Relations Manager UNSW@ADFA on 6268 8760 or publicrelations@adfa.edu.au.
10,000 km/h engines to be tested for space research program
The Federal Government has contributed $5 million towards a space research project in which four researchers from UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy will play a key role in the testing of scramjet engine rockets capable of reaching velocities ten times the speed of sound.
UNSW@ADFA researchers Professor Ian Petersen, Dr Sean O’Byrne, Dr Andrew Neely and Dr Tapabrata Ray have joined a consortium, led by the University of Queensland, which will test scramjet-based systems for possible use in a fuel-efficient hybrid engine for launching spacecraft.
“Scramjets are air-breathing Supersonic Combustion Ramjets used to propel aircraft at hypersonic (Mach 5 plus) speeds. The scramjet to be tested under the ASRP funding will reach speeds of up to Mach 10, which is approximately 10,000 km/h, or five times faster than the Concorde,” said Dr Neely.
“If we can make the engine work at higher speeds the cost of transporting payloads, such as communications satellites, into space will be much lower because the engine will require less fuel and oxygen than a conventional rocket.”
UNSW@ADFA has a long history of hypersonics research including involvement in the first successful flight of a scramjet by the University of Queensland's HySHOT program in 2003 and later as a major partner in the Australian Hypersonics Initiative which conducted the HyCAUSE flight test with high-profile US agencies in 2007. The results of these endeavours and many others have taken Australia to the forefront of hypersonics research.
However, the scramjet requires improvement for it to be a reliable fuel-efficient system. An important new technology introduced in these experiments is the optical instrumentation. This part of the project will be led by Dr O’Byrne.
“Our optical instrumentation uses small laser diodes, similar to those used in computer mice, to measure the temperature and speed of the air flow through the engine. This will be the first laser-based measurement on the inlet of a hypersonic engine,” said Dr O’Byrne.
“This technology can make several hundred of these measurements each second, and will eventually be an important part of a management and control system for these high-speed engines. At hypersonic speeds the temperature can change dramatically if the orientation of the engine inlet changes even by a very small amount. So, a fast engine management system is essential to make sure the scramjet operates properly.”
UNSW@ADFA is currently testing the same technology to measure exhaust emission in conventional aircraft and car exhausts, to monitor engine health over a vehicle’s working life.
UNSW@ADFA will also play a role in the prediction and measurement of the extreme heating of the vehicle during flight (Dr Andrew Neely), design optimisation (Dr Tapabrata Ray) and robust hypersonic control (Professor Ian Petersen).
The $14 million collaborative project also involves the University of Adelaide, the University of Southern Queensland, the University of Minnesota, the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, BAE Systems, Boeing Research and Technology Australia, and the Japanese, German and Italian Space Agencies.
It is part of the Federal Government’s $40 million Australian Space Research Program (ASRP), a strategy of the $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative to support projects that build on Australia’s research strengths.
During his announcement of the funding, Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr praised the consortium for their smart approach to the Australian Space Research Program, which encouraged applicants to assemble national and international teams with wide skills and experience.
“The projects we are funding under the ASRP will promote new opportunities and new investment in Australian space science and the Australian space industry,” Senator Carr said.
Photo: courtesy Defence Science and Training Organisation
Mackerras portrait hangs proudly in Academy Library
3 March 2010
Professor John Baird, Rector of UNSW@ADFA has unveiled a portrait of well-known political election analyst and Visiting Fellow Mr Malcolm Mackerras AO.
The Academy Library received the portrait, entitled ‘Malcolm Mackerras – Psephologist', from artist Lana McLean who had entered it into the Archibald Prize in 2009. A ceremony was held to acknowledge the donation on Friday 26 February 2010.
Mr Mackerras AO was a lecturer in the Royal Military College (RMC) Duntroon from 1974 until the Australian Defence Force Academy was built in 1986. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1984 and held the title of Associate Professor from 1999 until 2004. Malcolm is currently a Visiting Fellow in Political Science in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Prior to his academic life, Malcolm was employed by BHP from 1957 until 1960; he then joined the Liberal Party of Australia (Federal Secretariat) as a research officer. Malcolm made the decision to become an academic in 1971, after spending 2 years as a ministerial assistant and 3 years as an economist.
Malcolm is well-known in the political arena for his interest in elections and electoral systems. He is commonly described as a ’psephologist’ which means ’one who studies elections’”. Malcolm introduced The Mackerras Pendulum, a tool that illustrates the results of elections. The Mackerras Pendulum works for a Westminster style lower house legislature such as the Australian House of Representatives, where preferential voting is used with single-member electorates. The pendulum lines up all of the seats held in Parliament for the government, the opposition and the cross benches according to the percentage point margin, to predict swings required for two parties to take seats.
Due to Malcolm’s interest in elections, he has visited democratic countries during their elections and analysed the results. He visited South Africa in 1999 and was in the United States for the 2000 Presidential election.
“Those visits have greatly improved my teaching in American politics,” said Malcolm. Since 2002 Malcolm has been specialising in Australian elections.
Malcolm has been actively involved in writing and broadcasting since 1969. His most recent books are Australian Political Facts: Second Edition (Macmillan, 1997) and Constitutional Politics: The Republic Referendum and the Future (University of Queensland Press, 2002). Malcolm has also written many newspaper articles for both The Australian and Canberra Times. His most recent commentary on the 43rd general election for House of Representative to be held later this year was an article in The Weekend Australian on 6-7 February 2010 (page 2) Changes lift Rudd’s chances, where he confidently predicts the result of this year’s election.
With Malcolm’s outstanding contribution to the Australian political and education environment, on Australia Day January 2006, he was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia, Australia’s second-highest honour behind an AC (Companion of the Order). The citation of the honour reads: “For service to the community by raising public awareness of and encouraging debate about the political process in Australia and other western democracies, and through commitment to reform and improvement of the electoral system, and to education.”
Malcolm lives in the ACT with his wife Lindsay. They have twin sons and a daughter.
NASA balloon launch in Alice to reveal more about black holes
15 February, 2010
Associate Professor Ravi Sood, of the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, will coordinate a mission on behalf of NASA to launch the first stratospheric balloons in Australia since 2003.
Dr Sood will launch the first of several balloons on 15 March 2010 from Australia’s Balloon Launching Station in Alice Springs in an attempt to measure X-rays and gamma rays emanating from stars and galaxies, which are essential to understanding the physics of black holes.
Black holes are commonly seen in the centre of most galaxies, including the Milky Way, but remain a fascinating mystery to scientists.
“The best way to understand the properties of black holes is to study the X-rays that are produced by gravitationally attracted matter before it disappears into the black hole ” said Dr Sood.
Dr Sood is Australia’s only stratospheric balloon scientist and manages the Balloon Launching Station in Alice Springs. He will coordinate the mission that will see balloons each the size of a football field carry two-tonne instruments 40km into the stratosphere.
“For the balloon to be able to carry equipment to such a great altitude for a long period of time, it needs to be very big in volume. The balloon material therefore has to be light to keep the balloon weight to manageable limits – 1 to 2 tonnes” said Dr Sood.
The stratospheric balloons, which are manufactured in the United States and will be launched in Alice Springs by staff from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, are made of a material of the thickness of cling film. The instruments that they will carry are highly sensitive state-of-the-art detectors of X-rays and gamma-rays. These instruments will be supplied by three scientific groups from the USA: University of California, Riverside;• University of California, Berkeley; and Marshall Space Flight Centre, Alabama.
About 60 scientists and technical staff will arrive in Alice Springs over the next three weeks for the balloon campaign.
“We’re hoping that each flight will stay afloat for at least 72 hours. During this time it may well cover half the width of Australia”.
From the Balloon Launching Station in Alice Springs, the balloons can be tracked for 700km until they are over the horizon. Thereafter, the tracking will be carried out from Newman in Western Australia if the balloon drifts towards the West, or from Longreach in Queensland if the float winds blow towards the East.
The last mission to be launched from the Station was in 2003, when NASA tested its Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) capable of circumnavigating the globe for up to 100 days.
“These exercises require an enormous amount of logistical preparation in addition to the scientific work. For example, all air traffic will need to be notified and diverted during the ascent and descent of the balloon” said Dr Sood.
The balloon launching campaign commenced on Monday 8 February 2010 and will run through until 31 May, with the first launch scheduled for Monday 15 March. While the launch will not be open to the public for safety and security reasons, media may request permission to cover the mission.
For more information, please contact the Public Relations Manager UNSW@ADFA on 6268 8760 or publicrelations@adfa.edu.au.
Award-winning research a step towards engine efficiency
8 February, 2010
UNSW@ADFA graduate Lena Huynh was awarded the Best Paper Award at the Australasian Branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Australian-Asia Regional Student Conference in Melbourne.
In addition to a cash prize of USD500, OffCdt Huynh won the opportunity to present her paper, “Water Vapour Absorption Spectroscopy in a Simulated Helicopter Exhaust, using Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers”, at the 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting in Orlando, Florida in January. This is the world’s largest and most prestigious aerospace conference.
Lena graduated from UNSW@ADFA at the end of last year after completing a degree in Engineering (Aerospace). As part of the degree, she conducted a research project in her final year, under the supervision of Dr Sean O'Byrne.
The aim of Lena’s research project was to measure the water vapour concentration and temperature in the exhaust of Defence Science and Technology Organisation's Infrared Suppression Facility, using a technique called laser spectroscopy. Lena designed a sensor that was rugged enough to make measurements at temperatures of up to 600 degrees Celcius. The same technique is also being implemented by UNSW@ADFA PhD Student Sven Wittig to make air speed and temperature measurements in the intakes of the next generation of high-speed experimental engines.
“The sensor measures gas temperatures and concentrations using the same sorts of diodes found in computer mice,” said Dr O’Byrne. “One big advantage is that because we measure the absorption of light, the sensor does not interfere with the flow at all.”
As well as making measurements in jet engines, the same technology can be used wherever monitoring combustion emissions is necessary. “We measured water vapour in Lena’s measurements, but we can also measure CO² or CO in power stations, and are currently working on sensors for vehicle exhausts, to make engines operate more efficiently,” Dr O’Byrne states. “Right now, if you want to know what’s coming out of a car exhaust, you need to run a pipe from the exhaust to a large and expensive analysis rig. This technology is smaller, faster, and potentially inexpensive enough to be part of an engine management system.”
Lena also presented a paper with Dr O'Byrne on the experimental work at the Australian Combustion Symposium in Brisbane last December, and won the Beaufort Bomber Prize for Best Final-Year Aerospace Thesis Award at UNSW@ADFA in 2009.
Lena Huynh currently lives in Canberra and works for the Australian Defence Force Infrastructure Asset Development Branch.
For more information, please contact UNSW@ADFA PR Manager, Rebecca Lane publicrelations@adfa.edu.au, +61 (02) 6268 8760