UQ SPARTAN Project

[CameronD]

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2015/08/launching-australia-space

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Australia’s hypersonic industry to join the space community,” Professor Smart said.

[Archibald]

Let me see if I understood the concept correctly. It's a three stages vehicle made of
- a flyback booster up to mach 5
- a scramjet between mach 5 and mach 10
- an expendable rocket upper stage

Sounds a little complicated to me...

[Prober]

Let me see if I understood the concept correctly. It's a three stages vehicle made of
- a flyback booster up to mach 5
- a scramjet between mach 5 and mach 10
- an expendable rocket upper stage

Sounds a little complicated to me...

looks nice and the research might be interesting, but do we need another low end launcher?
 

[CameronD]

Let me see if I understood the concept correctly. It's a three stages vehicle made of
- a flyback booster up to mach 5
- a scramjet between mach 5 and mach 10
- an expendable rocket upper stage

Sounds a little complicated to me...

looks nice and the research might be interesting, but do we need another low end launcher?

Well.. one might argue that we don't have ANY right now - just lots of paper sketches, some test hardware and the odd dream waiting to be fully funded. 

Besides, if it (a) gets Uni students interested in real space flight at some point in their careers and (b) garners continuing research funding for said Uni, then that has to be a good thing - right?

[savuporo]

looks nice and the research might be interesting, but do we need another low end launcher?

Well.. one might argue that we don't have ANY right now - just lots of paper sketches, some test hardware and the odd dream waiting to be fully funded. 

Just in US, Pegasus and Minotaur are operational, in that payload bracket. Falcon-1 was retired for stated reason of lacking a market. Worldwide there is of course plenty more.

[CameronD]

looks nice and the research might be interesting, but do we need another low end launcher?

Well.. one might argue that we don't have ANY right now - just lots of paper sketches, some test hardware and the odd dream waiting to be fully funded. 

Just in US, Pegasus and Minotaur are operational, in that payload bracket. Falcon-1 was retired for stated reason of lacking a market. Worldwide there is of course plenty more.

I forgot about them.  Minotaur.. and the next launch is when, exactly??

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/07/09/minotaur-rocket-selected-to-launch-military-satellite-in-2017/

As I said, one might argue.. 

[TrevorMonty]

Let me see if I understood the concept correctly. It's a three stages vehicle made of
- a flyback booster up to mach 5
- a scramjet between mach 5 and mach 10
- an expendable rocket upper stage

Sounds a little complicated to me...

Just make the rocket powered 1st stage, stage at mach10 and skip the scramjet 2nd stage.

[Archibald]

My understanding is that university of Queensland has 20 years of experience testing scramjets. So they can't skip it for classical rocket engines.