AUSROC-Nano

Australian Space Research Institute * RMIT University
  

AUSROC- III
This small educational launcher is proposed for development by the nonprofit A.S.R.I. (Australian Space Research Institute), based at Adelaide and cooperating with 10 universities in Australia.

The first rocket is Ausroc III which will be designed to launch a 150 kg payload to an altitude of 500 km on a controlled sub-orbital trajectory. The pressure fed LOX/Kerosene vehicle design will include an ablative rocket motor, hydraulic motor gimbal system, carbon fibre fairings, carbon filament wound tanks, inertial navigation, telemetry and a cold gas thruster roll control system. The payload will experience 6 minutes of micro-gravity time before descending to earth under a guided controllable ram-air parachute. Ausroc III will be 9.2 metres long, 750 mm diameter, 1.5 tonne and will develop 35 kN thrust for 80 seconds.
Ausroc IV is presently the final stage of the Ausroc Programs. It is a proposed micro-satellite orbital launch vehicle to be constructed by clustering four Ausroc III vehicles (as the first stage) around a fifth vehicle which forms the second stage. The third stage is to be a solid fuel rocket motor. Ausroc IV will place a 30 kg satellite into a 300 km polar orbit.
A significant amount of design and other work for Ausroc IV has been undertaken since 1990 in parallel with Ausroc III.
In 1996 ASRI acquired a number of wedgetail third stage satellite launch vehicle motors from overseas. These motors are ideally suited as the third stage of Ausroc IV or as the second stage of a higher performance version of Ausroc III. Development of a composite solid fuel propellant composition for the Wedgetail  motors  has been completed by Adelaide University.
Preliminary discussions with the UK based ASPIRESPACE organisation, which has similar objectives and charter to ASRI, have resulted in positive steps being made towards the collaborative development of Ausroc IV. Under the collaborative arrangement. ASPIRESPACE will provide the complete second stage module and assistance with the third stage hardware.
                                                                                                                                        
 

The Australian Space Research Institute has been conducting an educational Launch Vehicle development program (AUSROC) since the late 1980’s. That program is currently comprised of: AUSROC 1 – Launched 1989, AUSROC 2-1 – Launch Failure 1992, AUSROC 2-2 – Launched 1995, AUSROC 2.5 – Launch planned 2009, AUSROC-III and AUSROC-IV were probably canceled. The ASRI program has strong local University support from all states in Australia. Each project has behind it a team of students and space industry professionals providing practical skills training and capability development.
AUSROC 2.5 is well advanced with construction of cryogenic tanks and rocket motor completed and undergoing testing. This was conceived as an interim stage to develop local expertise to a level that can support the more capable AUSROC 3. AUSROC 3 is intended to be the building block for a family of launch vehicles sharing a common architecture. The AUSROC-IV was designed to lift a 50kg satellite into Polar Low Earth Orbit from Woomera, South Australia. It uses four Ausroc-III modules in the 1st stage, an Ausroc-III module in the 2nd stage, and a solid fuelled 3rd stage to achieve this.