Sounding rocket

A Black Brant XII being launched from Wallops Flight Facility.

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to carry instruments from 50 to 1,500 kilometres (31 to 932 mi)^[1] above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between weather balloons and satellites (the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40 kilometres (25 mi) and the minimum for satellites is approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi)).^[2] Certain sounding rockets, such as the Black Brant X and XII, have an apogee between 1,000 and 1,500 kilometres (620 and 930 mi); the maximum apogee of their class. Sounding rockets often use military surplus rocket motors.^[3] NASA routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boosted Improved Orion lifting 270–450-kilogram (600–990 lb) payloads into the exoatmospheric region between 100 and 200 kilometres (62 and 124 mi).^[4]

Etymology

The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary to sound, which is to throw a weighted line from a ship into the water to measure the water's depth. The term itself has its etymological roots in the Portuguese / Italian / Spanish and French words for probe, which are "sonda" and "sonde", respectively. Sounding in the rocket context is equivalent to taking a measurement.^[3]

Design

Sample payloads for sounding rockets

A common sounding rocket consists of a solid-fuel rocket motor and a science payload.^[3] Larger, higher altitude rockets have 2 to 3 stages to increase efficiency and payload capability. The freefall part of the flight is an elliptic trajectory with vertical major axis allowing the payload to appear to hover near its apogee.^[2] The average flight time is less than 30 minutes, usually between five and 20 minutes.^[2] The rocket consumes its fuel on the first stage of the rising part of the flight, then separates and falls away, leaving the payload to complete the arc and return to the ground under a parachute.^[3]

Advantages

Sounding rockets are advantageous for some research because of their low cost,^[2] short lead time (sometimes less than six months)^[3] and their ability to conduct research in areas inaccessible to either balloons or satellites. They are also used as test beds for equipment that will be used in more expensive and risky orbital spaceflight missions.^[2] The smaller size of a sounding rocket also makes launching from temporary sites possible allowing for field studies at remote locations, even in the middle of the ocean, if fired from a ship.^[5]

Research applications

Sounding rockets are commonly used for:

Research in aeronomy, which requires this tool for in situ measurements in the upper atmosphere
Ultraviolet and X-ray astronomy, which require being above the bulk of the Earth's atmosphere
Microgravity research, which benefits from a few minutes of weightlessness on rockets launched to altitudes of a few hundred kilometers

Operators and programs

Poker Flat Research Range is owned by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is the largest range in the world.
The British Skylark rocket was first designed in 1955 and was used for 441 launches before it was terminated in 2005
ISRO's VSSC developed the Rohini sounding rockets series starting in 1967 that reached altitudes of 500 km
The Australian Space Research Institute (ASRI) operates a Small Sounding Rocket Program (SSRP) for launching payloads (mostly educational) to altitudes of about 7 km
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) launched a Sounding Rocket (Vyom) in May, 2012, which reached an altitude of 15 km. Vyom Mk-II is in its conceptual design stage with an objective to reach 70 km altitude with 20 kg payload capacity.
The University of Queensland operates Terrier-Orion sounding rockets (capable of reaching altitudes in excess of 300 km) as part of their HyShot hypersonics research
Iranian Space Agency operated its first sounding rocket in February 2007
UP Aerospace operates the SpaceLoft XL sounding rocket that can reach altitudes of 225 km
TEXUS and MiniTEXUS, German rocket programmes at Esrange for DLR and ESA microgravity research programmes
Astrium operates missions with sounding rockets on a commercial basis, as prime contractor to ESA or the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).
MASER, Swedish rocket programme at Esrange for ESA microgravity research programmes
MAXUS, German-Swedish rocket programme at Esrange for ESA microgravity research programmes
REXUS, German-Swedish rocket programme at Esrange for DLR and ESA student experiment programmes
The NASA Sounding Rocket Program
The JAXA operates the sounding rockets S-310/S-520/SS-520
New Zealand company Rocket Lab is developing the highly adaptable Atea series of sounding rockets to carry 5–70 kg payloads to altitudes of 250 km or greater
The Meteor rockets were built in Poland between 1963 and 1974.
The Kartika I rocket was built and launched in Indonesia by LAPAN on 1964, becoming the second sounding rocket in Asia after Japan.
The Soviet Union developed an extensive program using rockets such as the M-100, the most used ever; its successor by its successor state, Russia, is the MR-20.
Brazil has been launching its own sounding rockets since 1965. The largest and most current family of rocket are the Sonda rockets, which are the R&D basis for Brazil's soon-to-be-launch VLS satellite launcher.

References

↑ nasa.gov NASA Sounding Rocket Program Handbook, June 2005, p. 1
1 2 3 4 5 "NASA Sounding Rocket Program Overview". NASA Sounding Rocket Program. NASA. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2006.
1 2 3 4 5 Marconi, Elaine M. (12 April 2004). "What is a Sounding Rocket?". Research Aircraft. NASA. Retrieved 10 October 2006.
↑ NASA Sounding Rocket Handbook
↑ "General Description of Sounding Rockets". Johns Hopkins University Sounding Rocket Program. Retrieved 10 October 2006.

External links

Look up sounding rocket in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Earth-based meteorological equipment and instrumentation

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