Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100263
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Magnetohydrodynamic aerobraking to land heavy payloads on Mars. This project aims to decelerate space vehicles by applying a magnetic field to the hot ionised gases that form around the vehicle. In the thin atmosphere of Mars, aerodynamic drag alone is not enough to land a spacecraft larger than 1 tonne. A human mission to Mars requires landing of payloads up to 80 tonnes. Interaction of the magnetic field with the ionised flow dissipates kinetic energy and can reduce surface heating. This proje ....Magnetohydrodynamic aerobraking to land heavy payloads on Mars. This project aims to decelerate space vehicles by applying a magnetic field to the hot ionised gases that form around the vehicle. In the thin atmosphere of Mars, aerodynamic drag alone is not enough to land a spacecraft larger than 1 tonne. A human mission to Mars requires landing of payloads up to 80 tonnes. Interaction of the magnetic field with the ionised flow dissipates kinetic energy and can reduce surface heating. This project could make Mars-return missions feasible by enabling greatly increased payloads. It also aims to evaluate magnetohydrodynamic braking and heat mitigation at true flight conditions.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100849
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,000.00
Summary
Advanced thermal protection systems to enable Mars return missions. This project aims to advance the modelling of spacecraft heat shield performance to enable future returns to Earth from Mars, where vehicles will encounter heating loads an order of magnitude higher than Lunar returns. Survival depends on sacrificial heat shields which intentionally lose mass through ablation to form a protective layer. Currently, this process cannot be predicted accurately leading to compromised safety, excessi ....Advanced thermal protection systems to enable Mars return missions. This project aims to advance the modelling of spacecraft heat shield performance to enable future returns to Earth from Mars, where vehicles will encounter heating loads an order of magnitude higher than Lunar returns. Survival depends on sacrificial heat shields which intentionally lose mass through ablation to form a protective layer. Currently, this process cannot be predicted accurately leading to compromised safety, excessive weight, and increased mission cost. The expected outcome is an ablation model for vehicle design which, for the first time, is based on experiments with a realistic aerodynamic flow. The significance and benefit of this project is its potential to make ambitious missions such as a Mars return feasible.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101072
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$431,722.00
Summary
Beyond Apollo: The interaction of radiation and ablation during Mars return. This project aims to investigate how flow radiation and heat shield ablation products interact under the fastest hypersonic Earth entry conditions ever considered – Mars return. To survive the harsh conditions experienced during planetary entry, spacecraft rely on ablative heat shields burning away through processes which are still not fully understood. Using UQ’s unique X2 hypersonic wind tunnel to generate realistic f ....Beyond Apollo: The interaction of radiation and ablation during Mars return. This project aims to investigate how flow radiation and heat shield ablation products interact under the fastest hypersonic Earth entry conditions ever considered – Mars return. To survive the harsh conditions experienced during planetary entry, spacecraft rely on ablative heat shields burning away through processes which are still not fully understood. Using UQ’s unique X2 hypersonic wind tunnel to generate realistic flight conditions, the expected outcome of this project is an enhanced understanding of the complex ablation radiation coupling physics experienced during Mars return. This will bring humankind closer to travelling to and from Mars and increase our knowledge of these entries and the specialist materials needed to survive them.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101674
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$392,310.00
Summary
Novel Testing of a Supersonic Airbreathing Rotating Detonation Engine. Rotating detonation engines offer the potential for improved propulsive efficiency in high speed flight, but the challenges of integrating the advanced detonation combustion process with an airbreathing engine inlet are yet to be met. This project aims to develop a unique Australian testing capability for airbreathing rotating detonation engines and, utilising this capability, to generate unique experimental data to further t ....Novel Testing of a Supersonic Airbreathing Rotating Detonation Engine. Rotating detonation engines offer the potential for improved propulsive efficiency in high speed flight, but the challenges of integrating the advanced detonation combustion process with an airbreathing engine inlet are yet to be met. This project aims to develop a unique Australian testing capability for airbreathing rotating detonation engines and, utilising this capability, to generate unique experimental data to further the operational understanding of airbreathing rotation detonation engines. By contributing essential research to this new engine concept, Australia can forge intellectual capital and international partnerships, and help provide the benefits of cost and weight savings associated with higher performance engines.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102277
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Design optimisation and physical behaviour of fuel injection and mixing for innovative scramjet concepts. Scramjets are a potential game changer for satellite launch and high speed flight. The phenomena that will make or break them are complex, and achieving optimal designs is hugely challenging. This project combines advanced optimisation techniques and flow simulations to find, and understand, optimal fuel injection for innovative scramjet designs.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100932
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,220.00
Summary
Hypervelocity Roughness-Induced Laminar-Turbulent Transition for Advanced Scramjet Flow Control. Scramjet technology is set to make air-breathing flight beyond five times the speed of sound a reality. At such speeds, complex aerodynamic phenomena are likely to cause flow separation in the scramjet, hence significantly affecting its operability. This project will establish the applicability of discrete surface micro-roughness elements to induce the laminar-turbulent transition of hypervelocity bo ....Hypervelocity Roughness-Induced Laminar-Turbulent Transition for Advanced Scramjet Flow Control. Scramjet technology is set to make air-breathing flight beyond five times the speed of sound a reality. At such speeds, complex aerodynamic phenomena are likely to cause flow separation in the scramjet, hence significantly affecting its operability. This project will establish the applicability of discrete surface micro-roughness elements to induce the laminar-turbulent transition of hypervelocity boundary layers, with the purpose of energising the surface flow entering the engine so that it can sustain higher adverse pressure gradients without separating. This project will undertake a targeted ground test program to characterise the physical mechanisms of hypervelocity roughness-induced laminar-turbulent transition.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100003
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$450,675.00
Summary
Understanding diversity: chemical and kinematic tracers of galaxy evolution. Understanding how galaxies form and evolve throughout the Universe is one of the biggest outstanding challenges in astrophysics. The project aims to develop an innovative method for understanding the fundamental properties of angular momentum and chemical content of all kinds of galaxies. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the field of galaxy evolution, for the first time enabling astronomers to robustly ....Understanding diversity: chemical and kinematic tracers of galaxy evolution. Understanding how galaxies form and evolve throughout the Universe is one of the biggest outstanding challenges in astrophysics. The project aims to develop an innovative method for understanding the fundamental properties of angular momentum and chemical content of all kinds of galaxies. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the field of galaxy evolution, for the first time enabling astronomers to robustly compare distant, long-ago galaxies with those in the nearby, present-day Universe. Expected outcomes include a novel framework for determining galaxy morphology, based on fundamental physics. The framework will be highly beneficial to understanding the evolution of diverse types of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101893
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,489.00
Summary
The Origins and Evolution of the Most Abundant Planets in our Galaxy. The majority of planetary systems around other stars are not like our Solar System. We now know that the most common types of exoplanets are super-Earths and Neptunes, planets with sizes ranging from Earth to Neptune, residing close to their parent stars. This project aims to characterise these planets at various stages of their evolution. This project will utilise Australian facilities to characterise new planets from the TES ....The Origins and Evolution of the Most Abundant Planets in our Galaxy. The majority of planetary systems around other stars are not like our Solar System. We now know that the most common types of exoplanets are super-Earths and Neptunes, planets with sizes ranging from Earth to Neptune, residing close to their parent stars. This project aims to characterise these planets at various stages of their evolution. This project will utilise Australian facilities to characterise new planets from the TESS space telescope, and is expected to probe the dynamical and physical properties of super-Earths and Neptunes as a function of age. Important benefits from this project include directly answering the origins of this dominant class of planets, and developing the techniques for the next decade of exoplanetary research.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101639
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$444,075.00
Summary
Getting to Know the Neighbours: Naked-Eye Stars and Their Planets. We now know that nearly all stars host planets, and exoplanet science is now turning to bright individual systems. This Project aims to study the nearest, brightest stars by extending the capabilities of NASA's TESS telescope and Mount Kent Observatory. This is significant as the best chance we have to detect planets around stars bright enough to measure the planetary and stellar properties precisely. The expected outcomes of th ....Getting to Know the Neighbours: Naked-Eye Stars and Their Planets. We now know that nearly all stars host planets, and exoplanet science is now turning to bright individual systems. This Project aims to study the nearest, brightest stars by extending the capabilities of NASA's TESS telescope and Mount Kent Observatory. This is significant as the best chance we have to detect planets around stars bright enough to measure the planetary and stellar properties precisely. The expected outcomes of this project will be the discovery of planets transiting nearby naked-eye stars, and crucial measurements of the masses of these stars and planets. The benefits of this will be a key sample of new, well-understood benchmark systems, and new open-source algorithms for data analysis in astronomy and more broadly.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101024
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$373,000.00
Summary
High-definition carbon-dating of linguistic pasts. This project aims to harness the insights of dissipating information, to discover language histories by bringing together two high-definition technologies: powerful, computational statistical engines pioneered in genetics; and fine-grained, statistically optimised observations of language structure. It seeks new insight into how languages reveal history, and how cultural groups speaking the Uralic languages of Eurasia and Australian Aboriginal l ....High-definition carbon-dating of linguistic pasts. This project aims to harness the insights of dissipating information, to discover language histories by bringing together two high-definition technologies: powerful, computational statistical engines pioneered in genetics; and fine-grained, statistically optimised observations of language structure. It seeks new insight into how languages reveal history, and how cultural groups speaking the Uralic languages of Eurasia and Australian Aboriginal languages diverged, spread and interacted, from a distant past to the recent present.Read moreRead less