Development of the Polish Small Sounding Rocket Program

Feasibility of a low-cost sounding rockoon platform

“…A constant launch angle of 15°from vertical is considered. A detailed design is not presented within this paper, however, relevant experience is present [10,24]. A 2D flight path is modeled.…”

“…This value is valid even for very small sounding rockets. For example the recent Polish H1 experimental vehicle [2,10,11,25] with a launch mass of 16 kg has an average density of 980 kg/m 3 . In this study the propellant mass fraction parameter, designated ξ, is assumed not to influence the average density value.…”

“…Especially development costs could be minimized, with just the electronics, ensuring long-range downlink communication, needed to be modified. The use of the H1 small sounding rocket, which was already test-flown within the Polish SSRP [2,10,11] is therefore proposed. It is a 2.2 m high, 100 mm diameter stage designed to deliver 1 kg to altitudes of over 8 km when launched from ground.…”

“…Its performance was evaluated by Matyszewski [32]. Although it utilizes a low-performance propellant (propellant B type), its use for more demanding missions, due to its high propellant mass fraction motor, is possible (ultimately it can be the second stage of a circa 50 kg small sounding rocket delivering 1 kg to 120 km [10,11]. Since low dynamic pressures will be experienced when launching from the balloon platform, the original rocket structure can be used.…”

“…Nowadays several ongoing university-based and outreach sounding ballooning activates take place in Poland reaching altitudes in excess of 35,000 m, with some interest in the field of rockoons declared. However, large scale developments are based on ground-launched sounding rockets utilizing solid and hybrid propulsion systems [10][11][12][13]. First launches to altitudes above the Von Kármán took place in Poland in the early 70' [2,14] and recent efforts may lead to the development of a small liquid-propelled [15] satellite launcher [16,17].…”