Page 69 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2022

NOVEMBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
FROM THE SOURCE
ADAM GILMOUR 69
ADAM GILMOUR
CEO & FOUNDER | GILMOUR SPACE TECHNOLOGIES
Gilmour Space Technologies are driving the development of a sovereign Australian launch capability through their Eris orbital launch vehicles, powered by the company’s proprietary hybrid rocket engine. ADM’s Publisher Ewen Levick spoke to Adam to learn more about the business and his future plans.
ADM: What’s keeping you busy?
GILMOUR: Getting everything ready on the Eris launch vehicle. It’s a very complicated system, and even though we’ve made it as simple as we can, there are just so many parts to it. We’ve finished the designs, we’ve manufactured components, and we’re now going through the qualification exercise.
Over the last few months, we have been going gangbusters on testing – we put components on shaker tables, we pressure test tanks, we fire engines, we run our pumps – and it’s been really good generally. A few of our valves leaked but we fixed them. Our pressure vessels have performed well and we’ve done some
ADM: Tell us about your first ride share mission. GILMOUR: We’ve found that very few customers are interested in buying the whole launch vehicle in the early days. Most of them are still putting prototypes up or initial constellations. And even though I’m convinced in the medium to long term that people will want to buy a 1,000 kg class rocket, in the short term, customers want 100 or 150 kg at a time. So I said ‘stuff it, we’ll do a ride share’. We called it our first Australian Caravan mission to space, and it’s worked pretty well. We’ve got at least three different customers with strong interest to put payloads on that mission already.
experimental composite work on our
tanks. Those burst at slightly under
the design point, but that’s fine. These
are prototypes, and we got pretty close 2015 to 400 Bar or about 400 Atmosphere,
so I was happy. We just need to keep 2013 refining them. 2007
We’re also near the finish line with
our engine testing. There are probably
two more big tests to go before we 2002 qualify all our engines for launch.
Soon we’ll start integrating everything
onto the vehicle – the pressure tanks, 1999 avionics systems, wiring, valves,
etc. I’m really looking forward to 1994 seeing technicians and engineers on
the factory floor, inside the rocket, 1994 installing stuff. I’ve seen it before
when we did a smaller rocket, and I
can’t wait to see it again. It’s going to
be an exciting finish to the year.
PROFILE
Founder & CEO,
Gilmour Space (full time)
Founded Gilmour Space
Head of Corporate Sales & Structuring, Asia Pacific, Citi Global Markets
Head of Options Sales,
Asia Pacific, Citi Global Markets
Currency Options Sales,
Asia Pacific, Citi Global Markets
Foreign Exchange dealer, Citibank Sydney
Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Banking & Finance, Monash University
ADM: What type of company are you targeting for these smaller payloads? GILMOUR: We don’t really have a target, but of the three that have an interest: one is a multinational prime; one is probably a mid-size space satellite company that’s been around for about seven years; the other is a start-up. They’re broadly involved in ISR and defence, and civilian communications.
ADM: Do you see that business model continuing until someone is ready to buy up the whole vehicle?
GILMOUR: It could. I haven’t thought about it that way but we could dothat.Wedowanttomakeita regular event. I think SpaceX does a ride share about twice a year and that seems to get a lot of business.
ADM: When is the first launch scheduled?
GILMOUR: End of March, we’re hoping. We’re trying not to be too optimistic about everything as we’ve seen other launch vehicles get onto the pad and then have last-minute issues. Timing will also be dependent on regulators and other authorities; it’s also going to be their first orbital launch attempt of an Australian made rocket.
But it’s actually pretty hard to get on a SpaceX mission. You’ve got to have your satellite developed and ready to go very early on, and there’s not a lot of flexibility. As a start-up, we can be a lot more flexible. We’re working with the Australian Space Agency to allow us to get satellite payloads three or four months before launch, and then go through the process faster. So we might do a rideshare launch once or twice a year to begin with.