Page 40 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep 2021

40 SPACE
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
GILMOUR SPACE
As DEWC introduces new electronic warfare capabilities into the ADF’s toolbox, Gilmour Space Technologies is forging ahead with their plans for a sovereign Australian launch capability.
Founded just eight years ago by brothers Adam and James Gilmour, the company is one of Australia’s first movers to- wards a sovereign launch capability through a three-stage launch vehicle called Eris that will be capable of taking small satellites into LEO.
launch months later.
“We’ve been working very hard to
finish off the rocket,” Adam Gilm- our said to ADM. “We’ve gone past the final design phase and we’re into the manufacture and qualification testing of all of the components of
the rocket. We’ve also started to assemble the first rocket.” The testing program is rigorous. Each component is tak- en through its paces; the engine, the fuel tanks, the vehicle
fuselage, and the software behind it all.
“The fuel tanks are a big test. We had to manufacture
them and then pressure test them,” Gilmour explained. “Then there’s the bigger vehicle fuselage. We’ll get that fabricated and then put it through a structural test facil- ity which simulates the forces that will act on it in flight. That’s ahead of us.
This year the company started off with a bang, announc- ing a successful hotfire of the world’s largest single-port hybrid rocket engine. The 20-second test generated 9.1 tonnes of thrust and marked a major milestone in the journey towards an orbital launch in the middle of 2022 and a second
“WE’VE TAKEN OUR TECHNOLOGY UP SIGNIFICANTLY AND YET THERE’S STILL NO DIRECT FUNDING FROM THE GOVERNMENT OR SPACE AGENCY”
“We’ve got to test all the software in simulations to make sure it works properly. Then, on the avionics side, we’ll es- sentially place all the avionic systems on a table and hook them all up as if they were really in the rocket, put the software into it and then simulate going into space to make sure all the avionic systems and the switches and the bat- tery packs all perform as they should. We’re in the middle of doing that now.”
The company has set itself the ambitious target of com- pleting the rocket before the end of the year, which Gilm- our acknowledged is a ‘stretch’ but one he is optimistic that company will achieve.
“We are hopefully going to have the far majority of the rocket completed by the end of the year,” Gilmour said. “That is definitely a stretch. It’s going to take a lot of effort to get there, and we want to finish qualification testing of all of our subcomponents so we can meet that goal.”
ABOVE: DEWC Systems could pave the way for a tactically responsive space capability in Australia.
LEFT: Prime Minister Scott Morrison holding a DART rocket, Australia’s first commercial space capable rocket.
DEWC SYSTEMS
DEWC SYSTEMS