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The design and construction of the Aspire 2 rocket
vehicle was the principal reason behind the formation of AspireSpace
all those years ago and remains our primary technical objective for
the next few years. Aspire 2 will be a reusable sounding rocket
capable of launching a 10kg payload to an altitude of just over 100km (i.e.
into space). This vehicle will be powered by a LOX/HDPE hybrid
engine and will make use of modern lightweight composite
materials, including a unique composite LOX tank, the development of
which started at Delft University in Holland.
Although much design work has already been
undertaken, this has mostly been at a conceptual level, e.g.
obtaining an initial mass estimate and performing trajectory
simulations. Much detailed design and development of the components
and systems for Aspire 2 remain to be done providing many challenges
for all of our members. To find out how you can get involved in this
exciting project, visit our contacts
page.
The latest version of Aspire 2 is a two-stage
vehicle, with ADV3 as the top stage, and a
large multi-chamber nitrous hybrid as the lower stage.
Our biggest logistical challenge is finding
somewhere inexpensive to launch Aspire 2. |