Monash University’s Hi
gh Powered Rocketry (HPR) team will launch its most advanced competition rocket ever to a target altitude of 10,000 feet in the skies near Bendigo, central Victoria, this weekend.
Project Zenith, powered by the student team’s own Solaris MkII hybrid rocket engine, will be the most powerful 100 per cent student research and developed (SRAD) rocket ever launched in Australia when it blasts off on Saturday 8 September.
The launch represents a major step for Monash HPR in testing the rocket’s systems and performance ahead of its first competitive appearance in June 2025 at the Spaceport America Cup, the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition, in New Mexico, USA.
The Solaris MkII hybrid engine – “hybrid” in this case means using solid fuel and a liquid oxidizer – represents the results of several years of engineering design, manufacture and testing by students at Monash.
Developing their own hybrid engine will allow Monash HPR to enter a more elite competition at the Spaceport America Cup – the “10k SRAD Hybrid/Liquid & other” category.
Team spokesperson Sudarshan Shorna Kumar is studying Aerospace Engineering and Commerce at Monash.
“We’re excited to be the first Australian student team to enter a rocket in this category, competing against the best universities from around the world,” said Sudarshan.
In addition to the new engine, Project Zenith will also carry a number of new student developed systems, including airbrakes to allow more accurate control and targeting of its 10,000 foot apogee (peak altitude), GODS (a Gas Operated Deployment System) to release the parachute that will gently lower the airframe back to earth, and range of new sensors and avionics systems to record flight data.
Project Zenith will be launched from the Victorian Rocketry Association’s Serpentine launch site, about 45km northwest of Bendigo.
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