Facilities

The RDE stand features control valves, fuel and oxidizer piping, the pre-detonator, a thrust stand, and the combustion chamber. The pre-detonator, thrust stand, and combustion chamber were designed and manufactured in-house, while the valves and piping are commercially sourced. The RDE is outfitted with thermocouples, pressure transducers, and ion probes, which are used for diagnostics and data analysis. The thrust stand features a FUTEK S-Beam load cell, used to measure the thrust of the RDE. The valves, pressure regulators, and pre-detonator are all remotely operated via personnel in the control room to ensure safe testing procedures.

The schlieren imaging setup is shown, with the optical test chamber fitted to the supersonic wind tunnel. The camera is shown in position looking into the test chamber.The supersonic wind tunnel operates in a blow-down fashion, with a pressurized settling chamber discharging through swappable converging-diverging nozzles. The wind tunnel uses a position-controlled butterfly valve to regulate and maintain the pressure in the settling chamber, which is monitored using the Druck pressure transducers.

The control room is shown with an operator in use. Multiple users will control all parts of a test campaign safely from this room