DLR research aircraft ready for Firewall campaign

Falcon 20E research aircraft.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at German Aerospace Center, DLR, teamed up to measure rocket emissions on a sub-orbital launch that flew on 1 October. Ground-based measurements were combined with measurements recorded from a chaser aircraft that flew through the exhaust plume of a rocket launched from Esrange in Sweden, for the Mapheus-17 mission. The operations show what is possible to record and better understand rocket emissions in the lower atmosphere as space agencies work towards more sustainable space transportation.

Mapheus is a regular series of DLR rocket flights, this mission housed multiple experiments in materials and life sciences, as well as testing technology in microgravity. Mapheus-17 flew almost 300 km upwards before landing back on Earth 16 minutes after liftoff – around 70 km downrange from the launch pad.

The ‘Firewall’ project aims to develop a concept to measure rocket emissions. To learn by doing, Firewall used DLR’s Mapheus-17 solid-propellant sounding rocket mission as a first test case. 

The Firewall campaign relied on DLR’s Falcon 20E research aircraft that is equipped with instruments to measure gases and particles in the rocket’s exhaust plume. The Falcon 20E aircraft took off around 20 minutes before the rocket launch and then flew through the region where the plume drifted at altitudes between 2 and 6 km. As the plume disperses just minutes after liftoff it becomes invisible, adding to the challenge of taking measurements.

A custom-made container packed with an array of scientific measurement systems near the launch site also recorded the emissions at the launch pad, complementing what the aircraft measured.

The project offered the team important real-world experience in coordinating air-traffic control, flight instruments, the teams working on the rocket operations and how to combine them in a joint campaign. The operations went well, the rocket concluded its flight and the Falcon 20E observation aircraft landed safely after flying through the rocket exhaust. Researchers at ESA and DLR will now analyse the data recorded to see if the setup worked as intended. If so more rocket-sniffing flights could follow.