Hypersonix announces software partner to design planned launch vehicle

Hypersonix Launch Systems has announced it is using modelling software from Siemens to design its planned hypersonic launch vehicle, ahead of a minimum viable product of the Delta-Velos craft scheduled to be ready in 23 months.

In a statement on Thursday, Brisbane-headquartered Hypersonix cited software in Siemens’ Simcenter portfolio of software. It said multi-physics STAR-CCM+ computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software would simulate and test “multiple simulations of air-flow” around the Delta-Velos launch vehicle, which will be hydrogen-powered and unmanned, and used to carry small satellites into low-earth orbit. 

The simulation software would test the vehicle’s “lift, drag and thrust, as well as the very high temperatures on its skin and structure” and model the complex, high-speed flows expected in scramjet engines in hypersonic vehicles.

“Software has levelled the playing field in what was previously an inaccessible space industry,” said Hypersonix co-founder and Managing Director David Waterhouse in a statement. 

Hypersonix recently announced an office in Munich, Germany, the home country of engineering giant Siemens.

The announcement follows last week’s news that Hypersonix had contracted Amiga Engineering for an additively manufactured fifth-generation of the Spartan engine, and that it was on track to deliver a flight-ready version plus fuel system in March 2022.

Picture: supplied

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