Page 7 of http://www.eng.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/unsw_engineers/unsw_engineers_issue_27.pdf
University of NSW researchers are blasting rockets up to 8km high as part of the Academic Space Launch Initiative, an organisation that strives to provide launch vehicle (small sounding rocket) services for education/research purposes. “Our team has developed and tested a 20,000 N-sec motor which is the largest hybrid motor produced by any group in Australia,” says Aerospace PhD candidate Jendi Kepple, in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. “It also includes a new fuel which is most likely one of the biggest breakthroughs in high-regression-rate fuel research internationally.” The next launch is in May.
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PHD CANDIDATE Jendi Kepple is travelling to China as a research ambassador hoping to establish collaborative aerospace projects with Chinese universities. In the past few decades, China’s contribution to peer-reviewed journals has grown exponentially: a 64-fold increase since 1981, and the country is expected to be the largest producer of scientific knowledge in the next 10 years. In order to tap into this juggernaut, the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education has provided Australia’s Group of Eight universities with $100,000 to establish the Go8-C9 Student Leadership in International Cooperation project, in which Australian students travel to China to research and then propose research collaborations. Jendi was one of two students selected for the program from UNSW. Jendi’s PhD is on the optimisation of spacecraft launch vehicle airframes and she is excited about the possibilities of joint aerospace research with China. Two groups of students are travelling to China, and Jendi’s group of six is travelling to central and southern China, visiting half a dozen universities. On her return she will make oral and written presentations on the possibilities.