Bremen-based startup POLARIS Spaceplanes has announced the completion of a 15-flight test campaign of its MIRA-Light demonstration vehicle.
MIRA-Light is a subscale version of the company’s MIRA vehicle, a 4.25-metre spaceplane demonstrator that will be the first to be equipped with the company’s linear aerospike rocket engine. The smaller test vehicle measures 2.5 metres and was designed to test aerodynamics, calibrate and test the flight control system, and train its drone pilots.
According to POLARIS, MIRA-Light was designed and built in parallel with MIRA within a few weeks with a budget of “just a few tens of thousands [ of euros].”
The MIRA-Light test campaign was conducted over three flight days between 22 August and 8 September. During 10 of the 15 flights, the vehicle was also equipped with a dummy of the linear aerospike engine in order to examine how it impacted aerodynamics and flight stability.
Speaking to European Spaceflight, POLARIS co-founder and managing director Annika Wollermann explained that flights lasted between two and three minutes, and the vehicle accumulated approximately 35 to 40 minutes of total flight time.
The flight controller data collected during the MIRA-Light test campaign will now be transferred to the flight controller of the larger and heavier MIRA vehicle with corresponding mass and flight velocity corrections. POLARIS is expected to begin testing the larger vehicle before the end of the year.
Once MIRA testing has been completed, the company will move on to the 6.7-metre NOVA demonstrator. Testing of NOVA is expected to begin in 2024 and will demonstrate the system’s capability at higher altitudes. NOVA will be the last demonstrator the company tests before beginning working on AURORA, its multipurpose spaceplane and hypersonic transport system.
