Sustainable space travel – how does it work? Students at the Justus Liebig University Gießen (JLU) and the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen ( THM ) are researching this. Their joint project to construct a new type of hybrid rocket is now being funded for six months with the “Hessen Ideas Scholarship”.
Hybrid rockets that already exist run on liquid and solid fuel and use so-called turbopumps or pressure vessels. The eight-person team Gießen students called “HybridLaunch” has developed a new pump system that could make hybrid rockets significantly lighter and therefore more efficient.
“The issue of sustainability is important to us when it comes to rockets because space travel is an industry that is currently growing very quickly. And if we now offer alternatives to rockets rich in pollutants at an early stage, we can avoid a lot of environmental pollution in the future,” explains Alex Daniel Stamm, who is studying physics and technology for space applications in his master’s degree as a cooperation course between both Gießen universities.
In 2022, the cross-university team began their first joint project: they launched a stratospheric balloon. Since then, the students have been working together and developed the idea of constructing a new type of rocket engine. They manufactured the components for their first small prototype themselves in the makerspace at the THM location in Friedberg. They successfully tested the mini engine last October.
The students of physics-technical Degree Courses at JLU and mechanical engineering at THM won the competition for the “Hessen Ideas Scholarship” with their idea. Since July 1st, Fiene Bremer, Stephanie Käs, Anna Komjagin Nico Krug, Nikolas Michel, Paul Silas Moos, Mathis Reuß-Hennschen and Alex Daniel Stamm have been receiving monthly monetary support for their project as well as an accompanying so-called accelerator programme in which they work intensively on the development of their business model. The funding amounts to 1,000 euros per nat.
A total of 13 start-up teams from ten Hessian universities are currently receiving this funding. “Hessen Ideas” is an initiative of the state of Hesse, the Hessian universities and Hessian companies. The initiative is coordinated by UniKasselTransfer at the University of Kassel in cooperation with HIGHEST from the Technical University of Darmstadt. The state of Hesse is supporting the “Hessen Ideas” initiative as part of the Hessian University Pact with 5.4 million euros until 2025.
The next round of funding begins on January 1, 2025. The application deadline is September 25, 2024. Those interested can find further information online at hessen-ideen.de/hochschulen or directly from their university's start-up advice center.