Kingston Rocket Lab: The ‘Rocket Lab’ within the School of Engineering and Computing at Kingston University London has a hybrid and bi-propellant rocket test facility for research into rocket engine design and can provide a range of high quality evaluation and data analysis options.

Kingston University London is divided into five faculties with each faculty offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The University’s Space interests are encompassed within the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing (SEC) which was formed in 2011 to bring together the interdisciplinary research from eight Schools, encouraging partnerships between academia and commerce.

Kingston University London has an excellent suite of space facilities that are being developed and/or are currently online for launcher and in-space propulsion related research and development. The team is happy to work collaboratively with external academics and commercial users. Our current facilities include;

• An indoor hybrid and bipropellant propulsion test facility
• An 8m catapult micro-gravity drop tower
• A machine learning propulsion laboratory

Future facilities Kingston University London hope to develop over the next five year

• An electric propulsion vacuum test facility
• A Tx/Rx (transmit and receive) satellite ground station (currently we only have a receive functionality)
• A cleanroom for space flight assembly
• A vibration table for launch and flight environmental testing

Current facilities will be available for bookings from September 2020 as they are undergoing refurbishment work presently.

Kingston Rocket Lab: The ‘Rocket Lab’ within the SEC has hybrid and bi-propellant rocket test facilities for research into rocket engine design and can provide a range of high quality evaluation and data analysis options.

The indoor propulsion test facility within the School of Engineering and Computing has a hybrid and bipropellant rocket test facility. The facility is used for propulsion testing of systems up to the low kN trust range and can provide a range of high-quality evaluation and data analysis options.

The Kingston University London indoor propulsion test facility is an indoor blast chamber that allows for the testing and research of small to medium sized propulsion systems (up to low kN thrust levels). The facility can withstand a 120g TNT equivalent blast whilst firing a system with an overpressure of 3 psi, whilst an extraction system is removing around 3m3 of air a second.

The facility has been designed to operate propulsion systems that operate with a maximum pressure of 70BarA. Current approved oxidizers and/or flammable propellants, with maximum flowrates (as dictated by insurance purposes) include:

• Oxygen – 83g/s
• Butane – 20g/s
• Propane – 23g/s
• Nitrous Oxide – Currently no limit

To add additional oxidizers or flammable propellants to the approved list will cost a one-off payment of £10k for a full safety report (conducted by an industrial subcontractor).

Restriction on propellants are based on the by-products produced and are reviewed on a case by case basis. Generally, carbon dioxide, water and carbon monoxide are currently acceptable by-products.

​Additionally, there is:

• A 300 BarA rated pressure vessel for high pressure testing of small components.
• A high-end Data Acquisition (DAQ) system developed by Airborne Engineering.
• A test stand rated to 3kN but can measure between a range of 50N to 2kN.

Please get in touch for a complete system description for this facility.

Data Analysis: In collaboration with the Kingston University London Department of Computing, experimental data from any firing tests you conduct can be analysed using developed neural networking and deeplearning algorithms for deeper understanding and analysis.

In collaboration with the Kingston University London Department of Computing, experimental data from any firing tests you conduct can be analysed using developed neural networking and deep learning algorithms for deeper understanding and analysis. Using the Kingston University London High Performance Computer Cluster and GPU farm, analysis can also be done on gathered data to help optimise your system and create a prediction tool that can be used for future system modelling.

Collaboration: Kingston University London is happy to collaborate with other Universities, Industries and Institutes in their propulsion testing needs. Please do get in contact via email or over the phone to discuss opportunities further.

Student Discount: We aim to help Undergraduate students from other Universities with their final year projects as best as we can, charging minimal costs for use of our facility.

A video, taken in March 2020, post facility chamber installation but before the electrics were added, explains some of the other features available. Please see the video here.