SAPPORO (Kyodo) The small Camui rocket system underwent a flight experiment Monday in Taiki, Hokkaido, as part of joint research by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Hokkaido University for an ejector rocket engine.
After installing an air intake, the institutes tested flight conditions of the 25-kg, 3.4-meter-long rocket at a speed of Mach 0.4 and with the temperature of the device reaching some 3,000 degrees.
An ejector rocket is designed to boost the thrust of a rocket by mixing air from the intake with fuel.
The Camui was developed by a research group led by Harunori Nagata, a Hokkaido University professor of mechanical space engineering.
The rocket is intended to be inexpensive and safe. It runs on polyethylene and liquid oxygen.