project brief
Rocket Technologies International (RTI), in collaboration with UniSQ and international partners, led an airborne campaign to capture the Tau Herculids meteor storm of 2022. In just two weeks, RTI stood up a complex international project that collected world-first airborne data on cometary debris.
category
Airborne Observation
client
NASA
start date
May 13, 2022
The challenge
The Tau Herculids meteor shower was a one-off opportunity: Earth passed through debris from the breakup of Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3, last disrupted in 1995. The shower had never been observed from an aircraft, and predictions about its visibility were uncertain.
RTI and UniSQ had only two weeks’ notice to decide to fly, secure a Phenom 300 jet, design and integrate instrumentation, and coordinate with teams from France, Germany, Slovakia and the Paris Observatory. The challenge lay in building an airborne observatory capable of tracking hundreds of meteors in real time, above 40,000 ft, while synchronising with ground-based networks worldwide.
Scientific Achievements
• Captured images and spectra of hundreds of meteors entering at >12 km/s during a three-hour flight.
• Delivered 3D trajectory data, meteor counts, and emission spectra to characterise composition and flight paths.
• Generated a unique dataset free from atmospheric pollution, complementing ground observations.
• Demonstrated rapid aircraft integration of custom imaging systems across multiple international platforms.
• Established Australia as a leader in rapid-response airborne space science projects.
the result
The acheivement validated RTI’s ability to mobilise a multi-national airborne campaign in less than a fortnight, achieving outcomes typically requiring months of planning. The Australian-owned dataset is now being shared with the international scientific community, influencing research on comet fragmentation and planetary defence.
For prospective clients, the Tau Herculids mission demonstrates RTI’s capability to deliver fast, technically complex, and internationally significant projects – from project design through to execution in the air – under timeframes and conditions that most organisations consider impossible.
The Challenge
The Tau Herculids meteor shower was a one-off opportunity: Earth passed through debris from the breakup of Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3, last disrupted in 1995. The shower had never been observed from an aircraft, and predictions about its visibility were uncertain.
RTI and UniSQ had only two weeks’ notice to decide to fly, secure a Phenom 300 jet, design and integrate instrumentation, and coordinate with teams from France, Germany, Slovakia and the Paris Observatory. The challenge lay in building an airborne observatory capable of tracking hundreds of meteors in real time, above 40,000 ft, while synchronising with ground-based networks worldwide.
Scientific Achievements
• Captured images and spectra of hundreds of meteors entering at >12 km/s during a three-hour flight.
• Delivered 3D trajectory data, meteor counts, and emission spectra to characterise composition and flight paths.
• Generated a unique dataset free from atmospheric pollution, complementing ground observations.
• Demonstrated rapid aircraft integration of custom imaging systems across multiple international platforms.
• Established Australia as a leader in rapid-response airborne space science projects.
The Result
The acheivement validated RTI’s ability to mobilise a multi-national airborne campaign in less than a fortnight, achieving outcomes typically requiring months of planning. The Australian-owned dataset is now being shared with the international scientific community, influencing research on comet fragmentation and planetary defence.
For prospective clients, the Tau Herculids mission demonstrates RTI’s capability to deliver fast, technically complex, and internationally significant projects – from project design through to execution in the air – under timeframes and conditions that most organisations consider impossible.
Other Achievements
RTI captured world-first data from Hayabusa2’s 12 km/s re-entry, proving high value information.
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Other Achievements
Training police forensic specialists across Australia by leveraging RTI’s energetics facilities.
HeRTS delivers the infrastructure and expertise needed to move from concept to launch with confidence.
RTI captured world-first data from Hayabusa2’s 12 km/s re-entry, proving high value information.
RTI, with UniSQ and partners, captured world-first airborne data on the 2022 Tau Herculids meteor storm.
RTI captured high-precision re-entry from start to finish, airborne and ground data of the OSIRIS-REx capsule.
