A black hole
Early one morning, the lab staff check over their launch equipment, then drive it along a rugged mountain road to a deserted test site near Hsinchu County’s Baoshan Reservoir.
Led by PhD student Wei Shih-sin the test team assembles the components, mounts the engine, and ignites the trigger. Their first test is of a solid-propellant thruster. Research assistant Zhang Yuwei explains that they are testing the configuration of the fuel inside the engine to find the one that yields the largest combustion area.
The second test involves a hybrid-propellant engine, which is much more complex and takes nearly an hour to put together. When a component fails during assembly, the team spends a long time getting the test back on track. With each step and screw being vital, there is no room for carelessness.
Gou has been working with the lab staff for years, and he feels like he’s watched them grow up. The maturation of the romantic Wei Shih-sin into a conscientious project manager is a case in point. When Gou moved to the private sector, Wei set aside his work on his nearly complete PhD to go with him. He picked up his graduate work again three years later. “I’ve spent a third of my life making rockets.” He says he thought about looking for work in the Hsinchu Science Park, but decided that “playing with rockets was more fun.”
When we ask Gou how much force it takes to leave the Earth, he responds with a very scientific: “The escape velocity from Earth is 11 kilometers per second, while the velocity needed to achieve orbit around the Earth is a minimum of 7.8 km per second. It takes 25 gigajoules of energy to send one kilogram into orbit.” His explanation went right over the heads of those of us with backgrounds in the humanities, but ARRC personnel have immersed themselves in these numbers and calculations for the last decade, running innumerable tests and experiments aimed at reaching the edge of space, 100 km above the Earth’s surface. “I wouldn’t dare call myself a role model. But for all that I’m practically a grandfather, I’m still pursuing this. What are some people doing talking about giving up? I’m already an old geezer and I’m still going!”
When Gou gave his TED talk, he quoted John Lennon: “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” I’d like to thank ARRC for sharing its dream with Taiwan, and giving us the courage to dream, to imagine that space isn’t really that far away, and to reach for the heavens.
The ARRC team prepares to launch the HTTP-3S.
ARRC has struggled at times with its R&D, but by pulling together with a common purpose, the team is making it possible for a Taiwanese rocket to escape the Earth’s gravity.
A rocket shoots into the sky. Gou says, “Once you see a Taiwan-made rocket take flight, you immediately become 100% Taiwanese.”
The team recovers the wreckage of a failed launch in hopes of learning from their failure and applying those lessons to their next attempt. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)
The ARRC team uses passion to fuel its dreams of sending Taiwanese rockets into space.