Infrastructure led by IST’s IPFN carried out the first test in real conditions. It will help study phenomena that only occur when traveling several times the speed of sound
The Instituto Superior Técnico carried out its first hypersonic test, in which the speed achieved is like “crossing mainland Portugal, from north to south, in just over five minutes”.
The test was carried out on November 19 by the Institute of Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion (IPFN), a unit of the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), on equipment that “will help study phenomena that only occur when traveling several times the speed of sound“.
To understand the magnitude of this feat, these phenomena are only at the level of those associated with the re-entry of rockets and spacecraft into the Earth’s atmosphere or the exploration of the atmospheres of planets such as Mars, Venus and Jupiter or Saturn’s moon Titan.
In a statement issued this Thursday, IST states that the test, carried out in “real conditions” on the ESTHER shock tube, located on the Loures Campus, marks “Portugal’s entry into the experimental capacity to study these phenomena”.
The Technician explains that the operation of the shock tube, controlled remotely, for safety reasons, “involves demanding physical conditions, namely the use of mixtures of hydrogen, oxygen and helium at very high pressures”.
The “hypersonic flow” produced corresponds to speeds five or more times greater than that of sound in air, raising gases to “extreme temperatures and pressures”.
A temperature reaches values higher than those on the surface of the Sun and the light caused by the generated shock wave resembles a flash of shooting stars.
According to IST, the equipment should, in the medium term, support the mission planning of the European Space Agency (ESA), of which Portugal is a Member State, and “contribute to the development of national skills in the area of hypersonics, through partnerships with academic institutions and Portuguese companies”.
