We are seeking a motivated, high-achieving PhD candidate as an important contributor to our ARC (Australian Research Council) DECRA (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award) project, “Development of a Surface Reconstruction Model for Re-Entry Objects” under the supervision of the DECRA Fellow, Dr Byrenn Birch.
More than 300 tonnes of spacecraft re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere each year, with about 30% of this mass surviving re-entry. Through this research program, you will be developing solutions for the identification of spacecraft components during a re-entry break-up event from their thermal signature in the debris field. These solutions are required for the validation of the numerical tools used to predict re-entries and the associated ground-risks.
This project has multiple avenues for valuable PhD student contributions; therefore, the PhD project will be collaboratively designed to suit both the skillset of the candidate and the DECRA project objectives. We seek candidates with established skills and interests in any of the following areas: the design and application of instruments for imaging spectroscopy; hypersonic aerothermodynamics; heat transfer and high-temperature materials; high-speed ground-based experiments; computational methods; optimisation techniques; and analytical engineering methods.
Your research project will contribute to one, or more, of the over-arching projects objectives:
- Developing a computationally inexpensive thermal model for the re-entry of space debris objects.
- Spatially resolve the surface temperature of a known re-entry object from remote spectral measurements.
- Develop a method for the identification of re-entry break-up debris from remote spectral measurements for the validation of re-entry break-up codes.
As a PhD student, you will join the UniSQ Hypersonics and Rocketry Group; an exciting research group with international profile that has existing collaborations with national an internationally recognised research groups, government agencies and industry. Our HDR students work in close collaboration with our collaborators and funders to ensure that they have multiple career opportunities at completion of their studies.
Applicants are encouraged to communicate directly with Dr Byrenn Birch via Byrenn.Birch@unisq.edu.au to seek additional information and to negotiate project topics.