Suborbital
Rockets
Miller Engineering & Research Corporation (MERC) has extensive knowledge of the full lifecycle of suborbital rocket missions used in both scientific studies and for missile defense related work.
MERC has supported rocket missions for the DoD, NASA, and various commercial entities. Our focus areas range from mission planning to parachute recovery systems, to igniter housings, to solid rocket motor preparations.
MERC’s core competencies include:
- flight performance, which includes 6dof modeling
- development of aerodynamic derivative coefficients
- mass properties tables
- determining drag
- providing state vector at burn out data
- providing post flight performance reports
Integration and test within the sub-orbital rocket program environment requires skill, ingenuity, creativity, and the ability to make informed decisions in real time. The nature of such “skunk works” operations places reliance on highly talented people with years of experience conducting the integration activities. This same talent and expertise can also be applied effectively with the DoD/MDA targets environments.
MERC has this expertise and knowledge gained over 30 years of experience. This mode of application has also been applied effectively within the man-rated attached shuttle payload programs. MERC applies engineering knowledge gained in effective approaches that tailors engineering techniques and analysis to provide cost effective solutions without “gold plating” when it is overkill or not necessary for an effective solution.
MERC has designed mechanical structures for sub-orbital payloads and understands the design constraints and the flight loads to consider when formulating design concepts. MERC also is cognizant of instruments and their requirements for outgassing, galvanic, and magnetic issues that can affect instrument performance.
