Although a recent development in rocketry, the experimental implementation of Rotating Detonation Engines (RDREs) is taking place at many academic institutions. Swiss institutions have yet to join its contemporaries in this endeavor. Project PERSEUS aims to provide a “proof-of-concept” of an RDRE within swiss academia.

The goal of the project is to build a small-scale RDRE and successfully fire it on the existing test bench of ARIS with confirmed detonative waves. The project will establish a fundamental understanding on safely operating and testing an engine of this kind, which can be applied in future development RDREs.