turn on Fractal

Current Mood: business-like
Current Music: "Before the Dawn" by Judas Priest

Not dead.

Thanksgiving break has essentially started, and I'll probably write a small novella updating my journal sometime this week.

Only a small part will be the typical "here are things I'm thankful for".

Since this isn't much of a post, and because I don't believe I've posted it here before, here's a short story I wrote a while back and had published in "The Literary Edition" of our school student newspaper, The Exponent. Feedback appreciated (and if I get enough demand, I'll give you the incredibly nerdy backstory of it's conception, hinted at in the lengthy title).

Goldilocks and the Three Bears: a modern adaptation
A classic for the 21st century, inspired by A&AE 251
By Ryan Garwood

Once upon a time…

Krys was something of an oddity at Stennis Space Center, the leading propulsion complex within NASA. First and foremost, she was a female in a largely male dominated field. That was not so surprising- her combination of stunning good looks and incredible intelligence was. She was a specialist in the development of testing engines, specifically with oxidizers and nozzle design. She had obtained her PhD in propulsion from CalTech after a BS degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University. She had a body that the engineers and scientists she worked with could only longingly describe as “aerodynamically curvaceous”. Her chosen field, in addition to her stunning long curly blonde hair, had earned her the nickname “GoldiLOX.” Perhaps the only problem her managers had was her insatiable curiosity. Once she got it in her head to solve a problem, nothing would stop her from finding a solution. More than once this got her into trouble.

One day GoldiLOX came back from lunch to find that she had absentmindedly locked herself out of her own lab (not an uncommon occurrence, given her propensity for focused problem solving). Frustrated at the delay in her own project of nozzle optimizations, she went to find a key. She wandered down the hallway, admiring projects currently at various stages of development- one group of engineers were pouring over MATLAB printouts, another room showed technicians in a clean room tinkering with a set of turbopumps. Without realizing it, GoldiLOX had wandered down a strange hall and found a series of test stands before her.

She went over to the first nozzle and began fiddling with the controls. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (her favorite) were pumped into the combustion chamber and were ignited. As she throttled the test up, GoldiLOX watched the output monitors as the specific impulses were measured for this nozzle. A high pitched whine accompanied expansion waves that began to form outside the nozzle boundary as the hot exhaust gasses began to lose axial velocity to radial velocity. She quickly concluded that the exhaust pressure was greater than ambient pressure in this under-expanded nozzle. This nozzle was too short.

Moving over to the second test stand, GoldiLOX deciphered the interface quickly and began another test. This nozzle burned liquid kerosene with liquid oxygen, and once again she began to observe the results on the monitors. At throttle up, the test stand buckled and shuddered as the red hot engine began to burn. Inside the nozzle boundary, oblique shocks were created from the flow separation of the exhaust. Obviously the exhaust pressure in this nozzle was less than ambient pressure in over-expanded nozzles. This nozzle was too long.

Finally, she walked over to the final engine. It was different from the others. It was clean and polished, with a series of advanced turbo injectors that allowed for more control over the fuel mixture and distribution. With great care and excitement, she initiated a controlled accelerating burn on the third nozzle, a powerful mixture of monomethylhydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide, which she knew was used in the Space Shuttle Orbiting Maneuvering System. All of the monitors showed optimal thrust as the rocket fired, indicating to GoldiLOX that the exhaust pressure was equal to the ambient pressure. She was absorbed watching the flow of the exhaust gasses proceeding to discontinuity. This nozzle was just right.

Just then three scientists burst into the lab, each one bearing a security badge. They screamed over the roar of the rocket engines "Somebody has been testing my nozzles!" GoldiLOX looked up and realized that she was in somebody else's lab. She ran for the door eager to get back to her work, hoping that nobody would notice little GoldiLOX had tested three different engines and found one that was just right.