Rocket! An Ell Donsaii story #4) (11 page)

He looked stunned, then apparently gathering resolve he said, “OK. I’ll be there.” He signed off.

Ell looked up. Roger and Brian Short stood in her door. “We’re ready to run the rocket in the test stand if you want to watch.”

She jumped up, “Wouldn’t miss it!”

As they walked out Roger said, “I’ve been looking into small rocket design. The engine you have on this thing is bigger than it needs to be?”

Ell said, “Yeah, but it’s going to be running a
lot
longer than model sized rockets normally run. A rocket this size usually runs out of fuel in a minute or less. If you run them for very long the heat can melt or burn the nozzle, which is sometimes facetiously called an ‘engine rich exhaust.’” she grinned. Our nozzle has ducts in it. The liquid hydrogen is supposed to run through the ducts to cool the nozzle before the hydrogen gets burned. Also, Brian made this nozzle from a tungsten alloy that should hold up to the heat for quite a while—but I figure we need to be sure. So we’re going to run it a little below max efficiency which will keep it cooler. We have temp sensors in it so we can turn it down or off for a while if it gets too hot but I want to run this test right now using a long enough burn to reach orbit to see if it can do it.”

Brian had set up the test stand in the building’s chemical reaction safety room. This was a preexisting room from the building’s QemZ owners. It had thick concrete walls and excessive ventilation in case a dangerous chemical reaction went bad. The group stood outside the heavy glass windows as Brian fired up the motor. Even through the thick concrete they could hear the motor howling. Ell ran it up to 100% then backed off to 80% and let it run. The thrust was about 3% less than expected for the design they had modified from the net but the nozzle cooling appeared to be working. The thermal probe read within acceptable limits but the infrared cameras showed a few hot spots on the nozzle. After a couple of minutes everyone became bored. Some wandered away and others began chatting.

The sound of the rocket engine had faded to a distant irritation when it ceased with a bang. Ell looked back through the window into the room and saw that the rocket nozzle had pretty much disappeared. Flames from the tubing stopped as Allan shut off the ports. The small tanks containing the ports and the remainder of the tubing appeared to be intact. In a minute Brian had the video of the rocket’s last seconds playing on the screen outside the room. On the screen the video showed the nozzle was white hot in many areas just before it disappeared between one frame and the next. Brian looked up at her. “It lasted 3 minutes, which my AI has calculated wouldn’t be enough to get it to orbit. It sure isn’t as long as I’d hoped for.”

Ell clapped him on the shoulder. “Probably pretty good for rocket amateurs, I’d say! But you’re right, we’ve got to do better.” She turned to the group, “And soon, any ideas?”

Roger said, “Instead of using the liquid hydrogen fuel as a coolant, why not just add a separate port to send coolant through, that way you could send a lot more…”

Ell clapped a hand to her forehead, “My God, of course! We have to break old thought patterns. The ports change everything! We can put a water jacket around the engine and feed water into it. It could be blown out as steam and even add to the thrust! Or we could burn something that doesn’t generate as much thrust and therefore as much heat because we can use more of it!” She looked up at the ceiling a moment, “I vote for burning hydrogen-oxygen that converts to steam and cooling with water which converts to steam. That way our exhaust will only contain water and there won’t be any concern about toxic products.” She looked around the group, many of whom were nodding.

Vivian said, “You should look at your news feeds, the Chinese supply rocket has arrived at the Space Station but they’re having problems with the hookup…”

***

Emil Taussan turned white faced to the eager astronauts behind him. “The airlock won’t pressurize!”

Dave Slager pulled himself forward to look at the display. “How can that be?! They flew the dummy airlock over to China from Houston. They tested it there and it mated just fine!”

Emil looked back at the pale faces, “I don’t know. I think I must do a spacewalk to look at the connection and see if it can be repaired.”

“No!” Jim Sasson said, “You know we vent a little air with each EVA. We
can’t
afford to lose any air now!”

“James,” Emil said quietly, “we can’t afford a failed connection to the supply capsule either. If we can’t get at those supplies we’ll be in serious trouble.” He didn’t have to say, “we’ll be dead,
”
they
all
knew that already.

Sasson swallowed spastically. Then nodded his head jerkily. “First let’s back it off and try to mate it again.”

Emil nodded, “OK, that’s reasonable. You try it, I will start the oxygen pre-breathe procedure so that I can EVA.”

***

Washington D.C.—NASA confirmed today that the Chinese supply mission had failed to make an airtight connection with the International Space Station. Emil Taussan, one of the astronauts, made an EVA to examine the problem and says that it appears that the metal used in the Chinese adaptor module has contracted differently in the cold of space than the alloys used by NASA. The misfit, though small, has prevented an airtight seal from being achieved. For a while there was hope that Dr. Taussan would be able to remove items from the Chinese capsule and move them to the Station airlock but safety interlocks in the Chinese capsule prevent it from being opened into a vacuum. Taussan has moved the adaptor into the sunlight in hopes it will heat enough to correct the misfit…

Sheila said, “Mr. Miller we need four machinists
today
!”

“Sweetheart, I heard you the first time. You just
can’t
have me
or
any of my people today. We have commitments to other customers. I can free you up some people in about two weeks. Even when we’re available, I would strongly suggest you just contract us to make the parts you need and let us make them here on the machines we’re familiar with.”

Sheila had walked out to the research floor where everyone was desperately working on creating their rocket, “Just a minute Mr. Miller.” She turned to Ell, “I can’t get anyone to send us any machinists.”

Without looking up Ell said, “Offer them $200 per hour, but they need to be here within the hour.”

Wide eyed, Sheila said, “Mr. Miller, I’ve been authorized to pay $200 per hour.”

A long period of silence greeted her, then Miller said, “Sorry, honey I don’t believe that.”

“I’ve just transferred $20,000 to your public account.”

A pause while Miller checked the account then, sounding surprised, “OK, we’ll be there tomorrow morning at 9AM.”

“You’ll be here within the hour or the deal’s off.”

***

Jim Sasson hung in front of the comm station. Normally, this was where he had audio video chats with his wife and daughter. With the specter of his death hanging over his shoulder he didn’t think he could hold himself together for a realtime conversation with them. He was, however, hoping to record something brave for them to watch after he was dead. Slager was expecting reduced oxygen concentrations in the Station’s air to begin in the next ten to twenty hours. Low oxygen could cause blackouts and drunken behavior so Sasson wanted to get the recording done before that happened. Idly he wondered why they didn’t just do themselves in
before
they ran out of air. There was no longer any chance of rescue. He used a tissue to dab gently at the tears which had welled up and threatened to float away, then reached out to switch on the recorder.

Chapter Seven

Cape Canaveral—People have begun to gather in a vigil for the astronauts on the Space Station. NASA has not provided estimates of how much longer the astronauts can last without resupply but several “unofficial” sources predict that they have days at best. NASA says it is exploring “all avenues” for sending up another supply mission and for extending survival without resupply. However, India, China, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency have all been queried. All have said that they do not have a launch vehicle that can be ready to go within…

Sheila said, “Ms. Donsaii, I have a Robert Braun here who says he’s the rocketry expert you hired?”

“Great!” Ell straightened and turned.

Sheila grinned as she watched Braun’s eyes widen when he came face to face with Ell for the first time. She found it amusing to watch the new hires as they realized just how young and attractive their new boss was.

Donsaii said, “Come this way and look at the rocket we have on the test stand. We’re desperate to launch but would really appreciate your advice! We’re running oxygen-hydrogen in our current engine...”

She took him to a window where a rocket nozzle could be seen and heard through the heavy glass. Braun estimated it about an inch and a half in diameter and must be mixing propellants in a terrible ratio because it was generating a huge cloud of exhaust rather than the clear flame oxy-hydro
should
produce. Braun frowned. The engine was burning steadily but didn’t seem to be hooked up to any tanks or supply hoses. He looked again, trying to see where the tubing was that supplied it. As near as he could tell just the motor was bolted to the test frame.
Some of those bolts must be cannulated to run the fuel through,
he thought. “Uh, your mix must be off, oxy-hydro shouldn’t be making all that smoke.”

“Oh! That’s steam. We’re cooling the nozzle with water.”

“Well,
that
won’t work for a real rocket, you can’t possibly carry enough water!”

Braun listened goggle eyed as Ell explained the ports. He interrupted several times to tell her that this or that wasn’t possible. “Mr. Braun,” she said exasperatedly, “Look at the set up! There
are
no tanks hooked up to it, yet you see the motor burning.
Trust
me on the port stuff.
Assume
that that part of this stuff works. Please stop telling me that something you can see with your own eyes is ‘impossible.’ Please?!”

Braun swallowed and nodded somewhat spastically.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be short with you, but the lives of the people on the Space Station may depend on your coming to grips with this stuff
now
, not later.”

He nodded again and raised his eyebrows, “OK, I’ll suspend my disbelief and do
my
particular job. I’ll just assume all this other stuff actually works.”

Ell turned back to the window, “So this particular motor has been burning for,” she looked up at her HUD, “thirty minutes now, and we’re planning to use it or one like it on our mission but I’m uncomfortable with the fact that we can’t see how the nozzle is heating behind all that steam.”

“Can’t you cut off the steam… and the fuel itself, just long enough to get an infrared picture?”

“Great idea! Allan” Then to her AI she said, “Allan, please shut off the coolant and then the motor.”

The rocket snapped off, the cloud of steam dissipated and a screen lit with an infrared image of the nozzle which glowed warmly but evenly. In regular light it was red, not white.

Braun raised his eyebrows and said, “That doesn’t look bad at all. But may I make a suggestion?”

“Sure! That’s what you’re here for. As long as it isn’t another lecture about how the ports won’t work.” She cocked an eyebrow at him and grinned.

“No, no, I’m giving up on that,” he grinned back. “But I’d like to suggest that using liquid hydrogen has a lot of problems that you could avoid. First of all, it’s
so
cold that sooner or later you’re going to have a problem with it freezing some part so that it breaks or plugs up. Second, the molecules are so small that they leak out of
anything
and you’ll have a fire. Third, as you’ve already seen, it burns
very
hot and melts nozzles. Fourth, it’s expensive and it’s dangerous to store.

“If your ports work the way you say they do, the upside of hydrogen being light and easy to launch provides little benefit. I think you’d be much better off burning RP-1 or kerosene.”

“RP-1?”

“Rocket propellant number one. It’s just purified kerosene. You could still cool with your water shroud, but you wouldn’t have as many issues with overheating in the first place.”

“OK, Allan resume the burn.” The rocket engine fired back up, “Come on,” she said to Braun, “Lets order some kerosene, then I want to review my flight plan with you.”

“You’ve made a flight plan? To orbit?”

“Well, my AI and I have. I fed him the numbers and he crunched them. My AI’s running on a supercomputer so calculating stuff like orbital mechanics is pretty easy for him. We want to launch to the Space Station in the next few hours. If it fails we want to have time for some ‘do overs’ before the Station runs out of air.”

***

Everyone from D5R gathered outside the building to watch the launch. Ell had paid a premium to get some 50 gallon barrels of kerosene delivered immediately. They’d moved the input port for the test stand rocket into the kerosene and run the test nozzle for a while. It didn’t have the same thrust that it did with liquid hydrogen but it still had plenty. So they moved the input port for the launch rocket into the kerosene as well. The gate guard had been told to stop all traffic. Their rocket, which only measured 20 inches long by 2 inches in diameter was clamped to a launching rail that one of the new machinists had built and the engine was being given one last test before launch. Even though it was about a hundred yards away on the far side of the parking lot, almost everyone had their fingers in their ears. Ell’s military grade AI earpieces kept the sound to a comfortable level for her but she wished she’d thought to purchase earplugs for everyone else.

Allan spoke in their ears, “Sensors on the launch stand report that thrust is nominal for LOX-kerosene at 100% and at 80 %.”