Rocket Season - Chapter 3

 Copyright © 2024 D.W. Patterson

All rights reserved.

Second Printing – February 2025

Future Chron Publishing

Cover – Copyright © 2024 D.W. Patterson

Cover Image – Photo 115346712 / Rocket Launch © Nexusplexus | Dreamstime.com

Previously published as:

Rocket Summer

Rocket Fall

Rocket Winter

Rocket Spring

Contains additional material.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations for the purpose of review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination and should not be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events and people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Hard Science Fiction – Old School

Human Generated Content

CHAPTER 3

If Jack had read the thruster article correctly, then he believed this “thruster” could be put on a load-bearing structure (that is a rocket body) and provide a kind of impulse engine using Newton's third law, action/reaction, to send that body upward, upward into space.

Could it? Jack couldn't believe it possible, and if it was possible, why had no one done such a thing before?

He kept looking until he came across a reference to an old book, apparently the one written by the physicist that developed the Mach thruster or almost developed it. The professor must have come up short, since Jack had never heard of such a rocket engine. But right now, he had to find a copy of a book written even before books were electronic. Since it was written by the inventor of the device, it should have the answers that Jack was seeking.

As Jack searched for a copy of the book, he also found other articles that made reference to the drive. At first these articles were few but as the years went by, they became more numerous. Finally, seven years after the book was written, online articles spiked as the inventor (now inventors) gave interviews to many websites. Then the articles ended.

Jack wondered why, then he found out. The inventor died and the China crisis hit immediately afterwards. With the descent of China into chaos and the resulting dislocations in the global network of trade, most countries were too busy trying to find a replacement for lack of Chinese made goods to pursue such doubtful science.

It took years and, in the meantime, other countries had trouble with their commitments to globalization. Those were the years when crisis led to crisis and widespread famine returned to the world. Governments worked to prevent food shortages in country after country as the world tried to adapt to de-globalization. Spaceflight was not something that most governments considered critical in those days.

By the time Jack was in high school the world was very different than when he was born. Great countries such as China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea and others, had lost much of their wealth trying to adapt to the changing circumstances. Their governments were overthrown more than once as people became angry and discouraged. Because people had become poorer, their lives had become much more insecure. Even widespread pirating had returned to the world for a time.

In the US things were not as difficult, a recession lasting year marred the countries progress, but no one starved, and most people adjusted to the hard times. Still, it meant that financial backing for a new method to power a spaceship was impossible to obtain, so the idea of the Mach thruster withered and was forgotten.

“So that's that,” thought Jack. “No one pushed the design after the inventor died. But that means it may still be possible.”

Jack determined to try to learn enough to duplicate the old professor's experiments, and if it worked, to develop the drive further.

Since the math and theory behind the device was beyond him, he decided to concentrate on just duplicating the device and the experiment. As he read more about the Mach thruster, he began to understand how it operated. Part of the device, a capacitance usually, was driven by a voltage that increased and decreased, like the sinusoidal frequency of a tuning fork. Jack could understand this since he had a simple oscilloscope and a sound generator.

The voltage caused the capacitance to charge, grounding the capacitor caused it to discharge, essentially energy was added or drained from the capacitor. Since energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared, and since the speed of light is constant, then an increase in energy meant an increase in mass. Likewise, during discharge, the decrease in energy meant a decrease in mass. Jack could follow the argument so far.

Now, if the capacitor happened to be pushed upon as it was gaining energy then the “pusher” would find the increase in mass to be an increase in inertia and according to Newton's third law would experience an equal and opposite reaction. Then, if the capacitor was “pulled” upon when it was discharged, the capacitor would move toward the “puller,” but not with the same acceleration as before because the capacitor was now lighter and not as resistant to being moved.

But there seemed to have been a change in the design of the device by the time of the articles Jack had read, the capacitor had disappeared. Even so, he could still understand how to build the “gadget” as he sometimes called it, while not completely understanding how such a system could impart motion to a rocket ship, or itself for that matter. He just followed the explanation of the device in the articles, joining what was called PZT (lead-zirconium-titanate) disks together to create the “stack.”

The disks were actually piezoelectric and would expand and contract as a voltage was applied to them, they also gained and lost weight during the cycle, similar to capacitors. Such piezoelectric materials had often been used in electronic crystals which, in combination with a clock circuit, provided timekeeping for electronic devices.

The piezoelectric disks had to be assembled in a certain way, the sides with the same polarity (similar to a polarized battery) facing each other. Then they were wired for a voltage by placing one wire between the two sandwiched disks and connecting two wires to the other sides. Several of these PZT cells were assembled back-to-back with one end attached to a brass disk and the other end an aluminum cap. It resembled a cylindrical sandwich.

All of this had to be placed in a vacuum chamber to prevent any air currents from drowning out the expected signal which would be in the range of microvolts per micronewtons, the last being a measure of force. Jack's physics teacher helped him find a chamber and an air evacuation pump for the experiment.

Jack also had to be careful about vibrations drowning out the signal, so a special and very expensive bench had been engineered by his dad. This almost ended the experiment as Jack's dad balked at the expense. Only because it might find use in his business was, he able to justify it.

Jack built his gadget in the large cellar at one end of the family home among his mother's canned goods. Once finished, he planned on testing it Friday after school but had to wait for the following morning as one of his sisters showed up with her husband that evening.

Saturday morning was clear in the hollows of North Georgia and after breakfast, Jack was in the cellar. He setup a camera to record the device during the test. Switching on the sinusoidal power supply, he heard the familiar whumpf as the circuits rang with power. A fundamental sinusoidal voltage with a frequency of 32.35 kilohertz would be applied to the gadget. The vacuum chamber was already prepared.

Jack was watching the computer screen as he brought the power up remotely from across the room. He didn't see what was happening with the gadget until he heard a ripping sound in that direction. Looking up he saw through the shimmering air, the gadget which appeared to vibrate and to hop in a lurch within the chamber. Then a bluish-green light, too bright to look at, forced Jack to close his eyes and turn away. The explosive sound was the last thing he heard and the heat from the explosion was the last thing he felt before being knocked unconscious.

His mom heard the muted sound of the explosion, and while she didn't expect it was close by, her motherly instinct prompted her to make sure everyone was alright. That included Jack, she headed for the cellar. As she neared, she smelled the acrid scent of burnt electronics. When she opened the door a cloud of smoke exited, she entered, even though it was now dark she knew the layout well and where her son had setup his test bench.

Pulling her blouse up over her nose, she felt her way to his table where she almost tripped over the unconscious boy. His mother thought nothing of picking her son up, even though he almost outweighed her, and carrying him out of the cellar, placing him on the still cool grass in the sunshine. Jack coughed and tried to sit up but lay back down, continuing to cough. By this time his father was at his side with a first-aid kit and a water bottle. He raised Jack's head and lifted the bottle to his lips; Jack took a sip and then a deeper drink. Then he sat up.

“What happened, how did I get out here?” he said.

“Your experiment exploded son, and your mom carried you out of the cellar, you were unconscious.”

“Mom carried me?” said Jack. “There was no reason for it to explode.”

“Well, it did,” said his mom, “and I think we are going to have to take you to urgent care to make sure you are all right.”

“Ah mom,” said Jack. “I've got to put the experiment back in order.”

“Do as your mom says Jack,” said his dad.

Jack knew if his dad was agreeing with his mom then he would have to do as they said, even if he was feeling fine.

“Okay,” was all he said.

“Good, let's go,” said his mom. “Can you walk, or do we need to carry you?”

“I can walk mom.”

Jack got up with the help of his father and slowly walked to the car which took him to the nearest doctor.