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It's Only Rocket Science
Few students at LSU can claim the title of rocket scientist, but that is one way to describe Florin Mingireanu. He's 22 years old and from Galati, Romania—a Romanian rocket scientist! Alliteration aside, Florin is just your average undergraduate. He juggles work with classes and sometimes can be found taking a study break at Louie's on the weekends. Florin doesn't consider himself special, but his research dictates otherwise. He was recently selected by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts to present his concept description of the Ramjet Statoreactor. According to Florin, a ramjet engine absorbs fuel from its surroundings, i.e. air or other interstellar media, unlike a normal rocket engine, which carries its own propellant. After absorbing the fuel, the ramjet then accelerates itself and evacuates the medium. This way, an acceleration of the entire engine is obtained. The concept can be related to a jet ski, which absorbs water and ejects it in order to accelerate, thus moving the entire machine in the opposite direction, he said. The original ramjet concept was introduced in a science fiction story. Florin expounded on the initial concept by eliminating the use of nuclear fusion and using mechanical, rather than magnetic, absorption. His project studied this modified version of the engine to determine its abilities and limitations. Florin was one of four students in the nation selected to present a poster on his concept at NASA's Student Visions of the Future Program (NSVFP) in Washington, D.C., in March 2004. He was then invited to give an oral presentation of his concept at a conference in Seattle in October. Florin came to LSU to study physics "because of the great research opportunities" that the University offers. "We all know that curiosity is an inherent characteristic of humans; it only needs to be stimulated," he said, "and I think LSU is a very good environment for this." Another reason Florin chose LSU was to work with Ed Seidel, director of the Center for Computation & Technology and the adviser on Florin's ramjet presentation. "I knew about Ed Seidel and his work in numerical relativity. I was interested, so I tried to join. Fortunately, it was a successful trial," he said. Florin has been with CCT for nearly a year and has been working on projects with CCT researcher Peter Diener, exploring black hole collisions, event horizons, gravitational waves, and other topics in numerical relativity. Although many people shy away from physics, Florin said he finds it very interesting and enjoys how the skills learned in a physics class can be applied to daily situations. "[Physics teaches you to] know what is given about a problem, what needs to be done, and hopefully, determine the optimum solution," Florin said, adding that physics goes beyond mass, density, and velocity. "It's a science that tries to find more and more about nature—it discovered atoms, far away stars, planets. It even describes to some degree how human society evolves. Physics is about us," he said. No, Florin wouldn't call himself special or brilliant. He's just a guy who likes to fly rockets and remote-controlled airplanes on the weekend. Yes, he's just an average college student who's passionate about numerical relativistic physics and space flight. It's nothing special, only rocket science. Contact
Amanda Stephens
| LSU CCT Student Writer | LSU
University Relations Related Links LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy Links within the story: NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts |
