How do Rocket Scientists Celebrate Halloween?

During a recent tour of Zucrow Laboratories by NASA scientists, which happened to be on Halloween, they were treated to a spooky spectacle involving rotating detonation engines (RDEs). The explosive jack-o'-lantern was placed at the end of the RDE, which filled with a mixture of hydrogen and air. This mixture provided a fiery image during an initial explosion that destroyed the pumpkin. This was followed by the steady state propagation of the rotating detonation wave at a rate of 4000 rotations per second. This rotational speed and the pressure rise that occurs during detonative combustion are some of the features that may enable substantial improvements in energy density and efficiency for high-speed propulsion systems. The ghastly image sequence and slow-motion video can be seen in the following links.

Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WVh1UQsUVdI

Zucrow Labs 2024 Annual Report with Image Sequence: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Zucrow/about-us/annual-reports/zucrow_annual_report_2024.pdf