qdonnellan

Potentially! Actually Relativity Space [1] is attempting to do just that (I don't believe they manufacture aerospikes, but I don't see why they couldn't).

[1]: https://www.relativityspace.com/

[EDIT] If you're reading this and you work at Relativity, I'd love to know if you actually 3D print your nozzles...

We used an aerospike nozzle for our senior design project at Texas A&M. I thoroughly enjoyed the research and theory behind the concept, but when it came down to actually building the thing we ran into a lot of - obvious in hindsight - complexity.

The nozzle must be made out of graphite, the manufacturing of which is much more complicated than aluminum, so throw out the door any pre-conceived notions you may have that making any shape is possible. Our nozzle was a three-part component: the inner plug (think of one of those "nose suckers" you have to get boogers out of a baby's nose) and the outer nest in which the plug sat. Between the nest and the plug you have "struts" supporting the plug to allow for a gap (through which your fuel will be exhausted). The plug is secured to the nest via some high-heat epoxy.

So yeah, way more complicated than a single bell of graphite, which is probably the #1 reason why these haven't seen industry use (the cost of complexity must be weighed against the cost of inefficiency, both are important factors in any rocket application).

I am very interested in the "linear aerospike"[1] engine though, which would obviously have design implications on the rest of the spacecraft, but manufacturing a linear aerospike would be much simpler than what we attempted.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospike_engine [The main image]

Came here to post this, part 1 is an absolutely amazing overview of computer organization. Part 2 is decidedly more difficult, but very good as well.

I'm not currently looking for a job, but if I was, this is the company I'd apply to. My wife and I have been using YNAB for years - it's quite literally one of my favorite tools of all time.

Great product, great company.

Get a job. A master's degree in CS will help to augment your experience in the industry - it won't obviate it. I would recommend taking a look at Georgia Tech's OMSCS program, which (for non-CS undegrads like myself), necessitates some number of years of professional software engineering experience.