A Rocky Start

“Alina, Alina, wake up!” a voice shouted, drawing me out of my sleep.

“Huh? Too early…” I moaned, rolling over in my bed.

“Alina, the simulation. The Simulation!” I bolted upright, instantly awake. My friend Zaylee stood over me, holding my legs out to me.

I quickly strapped them on, and we raced out the door of my bed-pod and headed to the main shuttle.

Maybe I should backtrack. My name is Alina Brilliant, and I have been living on the Vestigo spaceship since the day I was born. After twenty years, the Vestigo will be finally landing on a planet called P-44, and the Vestigoins will create a new community. This new community should be perfect, but it’s not for me. I am a bilateral BK, which means my legs end at my knees, and according to the scans of P-44, the planet has a rocky and uneven surface, which will make it hard for me to get around. But, thankfully, the commander is holding “The Simulation,” where the Vestigoins are able to experience a model of the planet so they can adapt.

“Alina!” Zaylee shouted impatiently, shaking me out of my thoughts. “We’re soooo late!”

We darted into the shuttle, and straight into… the commander.

“Alina Brilliant, Zaylee Artrine,” she announced, “shouldn’t you be in the simulation by now?”

“Er, yesss,” Zaylee said, as we carefully sidestepped the commander and into the open simulation door.

The landscape, um simulation, of P-44 was beautiful. Lavender rocks dotted the plum colored ground. Large, violet boulders were sprinkled throughout the simulation.

I carefully stepped onto a large, grape colored stone, then jumped to an indigo rock. Excruciating pain shot through my joints. I stumbled, falling into a boulder, then tripped into a gully.

“Aghhh, Zaylee! Help!” I hollered. Zaylee leaped over and picked me up, and we carefully navigated to the exit.

“What’s wrong, Alina?” she asked.

“My joints, traveling from rock to rock puts too much pressure on them, causing pain in my legs,” I answered, massaging my knees.

“Well, what are you going to do?” Zaylee asked.

“I guess I’m going to create new prostheses,” I answered.

I stood up and hobbled slowly to my bed-pod. When I arrived, I unstrapped my prostheses and sat down in my wheelchair. Okay, I thought, I need to remake my prostheses so they don’t cause pain when I’m walking on P-44’s rocky, uneven surface. Looks like I’m going to need the engineering process. First I researched. Even though I wasn’t thinking of these ideas myself, I was certainly collaborating with fellow engineers. I pulled up pictures on my webpad of earthlings who use prostheses. Most used a thick form of padding that dispersed pressure called silicone gel. Silicone gel! I thought excitedly. That was the SAME thing used on bike seats to keep the riders’ behinds comfortable.

Although it seems strange for a girl who has no feet, and lives on a spaceship, I love bikes. When my mom lived on earth she was a famous cyclist, and her passion passed down to me. Maybe bikes could be the solution to my problem.
I quickly “borrowed” some silicone from the warehouse. After cutting it to fit my socket, I strapped on my prostheses and ventured into the simulation.

This time when I leapt from rock to rock, the pressure was not centered on my kneecaps. But once I finished jumping around, my quads were sore. What was causing the problem?

I decided to continue traveling through the landscape, but this time I ignored the sensation of comfort from the silicone and focused on the pain. I noticed that every time I jumped or landed, a shock would go through my quads, and that’s why they became sore.

I went back to the drawing board. I researched bikes on my webpad. I noticed two coiled springs on the bikes. The shock absorbers! That was it. If I added shock absorbers to my prostheses, then I wouldn’t have the painful jolt every time I put my foot down.

I took two springs from the warehouse, inserted them into the titanium rods of the prostheses, then went back to the simulation.

I hopped from one rock to a low gully. As I landed, the spring sprang, giving a rebound. I bounced slightly and went off balance. After a few more leaps, I began to notice that the spring was causing a slight
ricochet, causing me to jolt upward ever so slightly. The spring was helping with the shock, but it was too bouncy to walk with. Looks like I needed a better prototype.

I jumped back to my bed-pod, bounding through the halls of the space shuttle. Each step sent me on an unpredictable bounce, and as soon as I got to the pod I sat down in my wheelchair.

I turned on my webpad and the screen flashed to a prosthesis diagram. I quickly shut the tab, aggravated. I could deal with my joint problem later. Right now I needed a break from the simulation.

I pulled up a video of a female cyclist doing tricks on enormous ramps. Each time she flipped into the air, her bike landed with a graceful swoosh. How could she do that with such ease, and I couldn’t even walk on a rocky surface? I thought. Could it be something to do with the bike’s parts?

I zoomed in on her bike, a real beauty. It wasn’t the wheels, the spokes, or the seat of the bike. So what could be stopping the shock and pressure of her landing? I asked myself. The hydraulic shock absorber! That was it. Unlike the spring I had tried, the hydraulic shock absorber absorbed the pressure and jolt, but it had a damper so it didn’t rebound.

I quickly wheeled myself over to my mom’s closet and pulled out her old bike. Perfect! Shock absorbers for my prosthetics.

I quickly detached them, and hoping my mom wouldn’t notice their absence, took them back to my bed-pod. I quickly attached the hydraulics to the springs. Then I went back to test out my latest prototype.

I strode confidently into the simulation and took a large jump from a boulder. I landed comfortably on a stone. The silicone gel dispersed the pressure, the spring acted as a shock absorber, and the hydraulics were a perfect damper. I leapt from gully to rock, happy that I wasn’t affected by the landings. At last! I thought! No pain. No reason to be afraid of P-44!

One Week Later

“Landing…Landing,” the speaker announced. I raced to the shuttle window.

“Look, Alina, P-44!” Zaylee shouted as Vestigo broke through P-44’atmosphere.

I gasped in surprise. P-44 was nothing like the simulation had indicated. The planet’s rocky surface was pale lavender, with blue strips of ocean. Tall mountains and deep lakes dotted the land. As we got closer, sparkling teal waterfalls and rolling lilac hills came into view.

“It’s beautiful,” whispered my mom, wiping tears from her eyes.

I agreed silently, drinking in the sight of P-44. The uneven ground didn’t seem so menacing now that I had my prosthetics. No longer was I afraid of this challenge.

Engineer's Note:

In the story “A Rocky Start,” Alina, a bilateral below the knee amputee, conquers the difficulty of traveling on uneven ground with prosthetics. In the narrative, Alina initially uses silicone padding to disperse pressure put on her joints while on rocky ground. Adding padding for comfort is an older idea, and orthotists have used it for years. However, hydraulic shock absorbers are a newer concept, and I believe that they are the most beneficial solution to make walking less painful and easier on rocky surfaces. Alina, having no legs, has only used prosthetics to walk. When the Vestigoins landed on a new planet, Alina had to re-learn how to walk on an uneven surface, and has to use new prostheses to do that. The learning tool that I designed for Alina was her shock absorber prosthetics.

I am interested in prosthetics because of a boy on my swim team. He is a mentor to me and many others and recently developed a sarcoma in his leg. I was shocked when I found out. How could he have cancer? Even though I am young, I wanted to find a way to help. Sarcoma affects thousands of people. Sometimes amputation is needed to remove this cancer and many patients need prosthetics. This is the major reason why I chose this problem for my essay. My hope is that I can make a difference by donating essay contest prize money to the Sarcoma Foundation Of America.

Annotated Bibliography

Amputee Coalition. (2015). Prosthetics FAQS. Retrieved from https://www.amputeecoalition.org/resources/prosthetic-faqs-for-the-new-amputee/.
My first source explains how to use and wear a prosthetic, and it was written for someone who was going to get a prosthetic. It gave me a amputees perspective so I could realistically write about someone with prosthetics.

Harris, W. (2005). Dampers: Shock absorbers. Retrieved from https://auto.howstuffworks.com/carsuspension2. htm
My second source explains how a hydraulic shock absorber work in cars. It showed how a hydraulic
shock absorber worked so I could apply it to making a prosthesis.

BioTech Possibilities. (2016). The anatomy of a prosthesis. Retrieved from https://biotechpossibilities.com/the-anatomy-of-a-prosthesis/
My third source explains how a prosthesis functions, and provides the scientific names for each part of a prosthetic. The article allowed me to use the correct names for each part of Alina’s prostheses.

Monroe Shock Absorbers. (2020). Spring design. Retrieved from https://www.monroe.com.au/tradecorner/tech-info/suspension-systems/spring-design.htm
My fourth, and last source is an article that explains how the springs in shock absorbers work. I showed how springs can be made into a shock absorber so I could transfer it the prosthetic design