Per Aspera (Space Agency Plan Quest)

Dice time.

"IEC's Rocket Boxes a big hit with the kids!" - Mombasa Times

"I don't necessarily agree with putting gunpowder in the hands of children, but, as long as they are under the supervision of a responsible teacher, I suppose it is a good learning opportunity, and they have fun." Anonymous father, Mogadishu

"You should see the sparks they get in their eyes as they watch something they made leap into the heavens! It is a wonderful thing, my friend." Teacher, Cairo

"It will be a very good day when these Rocket Boxes get sent further abroad. My students are green with envy of those African kids!" Teacher, Chicago

"This is an awful idea! They're going to blow each other up. Or, worse, blow someone else up! This needs to be stopped! They don't have the wisdom nor the intelligence to use those boxes responsibly." Citizen, Cape Town

Resources:
5 (+55R/turn)
65 Political Support

Facilities:
1 Launch Stand (0-5 tonne) (+1 Operations die)
1 Assembly Complex (+1 Build Capacity)
1 Engineer's Hall (+2 Engineering Dice)
1 University Affiliate (+2 Science Dice)
1 Materials Lab (+5 bonus to projects tagged [MATSCI])
1 Chemical Plant (+5 bonus to projects tagged [CHEM])
1 Electronics Cooperative (+5 bonus to projects tagged [AVIONICS])
1 Construction Union Hall (+1 Facilities die)
1 Publications Office (+1 to all science and engineering fields; coinflip each year to get an additional +1)
1 Hardened Tracking and Observation (T&O) Complex (+3 to Operations)
1 Engine Test Stand (+2 to PROP projects)

Scientific Advances (name TBD)
Improved Instrumentation (Gain +1d2 bonus to a random field every 2 launches. Gain +1 to AVIONICS immediately.)
Regenerative Cooling (Starts down the path to more powerful and advanced rocket engines)

Scientific/Engineering Specific Field Bonuses
AERO - +0
AVIONICS - +6
CHEM - +5
CREW - +0
COMP - +0
MATSCI - +5
PHYS - +0
PROP - +2

Penelope Carter [The Director] - [+10 to Politics rolls, +2 Politics die, +5R/turn in funding from Connections, reroll 1 failed politics roll per turn]

Sergei Korolev - [+5 to Science and Engineering rolls (unless researching [HGOL][FUEL] projects, then it becomes a -15), +1 Science dice, +1 Engineering Dice. Request: Build an Orbital Rocket within 5 years; build a Scientific Complex in former Ukraine within 10 years.]

-[X] Construct a Sounding Rocket (Complete)
--[X] And launch it (Pass)
This month, your operations team coordinated with the engineering teams working on the Second Stage project in order to test their prototype. More below.

-[X] Second Stages (Tech) [AERO, PHYS] (241/200)

Your engineering teams bring you good news - they have successfully tested a subscale model of a two-stage rocket. Using some cast off pieces from some rocket boxes that got sent back for having defects in the rocket motors, they assembled a two stage miniature out of the tubes and used a small pneumatic piston as the separator. The rocket flew on first light, both stages igniting at the proper time, and went just over five thousand feet in the air - a respectable height for something a quarter the size of your usual sounding rockets.

Their next test would be a full scale test using a first stage that was just your normal sounding rocket minus its nose cone with a bit of reinforcement added. This, too, went off without a hitch, though the performance gain wasn't truly huge, given the lower initial thrust-to-weight ratio. However, your engineers assure you that in the future, with more powerful engines, they think a two-stage design will be the ideal choice for an initial orbital rocket.

(Gain the ability to make 2-stage rockets)
(Added 2-Stage Sounding Rocket to build list)
(+1 to AERO bonus)

-[X] (2 Dice) Advanced Concepts Office (51/150 - NAT 1)

"The IEC was created to do rocketry research, not mess about with nuclear materials!" the councilor from Frankfurt grated.

"Herr Freundlich, it is an Advanced Concepts Office. Their job is to investigate new possibilities for future investigation." you said with a sigh, resisting the urge to rub the bridge of your nose. "I understand your frustration on the matter, truly. But they are just doing their jobs."

"Quite. It seems this… Office has no purpose but to attract and fund crackpots. This whole venture seems the same." said the British man.

You resisted - barely - the urge to do more than grate your teeth. "Mr. Weatherby, I'm afraid we will have to disagree. And, I think, the WCC disagrees with you as well - what we are doing here is important." No matter what you may think, you fool.

"I think reconstruction is far more important than faffing about with every crackpot theory and idiot innovation for a useless line of science." he stated bluntly.

"You're certainly entitled to your opinion." you responded curtly. "I'm afraid my time is up. Please, show yourselves out."

–
The Advanced Concepts Office was off to a rocky start after one of the scientists you recruited into it let slip to the wrong person some admittedly-neat ideas on the subject of nuclear propulsion. Which, thanks to the recent trauma regarding mushroom clouds over twenty cities and millions reduced to ash in instants, was not exactly the kind of thing that was in vogue. You'd fielded calls and meetings about it ever since.

You hadn't let the scientist go, of course - you needed her and that kind of thinking in order to make the ACO worth it as an office. They were supposed to think outside the box.

You just didn't think it'd be this much of a headache.

(-10 PS; Advanced Concepts Office now costs -5 PS per die.)

-[X] Combustion Instability Research [PHYS, CHEM, PROP] (214/200)

The research into what had caused the last sounding rocket to blow up spectacularly went off absolutely perfectly. It was treated as something of a shock effort, but also as something of a passion project - it was an incredibly interesting problem for the type of person who wanted to be a rocket scientist to solve. Ultimately, it came down to making adjustments to the geometry of the combustion chamber. While the issue wasn't going to be completely solved, the scientists and engineers working on the problem were all in agreement that now that they knew what to look for, they could lower the odds of having another instability issue.

(Turns the initial success roll for a rocket from a >60 to >50.)

-[X] Research Program Outreach (10R per dice, 81/120, gives +2 bonus to 1d4 research areas (including engineering))

The attempts to connect with more scientific institutions goes better this quarter, with your scientists connecting with their peers who now have things they would like to cooperate on with regards to space and the science you can do in it. The IEC now has a number of pending agreements with various universities for research sharing, and expects to expand that number very soon.

-[X] Outcome Surveys (113/120 QM: Close enough, I'll give it to you.)

Your PAO completed the surveys this quarter, just in time for the IEC to make adjustments ahead of the budget negotiations. The results were now in, and it seemed that the people of the world, when they had a spare thought for space, wanted:

1. Tangible results for Earth (suggestions: weather satellites, mapping, broadcasts)
2. More chances for the public to get involved (suggestions: outreach, adding additional space centers, pursuing high space utilization)
3. Scientific advancements applicable broadly (suggestions: materials science, chemical science, other scientific research that has knock-on effects.

The PAO has determined that your highest support comes from the former USA and European countries, save for Germany and other places hit by nuclear weapons, who have bigger things to worry about. Your lowest support comes from southeast Asia, and your support is growing in Africa.

As a first goal, they suggest building a second space center somewhere. It's the easiest thing to do, according to them, but it would be expensive.

-[X] Shaking Trees (123/100, 47/73/48)

Finally, bothering all of the Demil Committees bore fruit in the form of surplus loads of industrial equipment and high-grade materials being shipped to Mogadishu. It had taken slightly longer than you'd planned on, but the haul was good. You had casting machines for solid rocket motors, high-precision tools for making liquid engines courtesy of the old Soviet and American programs, various chemical precursors and chemical refining equipment that could be used to make fuels and anything else you needed.

The list was quite long, really.

But the most surprising thing was the nuke.

Oh good gods, what are we supposed to do with this?

And then the ACO debacle happened.

[Gained 50R]
[Gained 50R]
[Gained 1 Mark 4-type American nuclear weapon, plutonium core; gained chemical refining and handling equipment (+2 to CHEM); gained high-grade solid rocket motor casting machines and milling tools (+2 to PROP, AERO)]

-[X] Rocket Boxes (Phase I) (102/200 - WAS 7, REROLLED TO 92)

The deployment of the first phase of Rocket Boxes went off more or less flawlessly. There was a bit of an initial hiccup with your engine supplier - a small factory in Mombasa - leading to a short delay in the initial delivery, but when the shipment arrived it ended up arriving at the same time as the second shipment of engines, leading to a double-size initial burst of Rocket Boxes. First priority went to the schools nearest the space center, and highest priority amongst those went to the schools where the IEC's workers' children were attending. By the time the test launch of the two-stage sounding rocket went off, there was a sizable audience of kids from the nearby area watching from the space center's security gate, which was on the opposite side of the space center from the launchpad and about three kilometers away.

You took the opportunity to go out and talk to them - through an interpreter, you were still trying to learn the local language - and answer their questions, along with a couple of volunteers from the science and engineering teams.

It was a good day for everyone.