Per Aspera (Space Agency Plan Quest)

No point in going another day, heh.

E: ignore the 2 thrown dice after the 80 for your orbital rocket design, I misread the vote.

You avoided the newspapers this quarter as they were entirely too focused on the depressing news coming out of North America as the fighting went on.


Resources:
90 (+225R/turn)
65 Political Support
1 R-2 Gale



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)
Second Stages - Can now build 2-Stage Sounding Rockets
Combustion Instability Research - Turns the initial success roll for a rocket from a >60 to >50.
Engine Cycles - Enables Early Orbital engines.
Mobile Launch Operations - Can launch Sounding Rockets without the need for a launch pad.

Scientific/Engineering Specific Field Bonuses
AERO - +6
AVIONICS - +9
CHEM - +10
CREW - +3
COMP - +3
MATSCI - +8
PHYS - +3
PROP - +7

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.]

Promises Made (Expires Q1 1954):
Conduct 2 Recon Rocket launches in North America
Conduct 2 Recon Rocket launches (anywhere)
Build a scientific facility in Eastern Europe by Q4 1954
Employ 10 dice worth of Facilities and Operations personnel by 1954Q1
Establish the Advanced Concepts Office
Conduct Materials Research (Phase 3)
Complete Rocket Reels
Only produce military items in colonized nations
Do not pursue Spaceplane research

Construct an R-1 Beden (10R per dice, 81/35, costs 1 Build Capacity until complete) - 20,55 -> 75/35 (complete) , 40/35 (complete), 11/35
Launch 38 (failure), 88 (secure launch)

The Cooperative's first double-launch quarter was a… decidedly mixed bag. The first, a standard sounding rocket launch carrying instruments from a university in Iran, went off without a hitch, accomplishing all of its goals before splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

The second, however, was something of a failure. Launched from the rail of your Stormchaser mobile launch vehicle, the rocket was intended to perform a complicated maneuver involving an arc out ove the battle lines in North America before turning back towards friendly forces with the last of its fuel so that the ejecting film capsule would parachute down within reach of friendly troops. Alas, the airframe objected to this movement strenuously - so strenuously in fact, that it tore itself apart. That was something of a disappointment, to some, though the peace-loving amongst the Cooperative's ranks were secretly somewhat relieved that their technology had failed when turned to military uses.

Construct a Heavy Sounding Rocket launch site (15R per die, 86/60, allows launch of the Heavy Sounding Rocket and theoretical derivatives up to 30 tons, +1 Operations Dice)

Finally, at long last, the Heavy Sounding Rocket launch site was complete, with ground support equipment installed and ready to receive its first launch vehicle. With its completion, your launch operations could reach new heights, both literally and in terms of launch cadence.

Build a Scientific Complex (25R per die, 169/450, opens up new research possibilities, +1d5+5 bonus in the associated field, +1 Education for the region)

The Complex, as it was currently known, was an as-yet unnamed construction of concrete, brick and steel whose current status was 'a series of well-dug foundations in the process of curing', located in Dnipro. When the walls went up and it was ready for equipment to move in, it would host a series of the best kilns, forges and machine tools the world could possibly make, and serve as the Cooperative's world hub for materials science research. Thanks to the relative quiet and prosperity of the region, there wasn't much competing with its construction for resources, and, with any luck at all, that would continue to hold true through its construction and operation.

Conduct Design Studies (R-4 Dawn) (Phase II) [AERO, PHYS] (15R per dice, 113/300)

The second phase of design studies for the R-4 ticked along merrily, making solid progress towards producing a viable design, moving into subscale model tests in a wind tunnel at an affiliated university. The expense and time involved in orchestrating this was considerable enough that your engineering team leads were once more asking for better test facilities to be build in Mogadishu, but the campaign was otherwise uneventful.

Advanced Concepts Office (5R and -5 PS per die, 159/150, will occasionally provide a new Program to pursue based on brainstorming and priorities)

The Advanced Concepts Office formally opened its doors and received its first funding this quarter, already receiving letters and proposals from scientists and universities all over the world, suggesting ideas and projects. While it would take some time to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were, there were already some internally-generated projects that held promise.

Conduct Materials Research (Phase 2) (20R per die, 146/200, provides access to improved aluminum structures) (NAT 1)

Your materials science teams pushed forward with their research at a reasonable pace, checking into ways of lightening the structures they had previously developed still further. Ever-increasingly thinner tanks were tried, and then stringers, long, straight pieces of fuselage metal (in this case, alumninum) placed in the direction of greatest compressive force - in this case, vertically.

Unfortunately, they seem to have hit a bit of a stumbling block. In testing, the welds they are using become brittle and fracture when the vibration of launch is applied to the now-cold and weakened stringers. This usually results in the destruction of the test article in short order. The scientists leading the effort do, however, have some ideas about how to get around this problem, and need your approval to move forward with the fix.

VOTE
[ ] New Welding Methods - By utilizing state-of-the-art welding methods and materials, the teams think they can prevent the stringers' welding beads from coming undone even if the stringer itself may be more brittle than usual, under the theory that a bad brick in a wall may not break if supported by strong ones. (Adds +Progress requirements for rockets using this generation of tankage)

[ ] New Stringer Alloys - By finding a new alloy to use, with better cryogenic properties, the issue can be averted at the source of the issue. This will be somewhat more expensive, however, than the current iteration of materials. (Adds +R requirements for rockets using this generation of tankage)

Rocket Boxes (Phase 3) (5R per die, 338/350. Gives Rocket Boxes to every middle-school, high-school and university or equivalent in Australia and New Zealand. Encourages future scientists and engineers - some of whom will even come work with the IEC.)

The Rocket Box project in Australia and New Zealand nearly wrapped up this quarter, stymied only by the vast and far flung nature of Australia and the people who lived there. You estimated that you would be able to move on to the next region starting the following quarter, provided nothing absolutely insane occurred.

There is Power in a Union (135/150, 5R per dice, -5R per turn and -5 PS on completion. Gain +1 Facilities dice, +5 to Facilities rolls) (+15 from Omake - The Jet Cruiser) (Complete)

Your negotiations with the construction and electricians' unions proved fruitful this quarter, as you successfully persuaded them to provide an offer to their best and brightest members, offering material support to the unions in exchange for being willing to give up a great number of journeymen, masters and talented apprentices. Then you just had to negotiate with the individuals themselves - which was slightly rougher an experience, but, in the end, you added a quarter again to the number of workers in the IEC's Facilities department, and gained a great deal of experienced ones to boot, whose expertise could only help speed things along.

Voting is open for the 2 options above, under Conduct Materials Research.