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Hard Vacuum: Tetralian Colonial Military Research Institute

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Initiating Design Resolution 1: Interplanetary Transport Chassis
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    • So, the general zeitgeist in-thread seems to be towards the ITC.
    write-up
    This transport vessel is simple in implementation. Drawing Inspiration from the Space Shuttle Enterprise, it has greatly simplified the internals of the ship, as pesky components like nitrogen, oxygen, life support, water, and crew support are not required due to the lack of a live crew. It also replaces the Enterprise's rocket fuel with Nuclear Engines. Despite these modifications, the shuttle has a slightly higher weight as it is covered in an interlaced armor coating all around the ship for defense against mass drivers, space debris, ramming, heat lances, lasers, and other unpleasantries in space. The armor is a series of interlaced and multilayered panels of different mixtures of reinforced carbon-carbon. The shuttle has a large central area which can be used for storage. Six of the panels on the top of the shuttle into the central storage area have mounts in place where standardized modules or strike craft can be affixed for transportation or weapons firing. The panels and associated mounts can be rotated from inwards facing (allowing for maximal armor, for re-entry), or outwards facing (for maximal carrying capacity, for interplanetary transit).

    @I just write, is the above the sort of specificity you are looking for in design proposals? Also, any hints on what the above would count for in terms of getting difficulty based modifiers? By my count the innovations included in the model are:
    • Simplifying contents of the ship from the source material (fewer support systems, fewer internal walls/structures, more storage space)
    • Put armor everywhere, and more of it
    • Standardized modularity for carrying future designs
    • Six hatches instead of the fewer number that the Enterprise had
    This write-up is worth +1 for engineering specificity. In addition, the use of only tried and true technology that is suitable for your current manufacturing base qualifies the design for Easy difficulty.

    There will be a four hour grace period to object to the implementation of this design.
     
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    • ITC Mk2

    This transport vessel is simple in implementation. Drawing Inspiration from the Space Shuttle Enterprise and various proposed and constructed SSTO designs, we have greatly simplified the internals of the ship, as pesky components like nitrogen, oxygen, life support, water, and crew support are not required due to the lack of a live crew. There are, of course, other differences, such as using NERVA engines and, more importantly, armor. The armor is a series of interlaced and multilayered panels of different mixtures of reinforced carbon-carbon. The shuttle has a large central area which can be used for storage. Six of the panels on the top of the shuttle into the central storage area have mounts in place where standardized modules or strike craft can be affixed for transportation or weapons firing. The panels and associated mounts can be rotated from inwards facing (allowing for maximal armor, for re-entry), or outwards facing (for maximal carrying capacity, for interplanetary transit). Atmospheric converters are also installed to allow for processing and collection of atmospheric hydrogen to allow for the craft to refuel itself in low-infrastructure areas, particularly when combined with the crafts STOL capacities and rough-ground landing gear.

    [x]ITC Mk2
     
    AseaHeru said:
    ITC Mk2

    This transport vessel is simple in implementation. Drawing Inspiration from the Space Shuttle Enterprise and various proposed and constructed SSTO designs, we have greatly simplified the internals of the ship, as pesky components like nitrogen, oxygen, life support, water, and crew support are not required due to the lack of a live crew. There are, of course, other differences, such as using NERVA engines and, more importantly, armor. The armor is a series of interlaced and multilayered panels of different mixtures of reinforced carbon-carbon. The shuttle has a large central area which can be used for storage. Six of the panels on the top of the shuttle into the central storage area have mounts in place where standardized modules or strike craft can be affixed for transportation or weapons firing. The panels and associated mounts can be rotated from inwards facing (allowing for maximal armor, for re-entry), or outwards facing (for maximal carrying capacity, for interplanetary transit). Atmospheric converters are also installed to allow for processing and collection of atmospheric hydrogen to allow for the craft to refuel itself in low-infrastructure areas, particularly when combined with the crafts STOL capacities and rough-ground landing gear.

    [x]ITC Mk2
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    The ISRU system and STOL capabilities will raise difficulty to normal, the former because it will need to be able to process a lot of different hydrogen-containing materials. The latter because most methods of acheiving STOL capability are incompatible with surviving atmospheric insertion.
     
    AseaHeru said:
    ITC Mk2

    This transport vessel is simple in implementation. Drawing Inspiration from the Space Shuttle Enterprise and various proposed and constructed SSTO designs, we have greatly simplified the internals of the ship, as pesky components like nitrogen, oxygen, life support, water, and crew support are not required due to the lack of a live crew. There are, of course, other differences, such as using NERVA engines and, more importantly, armor. The armor is a series of interlaced and multilayered panels of different mixtures of reinforced carbon-carbon. The shuttle has a large central area which can be used for storage. Six of the panels on the top of the shuttle into the central storage area have mounts in place where standardized modules or strike craft can be affixed for transportation or weapons firing. The panels and associated mounts can be rotated from inwards facing (allowing for maximal armor, for re-entry), or outwards facing (for maximal carrying capacity, for interplanetary transit). Atmospheric converters are also installed to allow for processing and collection of atmospheric hydrogen to allow for the craft to refuel itself in low-infrastructure areas, particularly when combined with the crafts STOL capacities and rough-ground landing gear.

    [x]ITC Mk2
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    Seems like a good addittion.

    [X] ITC Mk2

    Normal difficulty is fine.
     
    Is it all still getting +1s for the writeups?

    If it is, thats overall average(including the armor, etc.), lightly buggy NERVAs and ISRU systems... Well, time to see how its written up.
     
    Design: Mk 2 Interplanetary Transport Chassis | Start of Infrastructure Phase 1
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    • Design: Mk 2 Interplanetary Transport Chassis (Modifiers Applied)
    Primary Result: Average
    Propulsion: Below Average
    ISRU: Below Average

    All in all, the performance for the new ITC could be described as Mediocre. The spaceframe is properly armored as intended, the cargo bay is big enough to haul a significant load, the vehicle can land and take off safely, and the newly standardized mounting points have been tested to within an inch of their lives.

    That said, the ITC's propulsion leaves much to be desired. The heavy frame, while theoretically able to be dealt with, results in the vehicle having far less delta v than is desirable. Conventional solid core NTRs simply do not have the exhaust velocities required to make such a heavy frame into an SSTO for Agua's level of gravity, let alone allow it to traverse interplanetary distances in a reasonably short time. In fact, it's barely fit to shuttle between Aguan orbit and its nearby moon without refueling.

    The ISRU system is a mess too, but not as crippling as with the propulsion. The variablity of materials it could extract Hydrogen from had to be reduced dramatically, with the end result basically being a dirt-simple electrolysis device. H2O goes in, Hydrogen Gas (and some O2 which is promptly vented) comes out.

    Transport Capacity: Zero
    Mobilization: 1
    Ore: 2
    He3: 1
    Munitions

    Mining Explosives: Fairly simple chemical explosives intended for mineral extraction. One of the primary ingredients is Magnesium.
    1 Ore (Cheap)
    Infantry

    Tetraloid Utility Droid: These spider-shaped worker automatons really aren't built for combat, more being intended for industrial and domestic use. Each robot is powered by a supercapacitor bank, meaning that they need to re-charge every twelve hours, with endurance declining the more power they expend in combat. As such, they don't have much going for them in a fight, with their most effective weapon being a re-purposed mining laser that quickly drains their power.
    1 Ore (Cheap)
    Ground Vehicles
    Strike Craft
    Capitol Ships

    Interplanetary Transport Chassis Mk2: This 150 meter long vehicle is intended to be used for both transorbital and interplanetary transits while carrying a significant load. It has standardized mountings for strike craft, cargo pods, or weapons modules. Other features include an electrolysis system to break down H2O into useful Hydrogen propellant. Sadly, it is let down by its relatively feeble solid-core nuclear propulsion, which isn't suitable for either an SSTO mission profile, or jetting across the solar system on timescales shorter than several months.
    1 Ore 1 He3 (Cheap)

    Static Installations

    'Lux' laser battery: These planetary defense batteries were originally based on the ignition lasers used for the Inertial Confinement Fusion Engines in the arkship that brought you here. The design was hastily copied and made into vast phased-array laser batteries, which are only really effective due to sheer scale. This lack of efficiency can be directly traced back to the shoddy manufacturing quality of the optics. When firing in the visible wavelengths (which is necessary to pierce Agua's fairly thick atmosphere), these laser batteries can shoot down strike craft and ordnance within 20,000 km, and can open fire on capitol ships out to 30,000 km.
    3 Ore, 2 He3 (Somewhat Expensive)
    Logistics
    Infrastructure

    Prefab Factories: Your colony ship came with a bunch of 3D printers and other such devices needed to establish manufacturing infrastructure. They do not have the precision needed to manufacture fusion-based devices reliably, meaning that the production thereof is currently complex.
    Loose Components

    Laser Ignited Fusion Engine: Utilizing inertial confinement and an array of very powerful lasers, this propulsion system can blast a plume of plasma out the back at a significant fraction of light speed. This renders it capable of both a significant thrust to weight ratio, and extremely high Specific Impulse. The precision needed when manufacturing the parts demands extremely close manufacturing tolerances, which means that our current industrial base isn't up for the task of producing it.
     
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    Yeah, lol

    Well, I'm busy today, so someone write up a transport ship or something so we get TC.
     
    BBBence1111 said:
    Yeah, lol

    Well, I'm busy today, so someone write up a transport ship or something so we get TC.
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    Actually, given that this is the infrastructure phase (which can be used for general tech advancement), I would allow you to make an engine revision for the ITC. Just getting it enough delta v for SSTO work and interplanetary transits would give you some Transport Capacity.
     
    I just write said:
    Actually, given that this is the infrastructure phase (which can be used for general tech advancement), I would allow you to make an engine revision for the ITC. Just getting it enough delta v for SSTO work and interplanetary transits would give you some Transport Capacity.
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    Okay then.

    Would saying
    "Make it work like in the original design" work as a revision?

    If yes,

    [X] Make the ITC engines work as specified in the original design

    If no, other engineers heeeeeeelp
     
    Pretty bomb. so get this, we have a nuclear engine right?

    Whats stopping us from having a duel transportation method, where an atmospheric scoop collects the atmosphere, and runs it over the hot-nuclear reactor, and jetting the hot air out as propulsion, similar to the SLAM.

    We could also modify the engine so that a wider variety of gases could be pumped through the nuclear engine, which allows our ISRU system to create a higher yield in terms of propellant that speeds us up faster at the expense of having less delta-V compared to a lighter element. Combined with an increased efficiency in our overall propulsion ability by system-unique optimizations, and our ship would be able to move across the solar system.

    Redefined Nuclear Propulsion

    This is a two-pronged propulsion modification, first in the ISRU system, and secondly in the engines themselves.

    The ISRU is modified to be able to extract a variety of gases from the input, allowing the engine to have an easier time refueling on sight.

    The Nuclear engine is designed to accept multiple fuel types (Hydrogen, noble gases, methane, etc.) and then utilize that fuel in a higher-efficiency method, allowing the ship to move both faster, and in a higher Delta-V available.
     
    You know what? Sure, let's go with that. I'm entirely too busy to research space travel, so I'll just say I'm sure everything you said is correct

    [X] Redefined Nuclear Propulsion
     
    SLAM works, yes.

    I will be kinda surprised that this thing can go interplanetary as a shuttle.

    I was expecting another design would be required before we could go interplanetary. I was planning some sorta mini-colony ship powered and propelled by a laser
     
    Last edited:
    So, you guys seem to be broadly in agreement about what to do with this phase, but we're currently waiting on Joro Wan to come to consensus.
     
    Hi all! Fixing our propulsion seems essential at this point.

    [X] Redefined Nuclear Propulsion
     
    BBBence1111 said:
    How did they manage to be slower than us? We literally did nothing for days.
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    Because literally only one person posted an idea, and then the rest of the players all tossed in their own completely different ideas. I've given them a 48 hour time limit before I pick from the available ideas randomly.
     
    Infrastructure: Improved Atomic Rockets | Start of Revision Phase 1
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    So, as it turns out, there's a nice low-tech solution to nuclear rocketry that increases performance by an utterly stupid degree. Under normal circumstances, a nuclear reactor cannot be run at absurdly high temperatures for an extended period without melting. The key point there, of course, is for an extended period. If a reactor is designed such that exceeding a specific temperature brings the nuclear reactions inside it to a screeching halt, then it opens up the possibility of pulsing the reaction far beyond what the reactor could normally sustain. Between pulses, the reactor can be cooled off, and readied to fire once more. An additional quirk of the design is that the reaction emits enough neutrons for those to contribute significant heat to the propellant, meaning that the propellant can actually be hotter than the fuel. All in all, a pulsed Nuclear Thermal Rocket can have a theoretical amplification (N) value of up to 6,000, though yours has a more stately 600.

    This amplification factor can be applied to both thrust and specific impulse; these options exist on a sliding scale based only on how much propellant you're shoving through the reactor at one time. Still, at maximum mass flow the re-modeled ITC can easily punch itself out of Agua's atmosphere and into orbit with two thirds of its propellant to spare. Meanwhile, at minimum mass flow, the engine has such an absurd amount of specific impulse that the ITC has a bit over 2,000 km/s of delta v. That said, thrust falls off really fast at maximum specific impulse; higher propellant flow helps with cooling in a lot of ways, meaning that when the ITC's twin nuclear engines are in fuel-saver mode they have to wait longer between pulses to cool off.

    Transport Capacity: 1
    Mobilization: 1
    Ore: 2
    He3: 1
    Munitions

    Mining Explosives: Fairly simple chemical explosives intended for mineral extraction. One of the primary ingredients is Magnesium.
    1 Ore (Cheap)
    Infantry

    Tetraloid Utility Droid: These spider-shaped worker automatons really aren't built for combat, more being intended for industrial and domestic use. Each robot is powered by a supercapacitor bank, meaning that they need to re-charge every twelve hours, with endurance declining the more power they expend in combat. As such, they don't have much going for them in a fight, with their most effective weapon being a re-purposed mining laser that quickly drains their power.
    1 Ore (Cheap)
    Ground Vehicles
    Strike Craft
    Capitol Ships

    Interplanetary Transport Chassis Mk2: This 150 meter long vehicle is intended to be used for both transorbital and interplanetary transits while carrying a significant load. It has standardized mountings for strike craft, cargo pods, or weapons modules. Other features include an electrolysis system to break down H2O into useful Hydrogen propellant. It is powered by a redundant pair of Pulsed Nuclear Thermal Rockets, which can not only blast it into Agua orbit with nearly two thirds of its propellant to spare, but can shift gears meaning it can fling itself all over the system in just a few weeks! The thrust generated by these engines in 'stationary mode' can be re-directed through a set of auxiliary thrust outputs on the underside, allowing VTOL capability on worlds with surface gravity of less than 12 m/s2​
    1 Ore 1 He3 (Cheap) | Provides 1 Transport Capacity

    Static Installations

    'Lux' laser battery: These planetary defense batteries were originally based on the ignition lasers used for the Inertial Confinement Fusion Engines in the arkship that brought you here. The design was hastily copied and made into vast phased-array laser batteries, which are only really effective due to sheer scale. This lack of efficiency can be directly traced back to the shoddy manufacturing quality of the optics. When firing in the visible wavelengths (which is necessary to pierce Agua's fairly thick atmosphere), these laser batteries can shoot down strike craft and ordnance within 20,000 km, and can open fire on capitol ships out to 30,000 km.
    3 Ore, 2 He3 (Somewhat Expensive)
    Logistics
    Infrastructure

    Prefab Factories: Your colony ship came with a bunch of 3D printers and other such devices needed to establish manufacturing infrastructure. They do not have the precision needed to manufacture fusion-based devices reliably, meaning that the production thereof is currently complex.
    Loose Components

    Laser Ignited Fusion Engine: Utilizing inertial confinement and an array of very powerful lasers, this propulsion system can blast a plume of plasma out the back at a significant fraction of light speed. This renders it capable of both a significant thrust to weight ratio, and extremely high Specific Impulse. The precision needed when manufacturing the parts demands extremely close manufacturing tolerances, which means that our current industrial base isn't up for the task of producing it.

    PuNTRo Engine: A variety of Nuclear Thermal Rocket, the PuNTRo operates in a pulsed regime which allows it to briefly operate at levels that should by all rights melt the engine into slag. Coupled with a hefty cooling system, these engines can achieve patently absurd levels of thrust and fuel economy (though not at the same time!), making them suitable for both taking off from planetary surfaces and gallivanting all over the system. These engines are bimodal, meaning they can be used for electricity generation when not producing thrust. Maximum exhaust velocity of 48,000 km/s.
     
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