- Location
- United States
[X] We cannae' do it in that time, Captain Nowak!
Let Me Play Among The Stars (A Space Program Plan Quest)
- Thread starter 4WheelSword
- Start date
- Original Alt. History
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[X] Plan: This Is Fine
VREDE
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
C1T8 - April - June 1951
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
April 1951 - Design Payload
The mood around the PEAC complex is grim. No one really knew what had happened in Korea and rumours were flying about this new Japanese weapon. Some - those with husbands, wives, sisters and sons overseas - requested leave and Hedwig could see no reason to refuse them. From her connections in Paris and Geneva and Warsaw she knew that they might have gone to sleep in the old world but when Apolline had hammered her door down she had woken up in the new.Apolline. Hedwig sighs. Whatever is happening between them, it has receded in the last few days. Hedwig understands why, she's heard stories of her… friend's husband and how joyful their relationship had been. Hearing about the loss of so many in such a sudden way was sure to be emotionally devastating for her. It has shaken Hedwig badly enough. She had been in the United States a decade ago but she had feared for the safety of Europe. Now it seems like another part of the world is ready to set itself on fire.
Hedwig designed the warhead for the new missile personally. She cannot do much but she can work. It's a simple design - a contact detonator and almost a hundred kilograms of explosive. It doesn't even need to separate from the rest of the rocket. It doesn't need a battery. It just needs to slam itself into the ground and explode. What could be easier.
| Guided Missile Warhead | Mass | Cost |
| Conventional Warhead - 96kg explosive | 0.12M | 0.096C |
| Totals | 0.12M | 0.096C |
| Additional stats: -1 Control |
Roll 2d10+1 (Engineering)
May 1951 - Plan Launch Vehicle
Pictures start to arrive in Europe, printed on the front pages of newspapers. A cloud rising above Incheon, apparently taken from a hundred miles away by North Korean soldiers. The French battleship Clemenceau, scorched along her flank and her deck stacked with Hedwig pretends cannot possibly be bodies. The port… the photos of the port are the most shocking of all.She can see what may have once been cranes and warehouses. But all there is in the photos is a blasted landscape. It looks like hell. A column of tanks lie on their sides and their turrets, blasted over by an explosion of a biblical scale. There are no bodies. A horrible part of Hedwig wonders if they have been removed or if none had survived the cataclysm.
Is this the future of war? Is this terrible fate what awaits the soldiers and sailors she'd spent her time around for years of her life. She wonders if her ex-husband is involved in whatever version of this horror is being conducted in South America. The last she'd heard of him he'd moved there after the German fascists had collapsed.
Good riddance. At least something good had come of those disastrous few years.
| LV-2 | Control | Stability | Reliability | Mass | Cost |
| XRE-4-Midi | 0 | 0 | -5 | 0.078M | 0.696C |
| XBD-3 | +1 | -2 | +1 | 0.464M | 0.0348C |
| GM Warhead | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0.12M | 0.096C |
| Additional | 0 | +1 | 0 | ||
| Total on pad | 0 | -1 | -4 | 0.662M | 0.827C |
Delta-V | 1,839m/s | T/M Ratio | 2.37/1 | FN Ratio | 10 |
Name your launch vehicle:
[ ] Vrede (Wrath, Norwegian)
[ ] Razić (Strike, Polish)
[ ] Claquer (Clap, French)
[ ] Write-in
Roll 2d10-1 (Flight)
June 1951 - Order Launch Vehicle
Apolline had started attending church in Dublin. Hedwig goes with her every Sunday, as does half the base staff. They all had their prayers, for the lost and for the living. And it gave Hedwig a chance to learn more about the city and the community that her job had landed her as a part of.They were a strange group of multinational scientists and engineers who turned up once a week to fill up the church and drink tea and yet they were made as welcome as someone who had lived there their entire lives. It was a strange experience, at once familiar and utterly bizarre.
It was always a relief to return to the base. To hear the grinding metal on metal as machinery whirred and churned to produce a new rocket. There was no routine yet. It was still too early for that. But for Hedwig, it was beginning to be enough.
Current Budget: 5.4C
Order LV-2: 0.827C
New Budget: 4.573C
Roll 2d10-2 (Operations)
Rolling...
- Location
- United States
[X] Razić (Strike, Polish)
Unless someone beats me to it I'll try rolling.
Edit:...Welp, that happened.
Unless someone beats me to it I'll try rolling.
Edit:...Welp, that happened.
Last edited:
- Location
- Yes
Ah, good old PbtA: Where you're mostly shit at everything and really shit at something.
Only one name for the world's first TBM:
[X] Write In: Vengeance (French)
Only one name for the world's first TBM:
[X] Write In: Vengeance (French)
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- She/Her
> Doesn't need to separate.
Hedwig no! That's how you get a V2! (Derogatory)
Hedwig no! That's how you get a V2! (Derogatory)
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
I'm looking forward to the popping when they get high up.
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Rocket name votes please, hoping to update today or tomorrow
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Razić (Strike, Polish)
C1R8 - April-June 1951
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Events
Design: Partial Success, 11No modifications
Plan: Catastrophic Failure, 2
| LV-2 | Control | Stability | Reliability | Mass | Cost |
| XRE-4-Midi | 0 | 0 | -5 | 0.078M | 0.696C |
| XBD-3 | +1 | -2 | +1 | 0.464M | 0.0348C |
| GM Warhead | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0.12M | 0.096C |
| Additional | -1 | +1 | -1 | ||
| Total on pad | -1 | -1 | -5 | 0.662M | 0.827C |
Delta-V | 1,839m/s | T/M Ratio | 2.37/1 | FN Ratio | 10 |
| Notes: Full Scale Supersonic Test |
Order: Partial Success, 14; Launch Vehicle completed in August 1951
Hedwig watches the preparations for the supersonic tunnel test with more than a passing interest. The program has run small, sub-scale tests before but this is the first time they've placed a full size test object in the tunnel.
The three metre long missile is a simple object - a nose cone, a long cylinder and an odd little skirt at the base to cover the guidance vanes that would allow aiming the rocket. This isn't a functional version, of course. Arne's workshops are already in overdrive getting that one ready for August. No, this one is just carefully smoothed wood to test the aerodynamic effects of high speeds on the rocket.
Watching Arne's crew carry it cautiously into the chamber was almost sweet - they tended to it lovingly as if it would break under incautious hands. Perhaps, given it was light enough that three of them could carry it unaided, it would.
Once the chamber was sealed, the artfully carved rocket secured in place, there was a short delay while the pumps pressurised a huge amount of air. Then, with only a few seconds warning, it started. Air, impregnated with smoke, rushed through the tunnel at an unimaginable speed.
It flows around the rocket's body in ways that are functionally meaningless to Hedwig. The aerodynamicists, on the other hand, seem overjoyed. Everything is going swimmingly. Now they just need to be ready to fly before the end of October.
GM Moves
DeadlineGuided Missile: Incomplete
12 month Time Limit - October 1951
If the Mission has not been completed by the deadline, reduce the Program's refreshing budget pool by 25% permanently.
Clout can be expended to delay the deadline by 3 months per resource expended.
Politics
6 segment clock: The Korean War
Progress: 3/6
Current budget reduced by 20%: 3.658C
ECN troops gather in colonial holdings, preparing to force landings.
When the clock is filled, the political issue - whether it is a war, lobbying or anti-scientific sentiment on behalf of the politicians - is resolved.
Clout can be expended to add a segment to this clock without reducing the budget.
International News
April 1951Japan: Commander of Land Forces Chōsen, Sōsaku Suzuki, is relieved and replaced by General Shizuo Yokoyama, who has been more vocally supportive of the atomic program.
United Kingdom: The Stone of Scone is found in Arbroath Abbey, Scotland.
Korea: Clemenceau and the other ships of the ECN fleet make port at Namp'o, invited by the North Korean government. Aid and succour will be offered to the wounded while arrangements are made for the return to French Indochina.
Europe: The Treaty of Paris is Adopted, formally establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
Geneva: The League of Nations receives a message from the Japanese delegate, intended for China. It threatens the use of additional weapons if the ECN fleet is not driven out of Namp'o. China, speaking to the assembly of delegates, suggests that Japan may wish to direct their requests directly to the North Korean government.
Soviet Union: The Soviet Olympic Committee was formed, with an intention for Soviet competitors to enter the 1952 Helsinki games.
May 1951
Geneva: The Opera House of Geneva is almost destroyed by fire. Police do not consider this to be a criminal act.
United Kingdom: King George VI opens the Festival of Britain in London.
Korea: Japanese forces push as far North as Osan, Wonju and Samch'ok. A rumour has begun to spread along the front lines of European men in North Korean uniforms being observed in action.
Bolivia: Brigadier General Hugo Ballivián takes control in a self-inflicted coup of the President and National Congress.
June 1951
Korea: Clemenceau, Joffre and a number of other ships begin their journey back to French Indochina, shadowed by Japanese submarines. Several troop and munitions ships remain in Namp'o.
Germany: First German Film Festival opens in Berlin, Hamburg and Lübeck.
Geneva: The League of Nations votes to impose 'significant' sanctions on Japan's international trade in a coordinated move spearheaded by the People's Republic of China, France and the Benelux.
France: René Pleven elected Prime Minister. A strong proponent of the ECN as an organisation for mutual defence, he was carried to victory on a platform of anti-colonialism, anti-Japanese sentiment and a firm voice in favour of engaging in 'peacekeeping'.
Japan: Japanese newspapers report sightings of French and Polish aircraft over Korea wearing Chinese colours.
Voting
You have one vote for each month for a total of three votes. Please write your plan in the month-by-month order you would like the actions to occur or select one of the Staff Plans below.The Current Budget is 4.573C
Construct
[ ] Build an Engine Test stand for a current or future Engine, paying the cost out of the current budget.
[ ] Write in the Fuel mixture and maximum size of the Engine or
[ ] Write in the Engine the Test stand is designed for
[ ] Build a Wind Tunnel, paying the cost out of the current budget.
[ ] Write in the maximum capacity in M of a subsonic tunnel
[ ] Write in the maximum capacity in M of a supersonic tunnel
[ ] Build a Launch Pad, paying the cost out of the current budget.
[ ] Write in the maximum Launch Vehicle size and the Fuel mixture it's intended for.
[ ] Build or Upgrade a Production Facility
[ ] Write in the maximum size of the Launch Vehicle this facility can build.
[ ] Upgrade a facility to hasten construction of Launch Vehicles.
[ ] Upgrade a facility to allow parallel construction of Launch Vehicles.
Design
[ ] An Engine for a future mission - Write in the details
[ ] A Booster for a future mission - Write in the details
[ ] A payload for a future mission - Write in the details
Plan
[ ] Plan a Mission using a currently available Engine, Booster and Payload.
Order
[ ] Order a VREDE Launch Vehicle and pay the cost out of the current budget.
[ ] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle and pay the cost out of the current budget.
Schedule
[ ] Schedule a mission using a Launch Vehicle that is currently available.
Research
[ ] Research: Fuel variations and derivatives
[ ] Research: Payload components and modules
[ ] Research: Electronics and guidance
[ ] Research: Rocket and booster improvements
Undertake
[ ] Attempt to gain Clout to retain budget during the military crisis or to delay the deadline.
Staff plans
[ ] Plan: Apolline the Scientist - Hope for the best
[ ] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[ ] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
[ ] Design a scientific Payload for the Razić Engine-Booster combination.
[ ] Plan: Arne the Engineer - Plan for the worst
[ ] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[ ] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
[ ] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
- Pronouns
- He/They
I think Arne's plan is basically good, though it'd be better if we rescheduled it to order a new rocket sooner:
[ ] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
[ ] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[ ] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
This way we'll definitely have the second rocket ready for an October flight, and we'll probably have Clout too to extend the deadline if necessary.
That said, I think we should plan on abandoning the Razic platform as soon as we complete our obligation and either redesign it with some of the other small rocket missions in mind, or move onto an SRBM design.
[ ] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
[ ] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[ ] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
This way we'll definitely have the second rocket ready for an October flight, and we'll probably have Clout too to extend the deadline if necessary.
That said, I think we should plan on abandoning the Razic platform as soon as we complete our obligation and either redesign it with some of the other small rocket missions in mind, or move onto an SRBM design.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Presumably they had a breakthrough and skipped straight to centrifuges...
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Manchukuo, iirc, based on conversations with friends.
- Location
- Yes
[X] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
[X] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[X] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
[X] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[X] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
Probably, it's a shitbox. It might work in the end though.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
[X] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[X] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
If we have one left over, it might be worth it to try and design a scientific payload for it. But other than that let's just get rid of it and hope the military isn't too mad that we gave them something so unreliable.
[X] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
[X] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
If we have one left over, it might be worth it to try and design a scientific payload for it. But other than that let's just get rid of it and hope the military isn't too mad that we gave them something so unreliable.
- Location
- United States
[X] Plan Hypocrite Who Always Complains About People Forgetting How Plan Voting Works In His Quests
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- Location
- Yes
Wait this should have been a plan vote
[X] Plan Hypocrite Who Always Complains About People Forgetting How Plan Voting Works In His Quests
-[X] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
-[X] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
-[X] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
[X] Plan Hypocrite Who Always Complains About People Forgetting How Plan Voting Works In His Quests
-[X] Order a Razić Launch Vehicle
-[X] Attempt to gain Clout to delay the deadline.
-[X] Schedule the Razić Launch Vehicle for a Flight
C1T9 - July-September 1951
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
July 1951 - Order
Three months until Deadline
The PEAC complex went into overdrive, finishing the first Razić launch vehicle and immediately going to work on a second. It was a real test of Arne's workshops, producing a pair of half-ton missiles in eight weeks with hand tools and mechanical lifts.
Hedwig hates herself for not being able to do anything. Oh, she can sign off on reports, order more equipment and materials in and ensure everything runs smoothly in the background. Yet while she's never been afraid of getting her hands dirty, she would only get in the way if she tried to help. Thus she is relegated to her office, reading weekly updates and preparing for her trip.
She does have a role, even if she can't cut plate steel. She's going to Paris.
Roll 2d10+Operations
August 1951 - Undertake
Two months until Deadline
Paris is beautiful in late summer, the wide avenues long since recovered from the scars of a short war. Hedwig is, unfortunately, more recognisable here than in a rural part of Dublin, but she has her ways. A stylish pair of sunglasses and a broad brimmed summer hat do wonders for her anonymity, she could only wish to make more use of it. Instead, she is spending the waning days of summer in interminable meetings with senior members of the ECN Leadership.
She hopes she can maintain funding, contracts and all the other things she needs to keep the program running and while maintenance is almost assured, growth is not. At least not without results. More than once it has been mentioned to her that a 'single, unsatisfactory launch' does not a rocket program make. More than once she has had to point out that she is working from first principles and perhaps if the relevant nations had continued their work on military rockets in the '40's, she would have more to show.
Sitting in a cafe with a cigarette in one hand and a thin novella in the other, Hedwig attempts to focus on the page and fails utterly. It isn't exactly art - a twenty cent pulp detective story she picked up at the airport - but it isn't the prose that's failing her. She cannot focus, her thoughts sliding constantly back to Apolline. They have barely talked since… since the news came in from Korea. Wanting to reignite whatever it was they had been developing, Hedwig has been desperately trying to think of an appropriate gift to bring back with her.
Paris, the city of love and she can't think of a single thing for the French woman she is in- Hedwig catches her thoughts. It's no use thinking like that. Not while she's here.
She is dragged from her thoughts when a woman wearing the uniform of the Marine Nationale takes a seat at her table.
"I hope you don't mind, madame Director, but I've been trying to catch you for the last few days."
Hedwig folds her book closed and frowns, flicking ash into the crystal ashtray on the table in front of her. She doesn't respond verbally, simply gesturing for the woman to continue.
"Captain Marie Debonnet, experimental warfare. We're more than a little intrigued by your work across the channel." She takes off her cap and touches the pins holding her hair in a tight bun, checking they're all in place.
"Are you the reason PEAC is building weapons now?" Hedwig asks, deciding bluntness is better than diplomacy here.
"No, sadly," the woman answers with a shrug, "I'm sure if my superiors had their way you'd have already been folded into our group, or some sort of larger multinational version of it. As it is, they seem content to allow you a veil of civilian control."
"I am a civilian." She has to stop herself from physically reeling from how open this Marie Debonnet is being. The other woman's eyes are fixed on Hedwig's espresso cup, not looking up, but seemingly not interested in calling for a waiter.
"Of course, but you're designing - sorry, building weapons by your own admission. You're part of the war effort. I wanted to offer my help."
"Your help?" Feeling like she is very quickly losing control of the conversation, Hedwig is reduced to parroting responses with a question mark applied.
"Yes. You have a deadline coming up. I can push my superior to extend that deadline in your favour. At least I hope I can."
"I… am not going to say no to that." Hedwig replies, uncertain of what she's about to get into.
Roll 2d10+Fortune
September 1951 - Schedule
One month until Deadline
With a rocket on its way to Sweden, it is simply a case of getting the appropriate permissions. It will not, of course, be launching with an actual explosive warhead. Instead the nose cone is full of lead weight to mimic the bomb it will potentially one day carry.
Hedwig sighs as she signs the last notification of a test to be sent to ECN headquarters. This one had better go well.
Roll 2d10+Operations
Do you buy Apolline a gift in Paris?
- Write in a suggestion
Three months until Deadline
The PEAC complex went into overdrive, finishing the first Razić launch vehicle and immediately going to work on a second. It was a real test of Arne's workshops, producing a pair of half-ton missiles in eight weeks with hand tools and mechanical lifts.
Hedwig hates herself for not being able to do anything. Oh, she can sign off on reports, order more equipment and materials in and ensure everything runs smoothly in the background. Yet while she's never been afraid of getting her hands dirty, she would only get in the way if she tried to help. Thus she is relegated to her office, reading weekly updates and preparing for her trip.
She does have a role, even if she can't cut plate steel. She's going to Paris.
Roll 2d10+Operations
August 1951 - Undertake
Two months until Deadline
Paris is beautiful in late summer, the wide avenues long since recovered from the scars of a short war. Hedwig is, unfortunately, more recognisable here than in a rural part of Dublin, but she has her ways. A stylish pair of sunglasses and a broad brimmed summer hat do wonders for her anonymity, she could only wish to make more use of it. Instead, she is spending the waning days of summer in interminable meetings with senior members of the ECN Leadership.
She hopes she can maintain funding, contracts and all the other things she needs to keep the program running and while maintenance is almost assured, growth is not. At least not without results. More than once it has been mentioned to her that a 'single, unsatisfactory launch' does not a rocket program make. More than once she has had to point out that she is working from first principles and perhaps if the relevant nations had continued their work on military rockets in the '40's, she would have more to show.
Sitting in a cafe with a cigarette in one hand and a thin novella in the other, Hedwig attempts to focus on the page and fails utterly. It isn't exactly art - a twenty cent pulp detective story she picked up at the airport - but it isn't the prose that's failing her. She cannot focus, her thoughts sliding constantly back to Apolline. They have barely talked since… since the news came in from Korea. Wanting to reignite whatever it was they had been developing, Hedwig has been desperately trying to think of an appropriate gift to bring back with her.
Paris, the city of love and she can't think of a single thing for the French woman she is in- Hedwig catches her thoughts. It's no use thinking like that. Not while she's here.
She is dragged from her thoughts when a woman wearing the uniform of the Marine Nationale takes a seat at her table.
"I hope you don't mind, madame Director, but I've been trying to catch you for the last few days."
Hedwig folds her book closed and frowns, flicking ash into the crystal ashtray on the table in front of her. She doesn't respond verbally, simply gesturing for the woman to continue.
"Captain Marie Debonnet, experimental warfare. We're more than a little intrigued by your work across the channel." She takes off her cap and touches the pins holding her hair in a tight bun, checking they're all in place.
"Are you the reason PEAC is building weapons now?" Hedwig asks, deciding bluntness is better than diplomacy here.
"No, sadly," the woman answers with a shrug, "I'm sure if my superiors had their way you'd have already been folded into our group, or some sort of larger multinational version of it. As it is, they seem content to allow you a veil of civilian control."
"I am a civilian." She has to stop herself from physically reeling from how open this Marie Debonnet is being. The other woman's eyes are fixed on Hedwig's espresso cup, not looking up, but seemingly not interested in calling for a waiter.
"Of course, but you're designing - sorry, building weapons by your own admission. You're part of the war effort. I wanted to offer my help."
"Your help?" Feeling like she is very quickly losing control of the conversation, Hedwig is reduced to parroting responses with a question mark applied.
"Yes. You have a deadline coming up. I can push my superior to extend that deadline in your favour. At least I hope I can."
"I… am not going to say no to that." Hedwig replies, uncertain of what she's about to get into.
Roll 2d10+Fortune
September 1951 - Schedule
One month until Deadline
With a rocket on its way to Sweden, it is simply a case of getting the appropriate permissions. It will not, of course, be launching with an actual explosive warhead. Instead the nose cone is full of lead weight to mimic the bomb it will potentially one day carry.
Hedwig sighs as she signs the last notification of a test to be sent to ECN headquarters. This one had better go well.
Roll 2d10+Operations
Do you buy Apolline a gift in Paris?
- Write in a suggestion