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Per Aspera (Space Agency Plan Quest)

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C_Z said:
The launch facility issues are unavoidable; even if that were the sole promise we made this year, we'd still be in the exact same boat.
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It kind of sounded to me like you were planning to de-prioritize the Tracking Stations; hence why I pointed out that it could still be realistically completed, whereas the Launch Facilities could not. If I misunderstood you, then I apologize.
 
At least the Microelectronics center has a moderate chance of finishing if that's the one that loses a dice from this.

C_Z said:
. Cyber and I are currently viciously arguing about the choice of first-stage engine cycle (I think staged combustion is better, she prefers expanders)
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Obviously we should do staged combustion so that magic Soviet enamel we unlocked doesn't go to waste! But seriously: what are the arguments for staged vs expander? I don't know my fancy rocket systems.
 
General_Urist said:
At least the Microelectronics center has a moderate chance of finishing if that's the one that loses a dice from this.


Obviously we should do staged combustion so that magic Soviet enamel we unlocked doesn't go to waste! But seriously: what are the arguments for staged vs expander? I don't know my fancy rocket systems.
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To over-simplify (Cyber will inevitably say this is wrong and I welcome it), staged combustion is basically having a small rocket engine inside your rocket engine. The exhaust from this little engine is used to turn turbine(s), which power the pumps that feed fuel and oxidizer into the engine as a whole. This exhaust, as well as the rest of the fuel/oxidizer, then goes to the main combustion chamber where it's burnt to provide thrust. An expander, meanwhile, uses the expansion of the cryogenic fuel being used for regenerative cooling to turn the turbines.

Expanders are simpler to engineer and lower mass, but are inherently thrust-limited because there's only so much nozzle area available to suck the heat from to turn the pumps (although this is less of an issue for aerospikes). Staged combustion engines are harder to engineer (but still doable!) and normally have a higher specific impulse.
 
C_Z said:
To over-simplify (Cyber will inevitably say this is wrong and I welcome it), staged combustion is basically having a small rocket engine inside your rocket engine. The exhaust from this little engine is used to turn turbine(s), which power the pumps that feed fuel and oxidizer into the engine as a whole. This exhaust, as well as the rest of the fuel/oxidizer, then goes to the main combustion chamber where it's burnt to provide thrust. An expander, meanwhile, uses the expansion of the cryogenic fuel being used for regenerative cooling to turn the turbines.

Expanders are simpler to engineer and lower mass, but are inherently thrust-limited because there's only so much nozzle area available to suck the heat from to turn the pumps (although this is less of an issue for aerospikes). Staged combustion engines are harder to engineer (but still doable!) and normally have a higher specific impulse.
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C_Z said:
To over-simplify (Cyber will inevitably say this is wrong and I welcome it), staged combustion is basically having a small rocket engine inside your rocket engine. The exhaust from this little engine is used to turn turbine(s), which power the pumps that feed fuel and oxidizer into the engine as a whole. This exhaust, as well as the rest of the fuel/oxidizer, then goes to the main combustion chamber where it's burnt to provide thrust. An expander, meanwhile, uses the expansion of the cryogenic fuel being used for regenerative cooling to turn the turbines.

Expanders are simpler to engineer and lower mass, but are inherently thrust-limited because there's only so much nozzle area available to suck the heat from to turn the pumps (although this is less of an issue for aerospikes). Staged combustion engines are harder to engineer (but still doable!) and normally have a higher specific impulse.
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In general difficulty of developing an engine goes by type in order: solid rocket motor, pressure fed, expander, fuel rich staged combustion / oxygen rich staged combustion (depending on whether you have a propellant that doesn't coke or soviet enamel respectively), gas generator, full flow staged combustion.

FFSC is easier from a turbine temperature standpoint than GG because the turbines are fed lower temperature fluid, but harder from a plumbing and valve standpoint.

GG in harder than FRSC or ORCS from a turbine design standpoint.

Tales of expander thrust limitations have been... exaggerated. There are ways to improve how much heat your harvesting, ranging from 'make the combustion chamber long' to 'put the combustion chamber inside the nozzle and do an expansion deflection nozzle' to 'add a proburner whose only purpose is to provide more heat'.

The beauty of expander cycles is that the turbine temperatures are low (RL-10 IIRC used stainless steel) and if you do a deal expander cycle (using both the lox and fuel on independent circuits) you eliminate seal issues.
Also they're easy to start up, which makes them something you can count on for lighting in the air (very good on uppers).

A FFSC engine will have better thrust to weight than an expander, but a ORSC or FRSC will have better thrust to weight than a FFSC.
The FFSC engine will last longer tho because the turbines have to deal with less scorching gasses going through them.

For expandable upper stages, use either FRSC or ORSC to really win max that mass fraction. Or use on expander when you want something cheap and reliable.

For lower stages... Expanders can be really nice if you're reusing boosters because they need minimal refurbishment.

AND I ran the math and found that a 10 to no LEO launcher has a upper to lower stage thrust ratio that allows us to do the Falcon style nine-to-one engine ration between stages.
This is nice because engines are the biggest cost when it comes to developing a new launch vehicle. So developing two engines is going to be costlier. And if we do nine on the booster, each engine only needs about 250 kN of thrust, which is well within the bounds of what an expander can give without getting too exotic.

Also, specific impulse between the twe doesn't differ that much in vacuum. All closed cycles give pretty similar Isp - where it matters is in the pressure they can generate inside the combustion chamber.
Higher pressure means you can improve the expansion ratio for a given bell size, which is useful for lower stage engines because better expansionwratio *is* a big driver of Isp and high pressure also means you get less back pressure losses low down.

But again, R-5 is going to be small enough that we don't actually need that performance, and we already have expanders flying so we'd get the benefits to reliability of a flight proven system in addition to the usual advantages of expanders.
 
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CyberFemme said:
In general difficulty of developing an engine goes by type in order: solid rocket motor, pressure fed, expander, fuel rich staged combustion / oxygen rich staged combustion (depending on whether you have a propellant that doesn't coke or soviet enamel respectively), gas generator, full flow staged combustion.

FFSC is easier from a turbine temperature standpoint than GG because the turbines are fed lower temperature fluid, but harder from a plumbing and valve standpoint.

GG in harder than FRSC or ORCS from a turbine design standpoint.

Tales of expander thrust limitations have been... exaggerated. There are ways to improve how much heat your harvesting, ranging from 'make the combustion chamber long' to 'put the combustion chamber inside the nozzle and do an expansion deflection nozzle' to 'add a proburner whose only purpose is to provide more heat'.

The beauty of expander cycles is that the turbine temperatures are low (RL-10 IIRC used stainless steel) and if you do a deal expander cycle (using both the lox and fuel on independent circuits) you eliminate seal issues.
Also they're easy to start up, which makes them something you can count on for lighting in the air (very good on uppers).

A FFSC engine will have better thrust to weight than an expander, but a ORSC or FRSC will have better thrust to weight than a FFSC.
The FFSC engine will last longer tho because the turbines have to deal with less scorching gasses going through them.

For expandable upper stages, use either FRSC or ORSC to really win max that mass fraction. Or use on expander when you want something cheap and reliable.

For lower stages... Expanders can be really nice if you're reusing boosters because they need minimal refurbishment.

AND I can the math and found that a 10 to no LEO launcher has a upper to lower stage thrust ratio that allows us to do the Falcon style nine-to-one engine ration between stages.
This is nice because engines are the biggest cost when it comes to developing a new launch vehicle. So developing two engines is going to be costlier. And if we do nine on the booster, each engine only needs about 250 kN of thrust, which is well within the bounds of what an expander can give without getting too exotic.

Also, specific impulse between the twe doesn't differ that much in vacuum. All closed cycles give pretty similar Isp - where it matters is in the pressure they can generate inside the combustion chamber.
Higher pressure means you can improve the expansion ratio for a given bell size, which is useful for lower stage engines because better expansionwratio *is* a big driver of Isp and high pressure also means you get less back pressure losses low down.

But again, R-5 is going to be small enough that we don't actually need that performance, and we already have expanders flying so we'd get the benefits to reliability of a flight proven system in addition to the usual advantages of expanders.
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You are wrong, and I will explain why: turbine go spinny.
 
To write a longer rebuttal to make sure nobody believes anything Cyber says (especially not if she starts talking about rotors):
CyberFemme said:
The beauty of expander cycles is that the turbine temperatures are low (RL-10 IIRC used stainless steel) and if you do a deal expander cycle (using both the lox and fuel on independent circuits) you eliminate seal issues.
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This is also solvable with FFSC, no?
CyberFemme said:
Also they're easy to start up, which makes them something you can count on for lighting in the air (very good on uppers).
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Definitely agreed we should do an expander upper stage :V
CyberFemme said:
AND I ran the math and found that a 10 to no LEO launcher has a upper to lower stage thrust ratio that allows us to do the Falcon style nine-to-one engine ration between stages.
This is nice because engines are the biggest cost when it comes to developing a new launch vehicle. So developing two engines is going to be costlier. And if we do nine on the booster, each engine only needs about 250 kN of thrust, which is well within the bounds of what an expander can give without getting too exotic.
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This is IMO less than ideal because 1) you get really un-aesthetic engine clusters (nine engines looks ugly as sin), and 2) we have different requirements for the engines in terms of cost and reusability. Our first-stage engine needs to have a very long time between overhauls but is fine with a high initial cost, whereas the upper stage engine is going to be thrown away and we want it to be as cheap as possible. Having different cycles makes sense.
CyberFemme said:
But again, R-5 is going to be small enough that we don't actually need that performance, and we already have expanders flying so we'd get the benefits to reliability of a flight proven system in addition to the usual advantages of expanders.
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Yeah but we have plenty of time to develop a new rocket engine after R-4, hopefully.
 
C_Z said:
To over-simplify (Cyber will inevitably say this is wrong and I welcome it), staged combustion is basically having a small rocket engine inside your rocket engine. The exhaust from this little engine is used to turn turbine(s), which power the pumps that feed fuel and oxidizer into the engine as a whole. This exhaust, as well as the rest of the fuel/oxidizer, then goes to the main combustion chamber where it's burnt to provide thrust. An expander, meanwhile, uses the expansion of the cryogenic fuel being used for regenerative cooling to turn the turbines.

Expanders are simpler to engineer and lower mass, but are inherently thrust-limited because there's only so much nozzle area available to suck the heat from to turn the pumps (although this is less of an issue for aerospikes). Staged combustion engines are harder to engineer (but still doable!) and normally have a higher specific impulse.
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Here's a question: Why is it less of an issue for aerospikes, wouldn't they have less surface area in contact with the heat than regular nozzles?
 
Vehrec said:
Here's a question: Why is it less of an issue for aerospikes, wouldn't they have less surface area in contact with the heat than regular nozzles?
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I'm not intimately familiar with it. I know that when you start getting into more exotic nozzle geometries, the limiting factors change.
 
Vehrec said:
Here's a question: Why is it less of an issue for aerospikes, wouldn't they have less surface area in contact with the heat than regular nozzles?
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The aerospike might not have an outer bell section, but the inner section is so much bigger than it ends up having more contact surface than a bell.
This makes them a pain to cool, but if you're doing an expander this suddenly becomes a bonus because YAY! more heat to drive the turbines!

Combining the two lets them cover each other's weaknesses: The expander solves the aerospike's overheating issues, and the aerospike's air entrainment improves thrust and Isp to compensate for the expander's lower chamber pressure.

They're like the happily married highschool sweethearts of engines cycle/nozzle combinations.
 
hope at some point that space plane R&D opens up because i really like jets.

might also help the teck tree along some.

ps do our stats help other in their R&D into things?
meaning does our high avionics say help plane teck on the normal level and things like that?
 
Spaceplanes are probably worth looking more into during the relatively slow period during R-5 development*; our slate is kinda loaded right now with the whole "do a fly-by of other planets" and "put a person in space" deal. We might have a shot at it before our manned spaceflight but I'm not sure if we'll have the ops dice to spare.

* again, assuming Korolev doesn't have yet another demand and we need to shoot him and replace him with Glushko.

As an aside, I just realized that our version of Man in Space Soonest, being gender-neutral, has a rather unfortunate acronym.
 
C_Z said:
Spaceplanes are probably worth looking more into during the relatively slow period during R-5 development*; our slate is kinda loaded right now with the whole "do a fly-by of other planets" and "put a person in space" deal. We might have a shot at it before our manned spaceflight but I'm not sure if we'll have the ops dice to spare.

* again, assuming Korolev doesn't have yet another demand and we need to shoot him and replace him with Glushko.

As an aside, I just realized that our version of Man in Space Soonest, being gender-neutral, has a rather unfortunate acronym.
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What, Astronaut in Space Soonest?

Why, I think it's rather fine...😏

Edit: I guess it would technically be Kosmonaut in Space Soonest 😏
 
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General_Urist said:
That is one nasty oof. The nat 100 may have helped, but it's still a long shot. I'm salty about this one, because a new space center isn't some theoretical design, we already built one (in Mogadishu). So making that promise without any OOC knowledge of how much work it is and then getting a build cost dropped on us that's mathematically impossible to meet feels like it's screwing with us the players since Carter should have an idea of how tight that is.
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About the new Space Center is there any way for us to get some local support, like use some of the political dices for it to get the heavy industries that exist there to supply us more and make the place cheaper/faster to build.
 
Ryzer said:
About the new Space Center is there any way for us to get some local support, like use some of the political dices for it to get the heavy industries that exist there to supply us more and make the place cheaper/faster to build.
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We already did that during the world Congress.

I think the best bet is somehow either negotiating that we'll only complete stage 2 or 3 by the deadline and do 4 later, or that the stage 4 requirement is lessened by us only intending to do prep and refurb of R-5s in that manufacturing complex instead of building entirely new rockets of an arbitrary design.
 
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March 31st, 1956//1956Q1 Results
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Plan: So Long, Big Al
    -[X] Construct an R-4 Dawn (18/120) (6 dice, -210R)
    -[X] Activate Weather Observation Satellites (1 program, -40R)
    -[X] Build a Space Center (0/250) (3 dice, -105R)
    --[X] Singapore
    -[X] Build a Scientific Complex
    --[X] Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (AVIONICS) (0/450) (3 dice, -75R)
    -[X] Tracking and Communication Station Construction (Phase 3) (0/550) (3 dice, -90R)
    -[X] Human-rated Rocketry (5/8 turns) (1 die, -20R)
    -[X] Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies (4/8 turns) (1 die, -25R)
    -[X] Multi-Stage Designs (0/2 turns) (1 die, -15R)
    -[X] Impactor Designs (0/3 turns) (1 die, -10R)
    -[X] Strap-on Boosters (157/250) (2 dice, -20R)
    -[X] Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 2) [CHEM] (3/200) (3 dice, -45R)
    -[X] Photovoltaic Investigations (3/4 turns) (1 die, -20R)
    -[X] Transistor Computing Investigations (0/6 turns) (1 die, -20R)
    -[X] Bothering Councilors (1 die, -10PS)
    -[X] Propagandize for Nuclear Power (155/???) (4 dice, -8PS)

    The first three months of the year were personally eventful. You had thought nothing would change, going from the situation before your marriage to the one now. And, in a way, you'd been right. At the same time… something did feel different, now. You couldn't quite put your finger on it, but every day you woke up beside her and felt something like wonder about it. Ten years ago it would have been a wistful dream. Now, it was real, and you didn't have to hide it from anyone.

    In a professional sense, however, it was a minor exercise in frustration and boredom as things that had been intended to pan out failed to properly materialize, while everything else kept ticking over, needing only time…

    For a wonder, though, you had barely glanced at the newspapers for the last three months. You knew there was construction going on the world over, minor conflicts happening as interethnic tensions all over the world proved that they weren't quite done with humanity's oldest sins yet, natural disasters and scientific advances… but you'd spent most of your mornings alternating between reading the scientific reports of your teams, getting caught up on Council business, and teaching your daughters how to read.

    All in all, you were pretty sure your blood pressure was lower than it had been in years.

    Resources:
    0R (+730R/turn + 5R/turn from Connections - 50R/turn from payroll/dice purchases = +685/turn net)
    100 Political Support
    1 R-2 Gale
    2 Curiosity-class Satellite

    Objectives of the World Communal Council
    Complete Post-War Reconstruction (45000/200000)
    Defeat Partisan Forces

    Department of Agriculture (5%)
    -Forestry Commission
    -Aquaculture and Fishing Commission
    Department of Transportation (9.2%)
    -Sea Travel Commission
    -Road and Rail Commission
    -Air Travel Commission
    Department of Industrial Coordination (5%)
    -Occupational Health and Safety Administration
    Department of Energy (8.2%)
    Department of Reconstruction and Disaster Relief (26.0%)
    Department of Health and Welfare (25.5%)
    Department of Education (18.2%)

    Discretionary Funding (2.4%)
    Council Standards Commission (Negligible)

    Interplanetary Exploration Cooperative (1.5%)
    Antarctic Exploration Cooperative (0.1%)
    (Others)

    State of the World
    (Updated at the end of every Quarter)

    Mediterranean/Saharan Africa
    Education: 9 (+)
    Electrification: 8 (+)
    Industry: 7
    Infrastructure: 9 (+)
    Security: 2
    Partisan Activity: 3

    Sub-Saharan Africa
    Education: 8
    Electrification: 8
    Industry: 7
    Infrastructure: 9 (+)
    Security: 4
    Partisan Activity: 4

    Eastern Asia
    Education: 12 (LIMIT REACHED)
    Electrification: 10
    Industry: 10
    Infrastructure: 11
    Security: 6
    Partisan Activity: 5

    Western Asia
    Education: 12 (LIMIT REACHED)
    Electrification: 11
    Industry: 11
    Infrastructure: 11
    Security: 6
    Partisan Activity: 4

    Australia and New Zealand
    Education: 8
    Electrification: 8 (+)
    Industry: 7
    Infrastructure: 9 (+)
    Security: 4
    Partisan Activity: 3

    Europe
    Education: 11
    Electrification: 10
    Industry: 10
    Infrastructure: 11
    Security: 5
    Partisan Activity: 3

    North America
    Education: 10 (+)
    Electrification: 9
    Industry: 9
    Infrastructure: 10 (+)
    Security: 6
    Partisan Activity: 3

    South America
    Education: 9
    Electrification: 9 (+)
    Industry: 8
    Infrastructure: 9
    Security: 4
    Partisan Activity: 2

    Pacific Islands
    Education: 7
    Electrification: 6
    Industry: 5 (LIMIT REACHED)
    Infrastructure: 7 (+)
    Security: 1
    Social Unrest: 1

    1 Launch Stand (0-5 tonne) (+1 Operations dice)
    1 Heavy Sounding Rocket Launch Pad (5-30 tonne) (+1 Operations dice)
    1 Expanded Assembly Complex (+2 Build Capacity, +1 Program Slot)
    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])
    2 Construction Union Halls (+2 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)
    1 Isotope Separation and Nuclear Science Facility (Enables Nuclear Technology tree) (fully unlocks 1954Q1)
    1 Computational Research Facility (+3 to all rolls)
    1 Model 1952 'Stormchaser' Mobile Rocket Launch System (+1 Operations dice)
    Advanced Concepts Office (unlocks experimental new programs from time to time)
    1 Wind Tunnel (+3 to AERO)
    1 Flight Complex (+2 Operations dice, enables the construction and launch of air- and spaceplanes.)
    Dnipro Aerospace Metallurgy Centre (+9 MATSCI, +1 Education in Europe)
    Sao Paolo Aerodynamics Centre (+10 AERO, +1 Education in South America)
    Long Beach Propulsion Research Complex (+7 PROP, +1 Education in North America)
    Mombasa Computer Science Institute (+10 COMP, +1 Education in Sub-Saharan Africa)
    Beijing Institute for Chemical Research (+7 CHEM, +1 Education in Eastern Asia)
    New Delhi Institute for Physics (+9 PHYS, +1 Education in Western Asia)
    Equatorial Tracking System (Provides communications and guidance across the equator)
    Big Ear Radiotelescope (+2 PHYS)
    Cosmonaut Training Facilities (Allows for crew and crew training)

    Scientific Advances
    Improved Instrumentation - Gain +1d2 bonus to a random field every 2 launches. Gain +1 to AVIONICS immediately.) (Made obsolete by First Satellite)
    Regenerative Cooling - Starts down the path to more powerful and advanced rocket engines.
    Second Stages - Can now build 2-Stage 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.
    Improved Stringer Alloys - New (expensive) alloys improve the performance of structural tanks. (+5 to R cost of Heavy Sounding Rockets and above)
    Copper-Chrome combustion chamber alloys - New combustion chamber alloys with higher heat transfer efficiency allow for hotter (and thus more efficient) chamber temperatures, leading to the ability to produce more powerful engines. (Future rocket designs will be higher performing.)
    Aluminum-Lithium monolithic tanks - New tank alloys enable lighter, higher performing tankage to be produced for new rocket designs. (Future designs that use Al-Li tankage will be more performant, but more expensive in R terms.)
    First Satellite - With the launch of the Curiosity I, the IEC and the world have entered a new era of spaceflight, and the horizons of science and engineering broaden ever further. (+10PS, Improved Instrumentation bonus deactivated. Gain +1d2 bonus to a random non-CREW field per two satellite launches.)
    Van Allen Belts - An area of charged particles from the Sun, trapped by Earth's magnetic field. These belts have caused several minor hiccups with the Curiosity I satellite, and given the transmitted radiation readings, care must be taken if the IEC intends to launch humans through them. Staying for any significant length of time would be... ill advised.
    Inconel turbine parts - Enables higher-performance rocket engines to be constructed.
    Hastelloy-N reactor parts - Enables higher-performance nuclear reactors and nuclear engines to be constructed.
    Rudimentary Heat Shielding - An ablative heat shield made of a pourable elastomer laid over a resin-impregnated hemp honeycomb, rimmed with a carbon cloth that together made an effective protection against the heat of Low Earth Orbit re-entries. (Enables return of film, sample, and crewed capsules/craft)
    High-Carbon Carbon Fiber Composites - Useful both for you and for general civilian industry in applications where high strength and/or high-temperature conditions are found, produced from an initial rayon feedstock. Examples: Rocket fuel tanks, airplane wings, bicycles, light boats, etc.
    Turbine enamel formula - A ceramic enamel formula ideal for protecting rocket engine turbines from being attacked by their oxidizers. Enables high-performance Staged Combustion engines. (IRL: This is how the Soviets worked their space magic. It's probably also how Raptor is made.)
    Isogrid/Orthogrid manufacturing - A different way of forming tankage, pressing or milling out a grid of equilateral triangles in the tank material chosen, in order to reduce its weight while maintaining compressive and lateral strength. Orthogrid is very similar, except it uses a grid of squares or rectangles. Enables higher-performing tankage, improving rocket payload performance.
    Stainless Steel Mass Manufacturing - A collection of techniques and technologies centered around improving the production of stainless steel, including argon-oxygen decarburization processes (to remove sulfur and carbon), hot rolling, continuous casting, and more. Primarily good for civilian applications. Enables stainless steel tankage, stainless steel parts for use in applicable applications such as probes.
    Alternative Launch Systems - A series of high-technology or infrastructure-intensive launch systems projects that may or may not come about in the future.
    Lightweight Foamed Alloys - offers an expensive but potentially worthwhile method for lightening spacecraft or providing shock absorption for landings.
    Aramid - an aromatic polyamide fiber that shows great promise for any application where a tear-resistant, fire-resistant, strong and elastic material would be of use. Such as spacesuits, parachutes…
    Kapton - a tape-like film with excellent insulation properties for various space and ground-side applications, largely under your level of abstraction but providing a small buff to reliability for spacecraft built after 1955Q3.
    Vacuum Nozzles - Enables the use of vacuum-optimized engines.

    Scientific/Engineering Specific Field Bonuses
    AERO - +19
    AVIONICS - +10
    CHEM - +18
    CREW - +3
    COMP - +13
    MATSCI - +17
    PHYS - +18
    PROP - +14

    IEC Leadership:

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

    Assistant Director of the IEC:
    Sergei Korolev [The Engineer] - [+5 to Science and Engineering rolls (unless researching [HGOL][FUEL] projects, then it becomes a -15), +1 Science dice, +1 Engineering Dice. Request: Build and launch a 2nd Generation Orbital Rocket within 5 years. Demonstrate crewed orbital spaceflight within 5 years.]

    Chief Scientist of the IEC:

    Assistant Director of the Cosmonaut Assembly    :

    Passive Effects

    Rocket Reels - Adds a coinflip for 2 gained political support per quarter; gain an additional flip for every successful orbital rocket launch. [UPGRADED]

    Nuclear Power Authorization - The World Council has been successfully convinced to support the IEC conducting peaceful, power-generating nuclear experiments. (Current WC approval status: Given, Apprehensive; Current public approval status: Apprehensive)

    Demil Locker Access - Access granted to the world's stockpiles of military equipment in the process of being decommed. (Lower progress requirements for spaceplanes, space-gun experiments, etc.)

    Research Support - You have a network of scientific institutions to whom you send a variety of data and perform experiments for. By putting a little extra pressure on those institutions, you can get some help for your internal purposes. (+3 to all Science and Engineering dice until 1957Q1)

    Promises Made (Expires Q1 1957 unless otherwise stated):
    Launch a Venus probe before 1960Q1. (+2 to Dnipro Aerospace Metallurgy Centre's bonus on completion) (Int(M-L)
    Launch a probe to Mars by 1960Q1 (+2 to Long Beach Propulsion Research Complex's bonus on completion) (Int(D)))
    Conduct Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies (FWW) (Does not expire as long as the dice is locked)
    Deliver a Weather Observation Satellite covering :
    • Asia (Int(M-L),Int(C))
    • Europe. (Int(M-L)
    • North America (Int(D))
    • South America (Int(C))
    Build a Launch Facility in Asia by 1957Q1. (Int(C))
    Build a Launch Facility in Eastern Asia before 1957Q1 (Int(M-L))
    Complete all stages of Tracking Facilities by 1957Q1 (CPAL)
    Build the Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre by 1957Q1. (SDL)
    Build 2 points of Industry or Infrastructure in North America (Int(M-L), Int(D))
    Build 2 points of Industry or Infrastructure in industrialized regions (SDL)
    Launch a Lunar Impactor before 1957Q3. (+2 to New Delhi Physics Institute bonus)
    Complete Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 3) by 1957Q1. (Int(D), UWF)
    Conduct Transistor Computing Investigation in Mombasa by 1958Q1. (CPAL)

    Rocket Construction (1 rocket built, 1 under construction)

    Construct an R-4 Dawn (103/120) (6 dice, -210R)

    With the expansion of the assembly facility finally complete, you directed the Assembly teams to work on a slew of new R-4s. While progress wasn't as rapid as you would have liked (and it was, you admitted, very possible you'd been spoiled from their cadence in years past) they did finish one rocket and very nearly complete the next, with several partially complete stages resting in the Complex's cavernous integration bay.

    Rocket Launches

    None to report this quarter.

    Programs (1 active, 0 slots available) (-40R/turn)

    Activate Weather Observation Satellites (1 program, -40R)

    You stood up the Weather Observation Satellite program, to no small amount of fanfare from the meteorological community. With prototype solar cell characteristics in hand, they began building out both satellites and the rockets to carry them based on the Curiosity-C template; they would begin deploying them the moment they had production solar arrays in hand.

    Build a Space Center (Phase I, 250/250), (Phase II, 33/600) (3 dice, -105R)
    - Singapore

    With an invitation in hand from the people living around Singapore, the first phase of construction on the IEC's second space center was cut in half, leaving only the need to survey and level the site, placed just outside of Kampung Gambu, a tiny village on one of the island's larger roads. This location meant there were few people affected by the actual construction, and there would be equally few to be annoyed by the worst of the noise generated by actual launches. Those that were there were offered significant assistance in moving if they so wished, and accommodations were reached with those that remained. Most were curious about the project, though strong opinions either way were few and far between, for better and worse.

    Dozens of tons of dirt and rock were moved from further inland to compact the soil of the site to the point that, soon, it would be possible to begun construction of the two heavy pads, alongside the assembly complex and mission control center.

    (-1 Facilities dice)

    Build a Scientific Complex
    -Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (AVIONICS) (133/450) (3 dice, -75R)

    Construction on the Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre began at a sedate pace, with the site graded and the foundations poured by the end of the quarter. The majority of the resources for the project had been put towards acquiring the precision manufacturing equipment the centre would need to do its appointed tasks, and those were expensive in both rare materials and rare skilled labor. The hope was that by September the centre would be largely operational, if not completely so, and a number of members of Turing's team of computer scientists were looking at the possibility of moving over to Sydney once it was complete.

    Tracking and Communication Station Construction (Phase 3) (70/550) (3 dice, -90R)

    The final (for now) array of tracking stations started construction, albeit at a slower rate than had been expected. As it turned out, several of the localities that had volunteered to host the stations had replaced the councils who had originally agreed to the projects, and, due to their organization, the agreements had to be re-ratified, which was time consuming, resulting in a lot of waiting and not a lot of construction.

    Human-rated Rocketry (6/8 turns) (1 die, -20R)

    The single-seat capsule started to take shape on the production floor this quarter, starting with a wooden mockup that rapidly progressed through a series of tests before actual metal started to get machined. It looked almost cork-shaped, to you - a fat bottom covered in ablative cork and resin heat shielding, narrowing down to an aerodynamic, rounded nose that hid an array of small RCS thrusters not too dissimilar from what would be on the next generation of Curiosity satellites. You weren't exactly a towering figure, nor a wide one, and yet you felt somewhat stuffed inside of it when you accepted an offer to sit in it. You were thankful you had picked small pilots for the task of flying the thing.

    Meanwhile, the R-4a's first parts started leaving the machine shops and showing up on the assembly floor. They were, by design, not much different to the R-4's, so there was little rush to that side of the operation.

    Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies (5/8 turns) (1 die, -25R)

    With new data arriving from the research reactors in New Delhi, the power plant design teams made good progress towards hammering in the design, requirements and operating processes needed for a truly safe, mass-construction power plant design that could form the backbone of the world's energy needs. So too did research progress on molten core concepts, as well as a small, prototype Space Nuclear Power Reactor, SNPR, otherwise known as the Snapper. That was to be a small, sub-kilowatt power source potentially useful for space probes or, in series, a crewed station or surface base.

    Multi-Stage Designs (1/2 turns) (1 die, -15R)

    The investigation into the usage of multiple stages on your orbital-class rockets was an evolution of the prior work done that had produced the R-2 sounding rockets, scaled up and with time and consideration given to three and four stage design possibilities. The cutoff for useful payload to orbit seemed to end at that point, though for fast interplanetary probes there was something of a case to be made for a solid 'kick-stage' that could be considered the fifth stage of a nominally four-stage rocket. Using explosive bolts and a pneumatic pusher, a rocket could be given a sealed, aerodynamic 'interstage' that would keep the rocket's aerodynamic profile consistent during the early ascent stage of flight and send a second (or third, and so on) stage on its way when the preceding one had burnt out.

    A secondary group of researchers also proposed a skeletal open interstage and the use of hot-staging, which was a process by which the next stage would be ignited while the previous one was still running (you assumed that it would be very close to burnout at that point) to keep the fuel settled in the upper stage tanks, enabling somewhat simpler, weaker pumps to run the upper stage motor's fuel system and negating the need for a header to keep pressure.

    Impactor Designs (1/3 turns) (1 die, -10R)

    It was very easy to smash one thing into another.

    It was somewhat more involved in setting up the experiments one wished to run to get data from said smashing. Telescopes with spectrometers would need to be looking at an impact site, and ideally your impactor probe would be gathering whatever photographs or other measurements it could as it sailed towards its inevitable doom.

    Thus, the first quarter of the study focused on exactly what it would be feasible to learn from an impactor, and then building out experimental packages to do that, and only then did that team begin to draw up the actual probe.

    Strap-on Boosters (318/250) (2 dice, -20R)

    Despite being billed as 'strap-on', the act of adding side-mounted boosters to a rocket actually involved a certain level of redesign of the rocket itself to enable it to support the mass and thrust of those motors, which were not on the straight up-and-down centerline of the rocket as it had been designed. It was, you were told, not precisely difficult, but it did make the resulting base rocket somewhat heavier than one that wasn't built to support them, thanks to the extra structural reinforcements. Still, it seemed to you that the extra performance would tend to cancel that out. And, it seemed, the research team you'd assigned to the project agreed, for by the end of the quarter they had produced a viable test article using an R-2 they had purpose-built to test both the strap-on reinforcements and the new multi-stage designs, and after a few successful test launches and recoveries they were firmly pleased with their work.

    Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 2) [CHEM] (200/200), (Phase 3, 29/250) (3 dice, -45R)

    The next set of developments to come out of your propellant research teams was a highly refined form of kerosene, suitable for both jet aircraft and rockets alike, though, in practical terms, the extra refining steps were somewhat unnecessary for fuel meant for the average jet. Titled High-Refinement Kerosene-1, or HK-1, it was one of those technologies whose methods were released to the public almost before the confirmations of efficacy and methods of production hit your desk.

    The other advancement (amongst dozens of tested and discarded formulas, for reasons from efficacy to safety) was a so-called 'monopropellant' fuel known as hydrazine. It wasn't cryogenic, like liquid oxygen, and it didn't need an oxidizer to burn. It was ideal for things like RCS thruster fuel - but it was also incredibly toxic, and one demonstration of the stuff had Korolev cursing up a storm.

    Photovoltaic Investigations (4/4 turns) (1 die, -20R)

    The teams working on photovoltaics finally unveiled their first mass-producable cells towards the end of the quarter. They were expensive, and their efficiency wasn't great, but they did represent a significant step forward for on-orbit power supply, enabling a much lower weight of batteries to power a satellite for as long as the cells could provide enough power. When the report was released to the public, there was a certain amount of interest amongst the more independently-minded communities, further from the reach of the large municipal power plants that fed most of the world's electric demands, and a general interest from the scientific community at large. Time would tell if that interest would be enough to fuel further research into the technology.

    Transistor Computing Investigations (1/6 turns) (1 die, -20R)

    The transistor labs at Mombasa were spun up this quarter, with Dr. Turing handpicking a team to investigate the potential combinations of conductors and semiconductors that could lead to more efficient, smaller computer equipment. Of particular interest was the new idea of the 'integrated chip', which could allow a number of functions currently served by large and separated portions of a vacuum tube computer to be condensed down to something roughly the size of a couple of postage stamps.

    Bothering Councilors (1 die, -10PS)

    It was time, once again, for you to get ahold of your new friend in the Reconstruction Department - the same one who had been able to help you last year. He answered your letter within a week with a response, and after a few more weeks of back-and-forth, you raised the idea of:

    -[ ] [BOTHER] Divert resources to rebuilding Electrification in [name the region you want]. (Takes 3 turns to complete)
    -[ ] [BOTHER] Divert resources to rebuilding Industry in [name the region you want]. (Takes 3 turns to complete)
    -[ ] [BOTHER] Divert resources to rebuilding Infrastructure in [name the region you want]. (Takes 3 turns to complete)

    Propagandize for Nuclear Power (312/???) (4 dice, -8PS)

    You turned the Outreach crew loose on the problem of the public perception of nuclear power again, this time to a measurable amount of success, especially as you now had a working example of a power plant in operation in New Delhi. Seven years after the last of the bombs fell, there was enough distance in time for the worst of the trauma to have been dulled, allowing those who wouldn't have considered it before now to at least give the concept the time of day, particularly as it was the IEC doing the suggesting. Surveys indicated a drop in antagonism towards the concept, with a smaller but still appreciable rise in favorable views.

    --

    Sorry for the long update wait. I've just had a lot going on. Including, notably, the fact that I'm now helping make an actual space exploration videogame.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Glad to see this lovely quest back!

    Good to have photovoltaics. How expensive are they exactly? Would it be worth it for us to set up a factory for true mass production, or are the demands of the satellite program low enough that we get by with semi-artisanal works and leave other companies to do mass roll-out in non space roles?

    And we get ultrakerosene and Hydrazine, two essential modern-day rocket fuels. Nice, to get some basics.

    Shadows said:
    Sorry for the long update wait. I've just had a lot going on. Including, notably, the fact that I'm now helping make an actual space exploration videogame.
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    Oh way cool! You go space cowboy. Where does this game sit on the hard/soft sci-fi spectrum?
     
    I forget, why were we bothering councilors again? Did we have an objective? Edit - ah, North American industrialization/infrastructure.

    -[X] [BOTHER] Divert resources to rebuilding Infrastructure in [North America]. (Takes 3 turns to complete)

    IMO, setting up a solar panel factory is a good idea, but it may be too early to pull the trigger on that. These panels probably aren't optimized very well, and some early trial-and-error stuff with the initial artisanal panels is probably good so that we can converge on a useful design.

    In a few years, though, we should definitely set up a large solar panel factory, both because we'll be building lots of them and to supply civilian applications.
    CyberFemme said:
    Heavy are the tank domes that wear the strap. 😌
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    🗞️
     
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