BEGINNING OF SHORT FILM TITLED SCIENCE IN ACTION: MAY 1956 For Classes Sixth to Eighth Standard
*Upbeat instrumental music begins*
Title: SCIENCE IN ACTION: MAY 1956
By Evergreen Education
Produced in Coordination with the Department of Education
Narrator: We at Evergreen have a question for you? How are these products related to each other? Heat-protective clothing and helmets, Tires, Ropes and Cables, Sail Cloth, Sporting Goods, Boathull Material, Fiber Reinforced Concrete and Jet Engine Enclosures.
PICTURES OF THE VARIOUS NAMED ITEMS ARE SHOWN IN SEQUENCE.
*Wait for forty five seconds*
Narrator: Have you given up? Do not worry, it left many of us here confused also. The answer is that all of these products, along with many more, have been changed with the introduction of a new material called Aramid. Aramid was developed by Interplanetary Exploration Cooperative only a few years ago, yet this material has already made a different for many people across the world. This fiber, which handles similarly to normal textile apparel fibers, is characterized by its excellent resistance to heat, as it neither melts nor ignites in normal levels of oxygen. It is used extensively in the production of protective apparel, air filtration, thermal and electrical insulation, as well as a substitute for asbestos. Aramids are man-made fibers with enhanced structural properties, known for their incredible tensile strength. They are used in advanced products where light weight, yet high strength is needed.
This is due to a number of factors such as good resistance to abrasion and organic solvents, nonconductive, a very high melting point, low flammability and integrity at elevated temperatures. They retain much of their strength at high temperatures and resist permanent deformation or 'creep' under prolonged stress. Their toughness surpasses steel, glass fiber and nylon, and they show high durability even under extreme tension and bending, making them incredibly versatile. Aramids fibers show resistance to many solvents and salt, but can be weakened by strong acids. While they are difficult to dye and sensitive to UV light, they are hard to burn, and instead of melting, they decompose.
This product would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, but scientists and engineers at the IEC developed...
[X] Plan Before the Hurricane Season
Operations: 4/6 dice, 60R
-[X] Construct an R-4 Dawn (97/120) (1 die, -35R)
--[X] And Launch it x2 dice
---[X] With a Curiosity-C weather satellite x2
----[X] Covering Asia & North America
----[X] Covering South America
-[X] Construct a Payload 1 die
--[X] Curiosity-B class photo-return satellite -25R
Facilities: 8/8 dice, 245R
-[X] Build a Space Center (Singapore) (33/600) (3 dice, -105R)
-[X] Build a Scientific Complex
--[X] Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (AVIONICS) (133/450) (2 dice, -50R)
-[X] Tracking and Communication Station Construction (Phase 3) (75/550) (3 dice, -90R)
Engineering, 4 dice locked, 2/2 dice, 90R
-[X] Human-rated Rocketry (6/8 turns) (1 die, -20R)
-[X] Lifting Body (30/150)(2 dice, -20R)
-[X] Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies (5/8 turns) (1 die, -25R)
-[X] Multi-Stage Designs (1/2 turns) (1 die, -15R)
-[X] Impactor Designs (1/3 turns) (1 die, -10R)
Science: 3 dice locked, 2/2 dice, 65R
-[X] Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 2) [CHEM] (29/250) (2 dice, -30R)
-[X] Very Long Range Communications (0/3 turns) (1 die, -5 R)
-[X] Transistor Computing Investigations (1/6 turns) (1 die, -20R)
-[X] Closed-Input Life Support Systems (126/200) (1 die, -10R)
Politics: 5/5 dice, 30R
-[X] Propagandize for Nuclear Power (312/???) (2 dice, -4PS)
-[X] Visitor Complex (0/300) (3 dice, -30R)
Penelope had one arm looped around Ruby's shoulders, and the other held on to an excitable Alice, who was all but vibrating off her lap. The five-year-old wanted to play, but Penelope knew she would be highly upset if she missed what was supposed to come on the television in about two minutes. Both she and Iris were fascinated by 'Mommy's spaceships', but Iris was by far the more patient of the two.
The IEC spokesperson who was presenting the broadcast was a young woman from Mogadishu, all smiles and excitement as she told those watching across the continent what they were watching. All over the world, members of the Outreach department were hosting the broadcasts of the first live images from space as the satellites passed overhead - well, in the cases where the first pass was in daylight, anyway. Some would have to wait.
The screen flickered, and the spokesperson was replaced by the slightly grainy, full-color image of the east African coastline, complete with swirling clouds and the faint glint of the sunlight on the sea. "Alice, lookit!" Penelope nudged, and the little girl stopped her wiggling as she stared at the television. Penelope pointed at roughly where she knew Mogadishu to be. "We're there, sweetheart."
"The satellite is coming into view now, and you can see the coast of Africa and there is even a storm off the coast… fishermen in the area should steer clear!-..."
"Wow…" Iris and Alice said in near unison. It was occasionally eerie how well they were synchronized - but that was part of being a twin, Penelope supposed. "It's so pretty, Mommy…"
"Mmhmm," Penelope agreed. "Just imagine what it would be like to see it in person."
"I wanna go to space!" Alice declared. "I wanna be a cosmonaut!"
"When you're older, Alice." Ruby said with a smile and a ruffle of the girl's hair. "You've got to be all grown up first. The spacesuits don't fit little ones."
Alice pouted. "That's not fair!" she declared. Iris was quiet, but in the way Penelope had come to associate with childish scheming, and she wondered what was going through her daughter's head…
Resources:
155R (+730R/turn + 5R/turn from Connections - 50R/turn from payroll/dice purchases - 40 from active Programs = +645/turn net)
100 Political Support
1 Curiosity-class Satellite
Objectives of the World Communal Council
Complete Post-War Reconstruction (52000/200000)
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%)
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)
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. Primitive Photovoltaics - Basic, expensive and inefficient solar cells enable you to greatly extend the on-orbit lifetime of your satellites and probes.
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:
Cosmonauts: 7
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)
Two launches were conducted this quarter, both successful - at least, in the ascent phase. Of the two launches, one Curiosity-C successfully made orbit, while the other suffered some manner of guidance error and ended up re-entering the atmosphere roughly three hours after launch. Investigations are ongoing into that particular failure, and you hoped there would be some solution ready before the next launch was set to happen.
The one that did succeed was, on a technical level, the only thing you needed to satisfy the multiple promises made for weather observation satellites, thanks to the way in which orbital mechanics worked. By putting the satellite on a polar inclination at an altitude of roughly 1500 kilometers, the satellite was able to get a picture of any given patch of land at least once a day, which was good enough for large storm systems such as typhoons and hurricanes. Further satellites would decrease the 'latency', as it were, decreasing the time between observations. The hope was to eventually get up to roughly twenty-four satellites - in the hope that once an hour a satellite would be passing overhead and broadcasting the current status of the weather in an area.
You were, of course, quite pleased with the work of the people you had the pleasure to coordinate, especially when you saw your first live (if somewhat grainy) view of Mogadishu from space, broadcasted to a ground station nearby and relayed to your television.
Build a Space Center (Singapore) (302/600)
Headway was made in Singapore, with the deep foundations of the launch pads beginning to be poured while the roadways leading to them were transformed from gravel paths to concrete roads. In accordance with the plan laid out by Facilities, Pad 1 was prioritized over 2,3 and 4, with the hopes of being able to launch a rocket from Singapore by the end of the year - even if it would have to be shipped from Mogadishu, for the time being. The pad fairly well dwarfed anything at Mogadishu, even incomplete - the launch umbilical tower was solidly twice, if not three times the size of the one there, and the flame trench was far more substantial. It would, if all went well, be more than up to the challenge of hosting the planned R-5 (though calling it 'planned' was being somewhat gracious to the back-of-the-napkin status of the rocket).
Build a Scientific Complex
-Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (AVIONICS) (235/450)
The specialty manufacturing equipment ordered by the Microelectronics teams (advised by Dr. Turing) began trickling into the warehouse set up near the complex's construction site in late May, as the walls began to go up and wiring and plumbing was routed through the facility. The specialist air handling systems for the planned clean rooms also began to arrive, and workers tented over the proposed clean room locations to begin those installations before the rest of the building was even complete, to get and keep the rooms clean while the rest came together.
Tracking and Communication Station Construction (Phase 3) (288/550)
The tracking station construction program picked up speed again this quarter, with the previous quarter's issues largely resolved in time for a renewed push across the board. Phone lines were laid out to each and every remote outpost, all of which eventually lead back to Mogadishu, and power was not far behind. One of the problems that had had to be resolved was the sheer number of high-powered radar emitters and receivers required for the project as a whole, which required a certain amount of finagling given the nature of the project as something of a one-off. However, the IEC was able to take advantage of the growing number of weather radars being used across the world, getting the more specialized equipment without needing to set up bespoke lines that would be mostly shut down at the end of the project.
Human-rated Rocketry (7/8 turns)
The first R-4a began to take shape in the assembly hall this quarter, while the capsule (as-yet unnamed) did likewise in a smaller bay off to one side of the building. The assembly process for both was meticulous; every detail of construction was recorded, and as needed rewritten when improvements or problems were found. The hope was that by doing this, the future production runs of both could be reliably and quickly done going forward.
The parachute system for the capsule was also tested this quarter, dropped out of the back of surplus paratrooper planes with dummy loads attached. Over the course of April and May, the development team settled on a particular method of packing and deploying the parachutes that had an opening reliability of ninety-nine percent under most conditions. The caveat there was, of course, that the conditions in which they were tested were 'good flying weather', so the mileage in actual use may vary somewhat. The hope was that by using three chutes, of course, that the odds of at least one fully opening were virtually guaranteed, and calculations and model testing showed that just one open chute would likely lead to the cosmonaut's survival - though they would likely need a hospital stay afterward.
Lifting Body (179/150)
The lifting body team completed their testing in the wind tunnel, having codified to the best of their abilities what a lifting body was and what it looked like and how it performed. There was, as yet, little need for the knowledge, though the hopefuls in Engineering who dreamed of spaceplanes (and larger capsules) were excited about the new tool they had in their kits for solving their particular problems.
Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies (7/8 turns)
The design studies continued for another quarter, and preliminary results were beginning to come in, validating, at various levels, all three proposed reactor projects, thanks to the New Delhi Institute for Physics and its research reactors. This lead the design teams to begin preparing production-level designs for submission to the Department of Energy, as well as providing them with plans for enrichment facilities capable of taking the uranium they ran on to the 5% enrichment needed to generate reliable power with. Meanwhile, the space reactor team bothered you about potentially beginning the Snapper project immediately to produce a prototype for that purpose, but you held off on authorizing it for the time being.
Multi-Stage Designs (2/2 turns)
With the heavy-duty stage separation mechanisms tested and verified on subscale launches, the teams spent most of the quarter building and testing the mechanism that would go on the R-4a or a theoretical R-5 third stage. In the end, it hadn't been all that different from the solutions currently used in the R-4, but verifying that the concepts scaled adequately was just as important as anything else.
Impactor Designs (2/3 turns)
The impactor design study continued into the second quarter of the year, and mockups began to hit the assembly floor in Mogadishu. The impactor needed to be heavy enough, and going fast enough, to produce a noticeable spray of debris on impact with the lunar surface, which meant that it was simply too big for the R-4 to heft. The 4a could do it - barely - and sizing the down required it to be stripped of all but the most basic and lightweight instrumentation needed to produce worthwhile scientific data as it plunged towards its doom. This, naturally, produced a desire from the team for the fictional capabilities of the not-yet-existent R-5, as they would have preferred to sacrifice less capability, or none at all. They were, however, confident that different packages of instruments could be flown over multiple flights to achieve the same amount of scientific measurement as a single, more capable probe.
Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 2) [CHEM] (167/250)
Propellant research continued with new funding this quarter, and was largely focused on new cryogenics, one of which was a more refined version of your presently used fuel - methane. The performance bump was slight, though noticeable enough to be worth considering if in the future there was enough infrastructure producing and handling it to make it worth switching. One of the others was looking into methods of producing hydrogen from sources other than cracking it from hydrocarbons, as it would be beneficial to be able to produce fuel straight from the seas by the IEC's existing and planned launch sites.
Very Long Range Communications (1/3 turns)
The investigation into long range communications was aided by leftover research into such things done during the Third Great War. By using higher frequencies of microwave emissions, it would be possible to achieve long range communications with far flung probes. The current best contender for at least Lunar distances was the S-band, between 2 and 4 gigahertz. This offered a combination of good range, good throughput, and atmospheric transparency to allow for unfettered transmission to spaceborne targets.
Transistor Computing Investigations (2/6 turns)
In Mombasa, the transistor investigations proceeded with little fanfare. You couldn't even pretend to understand what it was they were talking about, in the way you now could with rocketry. What you had been able to glean was that they were testing different materials for their properties in allowing electrons to move across them in some circumstances but not in others, which enabled them to do work and be harnessed to perform calculations. You wished them well, and privately sought out someone less in-the-weeds than Alan Turing to explain things to you.
Closed-Input Life Support Systems (210/200)
The Life Support Systems team delivered a working unit at the end of the quarter, ready to be fit to the capsule the human spaceflight teams were building. It was relatively simple - bottled air and oxygen candles that would provide for a short duration stay in space; a few days at most. There were thoughts of looking into ways of scrubbing the carbon dioxide from the air and returning the oxygen to the cabin, rather than venting the waste gas wholesale, but that would require further time and study.
Propagandize for Nuclear Power (485/???)
The Outreach department resumed working to promote the good uses of nuclear power, trading on the good reputation of the IEC. This was made somewhat easier this quarter as the first weather satellite images began to be beamed down from above, giving anyone with a television a live view of the world they lived on as they passed overhead, providing a tangible example of the IEC's expertise and accomplishments. As such, the work was somewhat easier going, as they worked to coordinate with and bolster the already pro-nuclear parties in the Council and reach out to communities around the world with more targeted efforts.
Visitor Complex (257/300) (3 dice, -30R)
The Visitor Complex went up in a searing hurry, a futuristic building of concrete arches and glass walls that evoked the current trends in science fiction. Exhibits with mockups of the IEC's rockets were quickly built - with the exception of the R-2 exhibit, which was the fully functional one that had been in storage for so long - as well as mockups of rockets past and the history of the science stretching as far back as records currently showed them to, all the way back to the first Chinese gunpowder fireworks. There were also mockups made of the extant satellite classes, placed beside the mockup of the R-4 that had taken them to orbit.
There was room left over for the future, both rockets and payloads, and a prodigious amount of it, at that - nobody knew just how extensive the IEC's program may yet get, and left as little to chance as possible.
(-1 R-2 Gale)
A/N: fun fact, this entire update was written in a SpaceX launch and landing control center.
so how much if any interaction is there between us and the military and civilian air companies?
with all this high level teck going on and our massive network of schools we are working with there has too be plenty of crossover?
wow 5 years and we are hitting limits on how much ppl can grow.
got too feel for those ppl in the transport department with there 9.2% budget and most of the worlds roads/train and airplanes to worry about.
I mean the guy does have bachelor degrees in economics and one in physics so he isn't unqualified. But besides that the man has a talent for making successful businesses like Zip2, Paypal, Tesla, and SpaceX. So say what you want about him, he is most definitely an asshole among other things, but he does have a good track record, well aside from Twitter.
I mean the guy does have bachelor degrees in economics and one in physics so he isn't unqualified. But besides that the man has a talent for making successful businesses like Zip2, Paypal, Tesla, and SpaceX. So say what you want about him, he is most definitely an asshole among other things, but he does have a good track record, well aside from Twitter.
I mean he is listed as a co-founder for the companies and provided start up cash but that is what investing is and there isn't necessarily anything wrong with that. Plus considering how well those companies have done no one will argue that they weren't good investments. But besides that he is listed as the sole founder of SpaceX, it would take a lot of cash to found a rocket company, and few people will say SpaceX has had a negative impact on the space industry.
He is listed as co-founder for Tesla (the only company of his that has generated any value) because he bought the right from Tesla's actual founders.
He is mostly a scummy venture capitalist with good PR & Marketing teams.
Also most of Tesla's value is purely speculative as in not the value of the product but the perceived value. Which is why Elon Musk every now and again becomes the worlds richest man (in net worth)
SpaceX has generated a profit of 3 billion last year according to multiple sources and Elon is the only listed founder of it so I don't think that is accurate.
SpaceX has generated a profit of 3 billion last year according to multiple sources and Elon is the only listed founder of it so I don't think that is accurate.
Its not a car company its a carbon offsets trading company, also known as a grift. That how its profit is generated.
Its value is mostly from people perceiving tesla as being valuable, not the actual value of its assets.
Its not a car company its a carbon offsets trading company, also known as a grift. That how its profit is generated.
Its value is mostly from people perceiving tesla as being valuable, not the actual value of its assets.
Notice how I didn't mention anything about Tesla? I know it is a grift and the cars are nowhere near efficient or practical enough to be viable which is why I have no intention of buying one. All I was pointing out is that you claimed it was the only company that produced value which I took to mean profit which isn't true.
But regardless of what you think of the man SpaceX is still great.
Either way, good choice of writing locale @Shadows. I was wondering if the visitors center was going to be the "museum".
Tbh, I'd like to get a 500t pad in Mogadishu sooner rather than later. It wouldn't quite feel right to have our big moments launch from a place without said visitors center.
Ahh yes things are coming along nicely. That scene with Penelope and her children is adorable, and captures the optimism of the early spaceflight age so well. The R-5 will be a nice project to keep our cutting edge engineers working, but our focus now should be getting the R-4 and R-4a to the maximum possible reliability. We will need it for manned and nuclear launches.
The tracking station construction program picked up speed again this quarter, with the previous quarter's issues largely resolved in time for a renewed push across the board. Phone lines were laid out to each and every remote outpost, all of which eventually lead back to Mogadishu, and power was not far behind.
I imagine we're responsible for the biggest transcontinental phone line endeavor ever with this. Mogadishu is a global communications hub, perfect for some early dial-up international networking, eheheh.
One of the others was looking into methods of producing hydrogen from sources other than cracking it from hydrocarbons, as it would be beneficial to be able to produce fuel straight from the seas by the IEC's existing and planned launch sites.
The first R-4a began to take shape in the assembly hall this quarter, while the capsule (as-yet unnamed) did likewise in a smaller bay off to one side of the building. The assembly process for both was meticulous; every detail of construction was recorded, and as needed rewritten when improvements or problems were found. The hope was that by doing this, the future production runs of both could be reliably and quickly done going forward.
The parachute system for the capsule was also tested this quarter, dropped out of the back of surplus paratrooper planes with dummy loads attached. Over the course of April and May, the development team settled on a particular method of packing and deploying the parachutes that had an opening reliability of ninety-nine percent under most conditions. The caveat there was, of course, that the conditions in which they were tested were 'good flying weather', so the mileage in actual use may vary somewhat. The hope was that by using three chutes, of course, that the odds of at least one fully opening were virtually guaranteed, and calculations and model testing showed that just one open chute would likely lead to the cosmonaut's survival - though they would likely need a hospital stay afterward.
Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies (7/8 turns)
The design studies continued for another quarter, and preliminary results were beginning to come in, validating, at various levels, all three proposed reactor projects, thanks to the New Delhi Institute for Physics and its research reactors. This lead the design teams to begin preparing production-level designs for submission to the Department of Energy, as well as providing them with plans for enrichment facilities capable of taking the uranium they ran on to the 5% enrichment needed to generate reliable power with. Meanwhile, the space reactor team bothered you about potentially beginning the Snapper project immediately to produce a prototype for that purpose, but you held off on authorizing it for the time being.
So uh, why did a turn get cut from nuclear power plant design studies development time? That should only be at the 6/8 turn tracker position, based on last turn's results. Was the debut of SNAPER enough to cut a three month development period from the schedule?
I know it is currently entirely uncompetitive in cost versus grey hydrogen on an industrial scale, but is it really so bad that even for the (relatively) small amounts needed for a mobile rocket fuel factory the average engineer would consider it non-viable?
So uh, why did a turn get cut from nuclear power plant design studies development time? That should only be at the 6/8 turn tracker position, based on last turn's results. Was the debut of SNAPER enough to cut a three month development period from the schedule?
en.m.wikipedia.org
www.teijinaramid.com
