Next world council, let's not pick up promises that tie up all our facilities dice for the whole year. It pains me that the Mission Control Center has sat half finished for so long.
Maybe we can finally do some space plane stuff. We've sat on it for long enough.
Plus it would piss off the SDL. Which is a plus for me.
Next world council, let's not pick up promises that tie up all our facilities dice for the whole year. It pains me that the Mission Control Center has sat half finished for so long.
Maybe we can finally do some space plane stuff. We've sat on it for long enough.
Plus it would piss off the SDL. Which is a plus for me.
Yeah, and it synergizes well with some of the facilities projects like the wind tunnel upgrades.
Fwiw, the "pick all the promises" was a gamble based on not knowing how much the promises actually cost. It was, in part, getting us enough political support so that we can spend the next few years doing what we want without having council oversight or needing to focus on promises (ideally, fun things like building the sexiest fucking rocket a.k.a R-5, a spaceplane, etc.)
Trying for an omake, once more with a Hydraulics engineer working out of his comfort zone.
——————————————————————
I breathed a sigh of relief as I crossed the gates. Every time I went to work I was so worried about screwing up. The balloon tanks were one thing, something going wrong there would at worst a small explosion. Here fuckups could lead to reactor meltdowns.
I smiled wryly to myself. I still felt like an imposter sometimes. I distinctly remember my exclamation of "I'm not a physicist! Why in hell would I have anything to do With Nukes" when I was offered the position.
It was explained, and I did under stand it but…
God above that big tower still made me shiver, especially when it was dark, like now. Maybe if I suggested a secondary coolant loop disconnected from the main one, or a vent hatch if the reactor ever tried for a steam flash. But where to put that much radioactive steam…
"Gabriel!" I turned, shaken out of my thoughts. I smiled at the woman jogging up to me. "Kim, what can I do for you?" Kim rubbed the back of her head, smiling sheepishly. She seemed the very picture of an earnest albeit absent minded research student, even if I knew she was an actual physicist and a damm good one.
"Well, I was working late on the reaction calculations, just double checking, and I might've missed my bus-"
I smiled, cutting her off "and you want to catch a ride with me, yes?" This wasn't the first time I'd gotten asked, given that I was one of the few researchers with a car, even if it was just a battered 2 seat flatbed that had probably spent some time as a technical (the screw marks in the bed and bullet holes in the passenger door weren't really covered up).
Kim just grinned back at me, and I chuckled "hop in" suiting action to words, I got in too, and started the engine.
"So where's home for you" I asked, curious about where she would need to be dropped off.
"Oh I'm American." She continued at my raised eyebrow, misinterpreting my question. "Haven't been home in a while, bouncing around and trying to get funding for nuclear work. This has been a godsend really, working with the IEC. A lot of your stuff is Really on the cutting edge."
"Didn't America have that problem with rebels a few years ago?" Slipped out before I realized that might be insensitive.
"Yeah." There was a pause, like she was thinking about what to say "I don't know much about it. I was in Taiwan at the time." Another pause. "I've got an aunt who got caught up in it though. She said it… well it wasn't too bad, but mostly because it didn't get the chance. They'd established a state in the interior, but they didn't really have control. The Reactionaries, that's what we're supposed to call them I think, didn't much like anyone who got along with the Council government. Didn't much like anybody who wasn't white either. But they didn't last long enough to do anything systemic. Random violence for the most part."
She fell silent, and I stayed silent. I mean, what do you say to that? The only rebellion I'd been near is when the Francos fell, and that was more 3 months of confusion and keeping my head down. They didn't even get a chance to draft people, too much risk of infiltration. I was far enough out of town that getting nuked wasn't an issue. No one wants to nuke a dam.
Eventually thought I had to ask. We were getting to the residential part of town and I did want to ok know where go. "So where can I drop you off?" I asked, biting the bullet.
Kim started, seeming to remember where she was "oh, just on 5th street. North 5th Street. I can walk from there." She replied
That was… really close to Elliot and my place actually. "Where? Cause I'm in 7408, on 7th. Maybe I can pick you up some mornings. It'd be faster than the bus."
"Really?" she responded "huh. That's pretty close to Main Street West isn't it? Cause I'm practically right on the corner, building 5337."
"It's close enough. Wanna try it out? I can swing by tomorrow at…. Say 8?" I offered
Kim paused, thinking as I pulled off Main. "You know what, why not."
"Alright" I said happily as I pulled up to 5337. "See you at 8am tomorrow."
"See you at 8" Kim replied, waving as I drove off, swinging a u-turn in the empty street.
Not a bad day at all I thought as I drove home.
————————————————
@Shadows here's an omake for you. Trying to show world events from a less high level perspective, from someone who knows someone. This is supposed to happen when the reactor project is at 5/8, a ways before it's done
Put the extra into Singapore. It won't finish it but it will help.
When most people think of rockets, they don't picture this unusual
spacecraft, but instead the crayon-shaped rockets placing artificial
weather satellites into orbit or their recent ancestors which terrified
the world's cities. However, the recent goal of sending spacecraft to
our celestial neighbours has led to radical changes in rocket design.
The newest goal of rocket scientists is improving the exhaust velocity
of rocket engines to make them go further on a tank of gas, and
they've came up with very weird ideas to do so. Quentin Elliott,
American engineer, described this unusual contraption being worked
on by the IEC. The first unconventional improvement comes from a
nozzle as shown at the bottom of this page. It starts packed up
tightly in the confined interior of a rocket's upper stage. When the
rocket reaches space, the engine's outer "skirt" drops down to give
the engine bell vacuum-tuned performance. The second change,
however, breaks the trend used by every rocket engine to date. The
IEC's current rockets use a clean-burning mixture of oxygen and
propane to generate heat just like a gas barbecue. This heat expels
the exhaust, mostly composed of carbon dioxide and water, to
produce thrust. The larger drawing shows a concept for gathering
energy from sunlight directly to heat the gas even hotter than can
be reached by burning propane. The prominent "ears" are huge
mirrors formed from the inside of inflatable, reflective balloons.
These direct sunlight much like a child's magnifying glass captures
the sun's rays and focuses them onto a point. No longer limited by
the heat produced by chemical reactions, the propellant gas can
be so hot that melting the inside of a combustion chamber formed
out of tungsten carbine is a serious concern for IEC engineers!
Mr. Elliott predicts that a rocket engine that runs on concentrated
sunlight and liquid hydrogen could have twice the fuel efficiency
(measured as exhaust velocity) of current chemical engines while
producing similar thrust. Once the spacecraft is on its way, the
concentated sunlight can even be focused on photo-voltaic panels
to produce electricity for onboard experiments and radio transmitters.
Other similar designs include a rocket enclosed entirely inside what
looks like a reflective balloon or "beach ball", which similarly...
[continued on page 202)
POPULAR MECHANICS .......................................... OCTOBER 1958
Writing my own thing on some of our current projects, for fun. If this is worth a bonus, I'd like to bank it for the future.
Whoopsie, turns out building an entire second rocket base on another continent with totally different terrain and climate is hard to do in a single year.
uhm ... kind of want too have a look into the transport division of our goverment just too see how they are doing. because they are doing a lot of work.
uhm ... kind of want too have a look into the transport division of our goverment just too see how they are doing. because they are doing a lot of work.
[X] Plan Punch The Moon
-[X] Construct an R-4a Dawn 34/100 (4 dice, 120R)
--[X] And launch it (2 dice)
---[X] Mark 1 Single Crew Capsule, (Max Q Abort, integration and recovery procedures test, unmanned.)
---[X] Curiosity B High Earth Orbit and color photo return.
-[X] Build a Payload
--[X] Lodestone-class impactor (40R, 1 turn)
--[X] Mark 1 Single Crew Capsule (45R, 1 turn)
-[X] Build a new Space Center (Singapore) (Phase 2 (436/600) (3 dice 105R)
-[X] Build a Scientific Complex
--[X] Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (AVIONICS) (290/450) (3 dice, 75R)
-[X] Tracking and Communication Station Construction (Phase 3) - (474/550) (2 dice, 60R)
-[X] Design/Redesign an Orbital Rocket [R-3, 1/2 turns] (1 die, 15R)
-[X] Lander Design Studies - (1/4 turns, 15R per turn, 1 dice locked)
-[X] Solar Thermal Rocketry [PHYS] - (100/450) (2 dice, 30R)
-[X] Expandable Nozzles (PROP) (0/400) (1 die, 15R)
-[X] Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies - (7/8 turns, 1 locked dice, 25R per turn)
-[X] All-Sky Survey (Phase 1) (124/300) (2 dice, 20R)
-[X] Very Long Range Communications (2/3 turns, 1 die, 5R)
-[X] Synthetic Aperture Radar ( 1/4 turns, 1 die, 20R)
-[X] Transistor Computing Investigations (3/6 turns, 1 die, 20R)
-[X] Coordinate with the AEC (-5R/turn permanently or until coordination ends)
-[X] Propagandize for Nuclear Power (-4 PS, 2 dice)
-[X] Laboratory Talent Scouting - (0/150) (2 dice, 10R)
With some effort, Penelope opened her eyes on a snowy December morning in Vermont. The faint sunlight coming in through the windows told her all she needed to know about the day ahead - it was grey and cold, as it had been for the last several days. The house would need to be heated; the wood-burning stove that heated it would need refueling, as it was likely out or nearly so at this point. Perfect, then, for a day curled up on the sofa under a blanket with a book in hand.
A soft, warm weight against her back made it hard to even think about getting out of bed, as her wife, still blissfully asleep, wrapped herself around Penelope's middle, her head against Penelope's shoulder and their legs intertwined. For whatever reason, Penelope ran warm; while that was a problem for sleeping together in Mogadishu, it was a blessing in their vacation cabin - and one Ruby took great pleasure in taking advantage of, under the patchwork quilts layered atop them.
There were a thousand and one things each demanding increasingly more and more of Penelope's attention; sometimes she felt she was in a flat-out sprint trying to just stay in the same place she was already in with regards to her responsibilities and duties. It was tiring - which wasn't to say she didn't enjoy the challenge - and it was moments like this where she was most able to simply be. To forget work and all its associated problems. It was, on occasion, tempting to just let go of it, to decline another year of directorship, and find somewhere quiet to be with her wife and daughters.
But the truth was that, in the end, she was exactly where she wanted to be, doing exactly (more or less) what she wanted to do.
Though, Penelope thought, as the light's gradual brightening brought a sleepy grumble from behind her, followed by a trail of light kisses leading up her shoulderblade, I most definitely don't mind down time… and there are far better things to think about right now. "Good morning, love." she whispered, rolling over to face Ruby directly.
All thoughts of work fled for a good, long while after that.
-
All good things must eventually come to an end, and so it was that you found yourself back in Mogadishu, preparing, once again, for the upcoming World Council meeting. It was going to be the first time you had to try and smooth things over regarding a failed promise - but you expected your luck to be reasonably good in that regard, as the project was nearly complete and would be within a month or two of the meeting.
The next meeting place would be Honolulu, and, you had to admit, you were looking forward to the trip - you'd heard stories of the island's beaches and general tropical paradise-ness, but never experienced it yourself. After brief consideration, the decision was made to bring the rest of your family with you - to extend their holiday, somewhat. The girls were, of course, ecstatic, and so was Ruby - you were just glad you wouldn't have to miss any of them, as you usually did for the two to three weeks you were usually gone.
Resources:
955R (+730R/turn + 5R/turn from Connections - 50R/turn from payroll/dice purchases - 40 from active Programs - 5 from Coordinating With AEC = +640/turn net)
84 Political Support
2 R-4a
1 Curiosity-B
Objectives of the World Communal Council
Complete Post-War Reconstruction (63000/200000)
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)
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; currently +5)
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)
Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (+8 AVIONICS, +1 to Education in Australia and New Zealand)
Mid-Latitude Tracking and Transmission (Provides communications and guidance across the majority of the rest of the Earth)
Big Ear Radio Telescope (+2 PHYS)
Cosmonaut Training Facilities (Allows for crew and crew training)
Active Space Assets
5 Curiosity-C Weather Satellites (EOL: 1 1960Q2, 2 1960Q3, 2 1960Q4)
Scientific Advances
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.)
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.
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.
Primitive Photovoltaics - Basic, expensive and inefficient solar cells enable you to greatly extend the on-orbit lifetime of your satellites and probes.
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.
Combustion Instability Research - Turns the initial success roll for a rocket from a >60 to >50.
Engine Cycles - Enables Early Orbital engines.
Vacuum Nozzles - Enables the use of vacuum-optimized engines.
Alternative Launch Systems - A series of high-technology or infrastructure-intensive launch systems projects that may or may not come about in the future.
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.
Terrestrial Nuclear Power Plants (Early) - Enables early boiling-water nuclear reactors of standardized design.[
Lifting Body - A method by which the body of a spacecraft could be used to generate lift and thus alter its trajectory in atmosphere, potentially reducing the amount of heat shielding required for it to safely return.
Multi-Stage Designs - Enables large rockets to be made with three or more stages.
Second Stages - Can now build 2-Stage Rockets.
Mobile Launch Operations - Can launch Sounding Rockets without the need for a launch pad.
Closed-Input Life Support Systems - Enables basic non-regenerative life support for early space vehicles.
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.)
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)) FAILED 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 & Payload Construction
2 R-4A Dawn (3/100)
1 Lodestone-class impactor
1 Mark 1 Single Occupant Capsule
Rocket Launches
The most exciting of the several launches conducted this quarter was, by a large margin, the inaugural test flight of the Mark 1 Single Occupant Capsule, occasionally known as the SOC. You knew that someone, somewhere on your engineering teams, was straining every single one of their prodigious number of braincells in the search for an acceptable word beginning with K to finish the acronym with.
The launch itself was uneventful, a textbook ascent - and then, at the preplanned moment just as the aerodynamic stresses became greatest, it seemed to explode. Well, 'seemed' - the rocket truly did go up in a spectacular fireball, but the purpose of the test launch was served well by that, as a second, smaller plume of exhaust marked the spot where the escape tower was hauling the capsule away from the exploding first and second stage with a quickness. The plume did, eventually, vanish, and after a few minutes you spotted the bright orange dot of the parachute systems as the capsule deployed its trio of giant parachutes.
A recovery boat made its way out to the capsule and successfully hauled the bobbing spacecraft onboard, the floatation devices having also successfully inflated and kept the craft upright and afloat. All in all, a very successful test.
Equally successful was the launch of the Farsight mission, a Curiosity-B satellite equipped with the highest resolution camera that could fit into it along with a small film canister equipped with its own reentry systems. It launched out and away successfully, shooting into a highly elliptical orbit that would see its perigee scraping the top of the atmosphere while the apogee was more than ten thousand kilometers away. It wouldn't orbit for very long, but it wasn't supposed to. The camera rolled and the first pictures of Earth from a significant distance found their way into the film canister - which, a few weeks later, found itself back on Earth after the satellite finally bit too hard into the atmosphere, the canister breaking away from the craft before the satellite burned up. It was, eventually, retrieved from the desert - despite landing more or less where it was supposed to, it was a very small object in a vast physical space. The pictures were sure to wow the public - they certainly wowed you.
Programs
Weather Satellite Program (+2 satellites)
Another pair of weather satellites were launched by the associated program this quarter, bringing the active total to 5 and reducing the average lag time between updates to a little less than five hours, though there was a gap that meant the actual time varied between four and eight hours.
Build a new Space Center (Singapore) (Phase 2 (543/600)
Rains and logistical issues plagued the Singapore space center's continued buildout this quarter, firmly dashing any hopes of meeting the commitment you'd made to the M-Ls, though not to the Councilists. It was so close to finished, and the circumstances so out of your control, that you rather hoped the M-Ls would be understanding of the situation. It wasn't as if the IEC hadn't given it their very best shot, after all.
The first launch pad was largely complete, with the umbilical tower erected and the pad's concrete nearly fully cured despite the wet conditions. A truly prodigious amount of tarps were the reason for that - once the rains began, a field of them sprang up seemingly overnight to protect the curing concrete long enough for the first several inches of it to harden against premature erosion.
The only things that remained were running the fuel lines the rest of the way out from the tank farm set up nearby, and finishing the electrical and control wiring needed to allow the pad to function.
Build a Scientific Complex
- Sydney Microelectronics Research Centre (AVIONICS) (545/450)
The Microelectronics Research Centre in Sydney finished off with time to spare this quarter, meaning you had had to fly to Sydney in mid-November in order to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was a sleekly appointed modern affair of glass and concrete on one side in much the same fashion as both the visitor center and the physics complex in Mogadishu and New Delhi respectively, and the back side housed the most advanced microfabrication tools on the planet, half of which were bespoke creations specifically designed and produced to the IEC's specifications. As with the previous research centers, within a month of its opening a significant portion of your scientific teams with an interest in the area had dispersed to Sydney, leaving yet another set of labs largely empty back in Mogadishu. Thankfully, the phone and telegraph lines along with international post were capable of handling the back and forth traffic between Mogadishu and its far flung outposts across the globe, but something better would eventually be needed.
(+8 to AVIONICS)
Tracking and Communication Station Construction (Phase 3) - (637/550)
The final phase of tracking and communication stations were put in across the globe, and cables were laid to all of them. A lot of that cable laying also included efforts to tie local communities into a greater communications system; after all, the trenches were already being dug and the cables being laid out anyway - might as well. In addition to giving you near-complete radar and communications dish coverage across most of the world's landmass, it provided a nice side benefit of giving the powers-that-be yet another justification for the IEC's continued budget allowance.
(Promise fulfilled)
Design/Redesign an Orbital Rocket [R-3, 2/2 turns]
The R-3 redesign effort concluded this quarter, resulting in an improved model that took advantage of several advances in construction techniques and materials science to be cheaper to produce in addition to enabling the expanded mission set laid out for it during design review. Unlike past design efforts, there wasn't a ready-made R-3a prototype immediately available for flight at the program's conclusion, but it needed most of the same tooling and skills the original did to produce, which would certainly help when the time came to put one together.
Given the single-use nature of any lander, an excellent place to save weight (thus leading to either an easier landing or more mass allowance for scientific instruments) was the landing gear. By utilizing fixed landing legs with single-use crush cores made of foamed metal for shock absorption, the lander could be made lighter, more reliable, and more survivable. Next was the consideration for the actual landing maneuvers themselves - that, of course, required an engine and a method of keeping the correct attitude while drowning out 'sideslip', or motion in an unintended direction.
The engine would need to be able to throttle down deeply in order to settle the lander's light weight on the surface of, in this case, the Moon, which was calculated to have roughly one sixth to one fourth the Earth's gravity (which was one question the lander could definitively answer, though an orbiter would be able to as well). One way to do that would be to use several smaller pressure fed engines and turn them off in sequence to reduce the vehicle's overall thrust to weight ratio, though that too would eat up mass allowances.
The sideslip was somewhat easier to deal with, as the IEC already had a system to deal with just that - reaction control thrusters. Given the light weight of the lander, it was firmly possible to control the lateral movement of the vehicle with a combination of thrusters and maneuvering the main engine or engines.
Solar Thermal Rocketry [PHYS] - (300/450)
The Solar Thermal Rocketry group made solid progress this quarter, moving closer to being able to field a prototype. As it stood, it was, in essence, a clear plexiglas orb into which was focused the combined solar glare of two large, unfoldable mylar mirrors that expanded much like a hand-fan. With the focal point fixed prior to launch via the construction of the craft itself, no additional mechanisms beyond the deployment motors were needed to allow it to work. When hydrogen (or water, or anything else that readily heated, really) was injected into the heating chamber, it would be heated to incredible temperature by the sunlight reflected from the mirrors, and then allowed to leave the heating chamber through a standard nozzle.
Expandable Nozzles (PROP) (36/400)
The expandable nozzle project was, to put it mildly, a raging garbage fire. Every attempt made this quarter ended in failure with nothing to show for it but exploded engines and a paltry amount of data. So far, they concluded, the way to go was not to use the current springloaded method, as the deployable section of the engine bell consistently cracked at the end of the track it slid on - and then exploded, due to the crack. There would be a lot of optimization needed, as with anything involving rockets and rocket propulsion. You just hoped the streak of good luck they'd had with nobody being hurt by the failures would continue.
Nuclear Power Plant Design Studies - (8/8 turns)
The world's first operational nuclear power plant was a small affair - about ten megawatts or so - and not built to the standard design that the lessons learned in building it had inspired. Those designs were rated for one hundred megawatts, and were modular in nature, meaning that the power transmission, control and cooling systems could, with little additional effort, be made to control multiple units in parallel, which would allow for new power units to be added to existing plants as needed. If the molten salt design proved as fruitful as it was shaping up to be, there were provisions made for those to hew to the same standardized systems, potentially allowing for mixed-type power plants (which, to be fair, wasn't the actual intention, nor the best of ideas, but it was a part of the possibility space) and also allowing for those plants to be constructed using much of the same materials and labor.
The standardized design was officially handed to the Department of Energy on the 25th of December, making for quite the holiday gift, in your estimation.
All-Sky Survey (Phase 1) (353/300) (2 dice)
The first phase of the All-Sky Survey officially ended this quarter, though the actual process of surveying the sky had yet to begin. A framework for astronomers the world over to submit their survey plates to a standardized template was established, and funding provided for new and improved equipment across the world. Several new observatories were under construction, and a curious phenomenon had made itself known: a new type of cheap-to-make personal reflector telescope that consisted of a light bucket, mirror, optical tube, and a focused placed near the front end of the scope, that could be turned out in a home workshop over the course of a couple of weeks.
This increased the number of astronomers with access to larger diameter telescopes capable of taking part in the survey, though those reports required the admission of hand-sketched survey images rather than photographic plates, which was acceptable to the astronomical community due to having been the standard for many years anyway.
Very Long Range Communications (3/3 turns)
This quarter consisted of optimizing and defining the receiver and transmitter assemblies that would be mounted on any spacecraft designed to travel far from Earth, shaving mass and trimming power requirements to the lowest possible levels in both cases. The end result was a small parabolic dish that could be made to track and constantly reorient itself to follow the Earth's broadcast, in order to keep steady communications. The design was relatively simple to scale up if needed, though the mass requirements quickly rose, of course.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (2/4 turns, 1 die)
Experiments with airborne SAR continued in preparation for an experimental launch of a spaceborne version in the next quarter, as the technology was refined into something functional enough to make the expense worthwhile (though, notably, the experimental satellite would be a Curiosity-B in a low enough orbit that it would deorbit the experiment within around a month somewhere over the middle of the Pacific). The results were promising enough - the transmitted radar imagery closely matched that of standard maps, and there were other bonuses besides, such as being able to track wave heights from a distance based on the radar returns, which would be a useful bit of hydrology to be able to offer the scientific community at large. It was also, presumably, able to track things like tsunamis if a satellite were in the right place at the right time. The SAR system could, in theory, be added to an evolved version of the current weather satellites, either in addition to a standard weather radar or replacing them. Only time would tell.
Transistor Computing Investigations (4/6 turns)
The first prototype transistor boards were manufactured this quarter - built by hand, really - and testing was carried out, using them to perform calculations for the nuclear power testing being done by the MSR team. It wasn't quite up to the level of the analog computers currently in use, which could more accurately simulate physical processes, but it was notably more efficient - and also didn't take up an entire room, just a table's worth of space, which impressed you even after having seen the massive arrays of vacuum tubes and associated electrical machinery in use across the IEC. Turing was confident that there would be a useful result within a year - that being defined as something that didn't need to be hand assembled, so that he and several of his coworkers most intimately familiar with the programming of computers could stress-test them without concern for long wait times on replacement parts, and then the IEC could roll them out across the whole organization.
Coordinate with the AEC (-5R/turn permanently or until coordination ends)
Bitter cold winds whipped your face, and you were incredibly thankful for the puffy coat, thick pants, and fur-lined boots that protected most of the rest of you. Your thick mane of red hair was bound under a tuque, and you adjusted the woolen gaiter you wore to properly cover your nose again. You wish you could have worn goggles like the man next to you was, but under any exertion at all every set of goggles you had ever worn would find themselves fogged to uselessness, so you had to go without.
The last major snowstorm of the early Antarctic spring had decided to appear during your trip to visit the AEC's Unity Station in early October, and the plane you had flown in on wouldn't have been able to land without substantial help from navigation aids on the runway and the modifications made to it to allow it to shuttle supplies to the area during the winter. All of this had been somewhat expected, thanks to satellite weather reports… but it certainly didn't do much to prepare you for the reality of the situation.
You trekked forward towards the station with your guide, and let out a sigh of relief when you finally saw the outlines of the buildings through the driving snowfall, rather than the faint haloes of their exterior lights. Tramping up a short set of stairs to reach the elevated floor of the structure he lead you to, you welcomed the blast of light and heat that hit your face when the door opened as you would the arms of your wife - enthusiastically and with little in the way of decorum.
As the ship-like hatch slid shut behind you, leaving you in the mudroom beyond, you pulled your hood down and the gaiter off , breathing freely in the air that was merely chilly, rather than atrociously frigid. "Good grief, is it always like that?" you asked your companion.
Dr. Nakamura chuckled at your discomfort as he pulled off his gloves. "From about February through about now, yes. It is not for the faint of heart - or the sound of mind, some of my colleagues argue. But this is the only place on Earth where we can do some of the science we do."
"No doubt." you managed, setting your coat on a hook and slipping your feet into the spare set of 'inside shoes' you'd packed in your bag. "I hope that soon we will be able to say the same."
"That is why we are here." he agreed, and held the inner door open for you. Sufficient practice had clearly made him faster at the whole entry and exit process than you were.
You talked as you walked to his office. "When do you think the best time of year would be for, say, cosmonaut expeditions? And when could we build out a new facility? And what would your people want for the privilege?..."
Propagandize for Nuclear Power (895/1000) (-4 PS, 2 dice)
Attitudes towards nuclear power were starting to shift in a major way thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Outreach department, even at the average citizen's level, and you felt it wouldn't be long before it was no longer necessary for you to spend time on to get moving in the way you wanted it to go.
The recruitment push for the science teams went off spectacularly well, bringing in a number of promising new scientists along with distinguished names from across the world. The push was so successful, in fact, that roughly double the expected number of qualified candidates had put in applications, and rather than quibble over which to hire and which to let go, you told Personnel to get them all. One hire that made Dr. Turing ecstatic was Grace Hopper, a computer programmer of some renown, and you were happy to see him so excited. You hoped they would get along well. (You, personally, had no idea who she was before he had all but slid into your office to demand her hiring.)
Grace Hopper is definitely a find - the lady invented one of the first compilers (and the very concept of machine-independent programming languages). Funnily enough, she'll probably come up with the nanosecond wire metaphor in this timeline too, for the very same reasons (explaining to laymen why satellite communications are not as fast as they want to
)...
Thankfully, the phone and telegraph lines along with international post were capable of handling the back and forth traffic between Mogadishu and its far flung outposts across the globe, but something better would eventually be needed.
wooooooaaaaaah a quest that updates right the same day I finish catching up. I am not as much of a space fan kid me used to be but seeing the decisions and world built here I HAVE to contribute! but please bear with a poor Natural Scientist feeble grasp of STEM stuff
wooooooaaaaaah a quest that updates right the same day I finish catching up. I am not as much of a space fan kid me used to be but seeing the decisions and world built here I HAVE to contribute! but please bear with a poor Natural Scientist feeble grasp of STEM stuff
Thanks to a snowstorm delaying your return to Mogadishu, and thus your flight to Honolulu, you found yourself in the odd position of being late to the start of the World Council. The thought upset you, and you found yourself mentally preparing for the stressful task of finagling cooperation from people who already had promises made and programs underway. Yet, when you arrived, you found the Council… oddly hectic. You wondered if the SDL and the UWF had finally started shooting at each other while you were away - but no, there was no evidence of that whatsoever. You finally managed to spot Aretas and wave him down, hoping that your closest ally on the Council would be able to explain what the urgent urgency was.
"Ah, my friend! Where have you been?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, a nor'easter decided to dump about a foot of snow on my runway about six hours before I was due to depart." you lamented. "Can you tell me what all the hubbub is about?"
"Oh, yes! There is a bit of an… hmm, a reorganization occurring. Normal Council business is being suspended for the year, with the expectation of resuming the regularly scheduled full Council meeting this time next year. New budgets have already been agreed upon and increases provided - I was able to convince them to keep the IEC at its current funding." he said with a smile. "So, in essence, there is nothing to do here other than, perhaps, extend your winter vacation with a bit of tropical paradise."
You blinked rapidly. "Thank you… but what kind of reorganization are we talking about here?"
"Well, now that the worst of the reconstruction is over, the Council has decided to take a longer view of things than just year-to-year business. Incorporating extended projects into the framework of its normal functioning has proved to be quite a contentious subject, with regards to implementation, so they are currently all yelling at each other in the Council chamber." he said with a tight smirk, then sighed. "Which reminds me - I need to rejoin the shouting match. I envy you!"
"I can't say the same. Thank you, Aretas."
"Of course!"
1957 World Council
The Internationale (Marxist-Leninist) - (The Internationale's Marxist-Leninist wing, primarily formed from the former Soviet Union. They lean more authoritarian than most of the other major factions, given their ideological bent, but are also heavily pro-industrialization and trending towards shedding the -Leninist side of their ideology.
The IEC failed in its promise to the Marxist-Leninist wing of the Internationale, but not without it being very clear that every attempt to succeed was made. As this is the first time the IEC has failed to meet its promises, and by the slimmest of timespans, there is little in the way of grumbling from the vast majority of that section of the Internationale. (-2PS, 10 members move to Somewhat Oppose)
The Marxist-Leninist wing has been on an upswing this year in general, being able to boast of a great deal of prosperity in the areas they call home, and they are expected to continue their centrally-planned regional improvements through the next year, and likely beyond.
The Internationale (Debsist) - The Internationale's Debsist wing, primarily popular in Anglosphere regions and particularly in America. Less authoritarian than the M-L wing, they are also somewhat reserved on the topic of transitioning to a fully non-hierarchical society due to their roots as a socialist movement.
The fighting in North America has all but died out over the last year, with the Debsists being free to focus on rebuilding efforts - and rebuild they have. Massive mine clearing efforts have been undertaken, along with tearing down the last vestiges of the old imperial order. Their collaboration with the M-Ls has seen a steady tide of industrial machinery delivered to North American shores and installed into factories the continent over, and the people there, in general, couldn't be much happier with the help their representatives have been able to secure.
The Internationale (Councilist) - The Councilists are the largest faction of the Internationale by a small but significant margin, advocating for the devolution of power into the hands of locally- and trades-based councils, thus their name. This is the faction most comfortable with non-hierarchical society and anarchist teachings.
The Councilists are currently focused mainly on building up the productive forces in Eastern and Western Asia, as well as South America, as those are the bases of their power. They are currently happy with the IEC's progress and expect the completion of the Singaporean launch center within the next quarter. They are also collaborating with the CPAL, the FWW and, surprisingly, the UWF, looking to export their own industrial expertise to those parties' strongholds in the less-developed area of the world, increasing their Council commitments beyond that of the last year by nearly half again.
United Workers' Front - The UWF is something of a vanguard party, regularly getting into brawls with SDL members. Their numbers include many of the people fighting to keep the forces of capital and authoritarianism from rising again, and as such their main focus is maintaining enough security funding to allow local community defense organizations to fend off guerrillas and partisans, which are still active in much of the world. They are relatively non-hierarchical in bent, but tend also to be somewhat more socially conservative. They are the smallest of the major parties, but they are not without weight. Geographically, their strongest base of support is South America.
It seems even the UWF can get tired of jockeying against the SDL - at least on a party basis - and this year has had a record low number of scuffles between the Front and the League at the Council meeting.
Free Workers of the World - The FWW formed from the Industrial Workers of the World following the end of the Revolution. Growing to encompass all trades and occupations, from steelworkers to chemists to prostitutes, the FWW relentlessly campaigns for greater rights and protections for anyone performing work that society values.
The Free Workers grew this year, thanks to the general upswing in industrialization - and the popularity of their stances on homosexuality with that portion of the population. (You yourself were now a member, on the sly, much as Turing had been for some time now.) As their efforts made it safer to be 'out', so too did their influence and numbers grow.
Social Democratic League - Having the middlemost numbers of the major parties, the SDL draws under its banners everyone who wants a seat at the table but isn't aboard with either a transition to full communism or socialism, wishing to see a limited return of capitalist thought. Some members are considerably more extreme, to include monarchists and populist authoritarians.
The SDL finally had its split, with a number of its members leaving for other parties. The leftmost of them drifted towards the various Internationale factions; the rightmost went independent or were removed (or 'removed') entirely from the Council. This leaves the SDL with a rump center, and an uncertain path forward.
Colonized Peoples' Advancement League - The CPAL is another middleweight party focused on providing restitution and assistance to those peoples crushed by the weight of Imperial (and imperial) oppression across the world. Their major foci are on building equality of opportunity, infrastructure and industry in places that had been extracted from by the world's powers.
The CPAL views the IEC as an ally, thanks to continued efforts on the IEC's part to build out critical infrastructure in areas that had been under the heel of extractive colonies before the revolution. Their focus remains on serving their people, and their popularity in the regions they serve continues to increase along with those areas' prosperity. There is some doubt as to how long they can remain solvent once their core concerns are dealt with, but it is likely that they will continue on in some form or fashion for quite a while to come, as they still have a laundry list of things they want to address.
Total Councilors: 5000
Stances on IEC (Strongly Favor/Somewhat Favor/Somewhat Oppose/Strongly Oppose)
Total Education: 87 (+3)
Total Electrification: 82 (+6)
Total Industry: 77 (+3)
Total Infrastructure: 95 (+14)
Total Security: 35 (-3)
Total Partisan Activity: 18 (-9)
Total Social Unrest: 7 (+6)
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)
Here you can spend and gain PS advocating for policies, pursuing programs, and performing tasks for the WCC.
Funding Wars, Episode VI: The Return of the Accountants
Current WCC Budget: 64,400RpT//257,600RpY
Current IEC Budget (without extras): 644RpT//2576RpY (1%)
Current PS: 82
[X] [FUND] 1% - Maintains your current level of funding.(+-0R/turn)
Promises
All promises, unless stated otherwise, are intended to be kept within the year - from Q1 to Q1.
Kept in 1956:
All promises kept sans Building a Launch Site for the M-Ls.
Failed in 1956:
Building a Launch Site for the M-Ls
Ongoing:
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)))
Build a Launch Facility in Asia by 1957Q1. (Int(C))
Launch a Lunar Impactor before 1957Q3. (+2 to New Delhi Physics Institute bonus)
Conduct Transistor Computing Investigation in Mombasa by 1958Q1. (CPAL)
Must take at least two zero.
Internationale (Marxist-Leninist)
Stances: Industrialist, Scientific, High Centralist, Soft Pro-Nuclear
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Internationale (Debsist)
Stances: Industrialist, Militaristic, Moderate Centralist, Nuclear Agnostic
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Internationale (Councilist)
Stances: Developmentalist, Moderate Localist, Nuclear Agnostic
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Free Workers of the World
Stances: Industrialist, High Localist, Pro-Nuclear
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
United Workers' Front
Stances: Moderate Localist, Militaristic, Soft Anti-Nuclear
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Social Democratic League
Stances: Moderate Centralist, Industrialist, Hard Anti-Nuclear
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Colonized Peoples' Advancement League
Stances: High Localist, Developmentalist, Soft Anti-Nuclear
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Requests
[LOCKED FOR 1957]
Graduates
Each Graduate pick adds 1 dice to the sector you picked. You have a maximum of 8 0 picks this year. Picking fewer Graduates than are available will add additional background rolls per quarter to increase the world's stats, such as Industry or Electrification. E.g., taking 1 fewer dice adds 1 additional roll per quarter for stats. This directly influences the world's Reconstruction rate and thus your baseline budget update during the next WC.
Each can be picked up to two times. Each pick comes with a cost of -5R/turn.
(8 GRAD picks removed due to Department of Reconstruction, Department of Energy, others)
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