- Pronouns
- She/Her
Per Aspera (Space Agency Plan Quest)
- Thread starter Shadows
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- an unseen void
- Pronouns
- Any
I favorite Turing not just because queer liberation but because I think the hidden upside of his narrower focus is that computers should help do everything else - It's an agenda that points us towards picking up bonuses
Shadows
Sacred Priestess of the Benevolent Dice Gods
- Location
- USS Civilian, DDG-214
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Almost certainly will be! It was only your second, after all.
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
I think the Rocket Box and Science Kits would be great ways to show how science impacts the average person's lives. We also need to create ones for Schools and Universities.
neutronium95
Mad Rocketeer
- Location
- The test site
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's very early for it, but putting on competitions like TARC for teenagers and the Spaceport America Cup could be interesting to do a few years down the road, to help foster interest in aerospace engineering among the youth.
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Alternative Launch Systems) [AERO, PHYS] - Still more of your engineers were talking about investigating different ways of potentially getting to space. Jules Verne stuff. Big guns and space towers and the like. You didn't think them likely to work, but having the knowledge wouldn't hurt. (5R per die, 0/300, ???)
I really want to take this option at some point for the wacky shit it will come with which would just be cool and maybe we will comes up with something really useful too and hey don't knock it until you try it
I really want to take this option at some point for the wacky shit it will come with which would just be cool and maybe we will comes up with something really useful too and hey don't knock it until you try it
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
Korolev is actually at the bottom of my list of possibles, below Parsons and Turing, because I believe in the power of memes over the power of dice, and hot damn is Parsons memetic. Who doesn't want an assistant director who believes in sex magic and transcendentalism? Just read a section, a mere section, of his Wikipedia article. The man is a gift. Korolev may be the better rocket scientist, and Turing may be a queer icon whose focus will only get better over time, but I implore you, exert yourself for the endless font of strangeness that is Jack Parsons and you will not be disappointed.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I have to vote for Alan Turing. It doesn't even matter what his bonuses are, I just want him for narrative purposes
Scientific Global: Impressions - On Mogadishu Space Centre
- Location
- San Juan Metro, Puerto Rico
Alright, this is the biggest omake yet for this quest. I took several days to write this and roped @Hussar_Regiment into doing the spell-correction, so you damn well read and enjoy it all.
Scientific Global: Impressions
February 17, 1951
Mogadishu, Somalia
Many things have changed in our lives since the days of the Revolution. Climate is one that has not. The shackles the United Kingdom and Italy placed upon Somalia's ankles are merely fading memories now, but the ancient city of Mogadishu is still as sunny and torrid as when its first foundations were laid down. Maybe even more so, I thought to myself many times while waiting for this week's interviewee. My pale complexion has never adjusted well to such fierce sunlight; I am far more apt to develop burns that ache for days than even a trifle. But I learned long ago how to manage that: I stay stubbornly out of the rays as if I'm Nosferatu from the talkies, tote a parasol around and never go far out of the shade of buildings and awnings and gazebos. What took me by surprise was the air. By soil this is an arid city. By its position on the Indian Ocean, humidity is in the high seventies, year-round. Temperature remains around thirty centigrade. In so many words there is no shelter from the soup-like air without remaining indoors, and no relief but for going indoors. This is unlike any Californian summer or Floridian spring.
For your edification and yours only, readers, I spent two of these intolerable days lounging around in a café, one of the two in the city with an air conditioner, sipping and looking around and counting the hours and doing chess problems. Despite that I still felt as though my clothes had to be peeled away when I got back at night. Three nights that didn't last long enough.
On the third day, however, my contact finally found occasion to visit me. He arrived by motorcycle, looking for all the world like another of those leather-wearing bike fanatics I run into more of back in North America. Instead of black, he was wearing brown, but his slicked-back hairstyle fit the stereotype. At last, a rocket scientist in the flesh: Ricardo Lorenzo. We introduced each other without fanfare, immediately sat down together and began the interview. Being myself, I tried to focus on the most concrete questions. Ones he might, conceivably, be happy to answer.
"Why is space travel so difficult in general?"
"I think that's the best question I've heard anyone asking. The rocket equation, the mathematical formula at the heart of all rocketry, says that the total speed a rocket can reach is determined by the speed of its exhaust times the natural logarithm of its mass ratio. The logarithm makes it all sound complicated, but mass ratio is really just initial mass over final mass -- how much of the rocket is fuel versus how much is not? I know most people won't want to screw around with slide rules, so the issue is that to reach space you need a certain amount of energy for a certain amount of mass. For rockets that is fuel. It's not the problem. Anyone could easily put together that amount of fuel. But that fuel... has mass," he said, gesturing off to the side.
"And to fit that mass in, you need a bigger rocket. Which needs more fuel, which needs an even bigger rocket which needs even more fuel. And so on. What saves this from becoming a death-spiral is the fact that a rocket loses mass as it flies, so its remaining fuel takes it further and further. The other side of that coin is that just adding more fuel gives diminishing returns, especially if you have the same exhaust velocity--sorry, exhaust speed." I get a sense that his brain is outpacing his tongue and nod, giving him another second to keep talking.
"In practice, you also have to constantly fight Earth's gravity. Nine point eight one meters per second, every second. And aerodynamic drag. And the complexity of a bigger rocket. The structural elements you need… our sounding rockets and almost all our designs are basically balloons full of fuel one way or another, but I can show you some of the other solutions better at the site. A lady like you wouldn't mind following a respectable guy like me, right?" he asks, guffawing. I had a flash of doubt, but pushed it down.
"Sure. I'd love to talk to some of the other boffins you have working on the Cooperative," I say, getting up to follow him as he walks back to his standing 'cycle.
"They probably won't, but I can introduce you'' he says as we walk out into that awful sun. His eyes widened, as if realizing something, and he tossed me the white helmet he'd been wearing. As I fiddled with the straps, trying to fasten them around my smaller head, he continued talking.
"Most rocket fuel is not that far from the gas in this bike's tank," he says, shifting forward to accommodate me. "I think the Empire used liquid oxygen and regular alcohol. And kerosene, stuff like that, it's all cheap and safe to store. Well, safer than the alternatives," he continued, catching his breath as I sat myself behind him on the rear saddle, my arms locking under his. He does not become flustered, and barely even seems to notice my presence as he kicks up the stand and gets going.
"But the problem with it it's that it's all bad. Chemical rocketry, I mean," he said, beginning to yell as the cycle's two-cylinder engine started up. "The exhaust velocities are very low. We've spent hours at the drawing board," he continued. "Fighting over this shape or that design element. To reach orbit -- going around the planet instead of arcing up and down like those damn terror missiles." he paused here, weaving between the crowds of pedestrians Mogadishu streets are perpetually choked with. "Reaching orbit takes a bit more than eight kilometers per second. Well, when you factor all the other losses in it's more like ten."
"That sounds ridiculous," I said, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation, our speed tossing around my hair as he turned onto a broad boulevard. We passed by swaying palms, pure-white minarets, and even a motor car at one point.
"It is. You know the whole reason we even put the launch site in this region? It was so we could be as close to the equator as possible. Starting here and going east -- Earth's rotation gives you a little boost, and all of that is meters per second you don't need to put in the rocket. That entire game is exhausting, so of course we have tried to find ways around it. Some of them seem clever. Most don't," he grunted.
"I think I'll save the rest of the questions for the site. Road's getting tough," I told him.
"You haven't seen the tenth of it," he chided. And he was right; for every mile we got further away from the city center and airport, the worse the roads got. Eventually I was clinging to his ribs. By the time we were out of the city, the roads were simply packed earth. Any sign of progress, such as it is, vanished. We were in a place industrial civilization had barely touched. The bike was kicking up clouds of dirt along a nearly empty bushland road. Only occasionally did we see a person, building, or even animal. The sea became visible between thickets of trees sometimes. It was a tranquil sight, and the weather would have been agonizing without the speed giving us "wind chill".
Despite the lack of paving or land survey, this road turned out to be full of safe straightaways. I went back on what I'd said earlier and dared to ask him about himself. He started rambling at length, and fortunately for him I didn't have my hands free to take notes. What I will relate to you is maybe a fourth of what he said, and not verbatim.
Ricardo Lorenzo was born at a hospital in the small town of Caguas, early '27. He was the first of four children, three of whom survived to adulthood. It confused me why he was not perturbed or bereaved thinking about his youngest brother before I learned he had died in their mutual infancy. Mr. Lorenzo was always interested in outdoor activities, played games with his friends every day, and got great marks in school. He picked up his interest in space by reading fourth-hand pulp and mags (like this one). At some point he went to a local engineering college and was nearly drafted to serve in the Marines as the war was wrapping up. The Revolution happened before they could send him to sacrifice himself in Kyushu, however, and suddenly he found himself in an entirely changed landscape. He got involved in aviation for a brief time but soon abandoned that for rocketry at the first opportunity he had. He joined the American Interplanetary Society in '46 and, if we're to believe him, was their foremost engineer for a year. But he was unsatisfied with what their resources could achieve and set himself to lobbying for research of the field politically.
This led him to meet Penelope Carter sometime in '48, maybe around Washington D.C. or New York. They built a rapport with each other, and he was so utterly won over in one brief conversation that he decided then and there to hitch his wagon to hers. The rest is history, and it has led him to East Africa.
I was so preoccupied trying to hold all these important details in my mind that by the time he stopped talking, we were already at the IEC facility, such as it was. It had not been even half an hour. Once again the cloak of choking heat settled around me. The launch facility was directly on the coast, over a dedicated road, too far away for me to see clearly. All around us, work crews were still milling around. Ricardo assured me they were still expanding the site at a rapid pace. The researchers' offices were squat, pale buildings, exactly alike the local ones in color; they were built of the same brick from the same quarries. The first one I had the chance to see was labelled in a sans-serif typeface: PROPELLANT RESEARCH.
Inside was a change of pace. Everything was clean and geometrical. Asbestos tile lined the floor, and busy researchers brushed past us with apologies. It felt like we had stepped into a university back home rather than a hurriedly slapped-together research center in the Horn of Africa. He brought me here for a reason, I supposed, but it was time for me to ask again.
"So what have you been doing, exactly?" He paused, his eyes locking with mine.
"A lot of theoretical work. Some practical. But most of it on chalkboards. We have so many ideas but so little time, so few resources. Remember what I told you? About chemical rockets."
"Ten kilometers per second, for orbit." I replied, feeling like a teacher's pet.
"Yes. Well, most chemical fuels are lucky to get an exhaust speed of two or three kilometers per second. That's about the maximum anyone's reached in tests. The rule of thumb is that half of your rocket must be fuel to reach that speed, and almost ninety percent for twice that. This is why there's so much business around the mass ratio. Everything we're cooking up here and in the next building over, it's about getting that ratio as low as possible," he says. I took a moment to catch my breath, and pulled my pencil out again to have a second to myself.
"So you're saying you need a mass ratio of ten to reach orbit," I said, ready to be shown up by him.
"Something like that, yes. Ten parts fuel to one part everything else," Lorenzo continues. "It really is a pain, and more importantly it's looking less and less possible every time we hit the drawing board again. Some of us have resorted to trying to raise the exhaust speed, finding really exotic fuels. Which is really dangerous, but what can you do? That liquid oxygen stuff looks promising. Dr. Leaguers has been trying to sell everyone on his fluorine idea -- personally I'd rather dance in New York traffic than ever use that in a rocket. This building is all for the math and records, except for... this room over here," he says, pointing toward a door that looks exactly the same as the rest. He opens it slightly.
"Mind if we watch?" he calls out to two white-coated, goggled scientists. They stand fiddling with valves in a room a little bigger than a school classroom, and it is mostly taken up by a huge metal workbench, various odds and ends on the far counters and closets. One gawks at us for a long moment. "She's the journalist from Scientific, just taking some notes." Lorenzo says, gesturing toward me.
"Yeah, uh, there's no place to sit, but we don't mind if you watch," he replies, speaking as if uncomfortable with his own tongue. He scrambled over to a closet to hand us both sets of goggles. "Just don't stand close. Those beakers are tempered glass, but I don't trust 'em." I took the hint. Most of the bench was taken up by this mess of beakers. Each intended for a different fuel mixture, I gathered. I fastened the goggles over my eyes and watched as they stand back. The other one, a woman a little taller than me with her hair done up in a tight bun, wore a heavy apron and a comically broad set of gloves over her hands. She went around, adding some of what Lorenzo told me is nitrate salt to each beaker. He wasn't clear on what else they contained, but he reassured me it wasn't anything to worry about. Most of them just sat and bubbled, and without any warning at all one exploded, sending glass shards over the floor.
"That's one fewer than last time," Lorenzo remarked, as if making an excuse. The test done, he ushered me back out of the room, yelling thanks to the man on the way out. We entered the other room over, a windowless, dark space where a sharp-looking African was peering through a complicated set of glasses at something inside the metal wall that closed off half the room. He took one look at us and beckoned over.
"She'd be the journalist you wanted to bring here? Well, I'm about to give you something for the paper," he said, in a weak accent I didn't have the experience to place. "Look down there," he said, and I peered through the periscope-looking contraption. Through it I could see the interior of what he said was the 'combustion chamber', a plain metal sphere that didn't look to have any particular toughness to my eyes. Though when he started up a high-speed camera off to my right and cried "Ignition test starting!", I figured it wasn't weak enough that I should start running off.
"What's today's mixture again?" Lorenzo asked, sounding absentminded.
"Liquid oxygen and kerosene today," the African replied. "Everything's ready. I will open the high-speed injectors in five seconds." A question came to mind: what if it exploded too hard and shattered the glasses like those beakers? It was a moot point; I did not have the time to raise it before the test began with a brief and dramatic gout of blue-white flame inside the sphere, and ended just as quickly.
"Excellent," he said, as I tore my eyes from the glasses back to him. He was writing notes on a page that was already full of such. "That was the best one today. There won't be another one till tomorrow, so unless you have any questions..."
"Are you actually going to use that in a rocket?" I said, surprising myself.
"Well, of course. This is the best fuel mix I've had the pleasure of testing this week. This regimen Ms. Carter has us doing has been one false start after another. Uh, Miss..." he trailed off, seeming caught off-guard and even a little embarrassed at not asking.
"Wright. Vanessa," I said. "I'm the journalist from Workman's. It's been a pleasure." I stuck out my right arm.
"Same here," he replied, eagerly accepting the handshake. "David Kimani. And Lorenzo? It's great to have a chance to see you again, but I'll be a little preoccupied here. We can speak more in the evening." They shook hands, and we were out of there.
From the other side of the Propellant Research building, the complex looked even less finished than when I first arrived. From this angle I could see a crew trying to put up a new prefab warehouse bigger than a country barn. Their corrugated roofs studded the skyline of the complex.
"David mentioned liquid oxygen. I remember they're also doing some testing on containing the damn stuff. Problem with it is, if you let it heat up, it's going to turn back into a gas... but keeping it cool is this entire ballgame. Watch." He ushered me off to the right, where in a half-open warehouse there were people standing around a massive tank. The thing was propped up vertically, a little wider and longer than the propane tanks you'd find at any gas station in North America, and a shining chrome that glared the sun into my eyes. From their distant yells, they were increasing the pressure, tossing more of the stuff in. Even as I watched, the ice stains on some of the seams grew and grew, and the metal groaned and shuddered, but it held. I noticed, though, that most of their lines were practically coated in ice. Lorenzo and I watched it start to melt off again for a minute, but the patches didn't shrink as long as we kept our eyes on them.
"It held this time. Good for them. They still haven't solved everything icing up," the Puerto Rican finally said. "The Design Office has the solution for the whole mass ratio issue. In here." He pointed toward another identical beige brick office, its polished-metal roof starting to gleam in the noon light. The sign was the only thing distinguishing it from the Propellant Research building, or most of the others for that matter. We stepped through into yet another scene from a Western university, but this time the rooms were even more like classrooms; bright, calm halls full of scurrying engineers and quiet draftsmen at desks, the main sounds being the scratching of their pencils and rasp of their papers.
Lorenzo took it upon himself to flag down one of the engineers.
"Mister Farley. You're leading the step rocket group, right?"
"Yes, Lorenzo," the older man said, bemused. He almost rolled his eyes, but he saw me.
"I just need some of the designs that aren't being worked on to show her," he said. "Just one with the step. None in particular," he said.
"Oh, yes, yes! I've got some of them near… uh… back here," he said, lighting up in an instant. He gingerly fished a labelled drawing out of a shelf and unfurled it on the nearest empty desk. The only empty desk. This was a design for one of those 'step rockets' Lorenzo was talking about. It looked much the same as any other rocket at first glance, but then I realized--
"Is that... a rocket on top of another rocket?" I asked, curious. From the drawing it quite literally seemed that way. A nozzle and a long cylinder, atop which stood a smaller, slimmer rocket.
"Yeah. I've heard some of the researchers call it 'staging'. In so many words, you have one rocket carry another on top of itself, then you fire some explosive bolts and fire the second one. And so on. I've seen designs like this with three, four, sometimes even five stages, spare rockets that attach from the sides, all that. It's about tossing away what you aren't using anymore. Keeps the mass ratio of each individual stage down. It's probably what we'll be going with, for better or worse," Lorenzo said
"Well, it's strange, but doesn't it seem like the best solution?" At this point genuine curiosity was mixed with my journalistic desire to describe it all. I hadn't even gotten to half the questions I intended to ask.
"Frankly, no," he said, folding the draft back up and returning it to Farley. He spoke as we walked. "It's disgusting and inelegant. You're throwing away pieces of your own equipment to be destroyed later. Some guys floated parachutes and thrusters to help the lower stages land safely, but I think that's a non-starter. With the speed and aerodynamic force, no way you're getting any of that back. My preferred solution is... well, do your readers care to know?"
"If you make it interesting, they'll probably enjoy it." I was struggling, at this point, to think of a way to bring up at least some of the questions I'd penciled in at the hotel without forcing the conversation.
"This is going to sound like science fiction, but for all these reasons I prefer rocketplanes", he began, leading us into an unfinished drafting room. Some artists had left partially-finished materials here.
"First of all, rockets undergo extreme stresses during their ascent. It's punching through the atmosphere at an acceleration two, three, four times that of Earth's gravitation. To put that in perspective, it's akin to pulling a hard turn in a jet aircraft. Not only does it put the payload and any potential passengers under stress, doing it tends to cause strain and damage on the airframe. Much of that strain can cause metal fatigue, invisible to inspection until it's too late. Even if we somehow recovered the rockets, I doubt we could get much reuse out of them." He seemed to shift uncomfortably, as if searching for more words.
"So you think rocketplanes will be more recoverable? In the event that ever happens," I asked, openly scribbling down nigh-incomprehensible notes as he talked.
"In a word, yes. Their ascent does not force extreme loads and dynamic pressures onto their frames. Not only that, but they can take advantage of the Earth's atmosphere rather than fighting against it. They have wings, which help generate lift, and they could use air-breathing engines to save fuel for the rockets. If you look at the 'mass ratio' of any aircraft, which I have on a lark, you realize it is far lower than rockets could ever get away with. Specific impulse, a very complex measure of engine efficiency I would take an hour to explain completely, is around three to four hundred seconds, maybe five for most rocket engines. But it is in the multiple thousands even for civilian jets. Every time I look at a rocket's specifications, I can't help but think how much we'd benefit from that."
There were questions I could ask him all day about this, but I had important ones that you, the readership, need answering. "Well, where do you think the program is going from here? What is your next step?"
"For us as a whole, no matter what else we choose it'll be research and producing test articles and watching how they fail. We're going to launch another sounding rocket next month. For me, I am driven to learn more about high-Mach aerodynamics. I want us to break the sound barrier without a gun within two years of this day," he declared, rubbing his own hands with a tense aspect.
"What about the long-term? The next five years, the next ten?"
"Most of the organization still thinks rockets are the way forward. I believe… no, I hope the expenses will change their minds, in time. I know money isn't much of a factor anymore, but every rocket we expend is tons of resources and hundreds of man-hours tossed away in a matter of a few minutes. I do not think that is a viable long-term future. Oberth calculated decades ago how much energy it would take to reach Venus or Mars. It's even more thousands of meters per second, maybe fifteen or twenty total... Sooner or later we will be forced to reckon with building titanic rockets every time we want to launch a major mission, and possibly straining our goodwill, or we will set ourselves to creating an entirely new kind of vehicle. It will take tenacity and cleverness, but I fully believe we, the IEC, can get there. The only question is when we'll decide to."
"Okay. Thanks again so much for these answers, Mr. Lorenzo. I doubt I have enough space in the column to fit all this information in back at home," I chuckled, only half-joking. He chortled in turn. "Any final remarks?"
"I have some, but we'll need to go back outside for a while." We did so, and I spared a glance at an artist's half-finished impression of a rocketplane. For a moment I wondered if maybe it had been one of Lorenzo's own designs, abandoned once the consensus turned against it.
He took me back out to the noisy outside, apologizing for the lack of shade as he led me to a low hillock just outside the immediate facility. From this point of view I could just about see the ocean and some of the city. He stood in front of me, gesturing grandly over all of it with an open palm before beginning to speak.
"In ancient times," Lorenzo began, "Mogadishu was, before even being called that, a center of trade in the world. Since the days of the Roman Empire this city has been a focus of maritime trade. Frankincense, cinnamon, gum, came here from India and China and out flowed ivory and gold. Improved technology and the canals have made sea trade pass this place by more and more as time has gone on, but Mogadishu has always been a center of exploration. Its people have always journeyed far, and far travelers come to its shores. Yesterday by sea, today by air, and tomorrow…" he looked upward. The blue and cloudless sky had not a single star in it, but I would be a dullard to miss his meaning.
"I see this place growing into a true spaceport. This stretch of coast is filled with runways and control towers. Directing tomorrow's spacecraft not just up into orbit, or even the Moon, but to all the planets of the Solar System, from Mercury to Pluto. Dispatching and receiving cargoes not for the material gain of some wealthy few, but for understanding, brotherhood, and enrichment. A place where, no matter what triumph or tragedy lies in the cosmos above, mankind as a whole can truly say that we brought about a 'Space Age'." He exhaled heavily, as if exhausted.
"I'm worried about what people will think if we publish that uncritically in the papers," I laughed, "But I think it's a good sentiment to end the column with. They've only given me four thousand words, anyways. I want to say thank you again, but I think it's time to get back to the hotel while all this is fresh in memory." He nodded. It had barely been five minutes, but beads of sweat were appearing all over my skin.
"Well, I'm not afraid to sound like a science fiction writer, Miss Walker. I'm afraid to sound glib. I think too many people got taken in by that sort of thing in the past fifty years. In any case, it has been a great pleasure indeed. I'll do you the courtesy of driving you back," he said, and he did. We smiled and laughed the rest of the way.
Except he wound up dropping me off at the same cafe where we'd first met rather than my hotel. In the excitement I had utterly forgotten to specify where it was, but I walked myself back to it anyways, high on the energy of promise and progress. I fell back into bed for half an hour, then got back up to my familiar Wellington Noiseless to hammer out the first draft of this column. I telegraphed my success to the editors, and they were rather uncharacteristically elated. ("Uncharacteristically" is rather her exaggeration - Ed.) We went through our usual procedure of striking out lines and critiquing the manuscript out loud, and the result was the pages you now hold in your hands, dear workmen and women of the world.
-Vanessa Walker
Scientific Global: Impressions
February 17, 1951
Mogadishu, Somalia
Many things have changed in our lives since the days of the Revolution. Climate is one that has not. The shackles the United Kingdom and Italy placed upon Somalia's ankles are merely fading memories now, but the ancient city of Mogadishu is still as sunny and torrid as when its first foundations were laid down. Maybe even more so, I thought to myself many times while waiting for this week's interviewee. My pale complexion has never adjusted well to such fierce sunlight; I am far more apt to develop burns that ache for days than even a trifle. But I learned long ago how to manage that: I stay stubbornly out of the rays as if I'm Nosferatu from the talkies, tote a parasol around and never go far out of the shade of buildings and awnings and gazebos. What took me by surprise was the air. By soil this is an arid city. By its position on the Indian Ocean, humidity is in the high seventies, year-round. Temperature remains around thirty centigrade. In so many words there is no shelter from the soup-like air without remaining indoors, and no relief but for going indoors. This is unlike any Californian summer or Floridian spring.
For your edification and yours only, readers, I spent two of these intolerable days lounging around in a café, one of the two in the city with an air conditioner, sipping and looking around and counting the hours and doing chess problems. Despite that I still felt as though my clothes had to be peeled away when I got back at night. Three nights that didn't last long enough.
On the third day, however, my contact finally found occasion to visit me. He arrived by motorcycle, looking for all the world like another of those leather-wearing bike fanatics I run into more of back in North America. Instead of black, he was wearing brown, but his slicked-back hairstyle fit the stereotype. At last, a rocket scientist in the flesh: Ricardo Lorenzo. We introduced each other without fanfare, immediately sat down together and began the interview. Being myself, I tried to focus on the most concrete questions. Ones he might, conceivably, be happy to answer.
"Why is space travel so difficult in general?"
"I think that's the best question I've heard anyone asking. The rocket equation, the mathematical formula at the heart of all rocketry, says that the total speed a rocket can reach is determined by the speed of its exhaust times the natural logarithm of its mass ratio. The logarithm makes it all sound complicated, but mass ratio is really just initial mass over final mass -- how much of the rocket is fuel versus how much is not? I know most people won't want to screw around with slide rules, so the issue is that to reach space you need a certain amount of energy for a certain amount of mass. For rockets that is fuel. It's not the problem. Anyone could easily put together that amount of fuel. But that fuel... has mass," he said, gesturing off to the side.
"And to fit that mass in, you need a bigger rocket. Which needs more fuel, which needs an even bigger rocket which needs even more fuel. And so on. What saves this from becoming a death-spiral is the fact that a rocket loses mass as it flies, so its remaining fuel takes it further and further. The other side of that coin is that just adding more fuel gives diminishing returns, especially if you have the same exhaust velocity--sorry, exhaust speed." I get a sense that his brain is outpacing his tongue and nod, giving him another second to keep talking.
"In practice, you also have to constantly fight Earth's gravity. Nine point eight one meters per second, every second. And aerodynamic drag. And the complexity of a bigger rocket. The structural elements you need… our sounding rockets and almost all our designs are basically balloons full of fuel one way or another, but I can show you some of the other solutions better at the site. A lady like you wouldn't mind following a respectable guy like me, right?" he asks, guffawing. I had a flash of doubt, but pushed it down.
"Sure. I'd love to talk to some of the other boffins you have working on the Cooperative," I say, getting up to follow him as he walks back to his standing 'cycle.
"They probably won't, but I can introduce you'' he says as we walk out into that awful sun. His eyes widened, as if realizing something, and he tossed me the white helmet he'd been wearing. As I fiddled with the straps, trying to fasten them around my smaller head, he continued talking.
"Most rocket fuel is not that far from the gas in this bike's tank," he says, shifting forward to accommodate me. "I think the Empire used liquid oxygen and regular alcohol. And kerosene, stuff like that, it's all cheap and safe to store. Well, safer than the alternatives," he continued, catching his breath as I sat myself behind him on the rear saddle, my arms locking under his. He does not become flustered, and barely even seems to notice my presence as he kicks up the stand and gets going.
"But the problem with it it's that it's all bad. Chemical rocketry, I mean," he said, beginning to yell as the cycle's two-cylinder engine started up. "The exhaust velocities are very low. We've spent hours at the drawing board," he continued. "Fighting over this shape or that design element. To reach orbit -- going around the planet instead of arcing up and down like those damn terror missiles." he paused here, weaving between the crowds of pedestrians Mogadishu streets are perpetually choked with. "Reaching orbit takes a bit more than eight kilometers per second. Well, when you factor all the other losses in it's more like ten."
"That sounds ridiculous," I said, taking advantage of a lull in the conversation, our speed tossing around my hair as he turned onto a broad boulevard. We passed by swaying palms, pure-white minarets, and even a motor car at one point.
"It is. You know the whole reason we even put the launch site in this region? It was so we could be as close to the equator as possible. Starting here and going east -- Earth's rotation gives you a little boost, and all of that is meters per second you don't need to put in the rocket. That entire game is exhausting, so of course we have tried to find ways around it. Some of them seem clever. Most don't," he grunted.
"I think I'll save the rest of the questions for the site. Road's getting tough," I told him.
"You haven't seen the tenth of it," he chided. And he was right; for every mile we got further away from the city center and airport, the worse the roads got. Eventually I was clinging to his ribs. By the time we were out of the city, the roads were simply packed earth. Any sign of progress, such as it is, vanished. We were in a place industrial civilization had barely touched. The bike was kicking up clouds of dirt along a nearly empty bushland road. Only occasionally did we see a person, building, or even animal. The sea became visible between thickets of trees sometimes. It was a tranquil sight, and the weather would have been agonizing without the speed giving us "wind chill".
Despite the lack of paving or land survey, this road turned out to be full of safe straightaways. I went back on what I'd said earlier and dared to ask him about himself. He started rambling at length, and fortunately for him I didn't have my hands free to take notes. What I will relate to you is maybe a fourth of what he said, and not verbatim.
Ricardo Lorenzo was born at a hospital in the small town of Caguas, early '27. He was the first of four children, three of whom survived to adulthood. It confused me why he was not perturbed or bereaved thinking about his youngest brother before I learned he had died in their mutual infancy. Mr. Lorenzo was always interested in outdoor activities, played games with his friends every day, and got great marks in school. He picked up his interest in space by reading fourth-hand pulp and mags (like this one). At some point he went to a local engineering college and was nearly drafted to serve in the Marines as the war was wrapping up. The Revolution happened before they could send him to sacrifice himself in Kyushu, however, and suddenly he found himself in an entirely changed landscape. He got involved in aviation for a brief time but soon abandoned that for rocketry at the first opportunity he had. He joined the American Interplanetary Society in '46 and, if we're to believe him, was their foremost engineer for a year. But he was unsatisfied with what their resources could achieve and set himself to lobbying for research of the field politically.
This led him to meet Penelope Carter sometime in '48, maybe around Washington D.C. or New York. They built a rapport with each other, and he was so utterly won over in one brief conversation that he decided then and there to hitch his wagon to hers. The rest is history, and it has led him to East Africa.
I was so preoccupied trying to hold all these important details in my mind that by the time he stopped talking, we were already at the IEC facility, such as it was. It had not been even half an hour. Once again the cloak of choking heat settled around me. The launch facility was directly on the coast, over a dedicated road, too far away for me to see clearly. All around us, work crews were still milling around. Ricardo assured me they were still expanding the site at a rapid pace. The researchers' offices were squat, pale buildings, exactly alike the local ones in color; they were built of the same brick from the same quarries. The first one I had the chance to see was labelled in a sans-serif typeface: PROPELLANT RESEARCH.
Inside was a change of pace. Everything was clean and geometrical. Asbestos tile lined the floor, and busy researchers brushed past us with apologies. It felt like we had stepped into a university back home rather than a hurriedly slapped-together research center in the Horn of Africa. He brought me here for a reason, I supposed, but it was time for me to ask again.
"So what have you been doing, exactly?" He paused, his eyes locking with mine.
"A lot of theoretical work. Some practical. But most of it on chalkboards. We have so many ideas but so little time, so few resources. Remember what I told you? About chemical rockets."
"Ten kilometers per second, for orbit." I replied, feeling like a teacher's pet.
"Yes. Well, most chemical fuels are lucky to get an exhaust speed of two or three kilometers per second. That's about the maximum anyone's reached in tests. The rule of thumb is that half of your rocket must be fuel to reach that speed, and almost ninety percent for twice that. This is why there's so much business around the mass ratio. Everything we're cooking up here and in the next building over, it's about getting that ratio as low as possible," he says. I took a moment to catch my breath, and pulled my pencil out again to have a second to myself.
"So you're saying you need a mass ratio of ten to reach orbit," I said, ready to be shown up by him.
"Something like that, yes. Ten parts fuel to one part everything else," Lorenzo continues. "It really is a pain, and more importantly it's looking less and less possible every time we hit the drawing board again. Some of us have resorted to trying to raise the exhaust speed, finding really exotic fuels. Which is really dangerous, but what can you do? That liquid oxygen stuff looks promising. Dr. Leaguers has been trying to sell everyone on his fluorine idea -- personally I'd rather dance in New York traffic than ever use that in a rocket. This building is all for the math and records, except for... this room over here," he says, pointing toward a door that looks exactly the same as the rest. He opens it slightly.
"Mind if we watch?" he calls out to two white-coated, goggled scientists. They stand fiddling with valves in a room a little bigger than a school classroom, and it is mostly taken up by a huge metal workbench, various odds and ends on the far counters and closets. One gawks at us for a long moment. "She's the journalist from Scientific, just taking some notes." Lorenzo says, gesturing toward me.
"Yeah, uh, there's no place to sit, but we don't mind if you watch," he replies, speaking as if uncomfortable with his own tongue. He scrambled over to a closet to hand us both sets of goggles. "Just don't stand close. Those beakers are tempered glass, but I don't trust 'em." I took the hint. Most of the bench was taken up by this mess of beakers. Each intended for a different fuel mixture, I gathered. I fastened the goggles over my eyes and watched as they stand back. The other one, a woman a little taller than me with her hair done up in a tight bun, wore a heavy apron and a comically broad set of gloves over her hands. She went around, adding some of what Lorenzo told me is nitrate salt to each beaker. He wasn't clear on what else they contained, but he reassured me it wasn't anything to worry about. Most of them just sat and bubbled, and without any warning at all one exploded, sending glass shards over the floor.
"That's one fewer than last time," Lorenzo remarked, as if making an excuse. The test done, he ushered me back out of the room, yelling thanks to the man on the way out. We entered the other room over, a windowless, dark space where a sharp-looking African was peering through a complicated set of glasses at something inside the metal wall that closed off half the room. He took one look at us and beckoned over.
"She'd be the journalist you wanted to bring here? Well, I'm about to give you something for the paper," he said, in a weak accent I didn't have the experience to place. "Look down there," he said, and I peered through the periscope-looking contraption. Through it I could see the interior of what he said was the 'combustion chamber', a plain metal sphere that didn't look to have any particular toughness to my eyes. Though when he started up a high-speed camera off to my right and cried "Ignition test starting!", I figured it wasn't weak enough that I should start running off.
"What's today's mixture again?" Lorenzo asked, sounding absentminded.
"Liquid oxygen and kerosene today," the African replied. "Everything's ready. I will open the high-speed injectors in five seconds." A question came to mind: what if it exploded too hard and shattered the glasses like those beakers? It was a moot point; I did not have the time to raise it before the test began with a brief and dramatic gout of blue-white flame inside the sphere, and ended just as quickly.
"Excellent," he said, as I tore my eyes from the glasses back to him. He was writing notes on a page that was already full of such. "That was the best one today. There won't be another one till tomorrow, so unless you have any questions..."
"Are you actually going to use that in a rocket?" I said, surprising myself.
"Well, of course. This is the best fuel mix I've had the pleasure of testing this week. This regimen Ms. Carter has us doing has been one false start after another. Uh, Miss..." he trailed off, seeming caught off-guard and even a little embarrassed at not asking.
"Wright. Vanessa," I said. "I'm the journalist from Workman's. It's been a pleasure." I stuck out my right arm.
"Same here," he replied, eagerly accepting the handshake. "David Kimani. And Lorenzo? It's great to have a chance to see you again, but I'll be a little preoccupied here. We can speak more in the evening." They shook hands, and we were out of there.
From the other side of the Propellant Research building, the complex looked even less finished than when I first arrived. From this angle I could see a crew trying to put up a new prefab warehouse bigger than a country barn. Their corrugated roofs studded the skyline of the complex.
"David mentioned liquid oxygen. I remember they're also doing some testing on containing the damn stuff. Problem with it is, if you let it heat up, it's going to turn back into a gas... but keeping it cool is this entire ballgame. Watch." He ushered me off to the right, where in a half-open warehouse there were people standing around a massive tank. The thing was propped up vertically, a little wider and longer than the propane tanks you'd find at any gas station in North America, and a shining chrome that glared the sun into my eyes. From their distant yells, they were increasing the pressure, tossing more of the stuff in. Even as I watched, the ice stains on some of the seams grew and grew, and the metal groaned and shuddered, but it held. I noticed, though, that most of their lines were practically coated in ice. Lorenzo and I watched it start to melt off again for a minute, but the patches didn't shrink as long as we kept our eyes on them.
"It held this time. Good for them. They still haven't solved everything icing up," the Puerto Rican finally said. "The Design Office has the solution for the whole mass ratio issue. In here." He pointed toward another identical beige brick office, its polished-metal roof starting to gleam in the noon light. The sign was the only thing distinguishing it from the Propellant Research building, or most of the others for that matter. We stepped through into yet another scene from a Western university, but this time the rooms were even more like classrooms; bright, calm halls full of scurrying engineers and quiet draftsmen at desks, the main sounds being the scratching of their pencils and rasp of their papers.
Lorenzo took it upon himself to flag down one of the engineers.
"Mister Farley. You're leading the step rocket group, right?"
"Yes, Lorenzo," the older man said, bemused. He almost rolled his eyes, but he saw me.
"I just need some of the designs that aren't being worked on to show her," he said. "Just one with the step. None in particular," he said.
"Oh, yes, yes! I've got some of them near… uh… back here," he said, lighting up in an instant. He gingerly fished a labelled drawing out of a shelf and unfurled it on the nearest empty desk. The only empty desk. This was a design for one of those 'step rockets' Lorenzo was talking about. It looked much the same as any other rocket at first glance, but then I realized--
"Is that... a rocket on top of another rocket?" I asked, curious. From the drawing it quite literally seemed that way. A nozzle and a long cylinder, atop which stood a smaller, slimmer rocket.
"Yeah. I've heard some of the researchers call it 'staging'. In so many words, you have one rocket carry another on top of itself, then you fire some explosive bolts and fire the second one. And so on. I've seen designs like this with three, four, sometimes even five stages, spare rockets that attach from the sides, all that. It's about tossing away what you aren't using anymore. Keeps the mass ratio of each individual stage down. It's probably what we'll be going with, for better or worse," Lorenzo said
"Well, it's strange, but doesn't it seem like the best solution?" At this point genuine curiosity was mixed with my journalistic desire to describe it all. I hadn't even gotten to half the questions I intended to ask.
"Frankly, no," he said, folding the draft back up and returning it to Farley. He spoke as we walked. "It's disgusting and inelegant. You're throwing away pieces of your own equipment to be destroyed later. Some guys floated parachutes and thrusters to help the lower stages land safely, but I think that's a non-starter. With the speed and aerodynamic force, no way you're getting any of that back. My preferred solution is... well, do your readers care to know?"
"If you make it interesting, they'll probably enjoy it." I was struggling, at this point, to think of a way to bring up at least some of the questions I'd penciled in at the hotel without forcing the conversation.
"This is going to sound like science fiction, but for all these reasons I prefer rocketplanes", he began, leading us into an unfinished drafting room. Some artists had left partially-finished materials here.
"First of all, rockets undergo extreme stresses during their ascent. It's punching through the atmosphere at an acceleration two, three, four times that of Earth's gravitation. To put that in perspective, it's akin to pulling a hard turn in a jet aircraft. Not only does it put the payload and any potential passengers under stress, doing it tends to cause strain and damage on the airframe. Much of that strain can cause metal fatigue, invisible to inspection until it's too late. Even if we somehow recovered the rockets, I doubt we could get much reuse out of them." He seemed to shift uncomfortably, as if searching for more words.
"So you think rocketplanes will be more recoverable? In the event that ever happens," I asked, openly scribbling down nigh-incomprehensible notes as he talked.
"In a word, yes. Their ascent does not force extreme loads and dynamic pressures onto their frames. Not only that, but they can take advantage of the Earth's atmosphere rather than fighting against it. They have wings, which help generate lift, and they could use air-breathing engines to save fuel for the rockets. If you look at the 'mass ratio' of any aircraft, which I have on a lark, you realize it is far lower than rockets could ever get away with. Specific impulse, a very complex measure of engine efficiency I would take an hour to explain completely, is around three to four hundred seconds, maybe five for most rocket engines. But it is in the multiple thousands even for civilian jets. Every time I look at a rocket's specifications, I can't help but think how much we'd benefit from that."
There were questions I could ask him all day about this, but I had important ones that you, the readership, need answering. "Well, where do you think the program is going from here? What is your next step?"
"For us as a whole, no matter what else we choose it'll be research and producing test articles and watching how they fail. We're going to launch another sounding rocket next month. For me, I am driven to learn more about high-Mach aerodynamics. I want us to break the sound barrier without a gun within two years of this day," he declared, rubbing his own hands with a tense aspect.
"What about the long-term? The next five years, the next ten?"
"Most of the organization still thinks rockets are the way forward. I believe… no, I hope the expenses will change their minds, in time. I know money isn't much of a factor anymore, but every rocket we expend is tons of resources and hundreds of man-hours tossed away in a matter of a few minutes. I do not think that is a viable long-term future. Oberth calculated decades ago how much energy it would take to reach Venus or Mars. It's even more thousands of meters per second, maybe fifteen or twenty total... Sooner or later we will be forced to reckon with building titanic rockets every time we want to launch a major mission, and possibly straining our goodwill, or we will set ourselves to creating an entirely new kind of vehicle. It will take tenacity and cleverness, but I fully believe we, the IEC, can get there. The only question is when we'll decide to."
"Okay. Thanks again so much for these answers, Mr. Lorenzo. I doubt I have enough space in the column to fit all this information in back at home," I chuckled, only half-joking. He chortled in turn. "Any final remarks?"
"I have some, but we'll need to go back outside for a while." We did so, and I spared a glance at an artist's half-finished impression of a rocketplane. For a moment I wondered if maybe it had been one of Lorenzo's own designs, abandoned once the consensus turned against it.
He took me back out to the noisy outside, apologizing for the lack of shade as he led me to a low hillock just outside the immediate facility. From this point of view I could just about see the ocean and some of the city. He stood in front of me, gesturing grandly over all of it with an open palm before beginning to speak.
"In ancient times," Lorenzo began, "Mogadishu was, before even being called that, a center of trade in the world. Since the days of the Roman Empire this city has been a focus of maritime trade. Frankincense, cinnamon, gum, came here from India and China and out flowed ivory and gold. Improved technology and the canals have made sea trade pass this place by more and more as time has gone on, but Mogadishu has always been a center of exploration. Its people have always journeyed far, and far travelers come to its shores. Yesterday by sea, today by air, and tomorrow…" he looked upward. The blue and cloudless sky had not a single star in it, but I would be a dullard to miss his meaning.
"I see this place growing into a true spaceport. This stretch of coast is filled with runways and control towers. Directing tomorrow's spacecraft not just up into orbit, or even the Moon, but to all the planets of the Solar System, from Mercury to Pluto. Dispatching and receiving cargoes not for the material gain of some wealthy few, but for understanding, brotherhood, and enrichment. A place where, no matter what triumph or tragedy lies in the cosmos above, mankind as a whole can truly say that we brought about a 'Space Age'." He exhaled heavily, as if exhausted.
"I'm worried about what people will think if we publish that uncritically in the papers," I laughed, "But I think it's a good sentiment to end the column with. They've only given me four thousand words, anyways. I want to say thank you again, but I think it's time to get back to the hotel while all this is fresh in memory." He nodded. It had barely been five minutes, but beads of sweat were appearing all over my skin.
"Well, I'm not afraid to sound like a science fiction writer, Miss Walker. I'm afraid to sound glib. I think too many people got taken in by that sort of thing in the past fifty years. In any case, it has been a great pleasure indeed. I'll do you the courtesy of driving you back," he said, and he did. We smiled and laughed the rest of the way.
Except he wound up dropping me off at the same cafe where we'd first met rather than my hotel. In the excitement I had utterly forgotten to specify where it was, but I walked myself back to it anyways, high on the energy of promise and progress. I fell back into bed for half an hour, then got back up to my familiar Wellington Noiseless to hammer out the first draft of this column. I telegraphed my success to the editors, and they were rather uncharacteristically elated. ("Uncharacteristically" is rather her exaggeration - Ed.) We went through our usual procedure of striking out lines and critiquing the manuscript out loud, and the result was the pages you now hold in your hands, dear workmen and women of the world.
-Vanessa Walker
Last edited:
Alan Turing. The demands of the space programs was among the biggest drivers for the early advances in computing tech, without the push and funding it's going to take years for communist industry to modernise with such a large labour pool to draw from.
And a sputnik type sat is very doable.
And a sputnik type sat is very doable.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I've seen it proposed that after nuclear weapons, the biggest superbooster tech (massive outcomes for minor investment) is orbital mirrors. Imagine turning Siberia into a breadbasket with a few orbital mirrors in molnya orbits.
Massive geoengineering becomes possible.
And with a semi-unified world government, it might actually be possible.
Massive geoengineering becomes possible.
And with a semi-unified world government, it might actually be possible.
Dragontrapper
Homeless Draconis
- Location
- A Tower in the middle of nowhere
My only issue with Turing is that the sooner we get computers the sooner unmanned observation satellites become viable and the sooner manned observation stations become redundant.
- Location
- Lake Wobegon
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Threaten me with a good time, will you?
Well, we seem to keep coming up for things for the ISS to do. I'm pretty sure we have a long way to go in game before we overcome the limits of human scientists with comupters and robots. Putting off the shear force multiplyer that commputing is becase it might make manned missions a bit harder to sell? Dosn't seem to balance in my mind. But that is the nature of a Quest, we shall see.
On the flip side, since the driver for our space program is not ICBMs and spy sats, well, we don't have the military breathing down our necks to define and derail programs. Orbital science is fine, we don't have to justify it on a millitary expences appropriations rider. The Moon is right there! We can do it!
PonKatt
She Who Runs Into Walls
- Location
- US
At the very least we won't have people breathing down our necks demanding boondoggles on an experimental rocket that they are never going to use!
...yes I'm still mad over what the Air Force did to the Space Shuttle.
April 1st, 1951//Q2 1951
Shadows
Sacred Priestess of the Benevolent Dice Gods
- Location
- USS Civilian, DDG-214
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Your new Assistant Director was settling in nicely now, which freed you up to devote more of your focus on specific problem children the IEC was currently facing. There had been promises made of more teams brought onboard to expand the Cooperative's capabilities, but the new recruits wouldn't themselves be settled in until probably the end of this quarter.
With a second successful launch under its belt, the IEC was ready to keep pushing the boundaries of rocket science.
Resources:
85R (+55R/turn)
65 Political Support
Facilities:
1 Launch Stand (0-5 tonne) (+1 Operations die)
1 Assembly Complex (+1 Build Capacity)
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])
1 Construction Union Hall (+1 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)
Penelope Carter [The Director] - [+10 to Politics rolls, +2 Politics die, +5R/turn in funding from Connections, reroll 1 failed politics roll per turn]
Operations (1 dice, +3 bonus)
[] Construct a Sounding Rocket - Having just launched its first sounding rocket, the IEC is very well advised to repeat the feat, this time with a heavier sensor payload to gain more information about the region beyond the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. (10R, 0/40, costs 1 Build Capacity until complete)
-[] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
Facilities (1 dice, +0 bonus)
[ ] Construct an Engine Test Stand - Your engineers tell you it's a good idea to have some place specifically built to test engines at, and specifically built to absorb the occasionally energetic failures such testing causes. (10R per die, 0/50, +2 to propulsion projects)
[ ] Construct a Hangar - A group of pilots and engineers approached you with the idea of constructing a spaceplane. Such an endeavour would surely benefit the construction of normal aircraft as well, making it a potentially easy sell to the People's Forum. First, though, the IEC would need a place to actually, well, build it. (10R per die, 0/100, allows constructing spaceplane prototypes)
[ ] Construct a Wind Tunnel - In order to do advanced studies on the shape of air and spacecraft at various speeds, you'll need a safe space that you can push a lot of air into, quickly. You've been assured by literally everyone involved that this will be useful. Personally, you're half-convinced it's just the air/spaceplane research crowd looking for every possible excuse to acquire jet engines and jet engine parts. But… (10R per die, 0/80, +3 to projects labeled AERO)
Engineering (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Heavy Sounding Rocket) [AERO] - Your small sounding rockets are, well, they work, but they're not as high-performing as you'd like. During the Third Great War, the Empire used a thirteen-tonne rocket as a terror weapon against civilians; that rocket is, approximately, thirteen times as large as the ones you are using, and able to fly at least three times as high, based on your people's calculations. They think they can recreate the design using notes seized from the ruins of the Empire's rocket complex. (5R per die, 0/80, unlocks Heavy Sounding Rocket (and a naming vote because that's unwieldy))
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Spaceplane Development) [AERO] - If you're going to be building spaceplanes, it would be a good idea to develop a working design to build in that hangar the spaceplane gang had wanted. Your engineers were talking about things like payload fraction and use cases and aerodynamic loading - all of which went more or less over your head but it certainly seemed they knew what they were about. (5R per die, 0/100, unlocks Prototype Spaceplane)
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Alternative Launch Systems) [AERO, PHYS] - Still more of your engineers were talking about investigating different ways of potentially getting to space. Jules Verne stuff. Big guns and space towers and the like. You didn't think them likely to work, but having the knowledge wouldn't hurt. (5R per die, 0/300, ???)
[ ] Second Stages (Tech) [AERO, PHYS] - Some of your engineers have proposed putting a second rocket on top of your first rocket to gain greater range and altitude. You, personally, thought that was a wild idea, but they seemed to think it would work, and you had to admit their reasoning and solutions for the problems they had been able to come up with seemed sound. (10R per die, 0/200, gain the ability to make 2-stage rockets)
[ ] Advanced Concepts Office - A group of scientists and engineers have come to you asking to staff an Advanced Concepts Office, whose entire function seems to be dreaming up things you could do in space. Space stations, giant spacecraft, the works. (5R per die, 0/150, will occasionally provide a new Program to pursue based on brainstorming and priorities)
Science (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
[ ] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] - The scientific instrumentation aboard the IEC's sounding rockets is, to put it frankly, very basic. The rockets aren't that powerful in the grand scheme of things, and while your scientists have already figured out how to put approximately two more instruments (a geiger counter and a magnetic field measurement device) on your next launches, they would like time to develop a more comprehensive suite that could be used on a larger rocket. (5R per dice, 0/100, improves scientific outcomes from Sounding Rockets)
[ ] Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 1) [CHEM] - A group of chemists attached to the IEC came to you with a proposal to conduct an exhaustive campaign characterizing just about as many propellants as they could come up with. While expensive, and dangerous, and potentially deadly, the knowledge gained could also be invaluable for nailing down mixtures and ratios of fuels that could help the IEC achieve its objectives. (15R per dice, 0/150, unlocks fuel mixtures and further fuel development)
[ ] Tracking Station Surveys - In order to support tracking and communication with long-range and orbital rocketry and experiments, you would need a network of tracking stations placed basically across the world. A survey would be conducted to find the most opportune locations for tracking station placement, prior to construction. (5R per dice, 0/150, unlocks Tracking Station Construction project for Facilities)
[ ] Research Program Outreach - Some of your scientists have brought up the idea of reaching out to their peers in other fields to canvas them for interest in conducting experiments in space. You will, of course, need better rockets for many of the experiments they'd want, but maybe that outreach, if properly funded, could net you some more helping hands. (10R per dice, 10/120, gives +2 bonus to 1d4 research areas (including engineering))
[ ] Conduct Materials Research (Phase 1) - Better alloys would lead to higher-performing engines and lighter rockets, you were told. All you had to do was authorize the resource expenditure to start testing materials. (15R per die, 0/150, provides access to aluminum structures)
Politics (3 dice, +10 bonus, reroll 1 failure per turn)
Political
[ ] Outcome Surveys - In order to get a better handle on exactly what the various councils, committees, and the general public wanted out of the IEC, your staff thinks a survey should be conducted. They'll go out to the various bodies that voted for your creation - and even those who voted against - and see what they'd like to see investigated. (5R per dice, 0/120, get concrete goals to work towards)
[ ] Shaking Trees - Your current budget is set for the next year, and there's not much you can do about it. However, you can attempt to go around to the various demilitarization projects and see if they've got any more tools and parts (and spare booster rockets) lying around before they get turned into scrap. (5R per dice, 0/100, variable reward)
[ ] Council Liaison Office - Given the… hectic nature of truly democratic governance, keeping up with all the goings on in the World Communal Council is a bit much, even for you, and there's no guarantee your successor would have your exact same skills and savvy. Thus, a Liaison Office whose entire job was to keep up with goings-on in the Council and brief the Director and Assistant Director was probably a good idea. (5R, establishes a Council Liaison Office, provides details on the state of Council funding priorities, budget, infrastructure status, etc.)
[ ] Bothering Councilors - The year's budget is set, but next year's is very much not. You can influence investment priorities if you want to apply enough political pressure to the right people to convince them to fund, say, better roads out of Mogadishu… elementary and secondary schools in Africa… that kind of thing. (-10 PS, roll a quality dice to give options for influencing infrastructure funding, triggers subvote)
Outreach
[ ] Rocket Boxes (Phase I) - The initial run of Rocket Boxes to the schools in Mogadishu has been enough of a success to merit further deployment of Rocket Boxes abroad. With a bit of investment of resources, you can get enough Rocket Boxes assembled to expand the net to the rest of Africa. (5R per die, 0/200. Gives Rocket Boxes to every middle-school, high-school and university or equivalent in Africa. Encourages future African scientists and engineers - some of whom will even come work with the IEC.)
[ ] Rocket Reels - The test footage the IEC produces for scientific value can be easily copied and turned into high-octane spectacle for the purposes of swaying the public's opinion and imagination. The best part is, the more rocket launches you do, the better your reels get. (5R per die, 0/120, gain a coinflip for 1 additional Political Support per quarter; successful rocket launches give you an additional coin flip for each launch.)
NOTE: As a reminder, whatever Assistant Director gets chosen will have their bonus applied to any applicable projects this turn, however their extra dice will only come into effect next turn, after they've settled into their new job.
With a second successful launch under its belt, the IEC was ready to keep pushing the boundaries of rocket science.
Resources:
85R (+55R/turn)
65 Political Support
Facilities:
1 Launch Stand (0-5 tonne) (+1 Operations die)
1 Assembly Complex (+1 Build Capacity)
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])
1 Construction Union Hall (+1 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)
Penelope Carter [The Director] - [+10 to Politics rolls, +2 Politics die, +5R/turn in funding from Connections, reroll 1 failed politics roll per turn]
Operations (1 dice, +3 bonus)
[] Construct a Sounding Rocket - Having just launched its first sounding rocket, the IEC is very well advised to repeat the feat, this time with a heavier sensor payload to gain more information about the region beyond the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. (10R, 0/40, costs 1 Build Capacity until complete)
-[] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
Facilities (1 dice, +0 bonus)
[ ] Construct an Engine Test Stand - Your engineers tell you it's a good idea to have some place specifically built to test engines at, and specifically built to absorb the occasionally energetic failures such testing causes. (10R per die, 0/50, +2 to propulsion projects)
[ ] Construct a Hangar - A group of pilots and engineers approached you with the idea of constructing a spaceplane. Such an endeavour would surely benefit the construction of normal aircraft as well, making it a potentially easy sell to the People's Forum. First, though, the IEC would need a place to actually, well, build it. (10R per die, 0/100, allows constructing spaceplane prototypes)
- [ ] Construct a Runway - A 6 kilometer long strip of concrete and tarmac to launch and land air-and-spacecraft from, and the control towers and radars to supplement it. (10R per die, 0/120, allows for launching and landing air and spacecraft)
[ ] Construct a Wind Tunnel - In order to do advanced studies on the shape of air and spacecraft at various speeds, you'll need a safe space that you can push a lot of air into, quickly. You've been assured by literally everyone involved that this will be useful. Personally, you're half-convinced it's just the air/spaceplane research crowd looking for every possible excuse to acquire jet engines and jet engine parts. But… (10R per die, 0/80, +3 to projects labeled AERO)
Engineering (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Heavy Sounding Rocket) [AERO] - Your small sounding rockets are, well, they work, but they're not as high-performing as you'd like. During the Third Great War, the Empire used a thirteen-tonne rocket as a terror weapon against civilians; that rocket is, approximately, thirteen times as large as the ones you are using, and able to fly at least three times as high, based on your people's calculations. They think they can recreate the design using notes seized from the ruins of the Empire's rocket complex. (5R per die, 0/80, unlocks Heavy Sounding Rocket (and a naming vote because that's unwieldy))
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Spaceplane Development) [AERO] - If you're going to be building spaceplanes, it would be a good idea to develop a working design to build in that hangar the spaceplane gang had wanted. Your engineers were talking about things like payload fraction and use cases and aerodynamic loading - all of which went more or less over your head but it certainly seemed they knew what they were about. (5R per die, 0/100, unlocks Prototype Spaceplane)
[ ] Conduct Design Studies (Alternative Launch Systems) [AERO, PHYS] - Still more of your engineers were talking about investigating different ways of potentially getting to space. Jules Verne stuff. Big guns and space towers and the like. You didn't think them likely to work, but having the knowledge wouldn't hurt. (5R per die, 0/300, ???)
[ ] Second Stages (Tech) [AERO, PHYS] - Some of your engineers have proposed putting a second rocket on top of your first rocket to gain greater range and altitude. You, personally, thought that was a wild idea, but they seemed to think it would work, and you had to admit their reasoning and solutions for the problems they had been able to come up with seemed sound. (10R per die, 0/200, gain the ability to make 2-stage rockets)
[ ] Advanced Concepts Office - A group of scientists and engineers have come to you asking to staff an Advanced Concepts Office, whose entire function seems to be dreaming up things you could do in space. Space stations, giant spacecraft, the works. (5R per die, 0/150, will occasionally provide a new Program to pursue based on brainstorming and priorities)
Science (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
[ ] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] - The scientific instrumentation aboard the IEC's sounding rockets is, to put it frankly, very basic. The rockets aren't that powerful in the grand scheme of things, and while your scientists have already figured out how to put approximately two more instruments (a geiger counter and a magnetic field measurement device) on your next launches, they would like time to develop a more comprehensive suite that could be used on a larger rocket. (5R per dice, 0/100, improves scientific outcomes from Sounding Rockets)
[ ] Exploratory Propellant Research (Phase 1) [CHEM] - A group of chemists attached to the IEC came to you with a proposal to conduct an exhaustive campaign characterizing just about as many propellants as they could come up with. While expensive, and dangerous, and potentially deadly, the knowledge gained could also be invaluable for nailing down mixtures and ratios of fuels that could help the IEC achieve its objectives. (15R per dice, 0/150, unlocks fuel mixtures and further fuel development)
[ ] Tracking Station Surveys - In order to support tracking and communication with long-range and orbital rocketry and experiments, you would need a network of tracking stations placed basically across the world. A survey would be conducted to find the most opportune locations for tracking station placement, prior to construction. (5R per dice, 0/150, unlocks Tracking Station Construction project for Facilities)
[ ] Research Program Outreach - Some of your scientists have brought up the idea of reaching out to their peers in other fields to canvas them for interest in conducting experiments in space. You will, of course, need better rockets for many of the experiments they'd want, but maybe that outreach, if properly funded, could net you some more helping hands. (10R per dice, 10/120, gives +2 bonus to 1d4 research areas (including engineering))
[ ] Conduct Materials Research (Phase 1) - Better alloys would lead to higher-performing engines and lighter rockets, you were told. All you had to do was authorize the resource expenditure to start testing materials. (15R per die, 0/150, provides access to aluminum structures)
Politics (3 dice, +10 bonus, reroll 1 failure per turn)
Political
[ ] Outcome Surveys - In order to get a better handle on exactly what the various councils, committees, and the general public wanted out of the IEC, your staff thinks a survey should be conducted. They'll go out to the various bodies that voted for your creation - and even those who voted against - and see what they'd like to see investigated. (5R per dice, 0/120, get concrete goals to work towards)
[ ] Shaking Trees - Your current budget is set for the next year, and there's not much you can do about it. However, you can attempt to go around to the various demilitarization projects and see if they've got any more tools and parts (and spare booster rockets) lying around before they get turned into scrap. (5R per dice, 0/100, variable reward)
[ ] Council Liaison Office - Given the… hectic nature of truly democratic governance, keeping up with all the goings on in the World Communal Council is a bit much, even for you, and there's no guarantee your successor would have your exact same skills and savvy. Thus, a Liaison Office whose entire job was to keep up with goings-on in the Council and brief the Director and Assistant Director was probably a good idea. (5R, establishes a Council Liaison Office, provides details on the state of Council funding priorities, budget, infrastructure status, etc.)
[ ] Bothering Councilors - The year's budget is set, but next year's is very much not. You can influence investment priorities if you want to apply enough political pressure to the right people to convince them to fund, say, better roads out of Mogadishu… elementary and secondary schools in Africa… that kind of thing. (-10 PS, roll a quality dice to give options for influencing infrastructure funding, triggers subvote)
Outreach
[ ] Rocket Boxes (Phase I) - The initial run of Rocket Boxes to the schools in Mogadishu has been enough of a success to merit further deployment of Rocket Boxes abroad. With a bit of investment of resources, you can get enough Rocket Boxes assembled to expand the net to the rest of Africa. (5R per die, 0/200. Gives Rocket Boxes to every middle-school, high-school and university or equivalent in Africa. Encourages future African scientists and engineers - some of whom will even come work with the IEC.)
[ ] Rocket Reels - The test footage the IEC produces for scientific value can be easily copied and turned into high-octane spectacle for the purposes of swaying the public's opinion and imagination. The best part is, the more rocket launches you do, the better your reels get. (5R per die, 0/120, gain a coinflip for 1 additional Political Support per quarter; successful rocket launches give you an additional coin flip for each launch.)
NOTE: As a reminder, whatever Assistant Director gets chosen will have their bonus applied to any applicable projects this turn, however their extra dice will only come into effect next turn, after they've settled into their new job.
I want this.ROCKETS FOR THE ROCKET GOD,DATA FOR THE DATA THRONE
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
Can we vote or propose plans now?
Shadows
Sacred Priestess of the Benevolent Dice Gods
- Location
- USS Civilian, DDG-214
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You can propose plans now! Voting opens in 6 hours.
- Location
- Fort Worth, TX
[X] Plan - Building a solid foundation
- [X] Construct a Sounding Rocket
-- [X] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
-[X] Construct an Engine Test Stand - (1 Dice)
- [X] Construct a Heavy Sounding Rocket launch site (1 Dice)
- [X] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Heavy Sounding Rocket) [AERO] (2 Dice)
- [X] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] (1 Dice)
- [X] Research Program Outreach (1 Dice)
- [X] Outcome Surveys (1 Dice)
- [X] Council Liaison Office (1 Dice)
- [X] Rocket Boxes (Phase I) (1 Dice)
- [X] Construct a Sounding Rocket
-- [X] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
-[X] Construct an Engine Test Stand - (1 Dice)
- [X] Construct a Heavy Sounding Rocket launch site (1 Dice)
- [X] Conduct Design Studies (Platform) (Heavy Sounding Rocket) [AERO] (2 Dice)
- [X] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] (1 Dice)
- [X] Research Program Outreach (1 Dice)
- [X] Outcome Surveys (1 Dice)
- [X] Council Liaison Office (1 Dice)
- [X] Rocket Boxes (Phase I) (1 Dice)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[] [ASSIST] Sergei Korolev
We need the extra engineering dice which rules out Turing, spaceplanes are less than ideal so that rules out Yao, we already have a politics heavy Director so Abdul isn't as useful, and Parson's focus is good but I think Korolev's is better overall.
[] [PLAN] Two Stages Are Better Than One
Operations
-[] Construct a Sounding Rocket (10R, 0/40, costs 1 Build Capacity until complete)
--[] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
Second verse same as the first. We keep the rockets flying to gain more data and show results.
Facilities
-[] Construct an Engine Test Stand (10R per die, 0/50, +2 to propulsion projects)
We have regen cooling, and I desperately want to actually implement that before we design our next bigger rocket. Not to mention it might unlock better turbopump development.
I don't want to move to a heavier rocket just yet - the small ones are too useful for rapidly trying out new techs, so it's less of a priority IMO.
Engineering (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
-[][] Second Stages (Tech) [AERO, PHYS] (10R per die, 0/200, gain the ability to make 2-stage rockets)
Second stages are a must for an orbital vehicle. And with a 200 point project, we should start this soon because we'll still have to sink at least one die into it next turn.
Science (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
-[][] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] (5R per dice, 0/100, improves scientific outcomes from Sounding Rockets)
This is a relatively cheap project, and the sooner we take it the more we maximize out boni to future missions by getting more data.
Not to mention it could open up things like cameras for taking pictured from a space - sure to be a hit with the public.
Politics (3 dice, +10 bonus, reroll 1 failure per turn)
-[] Outcome Surveys (5R per dice, 0/120, get concrete goals to work towards)
-[] Shaking Trees (5R per dice, 0/100, variable reward)
-[] Council Liaison Office (5R, establishes a Council Liaison Office, provides details on the state of Council funding priorities, budget, infrastructure status, etc.)
Shaking Trees needs to be done in the first year or it will disappear (also note how our resources are trending down, we could use an infusion to stem the tide that will come from adding two dice next turn), and Outcome Surveys are the obvious thing to take.
Finally, Liaison Office is useful for maximizing our Director advantage. Knowing which way the wind is blowing should help us understand where we stand.
I think at this point our PS is good enough not to need further outreach, and it's more important to establish the basic administrative infrastructure.
Total Resources Used: 65/85
Edit: I'm letting Science Outreach lay fallow this turn on the justification that given the tepid response we should do it again once we've got better instrumentation.
We need the extra engineering dice which rules out Turing, spaceplanes are less than ideal so that rules out Yao, we already have a politics heavy Director so Abdul isn't as useful, and Parson's focus is good but I think Korolev's is better overall.
[] [PLAN] Two Stages Are Better Than One
Operations
-[] Construct a Sounding Rocket (10R, 0/40, costs 1 Build Capacity until complete)
--[] And launch it (free action for Sounding Rockets) (gains Scientific Data, launch experience, results to show the people funding you)
Second verse same as the first. We keep the rockets flying to gain more data and show results.
Facilities
-[] Construct an Engine Test Stand (10R per die, 0/50, +2 to propulsion projects)
We have regen cooling, and I desperately want to actually implement that before we design our next bigger rocket. Not to mention it might unlock better turbopump development.
I don't want to move to a heavier rocket just yet - the small ones are too useful for rapidly trying out new techs, so it's less of a priority IMO.
Engineering (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
-[][] Second Stages (Tech) [AERO, PHYS] (10R per die, 0/200, gain the ability to make 2-stage rockets)
Second stages are a must for an orbital vehicle. And with a 200 point project, we should start this soon because we'll still have to sink at least one die into it next turn.
Science (2 dice, +1 Bonus to All)
-[][] Improved Instrumentation Development (Tech) [AVIONICS] (5R per dice, 0/100, improves scientific outcomes from Sounding Rockets)
This is a relatively cheap project, and the sooner we take it the more we maximize out boni to future missions by getting more data.
Not to mention it could open up things like cameras for taking pictured from a space - sure to be a hit with the public.
Politics (3 dice, +10 bonus, reroll 1 failure per turn)
-[] Outcome Surveys (5R per dice, 0/120, get concrete goals to work towards)
-[] Shaking Trees (5R per dice, 0/100, variable reward)
Shaking Trees needs to be done in the first year or it will disappear (also note how our resources are trending down, we could use an infusion to stem the tide that will come from adding two dice next turn), and Outcome Surveys are the obvious thing to take.
Finally, Liaison Office is useful for maximizing our Director advantage. Knowing which way the wind is blowing should help us understand where we stand.
I think at this point our PS is good enough not to need further outreach, and it's more important to establish the basic administrative infrastructure.
Total Resources Used: 65/85
Edit: I'm letting Science Outreach lay fallow this turn on the justification that given the tepid response we should do it again once we've got better instrumentation.
Last edited: