This is not the Gaya that you know. This Gaya has seen conflict and pain, but it is not our...
Rocket Design Agency - A Playtesting Quest
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C0P1: Where?
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
This is not the Gaya that you know. This Gaya has seen conflict and pain, but it is not our world. In this world, the wars are different, the people are different, the events are different. In this world, the future is yours to decide...
You'd grown up in the age of flight but always you had looked further and higher and faster than anything you saw take to the air above your hometown. The biplanes came and went, then the mono-winged fighters and even the first jet aircraft which streaked across the skies so quickly and none of them satisfied your hunger for more.
You got to see your first true rocket launch when you were but a teenager, not one of the festive fireworks which lofted themselves on gunpowder but a true liquid fuelled marvel which flew skywards from a cage to some great height. It was nothing but a trifle, your parents said, and yet it sparked something in you. Physics at school, Aeronautics at University and a partnership in a study group with produced several treaties on the future of space exploration.
But it is not enough. A few small rockets do not the future make. So you, already a well regarded engineer, begin looking for new horizons as the great nations of the world do the same.
It is 1950. It is time to look to the stars.
Where have you established yourself?
[ ] New Alleghany, a continental superpower.
[ ] Akitsukini, an island nation in the East.
[ ] Greater Caspia, a post-revolutionary monarchy.
[ ] Europa, a group of nations united by need.
You are
[ ] A Man
[ ] A Woman
[ ] A Rocket Engineer
You'd grown up in the age of flight but always you had looked further and higher and faster than anything you saw take to the air above your hometown. The biplanes came and went, then the mono-winged fighters and even the first jet aircraft which streaked across the skies so quickly and none of them satisfied your hunger for more.
You got to see your first true rocket launch when you were but a teenager, not one of the festive fireworks which lofted themselves on gunpowder but a true liquid fuelled marvel which flew skywards from a cage to some great height. It was nothing but a trifle, your parents said, and yet it sparked something in you. Physics at school, Aeronautics at University and a partnership in a study group with produced several treaties on the future of space exploration.
But it is not enough. A few small rockets do not the future make. So you, already a well regarded engineer, begin looking for new horizons as the great nations of the world do the same.
It is 1950. It is time to look to the stars.
Where have you established yourself?
[ ] New Alleghany, a continental superpower.
[ ] Akitsukini, an island nation in the East.
[ ] Greater Caspia, a post-revolutionary monarchy.
[ ] Europa, a group of nations united by need.
You are
[ ] A Man
[ ] A Woman
[ ] A Rocket Engineer
Cast and Characters
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
NASA
Brad L. Whipple - Director, New Alleghany Space Administration
Payload Design - +1
Rocket Design - +2
Engine Design - +3
Mission Planning - +1
Flight Control - +2
Damage Control - +0
Spacecraft Activity - +0
Extravehicular Activity - +0
Experimental Activity - +2
Flight Objectives
- Continue scientific launches, progressing to probes into the space beyond orbit by year end 1959.
- Begin experiments which will allow a progression to human spaceflight before year end 1960.
- Cooperate with the Armed Forces in developing their abilities through the application of spaceflight.
Mission Schedule - Current Date: January 1960
- Discovery 2 - Failure, January 1960
- Astrocathe test - Success, animal in space, February 1960
- March lost due to Artemis redesign
- NAN payload - April 1960 - First Hermes Flight
- Crown 3 - Spring/Summer 1960
- Commercial payload - Summer 1960
- IRVOS 1 - Summer 1960
- NAA Communications - Summer/Fall 1960
- Space Camp test - Summer/Fall 1960
- NAN payload - Fall/Winter 1960
- Commercial payload -Winter 1960
- Astrocathe test - Winter 1960
- NAA Communications - Spring 1961
- Astrocaphe phase 1 (3 crewed flights)
- Astrocaphe phase 2 (3 crewed flights)
Hardware
- Prometheus (1M to LEO)
- Hermes-L (6M to LEO)
- Hermes-B (8M to LEO)
Brad L. Whipple - Director, New Alleghany Space Administration
Payload Design - +1
Rocket Design - +2
Engine Design - +3
Mission Planning - +1
Flight Control - +2
Damage Control - +0
Spacecraft Activity - +0
Extravehicular Activity - +0
Experimental Activity - +2
Flight Objectives
- Continue scientific launches, progressing to probes into the space beyond orbit by year end 1959.
- Begin experiments which will allow a progression to human spaceflight before year end 1960.
- Cooperate with the Armed Forces in developing their abilities through the application of spaceflight.
Mission Schedule - Current Date: January 1960
- Low Orbit 1 (Summer 1958) - Hope-2 (Partial failure)
- Re-entry test 1 - Sub-orbital - Full Success, August 1958
- Low Orbit 2 - Partial Failure, Hope-3 , October 1958
- Re-entry test 2 - Failure, November 1958
- Military Communications - Success, ARTS, December 1958
- Re-entry test 1 - Sub-orbital - Full Success, August 1958
- Low Orbit 2 - Partial Failure, Hope-3 , October 1958
- Re-entry test 2 - Failure, November 1958
- Military Communications - Success, ARTS, December 1958
- High Orbit 1 - Success, Hope-4, January 1959
- Re-entry test 3 - Success, March 1959
- Bio-sciences - Launch Failure, July 1959
- Discovery 1, Success, September 1959
- High Orbit 2 - Success, Hope-5, October 1959
- Lunar Probe - Launch Failure, Artemis-Lunar, November 1959
- Bio-sciences - Success, Astrocaphe-Chuck, December 1959
- Re-entry test 3 - Success, March 1959
- Bio-sciences - Launch Failure, July 1959
- Discovery 1, Success, September 1959
- High Orbit 2 - Success, Hope-5, October 1959
- Lunar Probe - Launch Failure, Artemis-Lunar, November 1959
- Bio-sciences - Success, Astrocaphe-Chuck, December 1959
- Astrocathe test - Success, animal in space, February 1960
- March lost due to Artemis redesign
- NAN payload - April 1960 - First Hermes Flight
- Crown 3 - Spring/Summer 1960
- Commercial payload - Summer 1960
- IRVOS 1 - Summer 1960
- NAA Communications - Summer/Fall 1960
- Space Camp test - Summer/Fall 1960
- NAN payload - Fall/Winter 1960
- Commercial payload -Winter 1960
- Astrocathe test - Winter 1960
- NAA Communications - Spring 1961
- Astrocaphe phase 1 (3 crewed flights)
- Astrocaphe phase 2 (3 crewed flights)
Hardware
- Prometheus (1M to LEO)
- Hermes-L (6M to LEO)
- Hermes-B (8M to LEO)
Andre Larkin - Team Lead at EPL
Rocket Design 0
Engine Design +2
EPL Design Team
Antony Miratha, Aerodynamics
Susan Stone, Astrophysics
Michael Cole, Rocket Engineering
Amy Mathews, Trajectory Planning
Simon T. Harrison, Chemical Engineering
+2 Rocket Design, +2 Payload Design +1 Engine Design, +1 Fuel Selection, +1 Flight Planning
Side Characters
Dr. Evan Hart - Research Director at EPL
Arthur Ley, proponent of Lunar flight.
Franz Haber, Doctor and researcher.
Dieter von Markand, Pacifist and astrophysicist.
EPL Facilities
Design workshop
Chemical research laboratory
Launch analysis equipment
(Please note that EPL has neither rocket nor engine manufacturing facilities)
Rocket Design 0
Engine Design +2
EPL Design Team
Antony Miratha, Aerodynamics
Susan Stone, Astrophysics
Michael Cole, Rocket Engineering
Amy Mathews, Trajectory Planning
Simon T. Harrison, Chemical Engineering
+2 Rocket Design, +2 Payload Design +1 Engine Design, +1 Fuel Selection, +1 Flight Planning
Side Characters
Dr. Evan Hart - Research Director at EPL
Arthur Ley, proponent of Lunar flight.
Franz Haber, Doctor and researcher.
Dieter von Markand, Pacifist and astrophysicist.
EPL Facilities
Design workshop
Chemical research laboratory
Launch analysis equipment
(Please note that EPL has neither rocket nor engine manufacturing facilities)
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Rules and Calculators
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Rules and Systems
Here's the basic design rules
Here's the basic game rules
Calculators
Here's a rocket equation calculator which will come in useful
Ballistic trajectory calculator
Glide ratio calculator
Current Available Technology
And, as ever, my thanks to @Estro for being an excellent writing buddy and rocket nerd.
Here's the basic design rules
Here's the basic game rules
Calculators
Here's a rocket equation calculator which will come in useful
Ballistic trajectory calculator
Glide ratio calculator
Current Available Technology
- Armaments: Conventional Warhead, Early Nuclear Warhead
- Scientific: Basic system
- Crewed: Flight Seat, Flight Controls, Early Environmental Systems.
- Flight: YMR Control, Thruster Pack
- Communication: Basic Antennae
- Power: Battery Pack
- Recovery: Main Chute, Human-rated chute, back-up chute
- Tank: Heavy Duty, Structural Steel
- Motor: XLR-1-1, XLR-1-4, XMR-1
- Fuels: Alc/LOX, N2H4/LOX, N2H4/RFNA
- Staging: Hot staging, Explosive bolt, Parallel Staging
- Guidance: Basic Gyro, Basic Beam Riding
- Aerodynamics: Carbon Vanes, Small Fins
- Apeture: Early
- Type: Centre-Bore
- Cycle: Primitive, Multi-Feed, Gas Generator
- Injector: Dual Split, Dual Impingement
- Nozzle: Atmospheric
And, as ever, my thanks to @Estro for being an excellent writing buddy and rocket nerd.
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C0P2: Who?
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Growing up a man in the Federated Commonwealth of New Alleghany was not easy in the early twentieth century, especially not for a black man. Not only had your family, and thus you, faced the trials of the depression but the additional pressures of racial tensions in a land wracked with inequality have made it particularly hard.
Nonetheless your family recognised your talent and through both struggle and toil they managed to send you not just to school but also to university afterwards. It came with a price, but they considered it a price that couldn't have been more worth paying.
Three years from the end of your studies, as you are in the depths of a doctorate on the meaning of new aero-physics discoveries in mach flight, there are new developments which change the way the world looks. Nuclear weapons are detonated by several nations, missiles meant for war are flown enormous distances both with wings and without and armies stand at border without a war to fight.
But that doesn't matter to you. You are neck deep in books at every opportunity. And then, one day, you are approached with a job offer.
But who are you?
[ ] Andre Larkin, an engine design specialist (0 Rocket Design, +2 Engine Design)
[ ] David Dubois, an aerodynamics specialist (+2 Rocket Design, 0 Engine Design)
[ ] Matthew Suvall, a generalist with talent (+1 Rocket Design, +1 Engine Design)
Who is the job offer from?
[ ] Experimental Propulsion Laboratory, a scientific research institute.
[ ] Plata Hills Testing Range, a military facility in the Commonwealth of Agadaika
[ ] The North-East Industrial Conglomerate, a commercial firm on the coast.
Nonetheless your family recognised your talent and through both struggle and toil they managed to send you not just to school but also to university afterwards. It came with a price, but they considered it a price that couldn't have been more worth paying.
Three years from the end of your studies, as you are in the depths of a doctorate on the meaning of new aero-physics discoveries in mach flight, there are new developments which change the way the world looks. Nuclear weapons are detonated by several nations, missiles meant for war are flown enormous distances both with wings and without and armies stand at border without a war to fight.
But that doesn't matter to you. You are neck deep in books at every opportunity. And then, one day, you are approached with a job offer.
But who are you?
[ ] Andre Larkin, an engine design specialist (0 Rocket Design, +2 Engine Design)
[ ] David Dubois, an aerodynamics specialist (+2 Rocket Design, 0 Engine Design)
[ ] Matthew Suvall, a generalist with talent (+1 Rocket Design, +1 Engine Design)
Who is the job offer from?
[ ] Experimental Propulsion Laboratory, a scientific research institute.
[ ] Plata Hills Testing Range, a military facility in the Commonwealth of Agadaika
[ ] The North-East Industrial Conglomerate, a commercial firm on the coast.
C0P3: EPL Excursion
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
You are Andre Larkin, a small, gangely black 28 year old with wire framed glasses and a chip on your shoulder a mile wide. Your mother had been a soldier in a segregated battalion, sent overseas on the foreign expeditions that had led to the collapse of the Europan Empires1 and the many, many layers in that one sentence have left their mark on you.
Nonetheless, you are a talented engineer and not one looking to waste the education your parents worked tirelessly to provide. EPL be a government funded research institute, as likely to have its inventions co-opted by the military as by the state, but it is also a prestigious facility and the job offer you received - first by telephone and then by mail - promised significant influence on the course of major projects which were sure to be the future of New Alleghanian scientific and technological dominance.
With a pitch like that, you could hardly refuse. Thus you are on a plane West, flying into the Calafia National Airport on an Akitsukini designed passenger plane with the distinctive lines of an Ohara-Matsura design2. It's funny, to be flying on one of their planes when their picture is the front page of the newspaper spread in your lap. 'Aki Aero Ace Denounces Diet For A-Bomb Test' the headline reads, the story a no less garbled retelling of a speech given by the aging engineer who had been inspirational to you when you first started engineering college. Not that they would ever know, you couldn't imagine. As far as you'd heard, they had little interest in rockets and were now elbow-deep in jet engined aircraft.
It was, you had found, easy to keep up with the personal opinions of aviation experts in your little industry.
You flag down a cab at the airport and settle in for a long ride from there to the laboratory. You're going to have to find an apartment and a car and many other things, but there were things to do first. You had been promised a great many things and, if you were honest with yourself, you wanted to see them before you do anything else.
The taxi dropped you outside the EPL campus and you payed far, far too much money for the ride but finally you had arrived. You presented your papers at the gate and were directed inside and, via a receptionist, a secretary and a junior assistant, to the office of EPL's research Director, Dr Evan Hart. He beams, shakes your hand firmly, and treats you more kindly than most white men in his position would have.
A short tour follows of the EPL facilities, including engine test rigs, wind tunnels, all the things needed to build anything airworthy - or space worthy, you suppose. It's all very exciting yes, but it's not what you came here for - and the doctor can tell that much. Finally he leads you to the applied Physics and astro-nautics building which, he explains, is to be your domain. He claps his hands as he opens the door to a main meeting room, gathering the attention of the sparse throng of scientists clustered amongst scale models and crumpled blueprints.
"Good afternoon everyone. Allow me to introduce Andre Larkin, our new Senior Applied Engineer. Andre, this is your team."
What is your team like?
[ ] The best of the best - great minds to a one (Reduces Budget, Increases skills)
[ ] Too small - overworked to a one (Reduces Reliability, Improves budget)
[ ] Average at best for their field, though experts in any other.
Nonetheless, you are a talented engineer and not one looking to waste the education your parents worked tirelessly to provide. EPL be a government funded research institute, as likely to have its inventions co-opted by the military as by the state, but it is also a prestigious facility and the job offer you received - first by telephone and then by mail - promised significant influence on the course of major projects which were sure to be the future of New Alleghanian scientific and technological dominance.
With a pitch like that, you could hardly refuse. Thus you are on a plane West, flying into the Calafia National Airport on an Akitsukini designed passenger plane with the distinctive lines of an Ohara-Matsura design2. It's funny, to be flying on one of their planes when their picture is the front page of the newspaper spread in your lap. 'Aki Aero Ace Denounces Diet For A-Bomb Test' the headline reads, the story a no less garbled retelling of a speech given by the aging engineer who had been inspirational to you when you first started engineering college. Not that they would ever know, you couldn't imagine. As far as you'd heard, they had little interest in rockets and were now elbow-deep in jet engined aircraft.
It was, you had found, easy to keep up with the personal opinions of aviation experts in your little industry.
You flag down a cab at the airport and settle in for a long ride from there to the laboratory. You're going to have to find an apartment and a car and many other things, but there were things to do first. You had been promised a great many things and, if you were honest with yourself, you wanted to see them before you do anything else.
The taxi dropped you outside the EPL campus and you payed far, far too much money for the ride but finally you had arrived. You presented your papers at the gate and were directed inside and, via a receptionist, a secretary and a junior assistant, to the office of EPL's research Director, Dr Evan Hart. He beams, shakes your hand firmly, and treats you more kindly than most white men in his position would have.
A short tour follows of the EPL facilities, including engine test rigs, wind tunnels, all the things needed to build anything airworthy - or space worthy, you suppose. It's all very exciting yes, but it's not what you came here for - and the doctor can tell that much. Finally he leads you to the applied Physics and astro-nautics building which, he explains, is to be your domain. He claps his hands as he opens the door to a main meeting room, gathering the attention of the sparse throng of scientists clustered amongst scale models and crumpled blueprints.
"Good afternoon everyone. Allow me to introduce Andre Larkin, our new Senior Applied Engineer. Andre, this is your team."
What is your team like?
[ ] The best of the best - great minds to a one (Reduces Budget, Increases skills)
[ ] Too small - overworked to a one (Reduces Reliability, Improves budget)
[ ] Average at best for their field, though experts in any other.
- Of course many would say the Euro-Albian Wars were a larger part in this, but those didn't happen in this timeline.
- It would be unlikely for an Akitsukini aircraft to be flying domestic Alleghanian, yes, but you'll have to forgive this AU's writer.
C0P4: Brief me Baby
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Three of the five who walk over to greet you in the doorway of their - no, your - lab are immediately recognisable.
+2 Rocket Design, +2 Payload Design +1 Engine Design, +1 Fuel Selection, +1 Flight Planning
All of you are up and coming minds in your areas of expertise, doctors and post-grads with ideas that are pushing the edges of the envelope when it comes to rocket flight. You will have to be if you are going to compete with the greatest minds of other nations or even of your own. You know that the military has already demonstrated some long range conventional missiles. Now you have the opportunity to catch up with them.
As soon as Dr Hart has left, you dump your bags in a corner of the room and settle in to get briefed on the project you've been handled.
"We're working on an internal project," Cole explains as the interns pull out a chalkboard with a few basic sketches of simple rocket designs already drawn on it, "for an atmospheric research rocket, codename Scout."
"Where are you up to?" you ask, pushing your glasses up your nose and opening the notebook that lives permanently in your jacket pocket. It's time to get to work.
"We've established some of the primary questions. Liquid vee solid, single stage versus multi stage, payload size-"
"The last one is contracted, even if some of us believe it's too large to loft the way they want." Miratha cuts in, his strong accent almost hiding the fact that he's speaking with some vigor.
Ah, you think, there are already tensions amongst the team. Academics could be worse than children in that regard, and it is one of the reasons it has taken you so long to accept a job offer when you've been headhunted more than once.
"We have a liquid fuelled motor from douglas, a cut-down version of their sustainer from the XS-1, but it only produces about five kilo-newtons of thrust. I think we should go for solid fuels, just to keep things simple." goes one argument.
"The fuel is the problem on the motor, we can do better than that with ease. I just need time in the lab and a few steady pairs of hands to find it" goes another.
"It's simply a case of making a light enough frame, the engines we have are fine. We don't need to waste time reinventing the system wholesale." is a third. It seems the divisions are more technical than personal, which is one relief.
They have been waiting for you to answer some of these questions it seems, answering theoretical rather than practical questions of how to build the rocket to contract. It would be up to you to bring some focus to the room it seemed and indeed all eyes are on you as the proto-argument draws to a tense close.
'Scout' Sounding Rocket
Budget: 5$
Mission: Take up to 50kg of scientific equipment over 50km altitude.
Priorities: Low-cost, Stability, Recovery.
Where should the teams priorities be?
[ ] We should find a high efficiency fuel to power the rocket to achieve our mission (+1 stress)
[ ] We should try to enhance the motors we have available to get better thrust (+1 stress)
[ ] A light rocket is a capable rocket. The structure is our focus (+1 stress)
[ ] We should be pushing the envelope to its limit. Advances in all areas are important. (+3 stress)
- Anthony Miratha, an aerodynamics specialist from Ganjay, who's height and imposing figure belies a gentle attitude and super academic mind.
- Susan Stone, an older woman who's greying hair and slight form lends her to blending into the background at conferences until she gets on stage and presents her latest discovery on astrophysics.
- Michael Cole, a chubby, strong, always smiling man close to your own age who you've met before who you know has ideas about fuselage construction which go far beyond the current models.
+2 Rocket Design, +2 Payload Design +1 Engine Design, +1 Fuel Selection, +1 Flight Planning
All of you are up and coming minds in your areas of expertise, doctors and post-grads with ideas that are pushing the edges of the envelope when it comes to rocket flight. You will have to be if you are going to compete with the greatest minds of other nations or even of your own. You know that the military has already demonstrated some long range conventional missiles. Now you have the opportunity to catch up with them.
As soon as Dr Hart has left, you dump your bags in a corner of the room and settle in to get briefed on the project you've been handled.
"We're working on an internal project," Cole explains as the interns pull out a chalkboard with a few basic sketches of simple rocket designs already drawn on it, "for an atmospheric research rocket, codename Scout."
"Where are you up to?" you ask, pushing your glasses up your nose and opening the notebook that lives permanently in your jacket pocket. It's time to get to work.
"We've established some of the primary questions. Liquid vee solid, single stage versus multi stage, payload size-"
"The last one is contracted, even if some of us believe it's too large to loft the way they want." Miratha cuts in, his strong accent almost hiding the fact that he's speaking with some vigor.
Ah, you think, there are already tensions amongst the team. Academics could be worse than children in that regard, and it is one of the reasons it has taken you so long to accept a job offer when you've been headhunted more than once.
"We have a liquid fuelled motor from douglas, a cut-down version of their sustainer from the XS-1, but it only produces about five kilo-newtons of thrust. I think we should go for solid fuels, just to keep things simple." goes one argument.
"The fuel is the problem on the motor, we can do better than that with ease. I just need time in the lab and a few steady pairs of hands to find it" goes another.
"It's simply a case of making a light enough frame, the engines we have are fine. We don't need to waste time reinventing the system wholesale." is a third. It seems the divisions are more technical than personal, which is one relief.
They have been waiting for you to answer some of these questions it seems, answering theoretical rather than practical questions of how to build the rocket to contract. It would be up to you to bring some focus to the room it seemed and indeed all eyes are on you as the proto-argument draws to a tense close.
'Scout' Sounding Rocket
Budget: 5$
Mission: Take up to 50kg of scientific equipment over 50km altitude.
Priorities: Low-cost, Stability, Recovery.
Where should the teams priorities be?
[ ] We should find a high efficiency fuel to power the rocket to achieve our mission (+1 stress)
[ ] We should try to enhance the motors we have available to get better thrust (+1 stress)
[ ] A light rocket is a capable rocket. The structure is our focus (+1 stress)
[ ] We should be pushing the envelope to its limit. Advances in all areas are important. (+3 stress)
Please note that the rocket design rules are not even at 1.0 yet and the engine design rules are even more an alpha. We will probably be doing a bit of a half/half process here and not every option is listed as of yet (for instance, none of the listed rocket motors are currently 'right' for this design. But please, go and hack through them and see what you can do.
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C0P5: Scouting the Future
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
"We need a better fuel than alcohol. If we can find something more energetic and modify the Douglas engine to use it then we will have our rocket. It couldn't be more simple."
But of course nothing was ever that simple. You spend a week working essentially night and day alongside Simon whose research into fuel types was promising to bear fruit. Meanwhile the others were putting together a scratch design of a rocket that would fly up above the stratosphere, higher than a human has ever flown. This first design was structured around the certainty that you would fail and that alcohol and liquid oxygen were all that you would have for the design.
But inside of ten days, you and Simon strike upon something inspired. Hydrazine, an extremely toxic liquid which burns extremely energetically in combination with liquid oxygen is a much better choice for a rocket motor. It will make for an extremely capable rocket if you can convert the XLR-11 to burn it. And therein lies the rub.
Converting the XLR-11 will be your job and you already know without even looking into it that it will be expensive. It should not push you over budget - probably - but it will limit the other options you have. Not only that but the Hydrazine is dangerous to work with and will make testing and flying the new Scout rocket much more difficult. The decision rests with you and it becomes especially pressing when the first designs for a three-hundred kilogram, three metre rocket are presented. It has the thrust, it has the payload, but it does not have the reach.
What change do you make to the Mk1?
[ ] Reduce the payload to a single experiment, potentially affecting the contract.
[ ] Convert the design to Hydrazine-LOX, despite the dangers posed.
[ ] Enlarge the fuel tanks, potentially affecting launch stability.
But of course nothing was ever that simple. You spend a week working essentially night and day alongside Simon whose research into fuel types was promising to bear fruit. Meanwhile the others were putting together a scratch design of a rocket that would fly up above the stratosphere, higher than a human has ever flown. This first design was structured around the certainty that you would fail and that alcohol and liquid oxygen were all that you would have for the design.
Payload - 2 x Basic science payload (0.2M, 2C), Atmospheric Recovery System (0.1M, 1C)
Rocket - Heavy Duty Tank (0.05M, 0.05C), ALC/LOX fuel (0.44M, 112kg's), XLR-11-1 (0.4M, 1C)
Wet/Dry Mass: 1.19/0.75 (297.5kg)
Delta-V: 814m/s
TMR at launch: 1.815 (0 stability)
Design Inherent Stability: +1
Cost: 4.05$
Rocket - Heavy Duty Tank (0.05M, 0.05C), ALC/LOX fuel (0.44M, 112kg's), XLR-11-1 (0.4M, 1C)
Wet/Dry Mass: 1.19/0.75 (297.5kg)
Delta-V: 814m/s
TMR at launch: 1.815 (0 stability)
Design Inherent Stability: +1
Cost: 4.05$
But inside of ten days, you and Simon strike upon something inspired. Hydrazine, an extremely toxic liquid which burns extremely energetically in combination with liquid oxygen is a much better choice for a rocket motor. It will make for an extremely capable rocket if you can convert the XLR-11 to burn it. And therein lies the rub.
Converting the XLR-11 will be your job and you already know without even looking into it that it will be expensive. It should not push you over budget - probably - but it will limit the other options you have. Not only that but the Hydrazine is dangerous to work with and will make testing and flying the new Scout rocket much more difficult. The decision rests with you and it becomes especially pressing when the first designs for a three-hundred kilogram, three metre rocket are presented. It has the thrust, it has the payload, but it does not have the reach.
What change do you make to the Mk1?
[ ] Reduce the payload to a single experiment, potentially affecting the contract.
[ ] Convert the design to Hydrazine-LOX, despite the dangers posed.
[ ] Enlarge the fuel tanks, potentially affecting launch stability.
C0P6: Optimisation Station
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Of course, there's always the simple option. It is, after all, often the best of them as they say. It will reduce the acceleration of the rocket at launch but doubling the amount of fuel it can burn gives you the time under thrust you need to put the Scout up and over the fifty kilometres objective you had been asked to achieve.
It was not a perfect trade-off, however, and the new, much longer, rocket was significantly less stable as it lifted itself off the pad. With a projected vertical acceleration of only three metres per second instead of the eight that the original design had any wind or platform wobble will send it veering off course before it can get up to speed and rely purely on aerodynamic drag to keep it flying straight.
Or at least that's what you're told by Amy and Anthony who have been working to define except what the launch will look like and what procedures you should have around it. You're just an engine designer, a man who isn't happy unless he's elbow deep in liquid oxygen.
Still, the decision is a completed mission versus an incomplete one and only one of those was going to keep you in work. EPL had found you a flat that you had fallen in love with but the rent was extortionate. Successful contracts are the only way you're going to get to keep seeing that view across the city.
Not that you'd had much opportunity to see it in the last few days of intense work.
With only a few days before the plans had to be sent off to the machining plant for first prototypes to be manufactured you gather the team around the same board from your first day, staring at the new design plans. The decisions had been made, the tech drawn up. The plans were ready. There is just time for a last addition to make sure she flies true.
"A backup parachute would make sure we're not losing important experimental equipment if the primary fails." Amy, the undergrad, is becoming more confident in her voice as the project goes on.
"Only if we can reduce the mass of the whole rocket. We're right on the edge of not being able to fly her at all. We could slim down the tank walls, but we run the risk of a rupture during fuelling." Michael points to the blueprints slim outer casing, made of a reasonably thick double-wall of aluminium and steel.
"We'll lose rockets if we cut too much structural strength. Better to leave it as is and save the stress, we still have to build the science package for the thing." Susan's voice is authoritative and you almost agree without thinking.
But what will you do (multiple vote: Stress will stack per choice)
[ ] Add a back-up parachute to increase reliability. (+1 stress)
[ ] Add small guidance fins to increase stability. (+1 stress)
[ ] Reduce the mass to improve the rocket. (+1 stress)
[ ] Make no changes - she's perfect.
Payload - 2 x Basic science payload (0.2M, 2C), Atmospheric Recovery System (0.1M, 1C)
Rocket - Heavy Duty Tank (0.1M, 0.1C), ALC/LOX fuel (0.88M, 224kg's), XLR-11-1 (0.4M, 1C)
Wet/Dry Mass: 1.68/0.8 (420kg)
Delta-V: 1308m/s
TMR at launch: 1.285 (-1 stability)
Design Inherent Stability: +1
Cost: 4.1$
Rocket - Heavy Duty Tank (0.1M, 0.1C), ALC/LOX fuel (0.88M, 224kg's), XLR-11-1 (0.4M, 1C)
Wet/Dry Mass: 1.68/0.8 (420kg)
Delta-V: 1308m/s
TMR at launch: 1.285 (-1 stability)
Design Inherent Stability: +1
Cost: 4.1$
It was not a perfect trade-off, however, and the new, much longer, rocket was significantly less stable as it lifted itself off the pad. With a projected vertical acceleration of only three metres per second instead of the eight that the original design had any wind or platform wobble will send it veering off course before it can get up to speed and rely purely on aerodynamic drag to keep it flying straight.
Or at least that's what you're told by Amy and Anthony who have been working to define except what the launch will look like and what procedures you should have around it. You're just an engine designer, a man who isn't happy unless he's elbow deep in liquid oxygen.
Still, the decision is a completed mission versus an incomplete one and only one of those was going to keep you in work. EPL had found you a flat that you had fallen in love with but the rent was extortionate. Successful contracts are the only way you're going to get to keep seeing that view across the city.
Not that you'd had much opportunity to see it in the last few days of intense work.
With only a few days before the plans had to be sent off to the machining plant for first prototypes to be manufactured you gather the team around the same board from your first day, staring at the new design plans. The decisions had been made, the tech drawn up. The plans were ready. There is just time for a last addition to make sure she flies true.
"A backup parachute would make sure we're not losing important experimental equipment if the primary fails." Amy, the undergrad, is becoming more confident in her voice as the project goes on.
"Only if we can reduce the mass of the whole rocket. We're right on the edge of not being able to fly her at all. We could slim down the tank walls, but we run the risk of a rupture during fuelling." Michael points to the blueprints slim outer casing, made of a reasonably thick double-wall of aluminium and steel.
"We'll lose rockets if we cut too much structural strength. Better to leave it as is and save the stress, we still have to build the science package for the thing." Susan's voice is authoritative and you almost agree without thinking.
But what will you do (multiple vote: Stress will stack per choice)
[ ] Add a back-up parachute to increase reliability. (+1 stress)
[ ] Add small guidance fins to increase stability. (+1 stress)
[ ] Reduce the mass to improve the rocket. (+1 stress)
[ ] Make no changes - she's perfect.
C0P7: The Mk 3 Ascendant
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
However hard you work, for some reason the fins just won't work. The team spends almost two days troubleshooting, redesigning, and reworking the concepts but you cannot pack motor, recovery system, and guidance fins into the Scout without making the rocket so overweight that she won't lift herself off the pad. All the reinforcement in the world won't both hold the fins on at the speeds it's expected to go and not make it so heavy that the relatively underpowered XLR-11 is essentially useless.
Abandoning the idea is hard to do, but at least some good has come of it - in the effort to find shortcuts and workarounds to allow the mass of the fins your team has managed to find several unnecessary structural members inside the Scouts hull which can be removed without overly compromising the strength or rigidity of the fuel tanks. It's not much of a mass saving - not enough that you can see it being much more stable at launch - but it will allow the Scout to fly faster and higher than you could have imagined before you started work on it.
You hadn't realised how tight your stomach was from the anxiety of the design process until the plans were on their way to the prototyping workshop in Northern Califia. It would be at least a week before you had anything back, even with an off-the shelf engine design meaning that there would be no delay for testing that.
Some of the other members of the team, their jobs done for at least a little while, suggest a night out in the city to recover from the intense weeks of work and to celebrate the completion of a first week together. Team-building, one of the undergraduates calls it. It sounds like an excuse for hedonism.
Not all of your team are drawn to the idea, however. Anthony Miratha would apparently rather spend his team catching up on the latest published papers and frankly, you can't blame him.
What would you rather do?
[ ] Go out drinking (opportunity to reduce stress)
[ ] Spend some time getting acquainted with the campus.
[ ] Get a headstart on a new engine design you've been considering.
Abandoning the idea is hard to do, but at least some good has come of it - in the effort to find shortcuts and workarounds to allow the mass of the fins your team has managed to find several unnecessary structural members inside the Scouts hull which can be removed without overly compromising the strength or rigidity of the fuel tanks. It's not much of a mass saving - not enough that you can see it being much more stable at launch - but it will allow the Scout to fly faster and higher than you could have imagined before you started work on it.
Payload - 2 x Basic science payload (0.2M, 2C), Atmospheric Recovery System (0.1M, 1C)
Rocket - Heavy Duty Tank (0.1M, 0.1C), ALC/LOX fuel (0.88M, 224kg's), XLR-11-1 (0.4M, 1C)
Optimisation - Mass reduction (-0.07M)
Wet/Dry Mass: 1.61/0.73 (420kg)
Delta-V: 1395m/s
TMR at launch: 1.342 (-1 stability)
Design Inherent Stability: +1
Cost: 4.1$
Rocket - Heavy Duty Tank (0.1M, 0.1C), ALC/LOX fuel (0.88M, 224kg's), XLR-11-1 (0.4M, 1C)
Optimisation - Mass reduction (-0.07M)
Wet/Dry Mass: 1.61/0.73 (420kg)
Delta-V: 1395m/s
TMR at launch: 1.342 (-1 stability)
Design Inherent Stability: +1
Cost: 4.1$
You hadn't realised how tight your stomach was from the anxiety of the design process until the plans were on their way to the prototyping workshop in Northern Califia. It would be at least a week before you had anything back, even with an off-the shelf engine design meaning that there would be no delay for testing that.
Some of the other members of the team, their jobs done for at least a little while, suggest a night out in the city to recover from the intense weeks of work and to celebrate the completion of a first week together. Team-building, one of the undergraduates calls it. It sounds like an excuse for hedonism.
Not all of your team are drawn to the idea, however. Anthony Miratha would apparently rather spend his team catching up on the latest published papers and frankly, you can't blame him.
What would you rather do?
[ ] Go out drinking (opportunity to reduce stress)
[ ] Spend some time getting acquainted with the campus.
[ ] Get a headstart on a new engine design you've been considering.
C0P8: A Western Reminder
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
But, when it comes down to it, you see no reason not to take a break. After two weeks of incredibly intensive work (including a few nights spent sleeping across your drafting table with a folded jacket as a pillow) it would be good to get some down time away from the lab and a night on the town was certainly not the worst idea you'd ever heard.
"Sure, if you don't mind your boss tagging along."
Downtown Pasadena is vibrant, buzzing with people and sound and light. In the aftermath of the depression that had struck the west coast particularly hard, scientific giants have set up shop in Califia and around Pasadena in particular, EPL included, and it's given the place a new lease of life. The main street is thriving, even if it is almost entirely white.
"Hey, I know a place just down the street." Simon, the chemical engineer, says, "Cheap beer, great music-."
"Segregated?" you ask, extremely aware of the looks you're getting as you walk down the street in the company of not just a group of white people, but a group of white people that includes a white woman.
"Huh?" Simon stops, making the rest of the group stop in its tracks. "I, uh, I guess I never thought about it."
You bite back a sharp comment that would only have alienated a talented young man you'd spent the last two weeks working so close beside that it had been almost intimate.
"Let's find out."
Where the atmosphere has been jovial amongst the scientists and engineers who make up your team, somehow it is suddenly tense instead. Silence reigns until Simon gestures at a bar entrance and, somehow, doesn't notice the sign in the window that reads 'whites only'.
"Yeah, I'm not getting in there." Even dressed as what some white folk might call a 'respectable' black man, you're still a black man on main street, Pasadena. A white only bar is not the sort of place they're going to want you.
The others look amongst themselves, awkward. Perhaps it had been easier for them to forget the colour of your skin when you were all safely secreted away in a lab together. Perhaps they really did realise the insanity of the situation. But none offered anything by way of solution.
"It's okay. Go ahead, you go enjoy yourselves. I wasn't really up for drinking anyhow." You are lying and it's obvious, the note of bitterness apparent in your tone.
"I'll come with you-" Amy offers, innocent. You can't help but laugh but you feel bad when her face drops.
"Honestly, that's a worse idea than me walking into that bar." You hope you don't have to vocalise the unspoken implication of your statement. They can't be that naive, surely. "I'll see you later."
+1 stress
Walking down main street alone is almost worse than walking down it in the company of white folk. The strange dichotomy of the modern federation has always confused you and it's getting no better with your new job. Progressive universities, progressive employers, all centered around cities where you can't even buy a beer from just any old bar. The frustration has, however, made you crave something to satisfy your urges. There must be somewhere in a Califian town where you can get service.
What are you looking for?
[ ] A way to make some money, lose some money (Gain vice: Gambling)
[ ] A drink or three or five (Gain vice: Alcohol)
[ ] A warm body to lie alongside - even if you have to pay (Gain vice: Casual sex)
"Sure, if you don't mind your boss tagging along."
Downtown Pasadena is vibrant, buzzing with people and sound and light. In the aftermath of the depression that had struck the west coast particularly hard, scientific giants have set up shop in Califia and around Pasadena in particular, EPL included, and it's given the place a new lease of life. The main street is thriving, even if it is almost entirely white.
"Hey, I know a place just down the street." Simon, the chemical engineer, says, "Cheap beer, great music-."
"Segregated?" you ask, extremely aware of the looks you're getting as you walk down the street in the company of not just a group of white people, but a group of white people that includes a white woman.
"Huh?" Simon stops, making the rest of the group stop in its tracks. "I, uh, I guess I never thought about it."
You bite back a sharp comment that would only have alienated a talented young man you'd spent the last two weeks working so close beside that it had been almost intimate.
"Let's find out."
Where the atmosphere has been jovial amongst the scientists and engineers who make up your team, somehow it is suddenly tense instead. Silence reigns until Simon gestures at a bar entrance and, somehow, doesn't notice the sign in the window that reads 'whites only'.
"Yeah, I'm not getting in there." Even dressed as what some white folk might call a 'respectable' black man, you're still a black man on main street, Pasadena. A white only bar is not the sort of place they're going to want you.
The others look amongst themselves, awkward. Perhaps it had been easier for them to forget the colour of your skin when you were all safely secreted away in a lab together. Perhaps they really did realise the insanity of the situation. But none offered anything by way of solution.
"It's okay. Go ahead, you go enjoy yourselves. I wasn't really up for drinking anyhow." You are lying and it's obvious, the note of bitterness apparent in your tone.
"I'll come with you-" Amy offers, innocent. You can't help but laugh but you feel bad when her face drops.
"Honestly, that's a worse idea than me walking into that bar." You hope you don't have to vocalise the unspoken implication of your statement. They can't be that naive, surely. "I'll see you later."
+1 stress
Walking down main street alone is almost worse than walking down it in the company of white folk. The strange dichotomy of the modern federation has always confused you and it's getting no better with your new job. Progressive universities, progressive employers, all centered around cities where you can't even buy a beer from just any old bar. The frustration has, however, made you crave something to satisfy your urges. There must be somewhere in a Califian town where you can get service.
What are you looking for?
[ ] A way to make some money, lose some money (Gain vice: Gambling)
[ ] A drink or three or five (Gain vice: Alcohol)
[ ] A warm body to lie alongside - even if you have to pay (Gain vice: Casual sex)