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Rocket Design Agency - A Playtesting Quest

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Cast and Characters
  • Informational
    • 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
    - 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
    - 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
    - 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)

    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)
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • Crasian01 said:
    [x] Absolutely, anything for rockets.

    @4WheelSword
    Have you seen the movie Apollo 13? I ask because my personal standard for "incredibly boss prelaunch checklist scenes" is:
    Course, you don't have that many systems, so I wouldn't expect the whole spiel, but this scene is just so cool.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah! Would absolutely recommend reading 'Failure is not an Option' the bio of Gene Kranz, the knitted vest guy from that film (and all around steely eyed missile man).
     
    [X] Well… it might be an interesting experiment.

    Turning down business is always a dumb idea.
     
    At this point in time, the military is the only one whho can use rocketry cost-effectively. While that will change relatively soon, saying no to weapons is not a good business strategy.

    [X] Well… it might be an interesting experiment.
     
    [X] Well… it might be an interesting experiment.

    Keep in mind, the MISIT we built could potentially have a range as a ballistic missile of 475 kilometers, carrying a 300 kilogram warhead - it could potentially get much closer to the range of the V-2 from our timeline if we simply modified it to increase the payload. Alternatively, we dust off the MISIT Multi configuration, and simply up the payload mass to get to where we need to go for the Ajax requirements.

    This would also potentially give us a chance to experiment with staging, if we need to use a second stage to get the range required.
     
    I really liked the artwork in full for the 'base camp' proposal, since it did give that of a 50s vibe.

    [X] Well… it might be an interesting experiment.
     
    [X] Well… it might be an interesting experiment.

    I want to vote pacifism, but in character I'm not sure it actually makes sense and at this stage, turning down the military is a good way to shoot our career in the foot.
     
    4WheelSword said:
    Think more X-12
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ... You mean the Convair X-12? As in, the test article for the SM-65 Atlas ICBM?
    open_sketchbook said:
    [X] I won't build weapons. I'm sorry.
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    I'm not so sure this is a wise vote - this project actually appears to be for something that later on evolved into the rocket that put the first American into orbit around the Earth. If we get this right, we could potentially get the funding to build something at least like the IRL Redstone missile, which evolved into the rocket used to put Americans onto suborbital trajectories in the Mercury program, and was used to put Explorer 1 into orbit.

    Or potentially a Vanguard first stage type rocket, which would also be a potentially useful option.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • You hesitate. Missiles are not what you want to build, weapons are not what the world needs more of. But equally, the army had the money and the contracts and the ideas that are going to push everything forwards. Who else has the budget for an engine that will lift a big enough orbit that something you throw up there is going to see orbit. And the army was going to find it's weapons somehow. It might as well be you designing them. At least then you can push for a future you want to see.

    "It would be interesting yes. EPL is good at contingencies." You answer, aiming for noncommittal. The glint in the Major's eyes suggests other implications.

    "Excellent. I look forward to hearing your proposals."


    It's almost a week before the proposal in on your desk, and it's a week of anxiety and hoping. You can't help but get excited every time you're walking into the laboratory, hoping that a thick document will be lying on your desk and you can't help but be a little disappointed every time that it isn't there.

    And then one day it is and you could almost jump for joy. You pick the pad up with excitement and begin to flick through the requests, the recommendations, the objectives of what you're going to have to be doing for the next… well, however long it takes to have an option for the NA Army.

    The excitement drains pretty quickly, to be replaced with dread. Dread and a spark of inspiration. Oh the things you could do with this.

    You get up and walk to the centre of the room, catching the attention of the various members of your team.

    "Tell me." You ask aloud, "How much do you know about Project Ajax?"

    Project Ajax Objective:

    • Payload: 16 mass not including guidance
    • Cross- Range: 4000 kilometres

    • May include unique engine design
    Please discuss various options for achieving these results and create plans for those options to vote on. Feel free to include conceptual designs in your plans based on the rules in the threadmarked post. Staging, boosters and various other design choices are up to you.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • I presume we're still limited to heavy duty tanks? Also, can we build solid rocket motors for this, and if so, what's the biggest we can make them?
     
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