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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
    • Well, failures are a pretty normal part of doing things in space. It sucks, but it shouldn't be the end of the world even in the worst case.
     
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    C8P4: A struggling climb
  • Threadmarks
    • In no way could it have been described as a perfect launch, or a perfect flight. In fact, the tension in Brad's chest which should have slowly eased instead only grew as the the launch team showed clear signs of distress. Mission phases which should have passed in relative peace had interns running and printouts being checked and double-checked. He couldn't hear everything that was happening - the mics that transmitted information to the observation room were not very good - but he could see enough to get a good idea of what was happening.

    He shared a dark look with Andre as maximum aerodynamic pressure passed and the mission controllers knuckles went white on the edge of her desk. But the rocket kept flying and the engine kept burning. Surely Prometheus would not fail. Not today.

    Then Staging comes. A dangerous moment. Explosives bolts fire. Brad imagines the crack, the thump, the moment of drifting separation and then the firing of the half ton engine that will toss the payload up and into space. He hopes, and he can see the rest of the control team hoping. There are shouts. Pointed fingers. For a horrible moment he thinks the mission is lost. But then everything settles, a sigh goes up from the gathered men and women and the controller in charge of engine ignition holds up an 'O-K' sign with one hand.

    Brad remembers to breathe.

    -Third Stage
    -- Payload Activation
    -- Orbital Activities

    Please Roll:
    - 2d10 + 1 (+ 1 Payload Design + 1 Mission Planning + 1 Vote - 2 Partial Failure) - Payload Activation
    - 2d10 + 1 (+ 1 Payload Design + 1 Mission Planning + 1 Vote - 2 Partial Failure) - Orbital Activities
     
  • Threadmarks
    • C8P5: And in the end...
  • Threadmarks
    • Somehow, somehow, the payload makes orbit. At least, the team hopes so. Ninety minutes of fear and hope and then the ping comes back around and suddenly there's a cheer! The satellite made it and Hope-2 has an orbit. Despite the setbacks and the problems - and Brad had learned that there were plenty in the time between control letting go and the satellite coming back around - Prometheus had performed its… he hesitates to call the task herculean but only because of how trite it sounds.

    He sits back down waiting for satellite activation as the beeper sounds. He takes a moment to imagine the tiny quarter-ton cone - perhaps tiny is the wrong word - circling the earth. It's magnificent.

    And then the problems begin again. The satellite switches on, yes, but the instrumentation, well… Some of it fails entirely. Some barely functions. None of it works entirely as it should have done. Temperature data is the only thing that seems correct but even that is very different to what anyone had expected. And the radiation data is seemingly impossible.

    It's frustrating to say the least. Two launches, two successful orbits and two failed satellites? There could almost be nothing worse, though two pad explosions would perhaps have looked terrible for the newspapers. At least he could say the missions were successful at the interminable press conferences.

    There had to be a next though. A next mission, a next launch. A next hope.

    Now you have a choice. What next?
    [ ] Hope-3, it has to work this time.
    [ ] The re-entry experiments have to begin now. That's the next launch.
    [ ] The plan has to change - Add something new (write in)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Hope-3, it has to work this time.


    Normally this is the definition of insanity, but then again that's rocket science for you. And hey, we're at least getting the things to orbit!
     
    A note: it is now June of 1958. Reentry testing is expected to fly by October at the latest. You have time for hope-3 first, yes but... it may be tight.
     
    [X] The re-entry experiments have to begin now. That's the next launch.
    Timeline is too tight I'm thinking. Let's just try our best for the next part, getting the readings would be extremely nice but it's not crucial for continuing. Getting re-entry working well is.

    Plus we're already over-budget from needing to build our rocket assembly line. Adding another mission would be tight on the money.
     
    Last edited:
    [X] The re-entry experiments have to begin now. That's the next launch.

    @4WheelSword a couple system questions:

    How does substantial changes to an existing design work? If we wanted to, say, produce a derivative of the Prometheus with a stretched stage, is that easier than designing from scratch? The rules document doesn't seem to cover that sort of thing.

    You previously confirmed that there is some kind of reliability bonus eventually if you are flying the same design long enough. What are the mechanics for that?
     
    [X] The re-entry experiments have to begin now. That's the next launch.

    notgreat said:
    [X] The re-entry experiments have to begin now. That's the next launch.
    Timeline is too tight I'm thinking. Let's just try our best for the next part, getting the readings would be extremely nice but it's not crucial for continuing. Getting re-entry working well is.

    Plus we're already over-budget from needing to build our rocket assembly line. Adding another mission would be tight on the money.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    good points, switching
     
    Let us hope rushing to re-entry experiments whilst we don't know anything for certain about the conditions of space doesn't screw us over...
     
    brmj said:
    How does substantial changes to an existing design work? If we wanted to, say, produce a derivative of the Prometheus with a stretched stage, is that easier than designing from scratch? The rules document doesn't seem to cover that sort of thing.

    You previously confirmed that there is some kind of reliability bonus eventually if you are flying the same design long enough. What are the mechanics for that?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    So the benefit of modifying an existing launcher is that rather than spending say... 6 months designing it (engine, stage, engine, stage, modification) you can stretch a single stage in 1 month. You don't save money - the stage still costs what it costs. But u save a whole lot of time. And time is as much a resource as money in this game.

    Reliability mechanic will be something like... +1 reliability per 5 successful concurrent flights and a failure drops you back one step.
     
    C8P6: ...the work goes on
  • Threadmarks
    • The schedule wasn't exactly dire, but it didn't give a lot of leeway for failure. Brad hadn't even considered how long it would take to work through the list he had in front of him if NASA had more than a handful of breakdowns.

    'At least it wasn't the Prometheus that had failed' he thought to himself darkly, though that was little respite from the problems with the Hope satellites. He couldn't even blame EPL. There was something wrong with the instruments they were launching and nobody could figure out exactly what it was. Someone had suggested that perhaps the radiation sensors were getting washed out - but if that was the case, what would it mean for the future of manned spaceflight? The machinery was functioning smoothly, but without that data.

    But at least there was something else he could focus on. Re-entry testing was beginning and although the suggestion was that it was intended to continue the development of the militaries understand of how to use its warheads, well… there were always applications. Brad was excited to see what NASA could learn about crewed flight from this. They'd settled on a spherical capsule shape in theory - but what if that wasn't the best design. What if they found better.

    It was time to start sketching some ideas for this first launch. And to work out exactly what the launch would look like.

    What will you fly?
    [ ] A large re-entry vehicle, using the full Prometheus.
    [ ] A sub-scale re-entry vehicle, using a Prometheus first stage.
    [ ] A set of variously shaped sub-scale vehicles, using a full Prometheus.

    What shape will it be?
    [ ] An arrow
    [ ] A sphere
    [ ] A broad cone
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [x] A set of variously shaped sub-scale vehicles, using a full Prometheus

    Testing, testing, testing. Multiple vehicles means we're not screwed if one just collapses, necessarily, and multiple re-entry approaches can be tried.

    [x] A broad cone
     
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