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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
    • [X] Astrocaphe Proposal 2 - Launching on Artemis Booster

    What will the monkey be named?
    [X] Clyde
    It just popped into my head when I was wondering what to name a monkey, and seems like a vaguely amusing choice for reasons that probably have more to do with sleep deprivation than anything else.

    [X] Long duration flight
    I could be won to short duration, but we are far enough behind that I can't justify suborbital.


    Update on the reusable first stage project. Brace for some serious mad science.

    Turns out, all else being equal, rogallo wings are much more expensive than a lifting body configuration, equally mass efficient and lack their bonuses. Also, IRL trying to deploy them from a space capsule never really worked right, so I could see development being tough. Not that lifting bodies always worked perfectly either. So, then, maybe I ought to go lifting body. As a reminder, I don't want to just use parachutes because the thing needs to be able to land in a way that won't expose the engines to saltwater, and for actual cheap and rapid reuse, landing on a runway under control would be ideal even if I can do without if necessary.

    This is a bit early for lifting bodies, though. In our timeline, this would still be before all the really exciting NASA gliders. Also, many lifting bodies have shapes that don't necessarily lend themselves to the first stage of a conventionally arranged multistage rocket. I was first thinking something like the shape of the MTKVA, which looks relatively plausible for something you could put a rocket stage on top of.


    However, that certainly looks like the kind of vehicle that wants to fly at scary fast speeds or not at all (bizarre vertical landing scheme aside) and that's still aerodynamics from about 15 years out. On the other hand, a first stage doesn't need to glide and maneuver at hypersonic speeds, and empty tanks seem like they should be lighter than a shuttle analog, so the requirements for a first stage are different and maybe easier. So of course I did a little digging.

    Well, it turns out there was a mid fifties lifting body aircraft with a shape well suited to a rocket stage, surprisingly adequate flight characteristics and a better glide ratio than the NASA lifting bodies.

    Roy Clough's "Martian Spaceship".

    This was a 1954 free-flight model aircraft design that looked a bit like a blimp cosplaying as a 30s science fiction rocket. It was pretty much just an a blimp-like shape with an airfoil cross section wrapped in a series of stall fences with some stabilizers on the back and a propeller on the front. In the 80s, someone adapted it for RC flight, and there are a number of versions various people have built that you can see on the internet if you dig long enough. They fly pretty well despite some roll instability, even if some of the modern implementations are seemingly fitted with engines powerful enough to make a shoebox fly. The original did just fine with a little glow plug engine from the 40s.



    This thing obviously won't work directly. All the aesthetic stuff it had for no good reason would have to be ditched, a lower mass and drag and less silly stabilizer scheme would have to be devised, and with heavy rocket engines, getting the CoM right could be tricky. However, re-entry performance wouldn't matter too much because this would only be suborbital, so that's not an issue and the stall fences are probably fine too. If the CoM problem proved otherwise intractable, the whole thing could even be flipped upside down: put the engines in the "nose" for improved CoM and have the stabilizers be kept folded until needed, perhaps tucked away in the interstage or just along the rocket body below it. On the way up, that even gives you a bit of a nice self-stabilizing cone shape. And yes, I recognize that this thing can only fly at all because it is super light for it's size and almost completely empty, but so is a spent rocket stage.

    Unfortunately, I have no way to tell if this is so crazy it just might work, or merely ordinary levels of crazy.
    brmj threw 2 10-faced dice. Total: 12
    7 7 5 5
     
    I'll think on the vote and roll a set.
    Shadows threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: ??? Total: 12
    3 3 9 9
     
    What's the difference between Artemis Light and Artemis? Is one of them the pre-expansion version or something?

    I think I'm against the Boosted option because it cost so much more for not much gain. For now I think I'll go

    [X] Astrocaphe Proposal 5 - Launching on Artemis
    [X] Short duration flight

    I have no opinion on the Monkey.
    notgreat threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: 2d10 Total: 8
    5 5 3 3
     
    [X] Charles
    [X] Short duration flight

    Uncertain on which capsule, though I prefer the come just for future design knowledge...

    Edit: And OUCH! Someone had a bad war...
    Pyro Hawk threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: Final Dice Rolls Total: 3
    1 1 2 2
     
    [X] Astrocaphe Proposal 2 - Launching on Artemis Booster
    [X] Spanky
    [X] Long duration flight

    We should get as much value out of each launch as we can. And yes, that means including naming the monkey Spanky. :V
     
    For the reusable launcher proposal, I am increasingly forced to conclude that trying to reuse everything even on the first stage is a bad plan, at least at this stage, and the better approach is to separate stages into a reusable package of expensive engines and avionics and such, and a cheap disposable tank. Using a 100% reusable first stage does really nasty things to the rocket's size which I would like to avoid. Even doing any re-usability at all means this is going to be bigger than it normally ought to be, but if the re-use actually works without huge amounts of refurbishment it ought to pay for itself after just two or three launches.

    I am considering adding a small, probably expendable third stage, both to let me get by with a smaller rocket and to allow the second stage's reusable component to make do with a suborbital heat shield and save a lot of cost and mass. Maybe even just a little solid rocket engine, though something restartable might be neat since it could do double duty putting payloads into geosynchronous orbit and such.
     
    brmj said:
    I am considering adding a small, probably expendable third stage, both to let me get by with a smaller rocket and to allow the second stage's reusable component to make do with a suborbital heat shield and save a lot of cost and mass. Maybe even just a little solid rocket engine, though something restartable might be neat since it could do double duty putting payloads into geosynchronous orbit and such.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Perhaps some sort of pressure-fed Hydrazine monopropellant rocket? Or a cheap Kerosene/HTP bipropellant rocket.
     
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    C10P4: Goddess on the Pad
  • Threadmarks
    • War-Progress - Stalemate.
    Additional Europan troops have been reported as deploying into Southern Cathay in March, as progress continues to be slow. Both Syndicalist and Ultranational local forces have struck positions across the Southern Coast, destabilising local authority and threatening Europan presence without ever engaging in open battle.
    While Europan strategic missile forces have not yet materialised in theater, several rocket and missile attacks have been launched by opposing forces, suggesting extra-national support for Cathayan rebel forces.
    Caspia has not involved itself in this war, but it has made murmurs about 'Europan Overreach' and 'Spheres' on influence'. There are concerns that should this war continue, there would be great powers arrayed on both sides.

    In New Alleghany, Charles the Chimp is presented to the media, announced as the first Alleghanian who will go into space. Meanwhile, his capsule is in full production as the Astroscathe is selected and ECRS begins the final work of actually constructing the prototype that Charles will fly in in earnest. The original Artemis flight date of May slips to June and then further still to July, but the date is still within the bounds of what was expected.

    Sadly, not everything was easy sailing. The NA Army was now demanding a chance to fly on an Artemis for their first 'Crown' satellite and the much larger mass that it would provide. While it would be another test flight, the Artemis was expensive, currently rare and it might delay both that launch and others in waiting for rockets to be completed.

    At least the first one was being rolled out to the pad and prepared for launch…

    Artemis-Bioscience Phase 1

    Pre-flight - 2d10+1
    Ignition - 2d10+1
    Lift-off - 2d10+4
    Max-Q - 2d10+4
    Staging Event - 2d10+1


    Please roll the above rolls.

    What does the Army get to fly?
    [ ] Prometheus, limiting their ambitions
    [ ] Artemis, limiting your choices
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Army has been nice to us so far, we should be nice back. If it wrre the Air Force asking it'd be a very different story.

    [X] Artemis, limiting your choices
     
    [X] Artemis, limiting your choices

    Edit: ... Oh my god. So Uh, it looks like our guys are really happy they aren't dealing with the toxicity and corrosion of the Prometheus anymore. But that just means they have more time to check on everything else in great detail... XD
    Pyro Hawk threw 2 10-faced dice. Reason: Preflight Total: 20
    10 10 10 10
     
    Last edited:
    Pyro Hawk said:
    [X] Artemis, limiting your choices

    Edit: ... Oh my god. So Uh, it looks like our guys are really happy they aren't dealing with the toxicity and corrosion of the Prometheus anymore. But that just means they have more time to check on everything else in great detail... XD
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We use the same primary fuel :p
     
    [X] Artemis, limiting your choices

    My god, that double ten roll is beautiful.
     
    Okay, so Pre-flight was perfect, ignition was good but Lift-off was just the worst. Can some one roll for Max-Q and Stageing so we learn how bad it was?

    Poor Charles...
     
    Oh... oh dear...
    Any arguments against giving the army an artemis? If no I can close this vote and we can deal with.... that
     
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