Let's play: Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space

[ChaserGrey]

E_F, what exactly needs doing for the next Murcan turn? I've lost track in all these pages. Let me know what needs to be done (if anything) and I'll make sure it happens.

[doom3607]

Crap that sounds awful. At least I've never been subjected to anything that bad for more than a few hours at a time... How do you not go insane?

[Eternal_Freedom]

@doomie: I package up my insanity into timeshare parcels and market them to depressed 14 year olds who want some escapism for a day or two

@chaser: We need to continue with Titan and Ranger R&D. Do the EVA flight, do an endurance flight and then end Mercury. Start the lunar recon flights with Titan and Ranger. When funds are avilable, begin XMS-2 R&D, as well as Saturn V if I'm not back by then.

I know that can't all happen this turn but thats the overall objectives. I'll be out of touch for a week so you may well progress a long way before I return.

[doom3607]

If I did that, I'd be richer than Bill Gates and would have every drug dealer in the USA and Canada trying to murder me.

[Simon_Jester]

Crap that sounds awful. At least I've never been subjected to anything that bad for more than a few hours at a time... How do you not go insane?

Doesn't sound too bad to me, though I suppose it depends on one's parents.

[FaxModem1]

Spoiler

Anyone notice how the Cape's leadership seems to be leaving the ship like rats from a sinking ship? PeZook should make something out of that.

[Simon_Jester]

There's plenty of deputies. Wernher von Shapp, Mr. Grey..

[ChaserGrey]

Mr. Grey sat down at his desk and cradled his head in his hands. The paint was still drying on the new legend on his door- "Chase R. Grey, Acting Director"- and he already wanted out of this job. Bad. Running computer sims over in the Mission Analysis building was one thing, running the country's space program was another.

No help for it. He snapped on his voice recorder and began to dictate. "Begin Operations Plan, 1964..."

Spring

Starting Budget- 93 MB

Hardware Purchasing

• 2 Mercury Capsules @ 3 MB = 6 MB
• 2 Atlas Rockets @ 3 MB = 6 MB
• Initiate Ranger program for 24 MB

Budget Remaining: 57 MB

R&D

• 5 Teams on Titan- 20 MB
• 5 Teams on Ranger- 15 MB

Budget Remaining: 22 MB

Astronaut Office:

• Transfer Rexmodem, Johnson, and Conrad to Mercury Program.
• All other astronauts maintain current assignments

Flight Operations:

• Scheduled Mercury EVA mission is GO to launch as planned.
• Cancel scheduled orbital satellite launches for this season. Priorities must be set.
• Schedule a Mercury Duration B EVA Flight for Fall 1964. Prime crew Conrad, backup Johnson.

(Note: As I understand it you can now assign crews a mission immediately after placing them in a program. If this is not the case, then wait until the fall, then schedule the Duration flight to take place in Spring 1965)

Fall

Hardware Purchases: None

R&D:

• 4 Teams on Titan- 16 MB
• 1 team on Ranger- 4 MB

Budget Remaining: 2 MB

(Note: this is based on the program and R&D costs on my copy of BARIS- I think I downloaded the same version as this LP, but I'm not sure. If I used some bad numbers and come up short, ax one Titan team first, then Ranger. I hope I'm not off by more than 9 MB.)

Flight Operations:

• If Mercury Duration B EVA Flight was successfully scheduled last season AND there have been no catastrophic downgrades for Mercury, Atlas, or EVA suits, launch the mission as planned.
• If the flight was NOT successfully scheduled last season due to crew availability problems AND there have been no catastrophic downgrades as above, schedule the flight with Conrad/Johnson as crew.
• If there has been a major downgrade in any of the flight components, then bugger all this for a game of soldiers and I'll come up with a new plan.

(signed)

CHASE R. GREY
Acting Director, MASA.

EDIT: *OOC: E_F, as long as I'm running things you can consider the Explorer program terminated, so it's one less screenshot for you to take.

[ChaserGrey]

As soon as his plan hit the ditto machines and began distribution throughout the center, Grey leaned back in his chair, stared at the ceiling and counted. "Five...four...three...two..."

Just as he reached "zero" there was a knock on his door. A large group of astronauts was on the other side, large enough that their lubed-up chests gleamed like harsh lunar soil in the sunlight. They did not look happy. Grey sighed.

"Come on in, fellows." He let them sit, then held up a hand for silence. "I think I know why you're here. I realize that sitting around the Astronaut Center isn't what you all had in mind when you signed up for the space program, but we're in a rough place right now. We've got to get a bigger rocket flying and probes flying to the Moon, and that just doesn't leave a whole lot of room in the budget for anything else. Right now we're planning two, maybe three more Mercury flights. We have the upcoming EVA mission, a duration mission for late this year or early next, and possibly another EVA test mission if all goes well. I've already ordered some astronauts to the Mercury program to fill out those missions. Other than that- well, we're going to try to start the XMS-2 program next budget cycle, but I just don't have anything concrete yet.

"If anyone wants to request a transfer to Mercury for flight crew training, send it in to me and I will honor it if possible. But realize that if you do, the chances are still that you won't get to fly before the program wraps up.

"I'm sorry, fellows. I really am. But our first priority has got to be beating those darn Zenobians, and I have to do what's best for the program."

[Mayabird]

To Bob Johnson, it was a good thing that most of the rest of the second astronaut class was at Mr. Grey's office, for two reasons:

1) For a short while, he would not have to explain - again - why he was not interested in lubing his chest up before exercises and yes an old T-shirt or regulation undergarments was perfectly fine and no please no don't lube his chest for him, and

2) They did not see his response to the news.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

He ran a five mile lap around the base while cheering and screaming at the top of his lungs. About the time he returned, he realized that all the running and hollering had made him a bit thirsty, and he was in the mood to celebrate too. Conveniently, he ran into Rex Modem before his throat had gone completely hoarse.

"Rex! You know that beer you owe me? We're going to town to whatever your favorite bar is! Get me the beer there! I'll cover other drinks and...things. You find a car. I'll find Conrad." And then Bob ran off again before Rex could say yay or nay.

[ChaserGrey]

Oh, what the hell. It's only one percentage point, and always favor PCs over NPCs.

If you have not already done the Murcan turn: switch prime and backup crews for the duration mission. Bob Johnson prime crew, Conrad backup.

[Dave]

Conrad ducked out of the way as Johnson flew into the frame just after the photographer took the picture. "-ing hell, Bob, what in tarnation are you trying to tackle me for?"

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!!"

"I don't think you need any more, Bob, I-... No, I haven't seen the latest memos, I've been stuck in this fruitsuit taking pictures for the last... Huh? I'm doing WHAT next flight? EVA? Whadda they want me to do, dance a jig on the Zenobians from space?"

They had almost finished walking to his office, where the telex had started clattering. Dave ripped it off as soon as the END MESSAGE bell chimed.

"NPC? What does Naval Personnel want with me now? I could have sworn I- Oh. Tell you what, Johnson, why don't you dance the jig and I'll do karoke on the next flight, huh?"

He passed the sheet to Bob. "And what was this about beer?"

[FaxModem1]

Rex Modem drove his newly acquired truck on his astronaut pay and drove Conrad and Johnson into town to a bar called the Explosive Hatch.

"Apparently, they renamed it once the Cape moved in and MASA got started."

Once they wandered in, Rex signaled the bartender, and three beers appeared in front of three empty bar stools. A band was playing in the corner and it was a groovy night.

[Scottish Ninja]

Baikonurek

"Comrade Chief Designer? Ah, there you are. I've got back some proposals from the Planning Offices; they want you to have a look at them.

We must eventually make a decision about the type of landing to be conducted, in order to determine the necessary rocketry. These various proposals outline the requirements of each:

First is the Joint Earth Orbit Rendezvous/Lunar Orbit Rendezvous plan. This requires the following equipment: the lunar lander and a docking module on one launch, and the proposed minishuttle and B-type kicker to propel the combined spacecraft to lunar orbit. Both launches would require no more than the boosted Proton currently in development. The proposed N1 rocket could be used instead, avoiding the additional safety risk of the boosters, but with significant additional cost, especially as the Proton rocket is already under development.

The Planning Office estimates a cost of 84 megarubloids to develop initial prototypes of the N1 and an additional cost of 70-105 megarubloids for further development, assuming well-developed R-7 and Proton programs. The total program cost would be roughly 155-190 megarubloids; this would take either 2 or 3 seasons to complete at maximum rate. Unit cost beyond would be... 18 megarubloids, which would mean a total cost of almost 210 megarubloids for joint launches of such a rocket.

Similarly, the Joint Lunar Orbit Rendezvous/LOR requires the same type of rocketry and allows us to use lighter A-type kickers for the independent trans-lunar injections, which would cost half as much to develop but poses risks for the crews with docking maneuvers far from Earth. However such docking maneuvers would be necessary anyway for the return from the lunar surface, which may be advantageous in the slight cost savings.

Last is the Single-Launch LOR mission type. Some joker here has marked this as "historical". There may be a joke I have missed. We have two options for rocketry here. This requires all of the payload of the JT EOR/LOR to be launched on a single rocket, of which we have two choices. First is the N1 as outlined above; however in this case it would require a Booster stage, somewhat reducing the maximum safety factor. This may be an issue as our engineers believe that the N1 cannot be developed past 93% reliability, and we may have limited opportunity for test launches. We can only hope that we have ironed the kinks out of our boosters by the time the N1 is necessary.

The second option, if we wish to avoid the use of boosters, is the ultra-heavy rocket, codenamed "Vulkon". This would cost 150 megarubloids to prototype and an estimated 4 seasons to complete development, for an additional cost of 160 megarubloids. Additional units would cost 30 megarubloids each - an expensive and massive beast! The engineers say that it can be rendered 94% reliable before launch. This option, though almost preposterously costly, is rumored to be favored by Premier Shroomanski himself, for it would show the titanic might of Zenobian rocketry to the world, and laugh in the face of the silly toys the Murcans have been playing with. Great leaders often can be counted on to like big things, after all, and the Vulkon would have length and girth like no other.

In addition, there is some interest from the Stratigic Racquet Farces in such a missile; it would apparently be capable of carrying a payload of over 188,000 kilograms to LEO. Weaponized, the Vulkon could carry up to half a dozen AN602 thermonuclear devices as MIRVs. They do not appear to have heard of the term "overkill".

There also has been some interest in the Vulkon as a launch vehicle in the post-lunar environment; the aforementioned lift capacity would also prove immensely useful for the construction of an orbital space station, for development of a lunar base after the initial landings, and also for manned interplanetary voyages. Nobody with such incredible lift capacity could be enough of a fool to give it up!

In any case, we ought to make a decision relatively soon about our preferred path, as we will need time to get the N1 or Vulkon going if we choose such a route."

[Mayabird]

Dave Conrad, Rex Modem, and Bob Johnson were having a great time at the Explosive Hatch. There were rounds of drinks, singing, increasingly exaggerated tales of their exploits, toasts to Murca and beating Zenobia, boasting, and then more rounds of increasingly strong alcohol with flirting mixed in. Bob had one arm around a busty blonde, another arm around an equally busty redhead, and a third around a brunette...wait a sec. Something seems off. How many drinks have I had?
Spoiler

Fax, Dave, you two have any plans for the celebration party? If not, I had a little coda for Bob before they get back to whatever they're supposed to be doing.

[ChaserGrey]

Comrade Syeriy looks at the Strategic Racquet Forces proposal and thumps his head on his desk.

"Bozhemoi. Is not enough that Zenobian Onion has air to air missiles and air to ground missiles. Now Racquet Forces want air-to-country missiles!"

He takes another pull from his hip flask and begins composing a memo detailing the disadvantages of the proposed super-heavy booster in the military role, unless for some reason the glorious Onion wishes to put its entire nuclear arsenal on one really big missile.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Yes, I've been over this...

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 2#p3519292

I'm pretty sure we're going to go for the N-1 and the historical launch. There's a significant extra burden of complexity involved in doing it any other way. My second highest choice would be joint EOR.

I'd appreciate Comrade Syeriy's input on this, mind.

We are not going for Vulkan, it's just ludicrously expensive.

[ChaserGrey]

I think your instincts are right. Joint missions slow the program down a fair bit, since you can only do one per season, and Nova/Vulkan is just not worth it unless you're going to go whole-hog and do direct ascent. A joint mission with boosted Proton/Titan isn't my first choice, but I've found it to be an acceptable backup plan if the money just isn't there for a bigger booster.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah, I'm beginning to worry about our budget. The failure to get into orbit cost us pretty heavily.

[ChaserGrey]

I agree that the Glorious Zenobian Onion has some making up to do. From what I've seen of BARIS, though, I think you still have a very decent shot, particularly if things go well with Voskhod. The Murcans aren't going to be able to even start the XMS-2 until next year's budget cycle, and possibly not then depending on how the numbers add up.

[Scottish Ninja]

"Ah, yes", said Unnamed Zenobian Engineerski*, "We did search the files, but couldn't find a concrete proposal for how we would get the planned minishuttle to the Moon. It may have been filed a little too well. We'll take note and plan accordingly."

* called "Ooze" by his friends.

Semi - OOC: Indeed, I think my recommendation at this point would be to go for the N1-historical. Since we need 3 LM points for maximum reliability there, we need to do two tests with it - one in Earth orbit, one in Lunar orbit. (We can also do three tests in Earth orbit - each Earth orbit test gets us 1 point, each Lunar test gets us 2). We'd have to do those with joint missions with Proton, so N1 can save us a bit of money and a lot of time there.

The other question is, how are we going to do our Lunar flyby and orbital? We can fly those with Voskhod and Kicker-A on an unboosted Proton, Voskhod and Kicker-B on a boosted Proton, or Lapot with either Kicker-A or B on a boosted Proton. Voskhod has the advantage that we might be able to pick those milestones off a little earlier, but Lapot would be a little cheaper. Given that we're already committed to Voskhod, I would probably suggest a Voskhod lunar flyby after we get our Cosmos flyby in. We'll face a -4 penalty for not having done the unmanned landing but that's a surmountable problem in my eyes. I've certainly had a decent number of successes without it, and it costs about as much as a 3-man capsule to develop.

Which brings up another question - Kicker choice. Actually, this one's already answered if we're doing Historical as our primary plan and EOR as backup - we need Kicker-B for both. We'll have to use the boosters more but we are going to have to in order to get their reliability up anyway.

The Murcans aren't doing Gemini so I think we can beat them to the manned Lunar flyby and orbital, unless something goes badly wrong for us. (Not out of the question, given our record...)
Spoiler

Note 1. Yes, I know the Vulkan is preposterous, though Direct Ascent almost isn't a bad option at this stage if we hadn't already agreed on minishuttles. Since there aren't really any good points in its favor for this, though, I had to invent some out of game ones. I think at least the Vulkan ICBM idea was wacky enough to make it clear I wasn't serious (historical fun fact, OTOH - Proton was originally planned as a unitary ICBM for a Tsar Bomba-type weapon. That got dropped pretty soon as being pretty much useless, but I can see that actually happening in this world. )

Note 2. There are reasons for the "Stratigic Racquet Farces", which the two of you may have missed.

[Simon_Jester]

I really don't know, guys. I'll give this more thought in the near future- got some stressor issues, car trouble and a tooth to be pulled this week.

But talk it over, anyone with BARIS experience is invited to kibitz. My natural preference is to avoid Voskhod for lunar missions simply because of the difficulty of getting an acceptable reliability rate, but if we fly a few successful unmanned docking missions (which also improve booster rating since we're using boosted A-Series to fly those), we'll get things up to some kind of speed.

But I'm really really not sure.

[Dave]

Spoiler

I didn't have much in mind, I just wanted rub the "I'm-not-an-NPC" thing in Chaser Grey's face.

Conrad laughed as Johnson failed to juggling his beer and women properly and managed to pour one into the other.

Wait, what? Oh, right, the world looks funnier when you look at it through the beer mug.

I'm going to have to slow down. He thought. Didn't Bob say he wanted to go to another party?

[ChaserGrey]

Whoops. My apologies- I thought you were an NPC since "Conrad" is one of the default names on the roster. Sorry 'bout that.

[Dave]

Whoops. My apologies- I thought you were an NPC since "Conrad" is one of the default names on the roster. Sorry 'bout that.

No problem. I picked Dave Conrad because I wanted an unassuming name anyway. And the RL character gives me something to work with.