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

[PeZook]

Actually, the first human to walk in space was Fox Modem on Mercury XV. For a given value of "human".

[Akhlut]

Actually, the first human to walk in space was Fox Modem on Mercury XV. For a given value of "human".

Manshuk is probably not the most well-read fellow around.

[ChaserGrey]

Acting Director Grey stared at his desk. Outside in the hall, he could hear Sam drinking his way through another bottle of swamp still product, and he knew the rest of the Mercury program people couldn't be in much better shape. The astronauts...he didn't even want to think about. One week since the disaster and he already had Fox Modem's resignation, he was expecting more of them any minute. Who could blame them? Mercury was a suicide booth with a rocket attached, and there was nothing better on the horizon.

No.

He was not going to think that way. They still had a job to do. Hell, they had even more of a job to do now, because Bob was counting on them. Grey pulled a sheaf of orbital charts out of one of his file folders and studied it for a good ten minutes. Then he turned to his typewriter.

"There will be a meeting at the Astronaut Complex, roof level, for all astronauts and MASA staff. Attendance is mandatory."

****

Three days later, just as the sun sank beneath the horizon and day gave way to twilight, they assembled on the long, flat roof of the Astronaut Complex. Grey was in a suit, the astronauts in their full dress uniforms, the scientists in their long, starched white lab coats. Off to one side was a military detachment, four soldiers with rifles. Grey walked out in front of them and folded his hands in front of his stomach for a moment, looking down. Then he looked up and spoke.

"We all knew Bob Johnson. We all liked him. He was a good pilot, a good man, and a true Murcan patriot. We're all going to miss him. When he got into that Mercury capsule he knew he was taking a chance with his life, but he did it because he thought the chance to fly in space was worth it. I think he was right. I think that the chance to leave our home planet and explore new frontiers is worth risking life, even though we know sometimes those risks won't pay off.

"All of us looked at the same data on the Mercury capsule, and none of us found the retro-rocket problem in time to save Bob. I'm convinced that if there had been anything that could have warned us ahead of time you would have found it, because you are the best team anyone on Earth could ask for. I want you to remember one thing- the decision to launch Mercury Sixteen was mine. The responsibility is mine. The only thing humanly possible to prevent this tragedy would have been not to launch the mission."

Grey paused for a moment, then swept his eyes over the ranks before him. "There is only one thing left for we who have survived to accomplish. That is to make sure that Bob's death means something. To make sure that OhJesus' death means something. To give them the only kind of memorial they would have wanted from any of us- a rocket lifting off from right there-" Grey swept his arm out to point at Launch Complex A "- and planting the Stars and Stripes on the Moon. That's what they died for. That's what they wanted. And starting tomorrow, it's damn well what we're going to give them!"

Grey dropped his arm. When he spoke again his voice was very quiet.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, according to our radar tracking data Mercury Sixteen will be reentering Earth's atmosphere in approximately five minutes. We commit the body of Bob Johnson to the atmosphere of the planet that gave him life, and we commit ourselves to carrying on his work." Grey turned on his heel and watched the dimming horizon, as behind him a bugler sounded off the notes of the Navy Hymn. An unguessable amount of time later, his eyes spotted a flare of light like a bright star blooming against the night. As it began three rifle shots rang out against the twilight and the astronauts saluted. After it died away Grey kept his eyes on the sky as the bugler played the soft, slow notes of Taps. Then he turned.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Now let's get back to work. We have a job to do."
Spoiler

Hopefully not too over the top, but it seemed like the kind of sendoff Bob deserved.

[doom3607]

Crap, this has gone from comedy to tragedy...

[OmegaChief]

While some of the victory celebrations occuring at the cosmodrome were a little excessive, the Commissar had decided to be leniant this time, even if he wasn't too pleased with the idea. They had all been living in the shadow of the Muricans until now and it had been disasterous for morale, but now they were ahead again, just as he had said.

And to further boost morale, the revolutionary piss in a jar and throw it out the airlock technology was progressing steadily, for thier next flight the Cosmonauts should be able to test it on one of the next flights, all they had to do was safly pull ahead of the Muricans and put the Hammer and Sickle on the moon.

Or he'd shoot them all for failure. Not that he either really wanted to (Because that would mean the Muricans would have won) or was going to tell them.

[Simon_Jester]

Fate is a fucker, eh?

I must say I expected the Zenobians to fail far more than Murcans. Then again, the difference in the majority stages was slight (84% for Mercury vs. 81% for Voskhod), but the Zenobians did snatch the major reward.

OOC:
Da, fate is a fucker. Though in this case, the modified failure rate per stage would be closer than that, because I sent up a CAP 4 pilot, whereas Johnson was CAP 2... though this particular failure mode could not have been prevented, even by a CAP 4 pilot.

I mathed it out; a 3-4% difference in capsule reliability (or capsule+capsule skill) works out to about a 10% change in the chance of a failure-free mission for an orbital mission. It's even more extreme for lunar missions, too.

I have gazed many years ahead into the future, but alas, I am afraid no women will fly in space before 1970 at least.

!

---

The Chief Designer was only listening with one ear. He had a pile of paperwork on his desk: most of it related to various awards, both material ones and medals, that began to rain on the crew of the cosmodrome after the succesful Voskhod IV flight. But what worried him was the budget report on EVA suits: it wouldn't hurt right now, as the suits were pretty much as good as they were going to get, but there was this nagging thought that if costs could be understerminated once, they could most definitely be underestimated twice, and for some other program.

IC, some time later:

Baikonurek Cosmodrome
January 1965

"So, Dr. Vanko, congratulations on successful field use of the Mark One suit! But what's this about the increased budgeting needs?"

"Look at new concept sketch. You tell me."

Syrgy Pavylyvych smoothed out the crumpled piece of paper Vanko had unceremoniously stuffed in his pocket before coming to the celebration. "This looks... formidable."

"Da. Micrometeoroid-proof, auxiliary maneuvering jets, very comprehensive, very sophisticated."

"I'm impressed, but... is this why it's so expensive?"

Vanko nodded.

"I'm afraid we'll have to postpone development of this and concentrate on the existing suits' applications- this is good, this will be very useful if some of the space station plans pan out, but... too much to develop. Part of the post-lunar program. Too gold-plated for our current budget."

Now the EVA suit designer sighed. "I'll see what I can do."

---

Some time later, Comrade Cosmonaut Manshuk Mametov felt a hearty backslap!

"Manshuk, you were right. All we needed was a Boratistani to change our luck..." Syrgy Pavylyvych chuckled slightly and sipped a glass of... probably soda water, knowing his habits.

[Scottish Ninja]

I have gazed many years ahead into the future, but alas, I am afraid no women will fly in space before 1970 at least.

!

And if that's the case, we probably won't get any as all, as I think there aren't any female astronauts or cosmonauts past Group III, unless we can add them in. I don't know what the limits of PeZook's game hacking are, though.

[HMS Sophia]

Crap, this has gone from comedy to tragedy...

Again.

[doom3607]

Overall. The game may be cruelly forcing us into tragedy. Damn thee, game mechanics!

Of course, were this a different group of people the whole thing would be comedically sociopathic. And probably all done in a semi-von Evilstein fashion just to see who can rack up the biggest kill count. But SDN is not that crazy!

[Scottish Ninja]

I played a game against my friend the other day - he ragequit after I took a lot of the early prestige firsts, though he miraculously managed to pick up the Orbital Satellite in Fall 57; he'd tried to skip Vostok and Voskhod and go straight to Lapot, while I was going Mercury-Gemini-Jupiter.

I took over the Soviets a few turns after he gave up, and then as the US proceeded to lose first two Gemini attempts at Lunar Orbitals, then gave up and figured it would make my life easier if I just did a Lunar Orbital with Jupiter instead.

Cut to: repeated Jupiter catastrophic failures; as the Soviets I actually managed to beat myself to a successful Lunar Orbital, before putting men on the moon, getting them off again... and having the Jupiter explode during the Earth orbital insertion burn. I finally won in 1973 on top of 16 bodies - 4 in Gemini and a dozen in Jupiter.

We figured that if he had kept at it he would have had pretty good odds for beating me to the moon.

[ChaserGrey]

Yep, welcome to BARIS. "Fuuuuuucccccccc-"

[HMS Sophia]

Snip Eloquence

Sam stood as this new man spoke a beautifully worded eulogy for the dead astronaut. He waited at the best approximation of attention until the flare was seen in the sky, at which he gasped, no expecting the flash. He stood for a moment, as the glare faded, before walking over to the man.
"Acting Director? Sam Francisco. I'm afraid we've barely had time to meet up until this point. I'm sorry it had to be under such circumstances. I'm the head of research, and until now I was MASA's accountant as well... though I wasn't very good at it." he says, with a sheepish grin "I'm hoping I can hand that over to you? I think I need to get back into working on making things fly rather than worrying about money... Maybe If I had dropped it before, that man wouldn't have died"



Barnest1 stands at attention, thinking about the very short time Bob had been at MASA... as short a time as himself. He salutes the flash of a falling mercury capsule, before turning and walking away from the others. He didn't want to speak to anyone right now...

[ChaserGrey]

Grey shakes the man's hand, but shakes his head. "Don't think that way, Francisco. All of us have a maybe-if about this one, but it's no good thinking about it. We've just got to make sure this is all worth it." He smiles. "If you're a researcher, though, damn right you belong in the lab. I want you to crack the whip on the Ranger program so we can plan a launch in the Spring."
Spoiler

What planetary launch windows, if any, are open in the Future Missions screen for the upcoming season? Not planning anything definite, just want the information.

[Scottish Ninja]

I got an email back from Fritz Bronner, and he's still got copies of Liftoff! to sell. Anyone who wants a copy can email him at fbronner (at) earthlink dot net; they're $29 plus shipping and $2 for Paypal.

He is also impressed by my Gemini landing.

[FaxModem1]

Spoiler

Wait, are we being watched by makers of the game here?

Rex, fighting off his hangover from last night's mourning, finished saluting the flare. His brother was next to him, the man was in his dress uniform, but soon it would be a pressed suit. He felt disgust with the rest of his family. They were all either selling out or committing treason. Rex thought back to his younger brothers. He had received a letter in the mail. Their helicopter had been shot down, there were only three Modems left, and he was the only one who still had a chance of going into space. He looked at the flare again. And then there could only be two Modem brothers left.



Fox was tired of these funerals. His heart couldn't take it anymore. It was as if the way to the moon was built on the bodies of everyone he knew or was going to know. He couldn't wait for this part of his life to end. There was too much heartbreak in it.

[Scottish Ninja]

OOC: No, I just emailed him the picture. It would be cool if he saw this, though.

[Mayabird]

Spoiler

Bob would've liked that eulogy.

The flare of Johnson's reentering capsule could be seen from a great distance, and many people had gone outside that clear night to see it. One of these people was Johnny Olds. He was in his dress uniform, but had a spare pair of pants slung over his right shoulder and a cold bottle of beer in his right hand. Johnny watched and then held up the beer, a salute and toast.

"Here's to you, Bob," he said, towards the space burial of his former college roommate, fellow pilot, and best friend. Then he drained the whole bottle in one long chug. When he caught his breath again, he continued, "I'll be reapplying for the astronaut corps next go around." Johnny wasn't the best at speeches, so he simply kept looking at the stars for a long time that night, remembering good times.
Spoiler

I assume there'll be more recruitment later. Bob's never previously mentioned best friend Johnny Olds will be joining in the next group.

[ChaserGrey]

After the improvised memorial service for Johnson, Grey walked quietly back down to his office. Things seemed better now...but there was still a great deal of work to do to make sure the program went forward. He turned to the document he'd been working on and typed up the final changes.

MASA Master Operations Plan, Spring 1965

Starting Budget: 80 MB

Hardware Purchases: None

R&D:

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

Astronaut Office: No action. The Mercury program is over, but we'll keep flight crews assigned to maintain morale.

Flight Operations:

• IF both Ranger AND Titan are at or over 85% reliability after R&D, Ranger I is GO for launch as planned.
• IF Ranger OR Titan is not at least 85% reliable after 5 teams worth of R&D, A.D. GREY will be SERIOUSLY FUCKING PISSED and will probably GET a BASEBALL BAT and go DISCUSS PRIORITIES with RESEARCH TEAMS. After canceling the mission.
• Schedule two more lunar flybys for next season. Hardware purchases will be made then as necessary.

(signed)

Chase R Grey
Acting Director, MASA

[Akhlut]

Some time later, Comrade Cosmonaut Manshuk Mametov felt a hearty backslap!

"Manshuk, you were right. All we needed was a Boratistani to change our luck..." Syrgy Pavylyvych chuckled slightly and sipped a glass of... probably soda water, knowing his habits.

Manshuk guffawed and gave Syrgy an even heartier backslap in return.

"Comrade! We still couldn't have done it without you, all you needed was some good old fashioned Boratistan asskicking to make sure everything got done! You need anymore help, you find me and I'll get it done for you! Now, to a successful mission and to Commienism! Da!"

---

Manshuk watched as Johnson's capsule flew past in the sky.

"Da, I thought I saw you when I was up there, comrade. You may have been a Murcan degenerate, but you had a Boratistani's courage. Perhaps you show that not all Murcans are cowardly pigdogs who only fight Thanasians when we already beat the shit out of them, da?"

[Simon_Jester]

Plan Pavylyvych, Spring 1965

To all Cosmodrome personnel, congratulations on the glourious success of the Voskhod 1 mission!* All doubters throughout the world are once again silenced, by the proven superiority of Zenobian engineering compared to that of the Murcans. By all evidence the Murcans have yet to even begin the job of placing a multi-man crew into orbit, whereas we have already done so and will do so again as our program proceeds toward the future of a Red Moon!

This year, we will continue to refine the Voskhod design which has already made such immense progress. In particular, all technical personnel are advised to apply the utmost care and diligence to the matter of the Voskhod computer cooling mechanisms! If we're going to do a manned lunar flyby in this capsule, as some of the capsule's more ambitious advocates support, I want the modified version to be vacuum-safe!**

In addition, we are also planning to begin a program of planetary exploration this year, sending advanced orbital and flyby probes to other celestial bodies. The Unmanned Exploration Division and heavy-lift rocket teams are to be commended on the work that has made this thinkable, possible, and which will no doubt make it successful in the coming months.

*Author's note: This is adopting Russian nomenclature, in which unmanned/failed launches are typically not counted
**Author's note: Again, I can't help but picture any really serious 'Voskhod' that we'd use for something like a Duration D/E flight or a lunar flyby as being, well, call it "advanced Voskhod." Something that incorporates more progressive design features than the historical Voskhod capsule and is thus a closer match for Gemini in capability, rather than just being a glorified Vostok with inflatable appendages bolted on.

---

Budget: 95 megarubleoids

Hardware Procurement
Purchase 2 A-Series rockets, 2 Booster stages, and 2 Voskhod capsules, for launch this season

Remaining budget: 69 MB

Research and Development
20 MB for 5 teams on Proton Rocket
12 MB for 4 teams on Cosmos Probe

Remaining Budget: 37 MB
[Reserved for Fall 1965 season]

Upcoming Launches
We are GO for the unmanned suborbital Voskhod shots, barring any bizarre reliability- reducing effects.

Future Launches
Schedule a lunar flyby for Fall 1965.
Schedule a planetary flyby for Fall 1965: in descending order of preference, target will be Mars, Venus, or Mercury, depending on launch window availability.

[Simon_Jester]

On a more general note, I don't know how launch windows work in BARIS. All I know is that you can't launch all conceivable planetary flybys at all times- how do I work out the schedule in advance?

[PeZook]

I'll look into launch windows tomorrow and let you know.

[fnord]

OOC - Maybe a Duration B or C docking mission flown by "Loudenov" Digaditch and "Notloudenov" Borisovich?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC - Maybe a Duration B or C docking mission flown by "Loudenov" Digaditch and "Notloudenov" Borisovich?

It's a very good idea- but for now, reliability rates make me nervous and I'm a long way from scheduling lunar missions for which Duration milestones are critical. Or, for that matter, docking missions at useful reliability.

Then again, I need more prestige to upgrade to a three launch per season infrastructure to rapidly improve reliability... aaaaargh!

EDIT: So I'm pretty reluctant to fly more Voskhod missions without first doing a bunch of unmanned docking flights, which improve reliability of the (four!) systems I really need to worry about. Voskhod 1 was a calculated risk, balancing the need for more prestige and milestone accomplishments against the high risk of something going wrong and inflicting a catastrophic setback. I'm honestly not sure when the calculations for that risk will line up again.

[PeZook]

I checked, and launch windows work very simply: in the future missions window, you get the planets your can launch towards next season.

Right now, launch windows for the fall are for Venus and Mercury.