...to watch the space station and Atlantis cross my night sky. It was not visually spectacular, but it was still cool knowing what it was that I was seeing.
So be forewarned - there will be a Gran Colombian space program...eventually.
I have a detailed plan for what the Maori will do. Granted I developed it in another context, but still. ^_^
I haven't thought that far ahead...unless one wants to look at my purchase of French Guyana as being a case of severe hindsight.
GC has enough real estate close enough to the equator that it would not matter.
Perhaps La Paz will have an eternal future after all... ;D
QuoteGC has enough real estate close enough to the equator that it would not matter.
Yup - but Kourou has the advantage of launching over the Atlantic, where none of my factories are located.
QuotePerhaps La Paz will have an eternal future after all...
Maybe you and I can have a space race in a few decades...
OTL Venezuela/Guyana have clean Eastward access to the Atlantic.
Quote from: The Rock Doctor on February 11, 2008, 06:49:50 PMMaybe you and I can have a space race in a few decades...
I think it's a foregone conclusion, as GC and the CSA seem to race in a competitive yet semi-cordial manner on virtually all things.
Aha! There it is...
QuoteMaori Royal Aerospace Directorate
PLAN FORM A, ENTRY 1 (12 July 1960)
Items required for Lunar landing, in intended order
- Maximum speed at maximum altitude aircraft study (reference RED)
- Solicit designs for ORANGE
- Orbital vehicle plan-form and reentry studies (reference YELLOW)
- Spacesuit design and ground testing - Hard atmospheric, soft atmospheric, mechanical
- ORANGE design selection
- Solicit designs for GREEN (reference RED results)
- ORANGE delivery
- Design expendable rocket for orbital studies off of ORANGE mothership
- GREEN design selection
- Second orbital vehicle design test series (reference BLUE); unmanned suborbital launches (BLUE I)
- Solicit designs for INDIGO
- GREEN delivery
- Manned suborbital launch series (BLUE II)
- Unmanned orbital launch series (BLUE III)
- INDIGO design selection
- Solicit designs for VIOLET and SPECTRUM (reference VIOLET, reference SPECTRUM)
- Manned orbital launch series (BLUE IV)
- INDIGO delivery
- SPECTRUM design selection
- VIOLET design selection
- SPECTRUM delivery and launch
- SPECTRUM assembly
- Unmanned lunar flyby
- VIOLET delivery and launch
- Unmanned lunar landing
- VIOLET assembly
- VIOLET manned lunar flyby
- VIOLET manned lunar landing
Out of character soundbytes, so people won't be left wondering.
RED - an X-15 clone/parallel
ORANGE - 'We need three hundred tons to sixty thousand feet. We want five hundred tons to a hundred thousand feet.'
YELLOW - lifting body research a la the X-24
GREEN - a hypertrophic Blackbird on steroids
BLUE - your basic itty-bitty space capsule - heat shield, radio, and a cavity big enough to fit a man who wasn't moving much
INDIGO - reusable lifting-body spaceplane about two-thirds the size of the Shuttle orbiter
VIOLET - a pure spacecraft with no provision for reentry; assembled in orbit rather than boosted up whole; initial concept would land on the moon in its own right.
SPECTRUM - a space station
QuoteORANGE I
Manufacturer: Royal Aerospace Directorate
First Flight: October 8, 1963
Crew: 12
Length: 61 m
Wingspan: 166 m
Height: 20 m
Empty: 900,000 kg
Loaded: 1,600,000 kg
Max Takeoff: 1,700,000 kg
Payload to service ceiling: 480,000 kg
Powerplant: 16x RAD-Armory R-208K turbofans in twin pylon mounts, 68kN each
Max Speed: 800 kmh
Cruise Speed: 600 kmh
Max Range: 3,000 km
Service Ceiling: 26,000 m
The IBAD's Orange series of heavy-lift aircraft were and remain the most massive aircraft ever flown, with the modern Orange III averaging takeoff weights of more than two thousand metric tons. When they were first introduced to the world, no one had ever seen - and only a few had even dreamed - that a plane like that could exist. With nearly nine-tenths of the plane's internal volume held within the broad, gently swept wing, and the control surfaces mounted on twin trailing booms, the cockpit and fuselage seemed almost afterthoughts, as did the tall and unprecedentedly intricate landing gear. These oddities quickly vanished, however, as soon as even the faintest sense of the aircraft's scale began to penetrate - the wheels that seemed so tiny in comparison stood taller than a tall man, and its tail surfaces rose higher than many buildings.
Trivia
- The Orange's four landing gear assemblies carry a total of sixty-four wheels between them. The design was chosen as a direct response to the problems experienced by the American Convair B-36.
- The Orange's carrying capacity has been taken advantage of in numerous publicity stunts, including airlifting a pair of live humpback whales and accompanying seawater from their previous home at the San Francisco Bay Aquarium to a new facility in Toronto.
- Despite its size, the aircraft's flight characteristics are said to be extremely forgiving.
- For the first seven years of its service life, every Orange flight took off and landed on a single runway with a prepared surface only three meters wider than its wheelbase.
- In 1978, a lightened Orange II carrying external fuel tanks in place of payload became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe in a single, unrefuelled flight.
- Despite considerable early fears about its potential as a bomber, no Orange has ever flown a deliberate combat mission or delivered an entirely military cargo.
- In 1973, a Brandenburgian Liberation Force Mirage IIIC intercepted ORANGE I Hull No. 104 Maiden of Whanganui while it was returning from an orbital launch operation. Four of five missiles launched by the fighter hit, with the last misfiring due to poor maintenence, and both cannon ran out of ammunition before the attacker was driven away by scrambled Maori interceptors. Maiden of Whanganui landed safely on five remaining engines, was fully repaired, and continues in service to this day.
QuoteGREEN I
Manufacturer: RAD
First Flight: January 20, 1965
Crew: 4
Length: 65.0 m
Wingspan: 33.8 m
Height: 10.2 m
Empty: 80,000 kg
Loaded: 475,000 kg
Max Takeoff: 460,000 kg
Payload to service ceiling: 150,000 kg
Powerplant: 4x RAD-Armory T-860G afterburning turbojets in wing roots (122kN each dry, 200kN each wet), 4x RAD-Armory Type 3 ramjets, outboard ventral (347kN each)
Max Speed: 3,400 kmh
Cruise Speed: 900 kmh
Max Range: 3,600 km
Service Ceiling: 42,000 m
The Maori's Green series is a large aircraft whose slender fuselage and thin 'double delta' wing are visually dominated by its angular outboard engine pods. The wing root starts roughly a third of the way back from the nose and spreads at a 50 degree sweep until reaching the engine nacelles, after which the sweep increases to 75 degrees for the rest of the wing's length. To increase the amount of room available for payloads, the nacelles are tilted thirty degrees off of the vertical. (OOC: something like this: --//--o--\\--) Airflow to the engines is handled by movable shields which slide over the intakes at higher speeds.
Trivia:
- The decreased efficiency shown by the Green's main engines at sea level prevent it from generating enough thrust to become airborne while fully loaded.
- A Green II holds the standing record for highest altitude ever achieved by an air-breathing aircraft - 100,400 m. A Green IV holds the record for highest altitude achieved in controlled flight - 63,600 m.
- Even the last and most fuel-efficient model of the type, the Green V, did not carry sufficient fuel for more than half an hour at full power. Roughly three out of four Green flights require mid-air refueling to make it to their scheduled landing sites at all; none of the remainder land with more than one or two percent of their original fuel load.
BLUE I
Manufacturer: RAD
First Flight: April 13, 1964
Crew: 1
Height: 2.7 m
Diameter: 1.2 m
Empty Mass: 725 kg
Loaded Mass (including pilot): 810 kg
Acceleration: 3 m/s^2
Endurance: 90 minutes
Delta-V: 70 m/s
BLUE II
Manufacturer: RAD
First Flight: February 18, 1965
Crew: 1
Height: 5.2 m
Diameter: 1.2 m
Empty Mass: 1,207 kg
Loaded Mass (including pilot): 1,300 kg
Acceleration: 2 m/s^2
Endurance: 12 hours
Delta-V: 178 m/s
PERIHELION
Manufacturer: RAD-Armory
First Flight: April 1, 1964
Height: 13.5 m
Diameter: 1.2 m
Empty Mass: 1,500 kg
Loaded Mass: 14,830 kg
Acceleration: 92 m/s^2
Endurance: N/A
Delta-V: 2,160 m/s
APHELION
Manufacturer: RAD-Armory
First Flight: February 5, 1965
Height: 15.9 m
Diameter: 3.3 m
Empty Mass: 6,100 kg
Loaded Mass: 56,000 kg
Acceleration: 90 m/s^2
Endurance: N/A
Delta-V: 7,820 m/s
Trivia
- The Perihelion was a Helios supersonic cruise missile with a capsule rather than a warhead. The Aphelion was a Perihelion with three unarmed Helioses bolted on as boosters.
- Out of 17 Perihelion flights, 7 resulted in the pilot's losing conciousness. 2 more were fatal. 11 Aphelion flights had six blackouts but no fatalities, mostly due to improved spacesuit design and compensation techniques.
QuoteINDIGO
Manufacturer: RAD
First Flight: August 2, 1966
Crew: 2 to 6, depending on mission
Length: 31.2 m
Wingspan: 19.0 m
Height: 4.9 m
Empty: 66,000 kg
Loaded: 149,600 kg
Payload to LEO: 19,080 kg
Payload to GTO: 2,900 kg
Powerplant: 4x RAD-Armory KR-9 kerosene/liquid oxygen iris nozzle rocket engines (1.25MN each)
Endurance: 800 hours
Delta-V: 7,100 m/s
The Indigo is a lifting body, a stretched, flattened teardrop shape with control fins but no wings. While the vast majority of its hull is completely reusable, the highest performing components are mass-produced and replaced after every flight. Its heat shielding has three main components - the nose-cone and leading edges of the body and winglets are single-use ablative caps, identical to the sort of reentry shielding used on most orbital capsules. The dorsal surface is an advanced ceramic composite known as Reinforced Carbon-Carbon, while the ventral is covered by an array of less effective but somewhat sturdier silicate aerogel tiles. Cockpit visibility, such as it is, is provided by a row of quartz crystal panes along the ventral edge of the nose cone. The cargo bay and radiator vanes are also positioned ventrally.
Trivia:
- In both reentry and parasite carry postures, the Indigo is upside down.
- The distinctive deep blue underside seen at takeoff and in most publicity shots is actually a lightweight plastic kinetic shield designed to protect the delicate RCC dorsal heat shield from impact damage, and is discarded before that flight's carrier Green transitions to supersonic flight.
- Indigo hull number 112, Hope, hosted the first reported human sexual activity in space. Both participants later said that it was highly disappointing.
- The choice of kerosene as primary propellant was made because all other candidates for the role tended to sublimate or break down during the supersonic portion of the launch flight.
QuoteVIOLET
Manufacturer: RAD-Armory
First Flight: March 20, 1967
Crew: 5
Height: 24 m
Diameter: 13.8 m (34.8 including 'wings')
Empty: 27,600 kg
Loaded: 143,500 kg
Powerplant: 1x RAD-Armory HR-5 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine (450 kN)
Endurance: 140 hours (Block I), 210 hours (Block II), 400 hours (Block III), 3,500 hours (Block IV or higher)
Delta-V: 6,200 m/s
The Violet spacecraft looked very much like the skeleton of a shed that had been stuffed full of junk. The original Block I Violets, Azalea and Dendrobium, were assembled from six component blocks, all of identical size and proportions - 4.7 by 4.7 by 12 meters, the dimensions of the Indigo's cargo bay. The command and service sections were docked end-to-end and the four fuel sections mounted at ninety-degree intervals around the latter. Two 12 meter by 22 meter solar panels were mounted to opposing fuel sections, providing electrical power and radiative surface.
Trivia -
- The hastily designed 'Jumper' that Brazilian astronauts used for their early moon landings was never part of the plan; the Violet itself had originally been designed to land on the surface of the Moon and return to Earth orbit fully intact. This approach was abandoned once the actual cost of an individual Violet spacecraft became apparent.
- The Jumper is the smallest man-rated LOH rocket ever flown; that type was chosen so as to allow multiple trips between surface and orbit within a single mission, since the Jumper could then be refuelled from the larger Violet's fuel tanks.
- Despite common perception, Violet Blocks are not technical generations of production, but flight configurations. Block II configuration adds one mission and one fuel module for a total of eight and Block III an additional one of each for ten. Block IV, with fourteen fuel modules, separate propulsion, power, and supply modules, a 'hanger' module with purpose-built reusable lander, and instrument and habitat modules on opposite ends of a rotating carousel, masses well over a hundred tons even empty and nearly five times that when fully fueled. Only one Block IV has ever been assembled, as this level of ability is superfluous for anything other than visiting superior planets.
From New Switzerland:
January 1st, 1964?
First Flight of X-20 Dyna Soar...
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/Dyna_Soar_launchers.png)
http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=1311.0 (http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=1311.0)
Why can I see a New Zion space program?
Rohan would probably have a program of its own. Assuming it is still one of the world leaders still. (There are tribes that think in terms of leaving the craddle so that not all of humanities egg are in one basket, so to speak.)
Interesting stuff, Valles - have you been developing an alt-history elsewhere?
I think Gran Colombia's work would evolve out of ballistic missle tests to launching military hardware like early recce and communications satellites. After that, maybe space tourism for rich Colombian businessmen...
I blame Rocket Girls. ^_^
http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1002.html (http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1002.html)
VERY interesting...
Thought I have doubts about the viability of some of the craft mentioned.
The NS program would probably be military lead and oriented, not one pound for science...There would probably also be another civilian lead program, this one for pure profit.
Assuming NS, France, and the Middle Kingdom haven't nuked each other by then...
Very true, for the MK at least. Swiss plans where to turn all major Chinese cities into radioactive slag, populated with plague bearing cockroaches, and the countryside covered with salt and anthrax. Mountain areas would get a dose of Nerve Gas. Perhaps in a few hundered years the Great Asian Desert could be opened as a tourist attraction.
That's funny, the MK has the same plans for New Swiss, but added a bit of torture for a personal note.
But alas Desertfox, when you "left" the MK dissappeared too.
Not to put it too fine, but schizophrenia is a multi personal problem.
For pure humor value at some point an Iberian engineer will design the following.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/satnv24l.htm
The picture here is an idea what it might look like... http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/satnv23l.htm
This rocke uses instead of the F-1 engines of the Saturn V with their 6.7 million newtons of thurst per engine the uprated F-1A's which can achieve 9.1 million newtons of thurst. For a total of 118.3 million newtons of thrust at lift off from the 13 engines (5 on the central core and 8 on the 4 strap on liquide fueled boosters). Able to lift nearly well over 750,000 lbs into Low Earth Orbit. These will be used to lift parts of a spacecraft for assemby in LEO for a direct manned mission to Mars.
Michael