Solar Hegemony

[Garfunkel (OP)]

1954

The Americans were fully aware that their maintenance capability lagged behind their growing satellite and shuttle fleet but White House had been adamant that construction priorities would not be altered for any reason. The transformation of industry to TN-standards was too important and any leftover capability was dedicated to building a research laboratory that would help US pull ahead, technologically. Dr Hubbert's successful work on how to improve construction rates across the board utilizing some TN-materials certainly helped.

In March, Apollo program successfully surveyed two asteroids - Apophis and Bacchus - proving that it was feasible to do so but sadly both were devoid of TN-minerals. NASA kept this up, having the Apollos survey nearby asteroids whenever possible without stressing the craft or crew too much while waiting for scientists to finish projects necessary for the Artemis program. Science Directorate was doing much the same, though they were playing catch-up with the planets first. This led to somewhat ironic situations where both astronauts and cosmonauts were sometimes orbiting the same asteroid or flying right past each other.

In October, Moscow got a minor PR victory as the two Luna shuttlecraft photographed each other orbiting Jupiter as well as making an announcement to the world that Sorium, that ever important TN-mineral that could be turned into an extremely efficient fuel, could be found in a gaseous form in gas giants, since Jupiter had over 65 million tons of it. The system would not want for fuel once scientists and engineers figured out a way to utilize it. At the same time, the Apollo shuttlecrafts were long overdue to return to Earth but NASA was keeping mum about them. The craft were alive but a poor calculation of routes had left them stranded just outside the orbit of Mercury, on the galactic north of the Sun with 3% of their fuel, while Earth was on the galactic south side of the Sun. The initial NASA plan was to wait for Earth to rotate near enough that the two vessels could reach Earth safely with the fuel they had left but that plan was dashed as it was certain that their life-support would give away well before that. The only hope for the 19 astronauts was the Artemis Program, the first shuttle of which would be ready to fly soon. It was 14 November when Artemis 1 was ready to go and immediately it went for the stranded Apollo's, rescuing the crews and bringing them safely back to Earth despite the extremely cramped conditions. A public relations firestorm broke out and president Truman was quick to throw NASA under the bus. Administrator Andros was unceremoniously fired and two dozen managers and flight engineers followed him.

In the good news column, November did bring US a new research lab which was immediately put to use.

[Garfunkel (OP)]

Please tell me this is the work of SM mode...

Nope! 100% pure RNG baby!  The RNG giveth and the RNG taketh away...

1955

In April, Dr Strehle demonstrates a fully functioning troop transport bay that can be easily rescaled from as small as 100 tons to as large as 25,000 tons. This made the shuttle design teams produce Ares:

Code: [Select]

Ares class Assault Shuttle      470 tons       2 Crew       21.1 BP       TCS 9    TH 6    EM 0
638 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 2      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 0
Maint Life 2.38 Years     MSP 2    AFR 18%    IFR 0.2%    1YR 0    5YR 7    Max Repair 5 MSP
Troop Capacity 100 tons     
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Douglass Engine CON-3 (2)    Power 6    Fuel Use 182.57%    Signature 3    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 16,100 Litres    Range 3.4 billion km (61 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
The US Marine Corps was very happy to see the blueprint as it justified their proposition for the role that the USMC could play as part of the Federal Space Forces Administration, or FSFA for short. The debates between the various branches of the government, the military and NASA had been long and heated and it had seemed there would be no end to them. Until President Eisenhower was sworn in. The man who had previously managed to keep the Allies together and working for the common goal did not take long to issue an executive order - there would not be a new branch of the military, especially not so soon after the birth of the Air Force. Instead, as had been proposed before, each branch would have their role to play and a purpose to fulfil in space. President Eisenhower gave his blessing to this new system, where:

• Army would be responsible for garrisons on American colonies and for large-scale actions against enemy colonies,
• Navy would control large military ships and their combat-qualified auxiliaries in defence of American interests,
• Air Force would control shuttlecraft and other similar small vessels as well as aerospace assets such as aircraft that cross the Kármen line,
• Marines would staff Navy vessels with armed guards to repel boarding as well as ensure offensive boarding and special operations capability in space,
• and the Coast Guard would expand their Terran maritime duties to space, hunting down smugglers and such if they ever become reality and provide search and rescue services.

As had been decided before, the military side would work alongside the civilians at NASA and that agency would remain responsible for all scientific endeavours, which currently consisted of surveying the solar system for TN-minerals.

In May, Artemis 2 started survey operations among the asteroid belt and in June, Watervliet Arsenal demonstrated their new 100mm RG-4 V10/C2, now capable of firing every ten seconds instead of fifteen. As the Gemini program had been halted in favour of the Artemis program, FSFA decided that it was a good time to upgrade the design, though the existing orbital weapon platforms would not be upgraded. However, despite tonnage savings from the introduction of High Density Duranium Armour, the new gun required two powerplants. Thus, some of the maintenance supplies had to be removed but the reduction from 390 to 335 was not deemed to be too big of a loss.

In June, British scientists created their version of the Trans-Newtonian Theory and the Empire/Commonwealth got into business for real. Artemis 3 began flying in December. And on New Year's Eve, USMC recruits at Parris Island started training for Luna operations as part of the new USMC Luna Battalion.

[nuclearslurpee]

But ARR composed of reports from naval conferences is completely valid ARR...

nuclearslurpee is justly famed as the inventor of the ACR (After Conference Report) style of fiction writing.

Suck it David Weber 

In March, Apollo program successfully surveyed two asteroids - Apophis and Bacchus - proving that it was feasible to do so but sadly both were devoid of TN-minerals. NASA kept this up, having the Apollos survey nearby asteroids whenever possible without stressing the craft or crew too much while waiting for scientists to finish projects necessary for the Artemis program. Science Directorate was doing much the same, though they were playing catch-up with the planets first. This led to somewhat ironic situations where both astronauts and cosmonauts were sometimes orbiting the same asteroid or flying right past each other.

If only someone would invent weapons and put them on a ship...

The initial NASA plan was to wait for Earth to rotate near enough that the two vessels could reach Earth safely with the fuel they had left but that plan was dashed as it was certain that their life-support would give away well before that.

I assume this is roleplay and not a mechanical change I forgot about?

Until President Eisenhower was sworn in.

This new Trans-Newtonian era changed everything, even the U.S. presidential election cycle as a presidential election in 1954 would have been unheard of scarcely a decade ago!

[Garfunkel (OP)]

The initial NASA plan was to wait for Earth to rotate near enough that the two vessels could reach Earth safely with the fuel they had left but that plan was dashed as it was certain that their life-support would give away well before that.

I assume this is roleplay and not a mechanical change I forgot about?

Yeah, they were well beyond their deployment time, morale was down and I was worried that a maintenance failure would break something important down.

Until President Eisenhower was sworn in.

This new Trans-Newtonian era changed everything, even the U.S. presidential election cycle as a presidential election in 1954 would have been unheard of scarcely a decade ago!

Haha, good catch. I forgot to mention that the election was the year before because I actually forgot to write it in the 1953 update. Oh well, time is a construct anyway...
1956

The year began with Artemis 2 confirming the vast Sorium presence inside Jupiter. Soviets completed their emergency build program of maintenance facilities and were now capable of maintaining 50,000 tons worth of satellites and shuttlecraft which was more than enough considering that their current fleet was 13,097 tons. This meant that production could be restarted and the Soviets planned to build 2 more Lunars to speed up the survey program, and five more of both Krivak and Poltava classes. The British opened their first Spaceport and surprisingly it was in Canada, not the British Isles. London had made a deal with the dominions that each would eventually get their own Spaceport, to ensure economic growth and prosperity for all.

In February, Luna 3 started surveying the asteroid field and in March Luna 4 joined the action. In August, Dr Zerangue figured out how to boost engines a little bit more and this allowed Douglass to make a smaller engine that was equally powerful as their CON-3. With Raytheon providing an improved radar, Ares was shaping up to become the most capable shuttle yet:

Code: [Select]

Ares class Assault Shuttle      500 tons       3 Crew       31.8 BP       TCS 10    TH 9    EM 0
900 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 0
Maint Life 2.73 Years     MSP 3    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 1    5YR 9    Max Repair 5 MSP
Troop Capacity 100 tons     
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Douglass M2 CON-3 (3)    Power 9.0    Fuel Use 554.57%    Signature 3.00    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 17,200 Litres    Range 1.1 billion km (14 days at full power)

Raytheon SN/ANY-5 Space Monitoring System (1)     GPS 50     Range 6.1m km    Resolution 10

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes

In October, Artemis 4 joined the NASA survey program, just in time to start heading beyond Jupiter orbit as the program had now been extended up to the orbit of Saturn.

[Steve Zax]

If they've already used "Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Ares, and Artemis" I wonder what they will use next?

[Garfunkel (OP)]

If they've already used "Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Ares, and Artemis" I wonder what they will use next?

Plenty of Greek gods left though I wonder what type of ship will get the honour of becoming Dionysus class? 
1957

In February, disaster struck the Soviets. Despite standing orders to return to Earth once half of her fuel was used up, Luna 1 was stranded in space. Kapitan tret'yego ranga Kharitonova blamed a failing navigation computer that did not accommodate orbital mechanics but it was clear that her career was over. There was no alternative, Luna 1 had to be abandoned. Luna 2 picked up the crew and brought them back to Earth. And as if they had not learned anything, the same fate befell Luna 4 in May. Having their new missile, R-3 Volga, become operational just few days later was cold comfort to Soviet leadership. The problem turned out to be the navigation computer as it did not calculate how far Earth would move while the shuttlecraft was on its way to its survey target. This was not a problem in the inner Solar system but venturing beyond the orbit of Jupiter was inviting serious risk. As everything closer had been surveyed, Moscow grounded Luna 2 and 3 for the time being. NASA became quickly aware of these Soviet problems and decided to do likewise, or at least carefully and manually plan each subsequent survey mission. But not quickly enough as Artemis 3 was stranded on 8 July. This time NASA was not going to abandon the shuttle and instead emergency fax was sent to the White House, where President Eisenhower confirmed their request - the construction of Gemini M2 and Ares shuttles would be paused in favour of the Dionysus class:

Code: [Select]

Dionysus class Utility Shuttle      500 tons       7 Crew       31.4 BP       TCS 10    TH 6    EM 0
600 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 5      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 0
Maint Life 3.02 Years     MSP 3    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 0    5YR 7    Max Repair 5 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months    Morale Check Required   

Douglass M2 CON-3 (2)    Power 6    Fuel Use 554.57%    Signature 3    Explosion 15%
Fuel Capacity 183,200 Litres    Range 11.9 billion km (229 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 10,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 18 hours

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a None for auto-assignment purposes

NASA hoped that the first utility shuttle would be able to rescue the stranded Artemis 3 before its life-support ran out.

In October, the first Poltava-B Orbital Defence Platform was constructed and joined Division 6 of the Satellite Laser Fleet of the Red Banner Space Navy's Orbital Army Group. Divisions 1 through 5 were filled with five Poltava-A ODPs each.

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ODP-26 Imperator Nikolai I  (Poltava-B class Orbital Defence Platform)      380 tons       6 Crew       26 BP       TCS 8    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      Armour 1-4       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1-26      PPV 3
Maint Life 77.86 Years     MSP 82    AFR 1%    IFR 0.0%    1YR 0    5YR 0    Max Repair 10 MSP
Kapitan tret'yego ranga    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   


DKT 100mm C1.5 Infrared Laser (1)    Range 30,000km     TS: 1,250 km/s     Power 3-1.5     RM 10,000 km    ROF 10       
OKB-1 SON-4 Fire Controller (1)     Max Range: 80,000 km   TS: 625 km/s    ECCM-0     14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 0
AMB-0.75 Radioisotope Thermal Generator (2)     Total Power Output 1.5    Exp 5%

SKB Pegmantit-1 Area Monitor (1)     GPS 2     Range 1.8m km    MCR 160.6k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Fighter for auto-assignment purposes
Soviet Union added several Poltava-B's to their roster in Earth orbit while the Americans were anxiously waiting for their first utility shuttle to finish construction as the crew of Artemis 3 counted and re-counted their food stockpile.

[Garfunkel (OP)]

1958

In February, the first Kirov-class troop shuttle was completed. It immediately loaded a VDV Lunar HQ Company at Baikonur and began transporting it to Luna, to establish a Soviet outpost on the moon. By March, five had been built, completing the initial order. They would remain busy transporting Red Army VDV companies until late April, at which point the companies were re-organized into 3 battalions (and boy was that fun to do! NOT). The Soviet Union now had a credible fighting force garrisoning Luna.

On 21 May, the first Dionysus was finally built. Several mix-ups within the industry had caused significant delays as factories, busy with the TN-transformation, had bounced work orders and sub-contracts around. On 24 May, Artemis 3 finally restarted her engines and on 2 June the exhausted crew got to leave their vessel and enjoy the Utah sun.

By the end of November, the growing fleet of Ares class troop shuttles had ferried two USMC battalions to the Moon. The troops were specially trained and equipped to deal with the frozen nothingness that was Luna. Now both superpowers had outposts on the Earth side of the Moon.

[nuclearslurpee]

If they've already used "Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Ares, and Artemis" I wonder what they will use next?

Plenty of Greek gods left though I wonder what type of ship will get the honour of becoming Dionysus class? 

Party Boat!! Party Boat!! 

Dionysus class Utility Shuttle

...party boat? 

They would remain busy transporting Red Army VDV companies until late April, at which point the companies were re-organized into 3 battalions (and boy was that fun to do! NOT).

Did you do this manually, or did you remember that the replenishment/Unit Series mechanics exist like a smart person? 

On 24 May, Artemis 3 finally restarted her engines and on 2 June the exhausted crew got to leave their vessel and enjoy the Utah sun.

You say this as if it is in any way an improvement.

By the end of November, the growing fleet of Ares class troop shuttles had ferried two USMC battalions to the Moon. The troops were specially trained and equipped to deal with the frozen nothingness that was Luna. Now both superpowers have outposts on the Earth side.

Fight!! Fight!! Fight!! Fight!! ... 

[Garfunkel (OP)]

They would remain busy transporting Red Army VDV companies until late April, at which point the companies were re-organized into 3 battalions (and boy was that fun to do! NOT).

Did you do this manually, or did you remember that the replenishment/Unit Series mechanics exist like a smart person? 

Manually since I had to combine a bunch of smaller formations into three big ones. Could I have used replenishment/template/unit series to do it automatically somehow?

1958

In April. Comrade Krinov demonstrated a cryogenic transport module to the Politburo. In this fifth demonstration, all fifty Gulag prisoners were thawed successfully without any physical or mental damage, proving that the method was safe and sound for general use to the delight of the Logistics Office. Kruchnev gave permission for the creation of Luna City and the production of the Volga class shuttles:

Code: [Select]

Volga class Shuttle      500 tons       2 Crew       34.8 BP       TCS 10    TH 4    EM 0
375 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 2      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.61 Years     MSP 4    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 2    5YR 27    Max Repair 20 MSP
Cryogenic Berths 1,000   
Kapitan tret'yego ranga    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Glushko RD-101 (1)    Power 3.8    Fuel Use 287.05%    Signature 3.75    Explosion 12%
Fuel Capacity 44,200 Litres    Range 5.5 billion km (171 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Colony Ship for auto-assignment purposes

I did not realize until constructing these that there is no fighter-sized cargo hold, the tiny one being 500 tons, so I'm going to use SM to move infrastructure over to Luna.

And having done that, I now realize that the old bug where fighters cannot land on a body hasn't been fixed, so no Luna City for the USSR. Yet.

[nuclearslurpee]

They would remain busy transporting Red Army VDV companies until late April, at which point the companies were re-organized into 3 battalions (and boy was that fun to do! NOT).

Did you do this manually, or did you remember that the replenishment/Unit Series mechanics exist like a smart person? 

Manually since I had to combine a bunch of smaller formations into three big ones. Could I have used replenishment/template/unit series to do it automatically somehow?

Yes. Set one formation to have the replacement template you want, and set the others to be used as replacements. The other formations will donate units to "reinforce" the first formation to the desired template.

BTW, the "Emergency" size of cryogenic transport is only 50 tons, so that is something - although, yes, you still have the problem that fighters don't land which makes this a moot point.

[Garfunkel (OP)]

Okay with 2.5 out and especially thanks to its new fighter abilities - cargo hold and finally the ability to land on bodies - I'm going to restart this campaign. Thanks for reading and keep your eyes peeled form Solar Hegemony Redux!