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Post by Captain McDerp on Aug 17, 2015 12:27:20 GMT
Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away there is a cluster of stars which is particulary special, the small cluster of 50-ish stars is extremely dense. Often with less than a light year of space between the stars. The thing that makes this cluster extra special is the fact that almost every system contains life. And intelligent life is common. A few of these intelligent beings have created the technology to send and recieve radio signals. The species notice each other and start recieving each other's signals. The races begin to build their own spacecraft to reach other stars. To trade, conquer, explore and learn about the universe and alien life... How to play: Any race that starts playing, starts out with 50's rocket technology. You can design your own race, a brief history of their civilisation and their home planet. Describe their struggles and progressions that happen throughout this space race. Of course you can describe interactions between species like in the other forum RP games. The goal is to reach other systems and create the technology to do so. You can describe a few events per turn. May it be the testing of a rocket or carpet bombing an alien city, it's your decision. please write creature names in boldExample of a race: (my race) Race: The Uah'The Uah' are large, muscular creatures that have evolved on a dry desert planet which is abundant with fossil fuels, called Shilia. They have lower intelligence than humans and big clumsy fingers. But after centuries of hardships they have become a unified global society despite thier violent nature. Their society is a communist one, centralised around a big army with WW2 style equipment created to deter any of the other alien races that are sending the radio signals into space. They are distrustfull of other races that might take their precious water recources that their economy is based around. They recently started launching probes into sub-orbital trajectories. Note; they look somewhat like alien grunts from half life with proper hands wiki.blackmesasource.com/images/thumb/3/33/AGrunt_Armr.jpg/800px-AGrunt_Armr.jpgThe rules are open to suggestion.
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Post by StealthStyleL on Aug 17, 2015 12:55:20 GMT
My race: The Tyyrds
A short species about half the height of a human. It has short black hair, large wings on the back and large bat like ears. They can see very well in the dark.
During their early history, they lived in caves but since then have developed civilisations out in the open. Due to technological advancements, their wings have reduced in size and most Tyyrds can barely fly at all.
Their society is a theocracy, ruled by the Supreme Bishop. The current leader, Supreme Bishop Amazan, rules with an iron fist and fears that scientific advancement may jeopardise his position. He stifles most attempts but a recent underground group has successfully launched probes into sub-orbital trajectories. Their mission: to show the people the truths of the world.
I thought one rule could be bolding species names like in the Ecosystem game.
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Post by Captain McDerp on Aug 17, 2015 15:35:37 GMT
Good idea, added it.
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Post by mitobox on Aug 17, 2015 18:18:14 GMT
Race: The Vauung
The Vauung are a race of... Well, imagine something with the shape of a headcrab from Half-Life, but has tentacles like those of Engineers from the Halo 'Verse replacing their legs, as well as an extra pair on their backs as arms. They have a pair of eyes that look a bit like cuttlefish eyes, as well as a beaked mouth capable of making a wide range of sounds. Their bodies are generally orange, with their arms gradually changing to blue at the tips. All their limbs have four digits, one being opposable of course.
The Vauung began as a tree-dwelling race, building spherical shelters in the rainforests they called home. Eventually, they expanded into lands beyond, eventually colonizing their whole planet, which has three continents and many islands. They expanded with a combination of boats and the occasional land bridge. One ("Faut," archaic word for "snow") is further north and is the coldest, one ("Akaii," archaic word for "forest") is more equatorial and thus the one the Vauung came from, and one ("Shnaung," archaic word for "short") is smaller than the others. They are like Europe, Asia, and Africa in that they are all "next door." Most Vauung call their world "Hkaii," an archaic word for "stone."
Although the Vauung have a rich history of countries, they have unified in such a way that only two groups will be described; Shashkush, comprising of Shnaung, half of Akaii, and most of Hkaii's islands, is an alliance made mostly out of unease with the second group, Vaurakar, a militaristic faction that subtly conquers and absorbs other countries by encouraging pro-Vaurakar rebellions, which is in control of Faut, the other half of Akaii, and the rest of the islands.
Right now, the fearful members of Shashkush are concerned that they can't "see" as much of the world at a time than Vaurakar, whom they suspect to have a spy network. In a bid to both have an eye above the skies, as well as earn back the faith of their people (joining Vaurakar is a sensation amongst a portion of the youth, particularly hipsters, and everyone else is afraid that Shashkush could not protect them), they send up the Vauung's first artificial satellite, named FuBelgiuma after a mythological creature that created stars. This surprises and excites the citizens of Shashkush, while Vaurakar keeps this hidden for now. Their dictator, Hurara, is quite angry that his spy network failed to even catch wind of this project, and intends to make a "FuBelgiuma" of its own.
Underground groups in Vaurakar (yes, it goes both ways) work to tell the population about FuBelgiuma, although they are having trouble due to security forces.
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Skyguy98
Spacefaring
Lord of the Skies (pic found by atrox)
Posts: 1,637
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Post by Skyguy98 on Aug 18, 2015 3:16:01 GMT
Name: Raglou
The Raglou re a race of.. Well basically flying werewolves (I know I use that a lot but that's how most of my species always turnout in my head for some reason)about 6 to 7 ft tall and possessing large bat wings and strong claws and powerful jaws and back legs that are adept to throwing their bodies into the air, as well as keen eyesight and sensitive noses and ears.
Their history is as diverse as their origins, with some of originating from the many mountains or from the various forests or beaches. Many of them started from family units then merged into roaming groups before settling in caves then to the open as time passed and groups grew larger.
The tribes have over time become consolidated into one planet spanning empire, but with the many districts being virtually ruled by the various clans that ruled though many diffrent methods and often compete over resources, prestige or ideology, but they are all ruled though the Empire of which all recognized member states are part of, and all recognize the High Imperator as the ultimate decider of the laws of the world, as they all have membership in the law making Imperial Senate. Note: I'm not sure how long this is so I'll stop here before I get to deep into my worldbuilding unless someone wants me to try explaining something, or if someone wants me to trim this a little bit.
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Post by mitobox on Aug 18, 2015 18:43:58 GMT
Shashkush scientists are roused by the success of FuBelgiuma. Their excitement and pride is bolstered by the people's approval. Both parties gain hope through these dark times.
They are already planning to make a "FuBelgiuma-2." FuBelgiuma, while revolutionary for its time, was really just a computer that sends radio waves back home to tell it made it up okay. The scientists know that the Vauung race would not stop there, and intend to build on what they already have and know.
But what to do? Perhaps overall improvements? FuBelgiuma's radio transmissions were already slowing down, possibly due to overheating, leading the scientists to believe that the cooling system on FuBelgiuma was insufficient. They agreed that, if FuBelgiuma-2 were to be more complex, it would need a better cooling system regardless. At the same time, there was the matter of what data-gathering systems to put on FuBelgiuma-2. The whole project was meant to give an advantage over Vaurakar. It was a very dark time when it was discovered that Vaurakar could build ICBMs. But if the FuBelgiuma project could detect an ICBM...
And still other proposals are made. One idea is to have a climate-controlled capsule with small animals, with a camera to observe whether they survive. Another idea is for FuBelgiuma-2 to have a camera put onto it somewhere so the Vauung could look on Hkaii for the first time.
After much talk, it is agreed that a better cooling system is their first priority. They have their engineers work on that while they continue to come up with ideas.
Elsewhere, Hurara is observing his top scientists working on a FuBelgiuma of their own. They call it Gaunga, after a revolutionary who defeated his home country's government to make way for Vaurakar annexation. The plan is to have something simple like FuBelgiuma, with some modifications based on what spies have heard about FuBelgiuma (particularly, its overheating). However, Hurara disagrees; he wants something that goes above and beyond FuBelgiuma (literally, if possible). Particularly, something that could help expansion efforts. He explains that he has long had issues speaking with revolutionaries in other countries, due to the possibility of radio signals being tapped. He wants Gaunga to have potential uses in transmitting signals that cannot be easily tapped by Shashkush. His scientists concede to his request, and modify their plans to make room for this new development.
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Post by Moopli on Aug 19, 2015 2:11:53 GMT
I'm of the opinion that it would be far better to write more and give a deeper story with more to work with than to write less -- look at what the Ecosystem RP turned into: a play-by-play interaction simulator, where everybody writes a few sentences reacting to one of the most recent posts. Not that that's bad, it was a first experiment and seems to be doing pretty well, but this scenario is a lot deeper and offers a lot more hooks, so I'd like to be able to build more actual story.
The East Pacific Tree Octopus:
The only sapient member of a family of leathery brown-green arboreal octopodes (and indeed, the only sapient species on their planet), the East Pacific Tree Octopus spread from its humble roots in the eastern fog forests of Pacifi (a continent on their home planet, confusingly also called Pacifi, as the word means "our land" in one of their modern dominant languages) to colonize the entire planet, which is comparable climatologically to Cretaceous Earth. Volcanism, large, green tropical shallow seas and a 200my long steady-state hothouse have led to a planet with very large deposits of hydrocarbons.
Politically, Pacifi has gone through two world wars.
Taking place 150 years ago, the first began as a continental conflict but exploded worldwide thanks to aggressive support of anticolonial revolution by either side, and ushered in a lifetime of cold war between two equally-matched superpowers with a large amount of proxy war and several short outbreaks of hot war. WWI brought the industrial revolution to the rest of the world, and the cold war was one of railway bombings, steamship convoys, and the staggering power of the steel and coal industries lobbying for resource wars and playing both sides for profit. This world order lasted for about 70 years, before the rising economic importance of oil, available nearly everywhere, reduced the power of Big Coal, and reduced the need for profit-war -- only for a short time, for sure, but long enough to usher in a detente between the superpowers, which devolved into a complete upsetting of the world order as once-economic-vassals asserted their economic and political independence (peacefully or otherwise), ending the bipolar nature of world politics.
This process of transition from a bipolar to a multipolar world lasted about 30 years -- by the end of it, the geopolitical picture had again solidified, but this time into 5 main blocs, with a large number of ancillary nations (some of great-power status, others less so) of shifting allegiances. This state of affairs (where war destruction was generally limited by the mediation of strong neutral blocs) was good for business as well as technological progress -- it saw the first multinational companies (and even a conglomerate that was recognized for a time as a sovereign nation by some), the rise of radio and the transistor, the first hydrogen blimp (followed soon by the first remote-controlled hydrogen blimp, with a transistor radio hooked up to open a flap, letting hydrogen out), the first remote-detonated firework (the aforementioned blimp once electricity met hydrogen gas mixed in air), the first manned helium blimp (followed by the growth of a burgeoning airship industry), and the first successful heavier-than-air flight.
Very soon after the invention of the radio, the discovery of messages coming in from outer space led to the construction of hundreds of radio telescopes worldwide listening to the heavens, and the intensification of national aerospace engineering programs.
Technology marches on, the economy keeps booming, the rich get richer, and then the pop of a speculative bubble pulls the rug out from under everybody's feet, leaving the governments and megacorps holding the bag. They blame each other, and one world-war paroxysm of industrial proportions later, ended by a few nukes bringing everyone to their senses, and best thought of as America in Vietnam but for everybody involved; everyone is again looking to the heavens, but this time it's the dreamers of peace who capture the imaginations of the people of the world, looking out into the universe to build a better place.
At the vanguard is the Lugaid Group, a prominent think-tank which manages to send an unmanned balloon to the upper stratosphere with a wireless-shuttered camera, taking the first pictures clearly showing the curve of Pacifi's surface. At the same time, however, they've demonstrated the limits of lighter-than-air technology, which quiets the last few peacenik naysayers trying to siphon funds from rocket development (since balloons are nowhere nearly as weaponizable as rocketry). With that, the Autava rocket, designed to send a radio transmitter on a suborbital trajectory, speeds through development.
Seven months later, Autava I, carrying Butabis (Freedom) I, is on the launch pad, its sister rocket Autava II waiting nearby in case Autava I has issues. The pad has already seen the launch of 3 Mini-Autava rockets, each flying higher than the last, testing out various rocket and launch systems. Lugaid has a balloon up in the sky, downwind (and uprange) of the launch pad, ready to watch the rocket fly past in 360-degree fisheye glory. On the ground, radar antennas get ready to track the flight. Millions are tuning in with their radios, listening to the pre-launch prep, waiting for their chance to hear the signal from Butabis, higher than anything has ever been flung before.
Cutting to the chase: the launch goes perfectly, sending Butabis I on an arc peaking 220km above Pacifi's surface, before it splashes down 700km downrange. Autava II immediately starts being drained of fuel, to be launched with a more technologically innovative payload in a month or two.
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Post by mitobox on Aug 19, 2015 4:09:40 GMT
Note: Gotcha. It was pretty much based on the now-defunct Spore Civilization Roleplay (a bunch of players taking their green frogs/pink dragons/blue gryphons/whatever from the stone age all the way to the space age), except with wild animals. If anyone's ever heard of the "Spore Wiki Fiction Universe," it's basically a collaborative story kind of like what we're doing. I've got these two good reads giving examples to new members of what to do and what NOT to do. Good Example: spore.wikia.com/wiki/SporeWiki:Fiction_guidelines/Good_Starter_ExampleBad Example: spore.wikia.com/wiki/SporeWiki:Fiction_guidelines/Bad_Starter_ExampleThe Good Example is a bit too simple for what moopli suggested, but it tells a better story than the bad example (which I consider rather humorous). Also, I see you used your idea of a leathery octopus speedrun? Back to the Roleplay: The Shashkush engineering team find ways to improve FuBelgiuma-2's cooling system. For starters, they have tested the use of gold coatings to protect FuBelgiuma-2 from their sun's heat (their sun is an orange dwarf, and their plants are more blue-ish than ours due to the different wavelengths). Numerous different "designs" are used before one is chosen as working better than the rest. While one half of the engineering team developed that, the other half worked on an interior cooling system composed of water moving through small pipes. They build a test replica of FuBelgiuma, with both systems implemented, in a super-heated vacuum chamber simulating orbital space. The model performs rather well, and the engineers deem it an improvement over the real FuBelgiuma (now called FuBelgiuma-1). The plan-making scientists, meanwhile, concluded that putting two cameras on opposite sides of FuBelgiuma-2 (like FuBelgiuma-1, a sphere with antennae extending on opposite sides). The cameras would be around the center, and would take photos on command (of course, with no live feed, it would be difficult to predict what would be shown). These photos would be in full color (colored photos and videos had been invented, and colored films are currently a sensation in film industries). Ideally, they would show Hkaii from orbit; a very magnificent and moving sight. They would be both pretty to look at, and convince Shashkush citizens the good Shashkush, and even the Vauung race itself, is capable of doing. In Vaurakar, Hurara continues to supervise work on Gaunga. The scientists have created a radio communication system module that should work, which pleases Hurara. He also emphasizes the importance of building a powerful rocket that could carry Gaunga further into orbit, and faster, than FuBelgiuma-1 to imply what Vaurakar could do if there was a hydrogen bomb at the tip instead of Gaunga. The scientists suppose that having a taller rocket, with more stages and stronger engines than FuBelgiuma-1's, would do the trick. Meanwhile, the Vaurakar spy agency finally finds something of use; they catch wind of a FuBelgiuma-2 being in development. Of course, this was a fairly easy task, since it was revealed on national televisions nationwide in Shashkush. Hurara decides that keeping Gaunga from being revealed from the public would be a good idea.
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Post by Moopli on Aug 19, 2015 18:28:48 GMT
Meta: Some questions: Should we use some sort of timeline format to keep the space race organized? How do we handle disagreements on, say, whether an advancement is unrealistic? (not that there's anything that I think is unrealistic yet, though the vacuum-chamber-oven tech is seriously pushing it imo) How will we decide on important in-universe science/lore questions like "is there a physically-feasible form of FTL?"? How long will the species-introduction phase be? When can we move from basic stage-setting and introduction to the great race itself?
Lore: I was thinking about what the night sky would look like -- given the information in the OP, we know that there are about 50 stars, I assume on average as bright as our sun, within a small enough volume that most have several neighbors within a lightyear's distance (say, about 10?). After some back-of-the-envelope calculation, it seems to me like most planets here will have 10 or so stars that are brighter (on average about twice as bright) than Sirius is to us, and up to half would be visible (albeit barely) in the daytime. Cool.
It would also be useful to settle the question of about how large/dense the cluster is. It's most likely an open cluster (though it's well possible that none of our intrepid spacefarers have made that realization), possibly with a molecular cloud or two, which could well explain the number of life-bearing planets. I'm working under the assumption that its volume would be about that of a 10-ly cube, though more irregularly-shaped. One important effect is that this would probably be too small for there to be any blue supergiants or other high-intensity radiation sources within the cluster. Maybe we could put together a map of sorts once we're farther along. As of yet, we don't have enough information and we don't need the map anyway.
Story: The Mount Kaltaginogo Peace Radio Telescope, after a five-month mission listening for faint radio messages from what seems to be intelligent life on some nearby stars, and much hard work by the linguistics department of the Polytechnic Institute of Kakanta, begins broadcasting a simple first-contact message, of "Peace in the name of the Baleeti Emperor, who sends his friendship to the peoples living around your faraway star, and only wishes in return for enlightenment about your people and your ways". The message goes on to give a short synopsis of the planet's recent history, describing the recent war and the current emperor's subsequent election on a platform of peace, and ends with a hopeful message that "someday, when technology has marched far enough for our peoples to meet, that this message of peace will be remembered". The message is then repeated in several of the dominant languages of the target planet's radio traffic (likely with errors in translation, though). Some castigate the emperor's naivete for this message, but posterity would remember it as a brilliant move, tapping into the cultural zeitgeist of the times, and targeting their message to a planet whose inhabitants could project power into space just as little as the people of Pacifi. For another five months, the telescope targets the planet of the Vauung, hitting it with the message continuously (apart from maintenance times) thanks to the convenient orientation of their orbits.
The Kingdom of Wantab tests a small, entirely locally-developed solid rocket, designed to send a probe doing measurements in the upper atmosphere. The rocket explodes soon after launch, due to a fracture within the propellant mass leading to a sudden rise in combustion surface, increasing pressure enough to tear the rocket apart.
The PanPacific State, who launched Autava I several months ago, launches Magan I, a larger rocket using a tank of water the size of Autava II, with a tracking beacon, as payload. Magan I tests the new gimballed engine nozzle (using 5 engines, each independently controlled), and an advanced guidance system to rotate the nozzles to maintain course, activate the explosive decoupler once the first stage runs out of fuel, decouple the deadweight payload from the tracker before reentry, and deploy parachutes to hopefully get the tracker back to ground safely. Everything goes off without a hitch, indeed, Magan almost reaches orbit, setting the stage for a new launch in a few months with a modified Autava II as the live second stage.
The Mokmok Republic builds a rocket using engine specs stolen from the PanPacific State, with a similar design to Magan I, but without the new gimballed engines. It spins out of control shortly after launch, raining a toxic cloud of burning hypergolic fuel on the launch pad, setting their nascent space program back drastically.
Magan II launches, carrying an Autava II rocket (Autava I but with a space-optimized nozzle and smaller fuel tanks to save mass) with an attached live-animal experiment pod. The second stage carries the pod into orbit (inclination 42 degrees, perigee 300km, apogee 500km), and after making 7 full orbits the second stage engine fires once more, in a complex maneuver, to drop the perigee as close as possible to the intended landing site. The rocket spins out of control before finishing the maneuver, but manages to stabilize engine-forward on reentry. The last of the fuel is fired, slowing down the fall, the pod jettisons, and soon it releases the parachutes, coming down for an impressive landing only 160km from the target. Sadly, it seems one of the animals onboard had died of fright at some point, but the launch was nonetheless a spectacular success.
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Post by mitobox on Aug 19, 2015 22:12:08 GMT
Note: I started typing this post down, then the power went out for a few seconds. Mostly due to the raging storm outside.
The Shashkush scientists successfully launch FuBelgiuma-2 into orbit, although there was a delay in one of the stages transitioning. This led to FuBelgiuma-2's orbit being a bit tighter than desired, but it made it into orbit in the end. However, things would continue to not go as planned for a while.
The scientists sent the command to start taking photos. Unfortunately, the first photos came back as a gravelly, garbled mess. The command had been sent OK... and then they heard an audio transmission through their computer speakers. It was in a strange language (possibly several strange languages). The Uncanny Valley was in full effect here; it sounded like it was being spoken through a beak like a Vauung's, but something was... off. When it ended, new photos showed Hkaii's blue seas, pale deserts, and turquoise forests as intended.
The scientists speculated. FuBelgiuma-2 couldn't have had its signals interrupted by those of Vaurakar. They had kept much about FuBelgiuma-2 under wraps, and none of them could be a spy. Plus, that strange language couldn't have been secret codes, as it just didn't sound like a Vauung said it. There was one fantastical possibility; the message had been sent by intelligent beings different than the Vauung. Of course, it was a mostly baseless assumption; the Vauung speculated that there were planets orbiting other stars, but they had no evidence at the moment. In addition, they knew very little about what made Hkaii capable of supporting life, unlike its sibling worlds. As far as current science could say, they were alone in the universe.
This discovery was taken to the leaders of Shashkush's allied countries. Majority vote said to keep this information hidden for now, but release of the photos would go on as planned.
While the transmissions were being sent, Hurara watched intently as Gaunga took flight. Thanks to Vaurakar's relatively deep knowledge of rockets (mostly from their intense research on missiles), the rocket went quite further into orbit than FuBelgiuma-2, with the price of only a few second's delay in radio transmissions. However, the transmissions weren't done yet. All as Gaunga sent back that otherworldly speech. Unlike the Shashkush scientists, Hurara had a wide knowledge of, and alertness to, underhanded moves and conspiracies. Indeed, this is what allowed Vaurakar to expand under his rule. But he was fearful of this working in reverse, and his first assumption was that the transmission was a secret, distorted code sent by Shashkush. He demanded that the source of the transmission be found, that any potential spies be caught, and that a new pair of pants be sent to him immediately. Furthermore, he requested that their ambassador question Shashkush, and that Shashkush's ambassador be questioned, regarding the incident.
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Skyguy98
Spacefaring
Lord of the Skies (pic found by atrox)
Posts: 1,637
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Post by Skyguy98 on Aug 20, 2015 9:38:05 GMT
As the 5th anniversary of the end of the 3rd unification war comes around the High Imperator, in an attempt to help heal wounds left from the war and to attempt a common goal among the lager countries, announces the foundation of the Imperial Space Agency and sets the goal to land on the first of the 3 moons that orbit their planet, and offers a reward in the form of a stimulus package and a prestigious post to the first nations to land. As a result the 3 major powers of the Imperial Republic, the United Districts of Halu, the Kingdom of Lavi, and the Peoples State of Trua, all rush to accept the proposal,and scientist begin their research to get rockets into orbit as the first step, some of the smaller countries cooperate to try getting themselves a place.
Note: I'm not a very scientific person so sorry ahead of time if I mess the scientific side up.
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Post by Moopli on Aug 20, 2015 19:00:46 GMT
Note: I'm not a very scientific person so sorry ahead of time if I mess the scientific side up. If you're having trouble with scientific ideas you could always ask for help or do some googling -- this RP isn't a competition (there are not nearly enough rules set for this game to successfully be one), it's more of a collaborative thing, so I see no reason why we can't just have a meta-discussion to help iron out something that someone wants help with or ideas for. So far, I've mostly been using Wikipedia, looking up rockets of the early fifties to see what sort of feats they can accomplish, and what sort of technologies are behind them. I also highly recommend reading this, this, and this (in order of time ranges, mostly). Oh yeah, and if you're wondering if you should be as detailed as I am with all the little technical things, I don't think you have to worry about it. I like to add those little bits of detail to add some color, and give myself more details to work with later. Story:
The Wantab Kingdom's rocketry program develops several smaller test rockets, experimenting with different combustion profiles and propellants, while at the same time ironing out the kinks in their production process. After 23 test launches over about a year, they manage to get their final 9 launches to go off without a hitch, and settle on a final four-lobed design, perfect for serving as a strong booster rocket, which they christen the B-1. After some booster tests, using two, then three, to launch some deadweight testing payloads, Wantab begins shopping around its neighbors to find another space program to partner with. The PanPacific State, after learning about the deadly explosion of the Mokmok clone, begins research into replacing their hypergolic fuelling (Hydrazine with Nitrates, very toxic, but storable long-term) with kerolox (Kerosene with Liquid Oxygen). They also begin talks with Wantab on a test partnership. They come up with an agreement to partner for a single rocket, and see what happens from there. Magan III, a Magan rocket first stage with an Autava II second stage and 4 Wantab B-1 boosters, launches the largest payload yet into space; an engineering and live-animal test, with improved maneuvering thrusters, cameras, and several small microgravity experiments, including a living West Pacific Tree Octopus, the closest relative of the people of Pacifi. Everything succeeds, setting the stage for the first manned orbital space launch a few months later...
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Post by johnnykun on Aug 22, 2015 16:25:33 GMT
Race: the exons Exons(exo sapiens) are a highly cultured race of grey skinned,jawless humanoids from the earth-like planet centaurea. They are roughly 7-8 feet tall ,have lines of blue bioluminescence on their bodies, and are peaceful. Despite having black tiny eyes, their vision is as good as humans and they face forward.Their fingers are stretchy and tentacle-like.Their culture is based off the Renaissance from earth, art is a big aspect of their culture and religion. They are shy away from other races radio transmissions and their primary mission is to reach and study other habitable worlds. Their society is a utopia in which religion and science both United all of their nations together. Their economy is a barter system since currency got phased out. Civilians make a living by farming or creating art. Due to the struggles of the last exon war, there wasn't enough time to develop advanced outer space based technologies. However robotics have been perfected to the point that civilians no longer work in businesses or factories. these robots do not have a.i. Due to ethics even though they have the tech to create a.i. They rely mostly on solar power and steam for the time being. Pic: john-the-ant.deviantart.com/art/Old-Exo-Sapiens-concept-art-456498199Edit: right now they are sending a car sized probe named Legacy(in their own language of coarse)to the surface of their moon named Munman.Legacy'smission is to analyze Munman's soil for organic compounds, and take a picture of planet centaurea for the people of the world to see. Legacy will be the first exon made object to land on a planetoids surface.
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Post by Captain McDerp on Aug 22, 2015 17:31:36 GMT
After much hassle and fighting, the Uah´ high counsil decides it is time to start a proper, well-funded space program. The military's ICBM research branch is transformed into the "Planetary Uah' rocketry and aeronautics devision" with it's name in Uah' writing being painted on every ship and probe. Becoming the Uah' planetary flag. The first few tests using old ICBM's are promising. The rockets perform well and the first probes managed to take color pictures and readings about the upper atmosphere. The first orbital rocket, the Va'ngur I is in development. Designed to send the first probes and Uah' into orbit. It is a large rocket propelled by an engine fuelled with kerosene rocket fuel and 2 large solid fuel boosters on the sides. Development goes quickly but is soon halted by crucial problems; Uah' scientists have yet to build a solid rocket booster that doesn't rupture under the extreme stress of the solid fuel combusting rapidly. And the old thrust vectoring design keeps failing when aplied on the larger Va'ngur engines.
Meanwhile engineers agree that in the long term, chemical propulsion alone won't take their species to the stars. After much research they have found a promising candidate for their future deep space propulsion system. The destructive power of nuclear fission. While still in development. Nuclear energy has been widely regarded as the future of energy generation. And is only years away from commercial use. The Uah' engineers agree that this energy source will be incorporated into engine designs as soon as possible. Plans and concepts are made and kept on file for later use.
The old testing grounds used to test older rocket designs are being replaced by a new, shiny space center. A giant complex built to manufacture and test rockets and the latest systems.
(Uah' flag coming later)
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Post by johnnykun on Aug 22, 2015 18:23:55 GMT
Legacy radios a picture of centaurea back home. The civilians celebrate in a dashing array of fireworks, light displays, and art. This forms a new holiday named in their language "frontiersday". Since the primary mode of transportation is by boat in roads full of water instead of asphalt, parades happen on the side of these "water roads" and civilian boats fling up kites to follow them.meanwhile, new plans to send a probe named "Wind surf" into the stars is under way. The target this time is a purple windy planet that orbits behind centaurea named "solidiago". By telescopes it looks like a dry, mountianous world with no moons. The probes primary mission is to orbit solidiago and take a photo. The probe will be launched in a rocket that will split in half upon destination. To escape Centaurea's Gravity, the rocket will used powerful steam-driven boosters. Upon entering space, the solar cells embedded in the Rocket's hull will provide power for extra rocket boosters developed for space.meanwhile back home the Exon scientific Capitol, a city devoted to scientific knowledge, received faint radio signal's coming from unknowingly the home star system of the east tree octopus. They send a radio-picture of Centaurea and a male and female exon back to said star system.They hope that it is intelligent life instead of universal static.
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Post by Moopli on Aug 23, 2015 12:49:27 GMT
I'm on vacation and sadly we have terrible WiFi. So I'm going to have to disappear from this game for a while. I won't be gone long enough for anybody to be able to travel into interstellar space (unless someone decides to mary-sue their species) so the only thing you guys will be missing is an added touch of hopefully-realistic space exploration. I'm sure you guys will manage. Hopefully when I come back, some of my meta questions will be answered, because I am not too keen on continuing in a forum game where there are no rules.
Have fun everyone!
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Post by mitobox on Aug 25, 2015 22:51:08 GMT
Of course, Shashkush's political leaders were surprised by Vaurakar launching Gaunga, but the accusations caught them out of left field. Of course, there was a lot of paranoia on both sides, but surely Vaurakar could reason that Shaskush wasn't capable of such things? Still, Harara's ultimatum had been clear; provide credible evidence that Shashkush was not responsible for the interruption, or else information on it would be made public.
The leaders of Shaskush feel cornered. They had finally regained the majority of their citizens' trust and respect, expecially from the (good) photos of Hkaii. For them to discover something was being kept hidden from them would spark outrage. What was there to do? The photos that were tampered with by the transmission didn't faze Harara at all. "Fabricated," he said. "All of it. You might as well have shown me a painting of the Fire of Hkuraka (the Vauung's equivalent of a red herring; Hkuraka was a small city that was set ablaze during a medieval-age war as a diversion tactic. A defending army was sent, believing it to be an invasion, while the actual invasion went for the capital city.)."
There was no evidence available that would clear Shashkush's name. No one could say that Shashkush hadn't sent it... But maybe if there was proof that, somewhere out there, aliens had? But for there to be evidence of aliens, there would have to be evidence of exoplanets.
Shashkusk's scientists got together again. They had to think of some way to find evidence that there were planets orbiting stars other than Vikikashka (their word for sun, means "Father Star").
Among the scientists is Rlahdu. He was a fairly important among them, being the one who figured out how to safely get FuBelgiuma-1 into space by having it orbit like a moon. Although orbits were not unknown to scientists at the time, he had gotten the inspiration while reading old scriptures. And, in a case like this, he decided to do so again. Maybe they'd help him think of something. He turns to a page detailing a rather historic raid on a tyrannical emperor's palace-fortress by rebelling peasants. Of course, the peasants themselves were said to be inspired to do so by the book's subject deity. Whether or not this was truly the case, the peasants won the battle, establishing a theocracy in the deity's honor.
And the Great One said to his people, "The tyrant Zuvanne (the emperor) is strong. His forces are a thousand warriors, and a many hundred Ekuwu (the Vauung's equivalent of horses, basically long Vauung with the arms as middle legs, and the legs spread out along the body). Their many swords are forged of bronze, their pikes with handles of Greatwood (tallest trees on Hkaii, live for millennia but reproduce slowly). But you are thousands strong, good of heart, and have my blessing. You will sweep this evil Vauung like the tides a fallen tree.
Rladhu stops to reminisce on the line on tides. Hkaii's moon, Vikohkaii (son stone), powers the tides just like Earth's moon. Rladhu finds himself preoccupied with that line... something about tides. If Vikohkai's gravity pulled Hkaii, wouldn't Hkaii affect Vikikashka the same way? It makes sense... Maybe the same could be said for stars and- he slams his right hand on the desk and looks forward. There it was!
The scientists know that they are getting somewhere. Rladhu's theory just might work. All they need is a good enough telescope to see a planet's tidal effect on its parent star. They decide to build the biggest and best observatory on Hkaii. One very powerful telescope would be crafted, integrated into a computer system, and then they could check for evidence of exoplanets in this way. The leaders of Shashkush liked the plan and sent a letter to Vaurakar that they were readying their evidence (the letter also subtly told Harara he was a big idiot). A reply was sent, requesting they not take too long.
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Post by Moopli on Aug 27, 2015 16:46:36 GMT
OOC:
- The Exons made a very impressive leap by getting a probe onto a moon so quickly -- is the moon a really close-orbiting small moon? Like, say, a captured asteroid or the leftovers from a big collision? I'm asking cuz I was wondering whether the Exons already sent a few missions into space that weren't important enough to mention (which I guess you might have alluded to -- maybe their space exploration was cut off for a while by the big war?), or if they simply had the means to make a big leap like that.
- Oh yeah, and I have absolutely no idea how a solar-powered steam rocket is supposed to work, but it's captainmcderp's game, so if he says he's fine with wildly unrealistic rocket tech then I guess I'll accept that (and go ahead with unrealistic rocket tech of my own, of course ). By steam, do you mean hydrolox, and by solar-powered rocket, do you mean an ion engine?
- Speaking of which, Captain McDerp: are you planning on settling any of those questions I asked upthread? I don't want this to end in sadness and flames, and I fear it will unless people are put on the same page about what you can and cannot do. If you don't think you can serve as a neutral arbiter since you're part of the game yourself, then you can just say so and we can probably work out a system of shared responsibility. If you don't know what rules to set, again, just say so and we can all discuss to work those details out. If you don't want these sorts of questions answered at all, just say so and I'll respectfully bow out of this game before I get frustrated.
- I'm starting to try to figure out how far our various planets are. Given that the signal was strong enough to blot out radio traffic on the Vauung planet, but was very faint when the Exons detected it, I'm going to assume that the exons are at least 3 or 4 times as far as the Vauung. They're most likely relatively-closely aligned (when viewed from Pacifi, the tree octopus planet), which can help explain the faintness of the message too -- since noise from the Vauung planet (and other stars which might be between them), and the fact that the Exons would be located at about the edge of the beam, would make it even harder to understand (and ofc, the Exons likely don't know the Vauung languages which the message was translated into, and even if they did, the tree octopus has a very strong accent).
- Anyway, I need to know those distances so I can settle on some timeframes, to know how much can be accomplished before getting the reply from Centaurea, and similarly, how quickly I could react to happenings on the Vauung planet. I'm going to assume that Pacifi is about one lightyear (defined here with reference to Pacifi's year, a little shorter than ours) away from Vauung, and about 7ly away from Centaurea.
Story: Despite all the glory and accolades accorded to it for carrying the first Octopode into orbit around Pacifi, Magan IV wasn't all too cutting-edge -- the Autava rocket used as second stage had already flown on three dozen smaller missions over the course of a decade, carrying engineering payloads and demonstrating impressive reliability. Although the first stage had only seen 5 flights (ooc: some classified), it was a small step up from what the Autava program proved out. By the time of Magan IV's launch, carrying astronaut Ulki Mekkes into Low Pacific Orbit, the kingdom of Wantab, who provided the B-1 boosters for the launch, was already testing their B-3a and B-3b rockets, a larger, stronger booster and an experimental upper-stage, respectively. Indeed, avoiding the cutting-edge is what made Magan IV so successful -- the reliable fifth-generation life-support system (the first two had been tested on the ground, the third and fourth in space) allowed Ulki to spend 2 full days in orbit, enough time to conduct a few microgravity experiments and take loads of pictures through the capsule's tiny window. When the time came to return from space, Ulki proved how useful a pilot could be, by executing a perfect controlled splashdown at the chosen recovery location, only a hundred meters from the recovery ship.
Meanwhile, the Mokmok Republic had recovered enough from their rocket disaster to have another go at exiting the atmosphere. Believing that hteir spies had been fed faulty designs, they avoid trying to clone the Panpacific State's recent achievements, and instead pour their engine-development funds into a ridiculously overengineered thrust-control dual-mode airbreathing kerolox engine. Having taken 3 years from concept to completion, it's an engine before its time -- the materials are just not available to make more than 3 experimental models, which, with a sea-level thrust too weak to lift a rocket, are set aside as work starts on an experimental aircraft capable of testing them.
The MokMok Republic's disappointment is matched only by the technicians at the Mount Kaltaginogo Radio Telescope, when after nearly two years of waiting have received the first radio traffic back from the Vauung homeworld sent after the message of peace and friendship had reached the faraway planet. It seemed that their signal was indeed noticed, but had not led to any response thanks to the strong accent of the speaker. They immediately began working on a different kind of message -- a series of simple beeps, in groups of the first 8 prime numbers, followed by the same series, but encoded in binary using two tones of beep, followed by a message composed of recorded soundbites from the overheard things various Vauung had said over the radio: "Hello, we -- from far away -- cannot speak -- your -- language -- sent this message -- long ago: {insert clip of original message} -- {gibberish} to yours -- is -- our planet -- we recently -- launched a rocket to space -- with a person -- on it -- we hope to see peace in our time -- and forever with you -- planet -- even if we don't -- meet -- in many years -- pls respond".
Mount Kaltaginogo isn't the only telescope doing impressive work in the world of space science and engineering -- indeed, it is far from alone: - Over the past few years, the Kip Peak Experimental Spectrotelescope (KiPExpeST, meaning wisdom) has been studying the surfaces of Pacifi's many small near moons, and has discovered that several are 'greasy rocks', and the largest shows signs of large ice deposits in deep craters. This lends further credence to the theory that the group of moons were formed by the impact of a large comet in Pacifi's early history, and failed to coalesce into a single body thanks to the tidal action of both Pacifi and its primary moon Gok.
- The Boggralt Optical Telescope (BoggrOT, a venereal disease) has been conducting a visible-light survey of the near stars, building a detailed map with precise relative velocities.
Note: To ease confusion, I'm going to start putting down approximations of how much time passed between each update and the previous, so people get an idea of how far my peeps have progressed. This update went up to about 5 months after the previous -- so by my count, the Exons haven't even gotten the first message from Pacifi yet (which means, if me and mitobox are operating in the fifties, the Exons are currently in sixties-analogous tech). Light is too slow
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Post by mitobox on Aug 28, 2015 2:47:03 GMT
The Shashkush observatory has finally been completed. Of course, there have been no noticed clues that exoplanets are out there. However, Rladhu suggests that they look for "winks" and "wobbles." The scientists have also pinpointed the general area the transmission came from.
The scientists are once again surprised when FuBelgiuma-2's photo taking is interrupted. They are even more surprised by apparent bits and pieces of their own language "glued" together in an attempt to communicate. It seems like they're reasonable folk and want a response. However, they don't have much in terms of sending transmissions back... What is there to do?
They come up with a solution. Even though they don't have any immediate way to send a message, sending a good photo of Hkaii would tell a thousand. They look through the collection, eventually finding an exceptional one. A photo giving a good view of all three continents, turqoise forests and plains as blatant proof that the world has life, and Vikikashka's orange glare in the background. They wait for FuBelgiuma-2 to get in a good position to transmit in the general direction, then send the message multiple times to make sure it reaches its mark... and can be pieced together if it doesn't get through in one piece.
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Post by Moopli on Aug 28, 2015 16:23:54 GMT
Following the discovery that there may be organic compounds and other volatiles on or within Pacifi's near moons, the Lugaid Group publishes an influential paper, titled "ISRU: A plan for effective space exploration through near-space resource extraction" (details below). They put together a consortium, CONPORX, with several influential universities interested in the research potential, and a couple companies interested in the commercial prospects. ISRU details a plan to bootstrap a resource-extraction industry (ISRU, In-Situ Resource Utilization) on the ring of inner moons of Pacifi, going through the steps of a 20-year concerted program to get there as soon as possible. It's considered one of the seminal works of interdisciplinary systems theory, given how it it goes in-depth to cover the costs, risks, goals, and prerequisites of every step. It begins with an overview of the current state of space science and technology, and the eventual, oft-unstated goal of someday reaching interstellar space and meeting other intelligent species on the Pacifis' own terms. Given that a meeting with another intelligent race seemed inevitable, it was clear to everyone in power that it would be imperative that the Pacifi would not be in a position of weakness. Thus a plan that would catapult the planet from barely reaching orbit to having a burgeoning industry in space was attractive to all. The plan laid out a few important threads of research: - A launcher capable of carrying 20 tons to the inner moon ring in 20 years (with a launcher able to carry 5 tons ready in at least 15 years), to start immediately.
- A space-based spectrotelescope on an eccentric, inclined orbit, to study the surfaces of the near moons, to search for promising locations. It only needs to be ready a few years before the final ISRU plant, but requires a lot of preparatory work for power generation, maneuver control, sensors, etc.
- A system of probe infrastructure: A simple orbiter with radar and communication antennas, to transceive messages sent from a series of simple impactors released from the orbiters. The spectrotelescope and ground-based telescopes would be available to study the material launched up by the impactor, given that all initial study would focus on the ground-facing sides.
- A large lander with an ISRU plant, to use one of several proposed collection mechanisms to gather water ice and one of several proposed separation processes to split the water to refuel the rocket for return to orbit.
- Development of a nuclear plant, 5 tons at most, to power the ISRU plant.
- The plan goes on to describe several potential directions in which development could go after the program is finished -- manned landings to expand the plant with further capabilities and extend life, tests of other ISRU processes to collect more materials, tests of various proposed in-orbit manufacturing processes, and developing an orbital fuel depot system to make further trips very economical.
After a few months of deliberation, the PanPacific State decides to take up the plan, almost-entirely unmodified, and begins shopping around for a larger international partnership to make it happen...
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