OK, if I already did the Mercury/Venus flyby then I don't need to worry about changing the Redstone II design for the moment. Anyhow, here is my turn:
Research:Dr Smith will improve our commercial battery technology (free)
Lab 1 with the help of Konrad Becker will reduce the weight of the reusable single stage hull. If it gets reduced to the minimum work on increasing the reuse chance (-$1000)
Lab 2 will increase the fuel capacity of the small AC thruster (-$3000)
Lab 3 will increase the power of the solid fuel (-$1000)
Research cost: $5000
Design:Hyperion RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle)
10m reusable single stage hull (2200kg)
1 small AC thruster (100kg)
6m fuel tank (6*225=1350kg)
3m payload space
Because of the high hull weight and the fact that the small AC thruster cannot use all of the fuel, this design cannot launch at the moment, though if either of those two researches are successfull I expect this to change.
Design Cost: $1500+cost of Hyperion
Construction:Build a battery factory (-$5000)
Construction cost:$5000
Production:1 Redstone II (-$775)
1 SEA satellite (-$1000)
Production cost: $1775
Launch:Launch the SEA satellite using a Redstone II rocket. The SEA satellite will be carrying as many of the companies' experiments as possible.
Other:Announce that we are going to send a probe into orbit around Mars in the next 2 years.
Retire the Redstone I design.
Total cost: $13275
All right, now a few questions:
- You say that several organisations have approached ASTRO in order to do some space science. What proposals are they making, or can I just say "I launch a SEA satellite to perform their experiment"?
- If I just want to land on the moon, does that entitle me to avoid the requirement that I have free space in my lander craft?
- Can I release part of a technology or research to the world (i.e. can I give everyone up to [1] in moon maps at some point in the future?)