Jump 0: Design PhaseWith a lurch, the Ark's (still unnamed for
now) Slipdrive powers down, dropping us in, well, space. The stolen Ark is still ahead of us, but not for long. A few alarms ring out as various miscellaneous systems hastily repaired or assembled after the sabotage fail under the stress of the jump's completion. All minor damage that's easily repaired with off-hand parts and some system diagnostics.
The crew is annoyed about the lack of the
Double-Deck Zero-G Pool Module, which was one of the rooms nearly completely destroyed by the saboteurs. Those
bastards.For now, we go over the results of R&D's projects started during Jump 0.
Design: Seraph Stellarator Fusion ReactorAn improvement to our current Tokamok fusion reactor, of modifying the process so that the hot plasma goes through twisted rings to alleviate our return of energy-efficiency by also reducing the inherent qualities of the leakage of plasma due to the instability of our previous design. The Seraph reactor attempts to create a its natural twist plasma path, using external magnets to increase the amount of energy that can be collected, while tokamaks create those magnetic fields using an internal current, reducing the amount of power you can get from it. The method we utilize is in which a helical coil is used to confine the plasma, together with a pair of poloidal field coils to provide a vertical field.
ProjectTime: [1] Progress: [5] Cost: [5]Fusion power is a tricky thing. Cutting-edge fusion power is an even trickier thing. This, combined with our relatively limited equipment and archives available means that it'll take a long time to properly reach any breakthroughs in this field.
But, on the bright side, we've managed to convince those on the Bridge to give us reasonable access to the current X-05 Reactor in order to get to test out our theories and experiments in action, rather than on limited simulations. This, combined with the fact that we still have some parts originally intended for use in construction of the X-03 Primary Reactor to take apart for safely tweaking our experiments means that cost shouldn't be too big of a concern.
Seraph Stellarator Fusion Reactor: 0/14 [3] | 20U + 10NG + 30H + 30M | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing InvestedPrototypeEfficacy: [3]The Seraph Stellarator works fairly effectively. Through some temporary experimental tweaks in the X-05, we believe we have a viable plan. As hard as fusion is, it isn't like we're trying to invent it from scratch. The Seraph should generate
+20 Power for use in the Ark's systems, but has some problems.
External magnets allow for more efficient power generation, but we've found that if the magnets are unexpectedly disabled during operation of the reactor, the instabilities of the unstabilized plasma can start ripping the reactor internals apart. Emergency measures are planned to stop operation immediately in this case -- but as soon as the Seraph hits
90% or lower integrity we have to enact an emergency shutdown.
Being based off of the X-series of Fusion Reactors, the Seraph still costs plastics, and isn't otherwise cheap. But not prohibitively expensive.
- Design: Seraph Stellarator Fusion Reactor
+20 Power; -1 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 100 Hydrogen / Jump
A Stellarator fusion reactor using external magnets to stabilize plasma in twisted flows for better power production. Shuts down at 90% integrity to avoid disastrous effects.
30 Advanced Plastics, 100 Uranics, 500 Metal, 300 Non-Metal
Design: "Harvester" Automatic Mining ProbesThe Harvester Mining Probe system functions with three specialized drone designs, given overall guidance and control by communication uplink to the mothership. Their are four kinds of automated vessels associated with the Harvester system. The first, the so called 'Tender' is a larger craft, given a larger computer cluster and reinforced com gear to serve as a hardened control node in the system, as well as extra fuel tanks to refuel and otherwise upkeep the smaller drones,. The second kind is the 'Pickaxe' small drone, which uses an assortment of drills, mining lasers, and other such tools to break apart space rocks and harvest anything useful inside of them. The third, the so called 'Honeycomb', is a cargo drone that the Pickaxe loads its spoils onto so that they may be transported back to the ship and used by the engineers. The fourth, last, and least numerous is the 'Finder' drone which uses advanced radar and other sensor systems to survey areas and determine which space rocks have tasty materials inside of them and which ones are just made out of rock.
ProjectTime: [2] Progress: [2] Cost: [3]While drones aren't a huge problem as we can just work off of the existing mining bay, creating a system of four drone types working harmoniously to harvest variable types of resources in variable conditions is surprisingly hard work. Not only do we have to design the drones themselves and make sure they work fine and don't try to mine their fellow drones, but we also have to spend a lot of time manually considering every possible scenario and incorporating it into the software (and hardware) of the drones.
We also happen to be going through a lot of prototypes due to a
minor "registering the Ark and other drones as a ship" problem. Ignore the mining laser marks in the mining hangar. Just a couple of
purely harmless accidents, and nothing else! Each prototype costs a good bit of resources, so progress will be expensive.
"Harvester" Automatic Mining Probes: 0/10 [2] | 50M + 100NM | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing InvestedPrototypeEfficacy: [2]...unfortunately Bridge learned about the tiny little inconsequential problem with our AI systems that resulted in them trying to mine Company-affiliated property. They, mildly understandably, threw a fit and told us that we'd have to have each drone remotely piloted by a human crewmember. The "Harvester" system's module will require
-2 Life Support Capacity as we need a lot of people in the room - one for each drone, and we have a lot of drones to get any results at all.
Powering all the drones (and crew workplaces) costs a total of
-2 Power.
What we had so far has to be reprogrammed and remade to work with human piloting. Not that autonomous drones isn't a harder concept, but the system just isn't meant to be piloted by people. The size of each drone has to be increased in order to make the piloting sensible and to reduce the waste of using human pilots, expensive training has to be put in place, each drone has to be capable of directly communicating with the Ark without any intermediaries, and more. More delicate mining, such as Noble Gases and Uranics (and to a much lesser extent, Hydrogen), is out of the question as the crew can't use the tools intended for AI usage properly to extract these materials.
Hope isn't lost, though. The Command staff aren't completely opposed to AI in the future, and while the current Harvester system is of debatable effectiveness it can still serve as a viable base for future improvement. The Tender still has a computer system (that offloads most of the functions of other drones, even if the higher-level ones are all directly human-controlled) and resupplies fuel for other drones; the Pickaxe still works as intended, the Honeycomb can still hold the spoils from the Pickaxes, and the Finders can still survey areas.
- Design: "Harvester" Automatic Mining Probes
-2 Power; -2 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Produce 100 Hydrogen, 300 Metals, and 400 Non-Metals / Jump
A mining system composed of four drones types launched from the Ark, each with its own human controller. The drones work together in order to maximize efficiency, but clumsy human control combined with a system originally designed for autonomous operations leads to poor results at a high cost.
50 Uranics, 50 Noble Gases, 500 Metal, 600 Non-Metal
Design: Atmospherics System ConversionAn upgrade/full conversion of the Ark's emergency life support system, to a full stable system. It utilizes an argon based atmosphere for easier resupply during the voyage, allowing our limited supply of nitrogen gas to be utilized only to sustain our hydroponics based systems. A zeolite based molecular sieve separates any Co2 or other contaminants, which are then funneled through a sabatier reaction to be turned back into normal air. Heat recovery system, as well as nuclear heat sources, cut down the energy consumption of the system.
ProjectTime: [6] Progress: [5] Cost: [2]People like breathing.
We are making a system that allows people to breathe better and longer.
People support our system immensely.
...that's pretty much how the A.S.C. project is going. We have the full support of the entire crew (which is really tired of breathing stale air at a constant loss and is tired of eating potatoes). We also have the skeleton originally intended for the planned proper life support system in place to use for our purposes, cutting down on research and logistics organization time immensely. The Bridge wants us to use only high-quality parts in order to prevent possible malfunctions, so it will cost a decent amount to progress.
Atmospherics System Conversion 0/5 [3] | 50NG + 50M + 100NM | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing InvestedPrototypeEfficacy: [3]Life support isn't rocket science (though we are quite proficient at that). It's an established "field" of engineering that we can draw a lot of support from; our current system -- essentially just some oxygen candles and our emergency air tanks hooked up to a messy ad-hoc pipe distribution system -- is just the consequence of intense time restraints, and not lack of knowledge. So even if we aren't the most lucky, we can still do a lot.
Air is recycled effectively, with CO2 and other contaminants being practically turned into breathable air again and O2 going back out into a
proper distribution system of vents in the ship. People were getting tired of accidentally tripping on the oxygen supply pipes. The noble gas Argon is used quite effectively replacing Nitrogen. People swear the air smells different, despite the implausibility of this observation. The system
does Consume 20 Noble Gases / Jump as we aren't running a completely lossless loop here.
Heat Recovery can be used quite effectively, making up for some of the power usage of the system. It
would use more than the current ad-hoc setup, but only uses
-3 Power thanks to heat recovery. We believe that it can provide
+12 Life Support Capacity once properly set-up.
The name is a bit awkward given that this module can be constructed independently, but we can always change it at any time.
- Design: Atmospherics System Conversion
-3 Power; +12 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 20 Noble Gas / Jump
An atmospherics systems that uses Argon instead of Nitrogen and filters air. Uses basic heat recovery to decrease power consumption a bit.
100 Noble Gases, 300 Metal, 500 Non-Metal
1 Dice
500 Advanced Plastics
500 Noble Gases
500 Uranics
1,000 Hydrogen
1,000 Metals
1,500 Non-Metals
Ark 15/12 Power available
2/5 Life Support Capacity available
4/10 Skeleton Space available (500 Metals & 500 Non-Metals required for next +2 expansion)Modules(Green integrity indicates the module is working at full effectiveness; Orange indicates partial effectiveness; and Red indicates the Module is offline.)- [100%] X-05 Auxiliary Fusion Reactor
+12 Power; -1 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 100 Hydrogen/Jump
A Tokamak Fusion Reactor. Intended originally to be the auxiliary reactor to the primary power source (which is not installed), the X-05 is specially stable: designed to continue operations despite degradation from wear-and-tear. It can lower output according to damage, translating current integrity directly to current power produce compared to max power possible. Shuts down at 20% integrity.
50 Advanced Plastics, 100 Uranics, 400 Metal, 200 Non-Metal - [100%] Emergency Life Support
-3 Power; +5 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
When launched, the Ark didn't have its own dedicated Life Support systems and was still relying on an umbilical to the shipyard. The ELS represents the existing small amount of Life Support Equipment hastily put together to keep the ship's atmosphere sustained until it reaches Eden, as long as only a relatively small amount of crew members are thawed at any one time.
100 Metal, 200 Non-Metal - [100%] Ion Thrusters
-1 Power; -0 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Thrusters with their own self-contained fuel tanks expected to last the entire trip, using external power for most of the propulsion. Can move the ship, but very slowly.
10 Advanced Plastics, 100 Noble Gases, 200 Metal, 100 Non-Metal - [100%] Mining Bay
-1 Power; -1 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Produces 100 Noble Gases, 100 Uranics, 200 Hydrogen, 200 Metals, and 300 Non-Metals / Jump
A small hangar and a few tiny piloted mining ships to extract resources from only material sources with little to no gravity present.
50 Uranics, 50 Noble Gases, 400 Metal, 400 Non-Metal - [100%] Cryovault
-1 Power; -1 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
A place where skilled crewmembers are frozen, ready to be thawed when needed; and also where our thawed crewmembers live. If below 50% integrity, we will not be able to man new crew-requiring modules. Due to advanced backups, this module cannot be destroyed.
500 Metal, 1,000 Non-Metal - [100%] Cargo Bay
-1 Power; 0 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
A depressurized large cargo bay with dedicated storage for each resource type and requiring EVA suits to access. Stores 1,500 of each resource.
400 Metal, 600 Non-Metal
Seraph Stellarator Fusion Reactor: 0/14 [3] | 20U + 10NG + 30H + 30M | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- Design: Seraph Stellarator Fusion Reactor
+20 Power; -1 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 100 Hydrogen / Jump
A Stellarator fusion reactor using external magnets to stabilize plasma in twisted flows for better power production. Shuts down at 90% integrity to avoid disastrous effects.
30 Advanced Plastics, 100 Uranics, 500 Metal, 300 Non-Metal
"Harvester" Automatic Mining Probes: 0/10 [2] | 50M + 100NM | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- Design: "Harvester" Automatic Mining Probes
-2 Power; -2 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Produce 100 Hydrogen, 300 Metals, and 400 Non-Metals / Jump
A mining system composed of four drones types launched from the Ark, each with its own human controller. The drones work together in order to maximize efficiency, but clumsy human control combined with a system originally designed for autonomous operations leads to poor results at a high cost.
50 Uranics, 50 Noble Gases, 500 Metal, 600 Non-Metal
Atmospherics System Conversion 0/5 [3] | 50NG + 50M + 100NM | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- Design: Atmospherics System Conversion
-3 Power; +12 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 20 Noble Gas / Jump
A mining system composed of four drones launched from the Ark, each with its own human controller. The drones work together in order to maximize efficiency, but clumsy human control combined with a system originally designed for autonomous operations leads to poor results at a high cost.
100 Noble Gases, 300 Metal, 500 Non-Metal
We will encounter the stolen Ark on the beginning of Jump 3.
Barring special circumstances, voting for Company and Ark names will conclude at the end of this Jump.
Author
Topic: Arks Race - Exploratory Systems, Incoporated: Ark Endeavour (Jump 1, Revision) (Read 16619 times)