Project costs have been removed (but resources have not been simplified, for those who've read the post in the Core Thread).
Jump 1: Design PhaseThe strange sounds of the Slipdrive fade out as the crew let go from their brace positions and start wandering about the ship again. Ah, real space. Something somehow taken for granted.
Most of the more proper crew accommodations were unfortunately destroyed in the sabotage (not that we had many anyways -- the Arks were intended to have a skeleton crew until they arrived), so we've had to assemble makeshift quarters around the Cryovault to give our crew places to sleep (and eat).
Downtime is used to go over Jump 1 design results.
Design: Fission Dust DriveThe Fission Dust drive directly harnesses nuclear fission products to provide propulsion, avoiding the mechanical complexity and propellant demands of indirect drive systems. Fissile nano particles are injected into a vacuum chamber. There the particles undergo fission. The resulting fragments are ionized, and travel at speeds of around 0.03 to 0.05 c. A magnetic mirror channels these particles into a single coherent beam, which provides thrust. Thanks to the tremendous exhaust velocity, this system has an ISP of around 1 million seconds and an efficiency of nearly 90%.
Since the drive is basically an open ended nuclear reactor, it is of course fully automated. The lack of mechanical complexity and utter lack of working fluids should hopefully keep costs low. Energy consumption should be limited, as the all the power driving the propellant originates from the nuclear reaction, not any other system.
ProjectTime: [2] Progress: [3]Fission isn't tremendously complicated, in the grand scheme of things. But the archives we're bringing with us from Earth don't exactly cover that much ground regarding it.
So most of our work here is re-inventing the wheel. It'll take some time, and we also have to get to the more advanced groundbreaking parts, but we're not horrifically worried about it.
Fission Dust Drive: 0/14 [2] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing InvestedPrototypeEfficacy: [4]What we have so far suggests that the Fission Dust Drive should be fairly effective. All things considered, it's relatively cheap too. The constant fission reaction can give the ship considerable (for an Ark) speed. It won't be useful out of combat as the Ark does most of its movements via the reactionless Slipdrive, but
in combat it should be a completely different story.
It's not particularly responsive to slowing down or speeding up as the fission reaction has to be managed for thrust, but the speed granted to the Ark combined with the effective gimballing afforded by manipulating the direction of the beam should give us a nice advantage in combat.
It costs a decent amount of Uranics to run, and is pretty delicate; as we don't want any malfunctions increasing fission rate beyond viable levels. It will, like the Seraph, shut down at 90% damage. But it'll at least help us avoid damage.
- Design: Fission Dust Drive
-1 Power; -0 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 25 Uranics / Jump
Effectively an open-ended nuclear reactor situated at the back of a ship, using uranic nanoparticles to induce fission and the byproducts for thrust. Shuts down at 90% integrity to avoid disastrous effects. Fast speeds and relatively good maneuvering capabilities, but slow to adjust throttle.
100 Uranics, 300 Metal, 100 Non-Metal
Design: Whipple and Decoy ShieldingA relatively simple shielding system. A series of thin armor layers that extends around a section of the vessel. Any projectile, laser or other weapon will hit the first layer, then crack and smash into the second, third and following layers, losing energy all the while. To make the design more interesting, the outer layer is fitted with some decoys spoofing heat and other emissions. This makes it seem like the most important part of the stuff it's protecting is actually elsewhere.
ProjectTime: [5] Progress: [3]Throw on layers of shielding in a precise matter, get some emission spoofing going, and baby, you have shielding.
...well, almost. Not quite that easy. But still, this project is not something that'll give our engineers any sweat.
Whipple and Decoy Shielding: 0/4 [2] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing InvestedPrototypeEfficacy: [4]Whipple Shielding is simple. The concept has been around since the mid-20th century, and it was even planned to be implemented on the Ark (for micrometeorites) itself once all modules had completed construction. The same applies to emission spoofing; not a new concept
at all.
What we have so far should be effective against weaponry. The current prototype has four layers to stop projectiles. A single section of the shielding is planned to be able to stop up to ~20% integrity damage from a single projectile (or dense volley of projectiles), but only for the first time. After that, the shielding itself is nearly useless and needs to be repaired.
Integrated emission spoofing allows us to set a single shielded module as "Spoofed" (in the Production Phase), leading the enemy to think that the module is something important and increasing its chances of getting hit over other modules.
Any shielding that's been damaged will cost the full add-on cost to repair, and we should always keep mind that not all weapons may necessarily be stopped completely by shielding.
- Design: Whipple and Decoy Shielding
[ADD-ON] -0 Power; -0 LS Capacity; -0 Skeleton Space
Whipple shielding that can stop a single projectile/dense-volley-of-projectiles for up to 20% integrity damage, but breaks (0% integrity) after the projectile(s) regardless of actual damage done.
20 Metal, 20 Non-Metal
Design: Flashlight Defensive Bank Laser ArrayA bank of extremely high-powered chemical lasers, spaced evenly around the ship to cover every possible angle of approach. A radar system linked to computerized fire-control (basically what we have on modern warships, except it's in space with lasers and bigger numbers in the range and velocity categories) directs the lasers in intercepting any solid threats to the Endeavour, also known as "anything on a collision course moving fast enough to cause damage, and anything [including the enemy Ark] that the human operators mark as a valid target, prioritizing things that will cause damage before going on the offensive". Each chemical laser is a mirror-walled tube with a tiny hole in the center of one of the mirrors. The tube is filled with two gasses, and a reaction is triggered between them. When the reaction finishes, a beam of light is pumped through the mixture. The photons are absorbed, and then re-released as coherent light. This cascades through the entire mixture until the tube is full of bouncing photons rapidly finding the exit and being emitted in a single powerful beam of light. This tube assembly plus the tubes and cables necessary to run it are mounted in a gimbal, which rotates around in its socket to maximize the laser's arcs of fire, while also conveniently preventing the barrel from depressing past horizontal (i.e., being capable of striking the Ark itself). The gas mixture is made to provide maximum power, but also to be separable by electrolysis. As in, running an electrical current through the substance will cause it to break down into the two gasses originally used for firing. This process isn't necessarily fast, but it means that once the gas canisters are filled, we won't need to worry about constantly replacing the gasses within them.
ProjectTime: [3] Progress: [4]Lasers aren't
particularly hard, but we do need not only create the laser system but also enough to be able to effectively cover the entire Ark and control systems to manage them along with radar-based fire-control. All in all, it'll take some time to do get the schematics for the system all set-up.
Flashlight Defensive Bank Laser Array 0/8 [3] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing InvestedPrototypeEfficacy: [4]Overall, we expect the system to work at its assigned job. The lasers don't have to be powerful enough to break down systems of an enemy Ark or completely vaporize huge projectiles, but just enough to render notable incoming projectiles relatively harmless. A straight-forward radar system linked to the lasers is enough to detect and track most physical projectiles of
Moderate or above size that aren't going insanely fast (e.g. a railgun round), and the near lasers will gimbal to the target and begin firing.
The fire-control system is effective as anticipated, but still needs some crew to operate and coordinate the broader systems and keep it all functional, avoiding potential malfunctions.
The system has four "charges", representing the overall power of the lasers. Each charge represents the ability to focus sufficient lasers on a dense volley or singular projectile to have a chance of rendering it ineffective against the Ark. A single charge will be expended in an attempt to destroy threats (by order of appearance), with a ~75% chance of successful interception assuming the projectile has no countermeasures against the Flashlight Array (whether it's armor, sensor jamming, evasive manuevers, or anything). A failed interception attempt will expend a charge, and by the time it's "failed" it'll be too late to spend any more charges on the same target. Once the charges are all expended, the Flashlight Array will be ineffective for the rest of the battle.
Unused charges are set to be fired (after it's made relatively certain that there are no new projectiles) at the enemy for ~2% module damage per charge.
However, the Flashlight Array simply needs power to effectively "recharge" via electrolysis between seeing combat. It doesn't need a tremendous amount of power to do this. Thanks to the fact that the only power it needs to actively fire is small enough to be provided by internal capacitors, it can operate regardless of power flow in the middle of combat.
- Design: Flashlight Defensive Bank Laser Array
-2 Power; -1 Life Support Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
A laser defense system. Has 4 Charges, expended when attempting an interception of an incoming physical projectile of non-insane speed and of Moderate or above size. A charge has a 75% base chance of successful interception, and multiple charges cannot be used on the same projectile. Works regardless of current power flow.
50 Noble Gases, 100 Metal, 100 Non-Metal
1 Dice
500 Advanced Plastics
500 Noble Gases
500 Uranics
1,000 Hydrogen
1,000 Metals
1,500 Non-Metals
Ark Endeavour5/12 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: 3/14 [3] | 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: 2/10 [2] | 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 3/5 [3] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- 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
Fission Dust Drive: 0/14 [2] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- Design: Fission Dust Drive
-1 Power; -0 LS Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
Consumes 25 Uranics / Jump
Effectively an open-ended nuclear reactor situated at the back of a ship, using uranic nanoparticles to induce fission and the byproducts for thrust. Shuts down at 90% integrity to avoid disastrous effects. Fast speeds and relatively good maneuvering capabilities, but slow to adjust throttle.
100 Uranics, 300 Metal, 100 Non-Metal
Whipple and Decoy Shielding: 0/4 [2] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- Design: Whipple and Decoy Shielding
[ADD-ON] -0 Power; -0 LS Capacity; -0 Skeleton Space
Whipple shielding that can stop a single projectile/dense-volley-of-projectiles for up to 20% integrity damage, but breaks (0% integrity) after the projectile(s) regardless of actual damage done.
20 Metal, 30 Non-Metal
Flashlight Defensive Bank Laser Array 0/8 [3] | Rushed 0 Times | Nothing Invested- Design: Flashlight Defensive Bank Laser Array
-2 Power; -1 Life Support Capacity; -1 Skeleton Space
A laser defense system. Has 4 Charges, expended when attempting an interception of an incoming physical projectile of non-insane speed and of Moderate or above size. A charge has a 75% base chance of successful interception, and multiple charges cannot be used on the same projectile. Works regardless of current power flow. Unused charges can be fired at enemy Ark for 2% unarmored module damage.
50 Noble Gases, 100 Metal, 100 Non-Metal
Though the crew has to live in their makeshift rooms, a decent number of higher-quality rooms originally intended for the higher-priority original skeleton rooms remain. We have several choices here (to make by the end of Jump 1's production phase):
- Scrap the rooms: Gain 100 Metal and 150 Non-Metal and +1 Skeleton Space from taking apart the rooms and leaving the skeleton.
- Convert the rooms: Converting the rooms into further R&D spaces could yield +1 Dice.
- Use the rooms: Gain +2 Life Support Capacity by using the rooms to house more crew in.
The Revision Phase of Jump 1 has begun. We will encounter the stolen Ark on the beginning of Jump 3.
Author
Topic: Arks Race - Exploratory Systems, Incoporated: Ark Endeavour (Jump 1, Revision) (Read 16583 times)