Mission to Mars RULES*Subject to revision and update!
The storyThe date is 2020 and the space program had been halted. However the recessions of the 2000's and 2010's have ended and the worlds economies are booming once again. Due to this, a reinvigorated space race lobby began in early 2015 in Russia and America. By 2020 the President Palin approved new levels of funding to NASA and the Russian leader followed suit.
...and so the Mission to Mars begins!You can take control of either:
NASA (American space agency)
ESA (European space agency)
FKA (Russian space agency)
A private company producing a piece of equipment relative to space flight.
A private company planning to run commercial space flight operations in the future.
Turns are Monthly (Every 3 days approx realtime turns)
Income is quarterly (every 3 months)
NASA and ESA start with a space shuttle each and NASA has the ISS.
FKA has a Soyuz capsule and MIR space stationSpace agency funding begins at a set amount each quarter, companys funding is a dice roll between -5% and +10% of its current income + a small lump sum each quarter from investors
Private spaceflight companysSpace Station companysBigelow Aerospace
Excalibur Almaz
AirLaunch LLC
Canadian Arrow
Interorbital Systems
Rocket Lab
Scorpius Space Launch Company
Loral
SpaceX
Armadillo Aerospace
Odyssey Moon
Astrobatic Technology
Team Italia
Micro Space
Next Giant Leap
Team FREDNET
ARCASPACE
Lunatrex
EuroLuna
Quantum3
Puli Space Technologies
Team Selene
Stellar
Chandah
NASA only:
Orion program
20%
Ares program
20%
ISS
85%
Russia only:
Soyuz
78%
MIR
80%
All:
Earth Departure Stage program
10%
Docking module
80%
Auto-docking module
60%
EVA suits
90%
Space Shuttle
90%
Lunar Rover
50%
Lunar temporary habitat (1 month)
5%
Science Lab Satellite
20%
*percentages are starting safety factor of the equipment at the start of the game.
Companies may create a program for anything you want, within technological limits (no warp drives for example).
Programs have three stages:
Proposed - The program has been announced and costs have been decided (by me!) but no research has yet begun.
Developing - Research has begun, but it is not ready for testing yet.
Testing - These are unmanned test runs by the company to improve safety (Up to the arbitrary safe standard of 80% or more) by ironing out problems (+1% maximum safety for every successful stage)
Operational - Program is operational, continued tests can be run to improve the programs safety record, but this is primarily the time where the company would lobby for a contract for the purchase of its equipment.
*At any/all of these stages the company may be subsidised or invested in by a space agency. Space agencies may also offer to buy the rights to a piece of equipment and research it further themselves. Obviously this could be very expensive and would require the companys agreement. The company will however loose rights to sell and produce that product. Private companies get a 25% discount on the cost of building a piece of equipment, and can sell it to an agency for whatever amount they think reasonable.
**Prices can be changed at any time by the company, but current ongoing contracts will remain what was agreed.
***SF begins at 5%+d12
private companies and NASA/ESA/Russia can buy a project, provide funding and continue research. NPC companies would get less income than players, but advance steadily.
The research would be baris style, profits of the companys would be a dice roll + (investors; random and effected by space agency expressing interest in program, or buying a module/rocket/licence/equipment to use the program.)
Also, companies could also do their own space flight (As Virgin) and work their way towards civilian space flight. At the beginning this will obviously be nigh on impossible due to technology needed.
*The company can choose to use high quality materials and manpower for additional 25% cost, this will save any one malfunction in that equipment on each mission. This is hidden, the company can state it is using high quality materials or not.
They can also use poor quality materials and manpower for a 35% discount in cost. It will lower the safety factor of that equipment by 15%, this will be hidden.
If a malfunction happens and the equipment of high quality saves it, this will be stated in the report. If it malfunctions and the poor quality was enacted, this will also be stated in the report.
Astronauts will be required for manned missions. They are vulnerable and require training and high quality equipment at their disposal to be successful.
Astronauts have the following skills which are randomly generated at their recruitment:
Capsule - Skill in all parts of a mission based on the Command/Service module. Examples are, Burns, re-entry etc.
EVA - Skill in Extra Vehicular Activities such as repairing part of a ship/station
LEM - Skill in piloting a Lunar Excursion Module. This module undocks from the Command/Service module (Capsule) and lands on the moons surface. This can also be re-developed for Mars missions.
Docking - Skill in docking manoevers. Examples are; docking with LEM for descent to moon, docking with EDS for Trans-Martian Injection burn.
Endurance - their ability to cope physically on long missions, such as to the Moon or in particular, Mars. This skill can be perminantly reduced due to radiation on the way to Mars. If it falls to 0 the Astronaut will have died from radiation poisioning.
*More skills may become apparent as the nature of the programs changes. Example is - Science/He2 mining/construction
Recruiting astronauts costs 1B each. They have a 1 year period in which they go through basic training and are unavaliable for anything else.
USA
Ares V: 1st Launch into LEO*. Power-up hardware of EDS once Orion docks with. 2nd TLI burn*.
Orion: E/L/M Orbital insertion*. Docking. Earth/Lunar/Martian activities. Duration A,B,C,D,E,F**. Mid course burn*. De-orbit burn*. Re-entry. Landing/recovery. Power up solar panels***.
LEM: Powerup LEM hardware. L/M descent*. L/M ascent*. Docking.
EU
Ariane 5/SRB: Launch into LEO*.
Russia
Proton: Launch into LEO*.
Soyuz: E/L/M Orbital insertion*. Docking. Earth/Lunar/Martian activities. Duration A,B,C,D,E,F**. Mid course burn*. De-orbit burn*. Re-entry. Landing/recovery. Power up solar panels***.
* = Suffers an attrition roll
** = Suffers a moral attrition roll AND attrition roll.
***Solar panels allow duration problems to be re-rolled once due to the benefit of not having hard stores of power.
Duration stages are stages in which nothing is happening. Despite this are probably the most arduous and difficult stages due to the fact that the human body has not evolved to handle space flight. Each duration requires a dice roll for possible malfunctions. Example, B duration is 2 dice rolls, f is 6 rolls. This would make a mission to Mars for example a total of 18 duration dice rolls between 3 turns. However repairs will probably be made by the crew after each one maintaining safety to a reasonable degree.
A: 1-2 days
B: 3-5 days
C: 6-7 days
D: 8-12 days
E: 13-16 days
F: 20-30 days
*approximate times.
At each burn of the mission, including launch, the safety of the Service module is dropped by between 0 and 4% due to wear and tear. This can be repaired in mission by an EVA.
*Each stage of a Mars mission suffers the penaltys for not having the following completed:
No lunar base with communications array -10%
No orbital high tech satellite performed -5%
Lunar reconaissance level begins at 75% for each faction
Martian probe reconnaissance level begins 55%
*lower reconaissance = lower chance of landing/dropping payloads success.
Technologies which require testing in lunar environment wont be able to be researched above 50% on earth.
It will have to be utilized on the Moon either practically or as part of a 'testing mission' to increase its SF.
I'm referring to things like Lunar cabling and land based communications relay, temporary habitat etc.
-Crew can be micromanaged in between months a bit during long missions.
For example, wear and tear has damaged the Mars mission over the duration. Crewman chooses to go EVA and fix it.
The risks - Endurance roll for radiation poisoning, EVA roll for repairs.
These repairs will be a necessity, I estimate 4 or so times their will be routine repairs 'needed' during a mission to Mars. They wont be forced, you can choose not to risk the crew, but I dont foresee a ship making it to Mars without at least 1 repair EVA.
-ISS and MIR will need the same type of routine repairs at times, as will any future satellites launched.
-I will be allowing the possibility for a Saturn V rocket. This will be a quad booster rocket of three stages and an orbital Earth Departure package docked with the ISS (two mission/joint mission deal). The price of this will probably be high, but research will be minimal as this is a veteran rocket.
Some possible missions
Martian unmanned resupply
Martian Manned supply (with more crew)
Terraforming attempt
Mars orbital research base
Orbital communications relay?
Manned Martian flyby? dont like this one, however it does offer an alternative to conventional 'one way trip' theory.
Manned Martial landing (landing only)
Manned Martian outpost (landing and setting up temporary outpost)
Manned Martian construction (dropping construction materials for larger more perminant settlement)
Manned MEM tests
Manned EVA/EVA repairs practice (required for long journey)
Joint manned Martian landing One ship follows to point its fuel can support, transfers all its supplys to the main ship and turns back? I dont forsee this being much of an option.
Research is done by paying certain amount of scientists to research the safety of the equipment. The formular is as follows:
Each equipment has a cost per scientist, a cost to start the program and a cost to build each one for sale or use.
Example:
Space shuttle
Safety: 75%
Safety max: 95%
Payload: 2
Program start cost: 60
Cost per scientist: 3
Buildcost: 20
To research this up you could use 5 scientists (the max allowed) and this would cost 5x3 = 15B dollars
Poll
7 (100%)
Author
Topic: Mission to Mars - a forum game (New peoples always welcome!) (Read 15044 times)