Space Economics
"And when at last it is time for the transition from megacorporation to planetary government, from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls the energy supply controls Earth. In former times the energy monopoly was called 'The Power Company'; we intend to give this name an entirely new meaning."
--CEO Nwabudike Morgan
Interstellar Medley
The successful return from the Moon ushered multiple technological advances in rocket science, particularly in the fields of miniaturization, where new, compact yet powerful rocket engines were made, and in communications technologies, fundamental for the plans of transforming outer space into a profitable enterprise. There was much work ahead, there was still a lot to be done and advanced resource scanners required more R&D.
Meanwhile, there was a perhaps unwisely accepted contract involving the deployment of sensors in Madagascar. To fulfill it, a drone fitted with the appropriate sensors was designed. It had multiple antennas encased within its nosecone to ensure it would never lose connection, go down and explode. However, the first flights were less than successful because of some unexplainable accidents during take-off.
(Severe collision bugs that kept happening until I fully upgraded the runway)
Eventually it at least managed to take off, but after several hours of stable flight:
At this point, it's cheaper to forfeit such a bad contract. And that was exactly what was done.
(PROTIP: NEVER, EVER ACCEPT EARTH SURVEY CONTRACTS IN THE REAL SOLAR SYSTEM)
While the existing communications network around Earth was OK, the satellites within it were built with technologies that are now very outdated and limited. Plans were put in motion to create a new, better satellite network, and also fulfill some contracts for science and profit. A far more efficient design than its crude predecessors, the 3rd Generation Satellite Launcher relied on a final stage with two radial engines and detachable fuel tanks, encased and protected by detachable fairings. Its four omnidirectional antennas ensure it shall almost never lose contact with the space center. Its satellite also used far more powerful solar panels.
The first of the Gen 3 satellites was launched towards the fulfillment of a contract, but once the reward is given, it shall be redeployed into an orbit more useful for communications.
By using such small engines in its final stage and ejecting spent fuel tanks, it packed a lot more dV for its weight than it would otherwise. More three of such satellites would be launched towards the creation of a new network. Meanwhile, every previously launched satellite had its control rights sold to the best customers of Morgan Interstellar (they were all scrapped). Creating a direct communications network with the Moon has finally become a possibility, but first the orbital communications around Earth had to be improved.
The success of the Xu Program was one of the reasons such project became affordable and technologically possible. But for now, besides the occasional space tourism, manned missions would take a backseat. To finish the preparations from Earth's orbit, a fifth satellite was required, preferably in a polar orbit and with a more powerful communications antenna than the ones from the last four ones.
The Earth-Moon Communications Relay is ready. Unmanned missions on the Moon will now always be online. A contract to create a permanent communications network that had near 100% coverage of the lunar surface was the next step, and it would be useful in any case, should any valuable resource exist in the low gravity environment of the Moon to be explored for science and profit. However, compared to deploying a satellite anywhere in Earth's Orbit, deploying a satellite in a stable Lunar Orbit would require a big rocket.
A much bigger and almost six times more expensive rocket compared to the previous ones used for unmanned missions. LunaSat I payload would also include some superfluous components required by testing contracts on the Moon. Perhaps it was a bit of an overkill given it doesn't need enough for a return trip, but the idea was to give this rocket enough fuel to maneuver a lot in Moon's orbit, and if all contracts are successfully accomplished, now that the terms were renegotiated to make the rewards more fitting to the astronomical costs of space travel, it would pay off.
Of course, it was still dwarfed by the towering and still barely sufficient Xu-2 that was previously launched, but its launch was nevertheless an impressive sight.
(Now with
RealPlume )
The Kiwi, an inefficient but compact and powerful rocket engine, much needed to lift off the massive payload it had to. As the atmosphere thinned and the transition into outer space began, the plumes of the rocket engines disappeared, replaced by quickly dissipating flames.
Unfortunately mistakes were made, but nothing a little patience couldn't fix. Two successful launches, but the first one would arrive last because it burned at the wrong time and had to wait for the Moon to be in the right place before the next maneuver to save dV. Such maneuvers also showed that most available communications systems had ranges beyond their stated numbers when it comes to communicating with Earth. Perhaps this could have been done earlier after all.
(RSS makes RemoteTech behave more realistically than its default)
Lunasat II made it first, where its plenty of rocket fuel would be put to good use, first, towards a requested orbit by a contract, and later by its repositioning in a much higher orbit as the first of a simpler network using only two satellites in polar and near polar orbits.
Lunasat I conducted all contractual tests without incident, including the suborbital one. There was more than enough fuel to proceed with the next step of these two missions.
With both satellites in a more or less synchronous orbit communicating all the time with each other, now probes anywhere on the Moon could be controlled all the time as long as they don't run out of power. Now, the next step would be to scan its surface, but that would require a little more technology than what was currently available.
With all the funding earned with the latest successes on the Moon, despite the currently low demand for manned space flights, several new astronauts were hired:
Suicidal Meat Slapper ,
Hellraiser ,
Alienman and
GarfunkeL .
Efficiency could be further improved through the application of an even more efficient engine technology for probes made possible with the latest advances in miniaturization.
Despite all that was already achieved by Morgan Interstellar, an old milestone: the first docking in space, had yet to happen. For that, a cheap(for space standards) pair of test probes would be launched in Low Earth Orbit. It really made use of detachable fuel tanks to the maximum, and despite its fairing, its mostly hollow upper stage meant that too sharp maneuvers during ascent could lead to all kinds of trouble.
50% of the docking test probes exploded or failed spectacularly. Only after four launches this could finally be done.
No compromises could be made about cutting aerodynamic control surfaces.
Another successful test. Now, there is only the docking left.
A LV-1 "Ant" engine isn't a RCS, but real MLG pros don't need RCS to dock.
After a few failed attempts, the docking was completed with flying Finnish colors.
One particularly needed technology was still beyond reach, and to accelerate scientific progress, new policies were enacted that traded reputation and profits for science. Given that such technology would finally open the gates towards real economic exploration of interplanetary platinum, uranium and other valuable resources, it was a worthwhile investment.
To grind for SCIENCE it is necessary to launch more eccentric rich people into space. Look, this design may not seem safe, but it's totally safe, really. Really.
What could go wrong?
See? Two flights already and so far everything worked without incident, and with inexperienced pilots even!
But there was another very costly way to earn even more science, a very insane contract. Major oil industries, the Chinese and Russian governments and several right-wing organizations were paying Morgan to study closely the temperatures of the Sun through a flyby of the very Sun, something that would be a first for a change: never in History was such a bold flight attempted. They hoped that the gathered information from such a flight would bury forever the Church of Globowarmthinkery and its Climatologist "librul idiots" by proving definitively there is no man-made climate change. There was also about $5000 in that contract funding from an individual called Cleveland Mark Blakemore, who was certain an Ice Age was coming by the end of the 21st century, and he hoped there would be evidences gathered through such flyby of the Sun about his predictions. For Morgan Interstellar, the implications were clear: if indeed ITZ COMING, the drive towards space exploration will increase a hundredfold, and so will their business opportunities.
Those were the reasons why such a billionaire project for an unmanned rocket almost as massive as the Xu-2 was approved. Glaciation X would fly as close to the Sun as possible, gather temperature readings, then maintain such eccentric orbit for several years to continue taking readings and studying the Sun closer than any human device has ever done until it stops working.
Glaciation X also made several thermal readings during the course of its long flight towards the Sun, essential for the much needed science towards the final steps required for the economical exploration of outer space. It would take a while before the results could be finally measured.
All the science gathered from so many contracts and projects finally was enough for another important step in the current plans of Morgan Interstellar. Powerful survey scanners capable of measuring any resource on a planetary body would finally be available.
As a test, they were first deployed on Earth, using the Gen 3 Satellite design. Such surveys require terminus polar orbits because of their power demands, to ensure the probe will always have sunlight available. Some deposits of ore and most importantly, Uranium, were detected in the West Coast of Africa not so far from the Space Center. A drone was deployed to scan them.
Sadly such precise scanners only work for ore. Fortunately, if there is enough ore on the Moon, Lunar refineries for all kinds of rocket fuels will become a possibility, which will vastly expand the range of future space flights once they get built.
To check the resources of the Moon, a new, very ingenious design based on the LunarSat was devised: the
Data4 Lunar Surveyor also included two mini lander probes docked to it, although their fuel might be too limited for their role of landing on the lunar surface for close scans.
After a few contractual side jobs, Data4 Lunar Surveyor completed its scan of the Moon, detecting several valuable resources. There is certainly potential, but overall the Moon is quite resource poor. Perhaps other bodies in the solar system will have richer resources.
At the right time, hopefully, one of the probes is detached from the larger probe for landing on the Moon.
As suspected, these tiny probes have barely enough to land in one piece. They cannot be reused. And the landing... well...
At least it was still intact and working. However, it took a long time before it finally managed to transmit all its scans back to the space center due to the limits of its miniaturized solar panels. There was a contract to do seismic surveys in a very specific part of the Moon this one sadly landed far away from. The second one would be needed for it.
Out of fuel... there goes another one. But what the fuck? The locations requested by a certain contract are not on the Moon, they are
in the Moon, as in beneath the surface? Is this a fraud?
(Another bug involving RSS. PROTIP: NEVER ACCEPT SURVEY CONTRACTS OF ANY KIND IN RSS)
There was more science before the final step could be taken. An independent space program in Kinshasa failed... again. They got close to their own Moon landing, but their astronaut barely survived the trip and is now stranded in Lunar Orbit. They offered a lot for the rescue of the same astronaut, which would demand a completely new design in the Xu Program, using new technologies.
Xu-3 was designed to work both manned and unmanned. Heavier yet somewhat cheaper compared to its predecessor thanks to more efficient technologies, it provided a lot more spare Delta-V, which would likely ensure no nightmarish long suborbital wait before a final reentry like what happened with Xu-2. Having only space for one, it would orbit the Moon, rescue the stranded Congolese astronaut, and if possible, do another landing because there is a contract to plant another flag on the Moon. It was also the first Morgan space rocket with electrical systems powered by a nuclear reactor instead of solar power so even in the dark side of the Moon it would keep working.
Sure, the life support supplies are attached to a nuclear reactor, but there is nothing to worry about. That reactor is 100% shielded, there is no radiation leaking into food, water and oxygen reserves, really!
There it goes.
Almost routine at this point. Jendun was certainly glad rescue arrived after all, but there was a surprise for him.
Because this will be the second African moon landing as well!
Time to go back home.
To return to the blue planet, because Jendun dindu nuffin wrong.
This time, the reentry maneuver was much faster and safer than with Xu-2.
Not that such details inspire much confidence in certain moments.
He almost passed out. That moment is one nobody ever gets used to.
But he survived, and another great mission ends.
Most importantly, much scientific knowledge is recovered, finally enough for the still needed technological advances towards the greatest project of Morgan Interstellar: the economic development of the Moon and beyond.
Meanwhile, the real ranges of the existing communications technologies available to Morgan Interstellar prove a lot larger than the stated value. Glaciation X is approaching its periapsis from the Sun, from where, if it isn't burned into a crisp, it will take multiple readings and send them back to the Space Center, readings that may prove that thing Cleve was talking about is very, very real while the Church of Global Warming is another kooky leftard religious cult for dumb fedora tippers
Through tourism needed to fund outsourced R&D, near all the newcomers among the astronauts have their maiden flights. And so many contracts are sought, researches, until the next technology required for Morgan Interstellar goals can be reached. Days become weeks, weeks become months, and then:
The Sun almost fried Glaciation X. The response lag is so bad the only way to really have any control over it is through the autopilot of the flight computer, but finally the first results are coming. The verdict is: for now the sun is definitively hotter than before and that is definitively causing climate changes on Earth, but how long will it last? With such information being published, at first they accuse Morgan of doing fraudulent research, which is super ironic given Global Warming cultists love to falsify and manipulate data until they conform to their dogmas. Eventually however, like all following the path of their own extinction, the Globowarmthinmajifics lose all their credibility as the people wake up to the frauds they always were.
As for the prophecies of a coming Ice Age ITZ... further readings of the Sun will be needed to either confirm or disprove it. This was a truly pioneer and very enlightening close by research of the Sun.
Extracting resources from the vacuum isn't something easy. The Makoua Space Center will need a First World Class R&D Facility before that even becomes practical, and First World Class R&D is very, very expensive.
Once the new facilities were finally constructed, the final step was ready: drills, storage facilities, warehouses built in low and zero gravity environments. Drop pods. The age of space economics was about to begin.
(Also, UKS had an update. Its previous version had the nuclear reactors in an earlier node which is why Xu-3 had one while that update moved all nuclear reactors from Kolonization to this node that requires all upgrades to the R&D facility)
Now the only question remaining would be: which is the best resource or processed goods to be sent from space to Earth for a lot of profit? Naturally, given the hostility of Earth's governments to let private corporations work without restrictions with uranium, that one was a given, but would raw uranium do it?
Sadly, as well understood by the difference between countries that only export raw materials such as most of Africa and those that export industrialized goods, raw uranium isn't that valuable to justify the costs to extract it from outer space. On the other hand, uranium enrichment is something that is very sensitive to be done by a private megacorporation... on Earth. But that will require manned bases, not only unmanned operations, nevertheless, it may indeed be the future of Morgan Interstellar: Manned Uranium Refineries on the Moon. Why? Because:
TO BE CONTINUED