Professional Documents
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See the High Frontier Living Rules in the download section of www.sierramadregames.com
Designer: Phil Eklund Art, Map, Layout: Phil Eklund Development: Matt Eklund, Dr. John Douglass Playtesters: Jon Arkley, Chris Peters, Geoff Hurn, Donald Acker, Cooper Fox, Jordi Cairol, Jordi Parera, Dick Sauer, Trever Brown, Eric Gerber, Marc Figueras, Michael Mindes, Seth Jaffee, Steve Turney, James Stear, Mari Pitarque. D-vo team: Darrell Hayhurst, David Andrews, Jeremy Grover, John Williamson. Editing: Janice M. Sellers, Rick Heli, Phil Vogt Questions? Look for High Frontier in www.yahoogroups.com, and post your questions and experiences there!
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In the near future, nanofacturing techniques will allow incredible new materials, such as carbon buckytube whiskers, to be built atom by atom. But they can only be built in the zero-gravity and high-vacuum conditions in space. Various private and government enterprises race to establish a buckytube mechanosynthesis factory on a suitable carbonaceous asteroid. To do so, they accumulate tanks of water in orbiting fuel depots, to be used as rocket propellant. Also needed are remote-controlled robonauts to do the grunt work. The key to success is water in LEO (low Earth orbit). At first, water will be expensively upported out of the deep gravity well of Earth. Eventually, it will be mined and transported from Luna, the moons of Mars, or other nearby hydrated objects at about half the velocity increment (or 2.7X less fuel). Extracting resources at the work site is called In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Whoever develops ISRU technology able to glean water from space rather than Earth will gain the strategic high ground to make money through exoglobalization. Note: Terms being defined are listed in bold. Terms defined elsewhere in the rules are italicized. Easily missed rules have a black backdrop. The rocket bullet indicates a rule used in the expanded game only. HIGH FRONTIER SUMMARY. Design and build rockets to prospect and industrialize promising sites in the inner solar system. Your rocket must be researched, boosted, and loaded with fuel. For fuel (actually propellant), water tanks (WT) are used, which also serve as currency. Each rocket has a thruster card specifying its thrust (number of burn spaces you may enter each turn) and fuel consumption (fuel steps spent per burn). Fuel is also spent to land/lift off of worlds. You may decommission your rocket, so that a new one can be built in LEO. OBJECTIVE. To win, send crews or robonauts to prospect sites on the map. Then build an extraterrestrial (ET) factory by transporting a robonaut and a refinery to a successfully prospected site. Each ET factory awards victory points (VP) according to its Resource Exploitation Track. The game ends when a player who has built 3 ET factories or 2 space ventures pays 5 WT, or when a specified number of ET factories are built. The winner is the player who has the most VP. Note: While this is a competitive game, there is great freedom in the deals that can be made with other players. See 5.9. CONTENTS. Sections 1-7 describe the basic game. Section 8 adds the expanded game, purchased separately. Section 9 is background science and technology behind the cards. NUMBER OF PLAYERS. Two to five players; each is a political entity.
Science Behind the Map The High Frontier map divides space into two topographies: circumplanetary burns (steep gravity wells around planets), and interplanetary Hohmanns (shallow heliocentric gravity field). It scales to energy, not distance! Note that each spot represents a stable orbit, so rockets do not drift. To change orbits, you must achieve a velocity increment that costs mass and energy.
2.0 COMPONENTS
1 This rulebook. 1 Basic game map (inner solar system). 1 Placeholder Sheet (2.5). 5 Crew cards (2.6B) (must be cut out of the Placeholder Sheet). 5 Player Mats (2.4). 52 Transparent Disks (clear, red, & blue) for water tanks (WT) & indicators. 30 Opaque Disks (in five colors) for claims and outposts. 18 Black Disks for failed mines. 30 Cubes (in five colors) for ET factories, colonies and freighters. 10 Rockets (in five colors). Rockets location and fuel level (5.4B). 24 Cards. Patent blueprints (2.6A) for thrusters, robonauts, & refineries. 1 Six-sided die (1d6), for prospecting (5.6) and hazards (6.4E, F).
2.2 MAP FEATURES There are 3 kinds of spaces: Burns, Intersections, & Site Hexes.
A. BURNS. A pink circle is called a burn. It costs fuel per 6.2B to enter it. B. INTERSECTIONS. There are two kinds of intersections: Hohmann (cross) and L-Point (circular). These represent interplanetary elliptical orbits and Lagrange points respectively. Turning at a Hohmann intersection costs fuel per 6.3.
This is not an intersection.
HEO
Typical burns. The label is just for flavor. A Hohmann intersection. Typical L-point intersections. Hazardous L-point intersections (6.4E, F). L-points with special rules in the expanded game (8.3A, B, C).
C. SITE HEX. A black hexagon is called a site hex. A rocket enters here per 6.4A to land on a world.
Size. For prospecting (5.6B) and lander fuel penalty (6.4C).
2D
patroclus
Spectral Type. Determines the factory product (5.7B). Border Color [expanded game, 8.5C] Hydration. Used for refueling (5.5A) and prospecting (5.6A).
D. HELIOCENTRIC ZONES. The maps are divided into concentric zones, centered on Sol. Each is named after a planet: Mercury, +1 thrust Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, and [expanded map] Saturn. Each zone lists thrust modifiers for solar-powered rockets (6.1A). E. ROUTES. The lines between burns indicate the routes. Seven of these routes have special colors and are marked with a signpost (5.4E). These routes are suggestions only, and have no special rules.
LEO to Mars
3
Burns (2.2A) Hazards (6.4E,F)
The burns show the velocity increment required to travel between orbits, often called delta-v (!V). Each game burn is 2.5 km/sec of delta-v. The Rocket Equation, !V = Ve ln (wet mass/dry mass), defines a rockets delta-v, where Ve is the exit velocity of the propellant in km/sec.
The delta-v for a minimum energy (i.e. Hohmann) transfer from LEO to some nearby destinations are: Nereus (4.5 km/sec), Venus capture (5.5 km/sec, assuming no aerobrake bonus), Phobos/Deimos (5.6 km/sec), Lunar Base (5.7 km/sec), Earths surface (9-10 km/sec), and Mars base (10.2 km/sec, again assuming no aerobraking). Fuel- and Energy-wise, the martian moons are closer to us than our own moon! *The Rabbithole in the Sol-Mercury Lagrange Point 3 has special rules in scenario 8.7B.
B. CREW CARD. Your crew card identifies your color and faction privilege. This card follows all the rules of patent cards. Remember: Since the NASA, PRC, and ESA crew cards have a thruster triangle (2.6D), they be used as a thruster.
C. CARD DATA. The data in the white box (left) are for the basic game, and those in the red box (right) are for the expanded game.
Basic Game
MASS: 2
Mass [basic game]
MASS: 0
Mass [expanded game] Radiation Hardness Resistance to combat damage, solar flares, and radiation belt passages. Support cards required. This card requires an x reactor plus one therm of radiator cooling (8.2A). E. PLATFORM AND ISRU. These icons allow refueling and prospecting.
ORBITAL= 2 range PROSPECT
D. THRUSTER TRIANGLE. Cards with this icon act as rocket motors. Afterburner Solar Power (6.1A). (6.1A). 2 Thrust (6.1A).
fuel consumption
1 Thrust 4
+8
Platform (5.6B). Raygun. F. SOLAR POWER. If the sun symbol Prospect all adjacent appears on any card used by the nonatmospheric sites. thruster, modify the thrust per 6.1A. Buggy. G. SUPPORT TRIANGLES. Re-roll a failed attempt, Support cards (8.2) with one of these or prospect multiple triangles, if used by a thruster that sites along a road. needs them, modify either the thrust Missile. or fuel consumption, as indicated. May act as a thruster.
COOLS: MASS: 2
1 2
ISRU 3
site spectra
2.6 CARDS
4 VP
A. PATENT CARDS. There are three types of patent cards: Thruster, Robonaut, and Refinery. White and Black Sides. The white side of a patent shows a product built on Earth; the black side shows an improved product built in space. A card won in a research auction goes into your hand (2.7A) on its white side, and can be flipped over only after you build your first ET factory (5.7B).
Science Behind the Orbits The bridge between circumplanetary and interplanetary space is the highly eccentric orbit (HEO), which has a periapsis close to the planet, and an apoapsis far out into space. Rockets normally exit a planets gravity field by first entering an HEO.The capture orbit of a planet is also an HEO. After capture, a rocket can make periapsis burns or aerobrakes to enter a low orbit or rendezvous with a moon. Capture can occur without entering HEO by matching velocities with the target, and performing essentially circular decreasing spirals. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) A circular orbit 350-1400 km above the Earths surface. It is below the radioactive Van Allen belts (although during solar storms the belt can impinge on these orbits, leading to higher radiation than experienced in GEO).
Earth-Luna system, showing 4 of the 5 Lagrange points. Luna
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) This circular orbit is 35,786 km above the Earths surface. A power-satellite in GEO travels about the Earth at the same rate as the Earth spins. It can beam energy to an antenna farm on the equator at all hours. Lagrange Points In any two-world orbital system (like the Earth-Luna system shown), there are five points where the combined gravitational pull of the two worlds is balanced by an outward (fictitious) centrifugal force that an orbiting satellite feels at that point. These points, called Lagrange points, are numbered L1 through L5. They are analogous to GEO in that they allow a satellite to be in a "fixed" position in space (contrasted to an orbit in which its relative position changes continuously). Thus, no launch windows are required from within the system.
L4
GEO Van Allen radiation belts
L5
Earth
LEO
*A cycler is a space station in an orbit similar to the HEO illustrated. It reaches Luna twice a month, and carries 90 tonnes of polyethylene shielding for safe passage through the Van Allen belts.
COOLS: MASS: 4
H. RADIATOR ORIENTATION. Each radiator (8.2A) lists a different mass on each end of the card. During boosting (5.4) or production (5.8), play it on your mat in one of two orientations: with either the heavy or the light end uppermost. If a heavy radiator is decommissioned, reorient it 180 into its light version per 6.7C. Reorientation adjusts the dry mass (6.7A).
light version
3.0 SET-UP
3.1 BASIC GAME SET-UP
A. ASSIGNING FACTIONS. Each player chooses, or is assigned randomly, one crew card. Your beginning hand (2.7A) is this single card. Unused crew cards are set aside. First Player. Randomly assign one player to go first. B. PLAYER MATS. Each player faction receives a Player Mat. Starting Funds. Place four clear disks (WT) in your Water Tank Orbital Depot (2.4B), the hex area on your Player Mat. Each clear disk = 1 WT (water tank), the games currency. Faction Cubes, Disks, and Rockets. Put the 6 cubes, 6 disks, and 2 rockets of your color anywhere on your Player Mat. Note: You are limited to this number of cubes, disks, and rockets. If you are out of disks and need a new one, you may withdraw one of your claim disks (the vacated site must be re-prospected to be claimed again). See 5.6B. If you need a cube, you may withdraw one of your glory cubes (place a black disk on the glory site so nobody else can claim the glory). See 5.7A and 7.1. Important: Your WT, hand cards, and stacks are free for anyone to examine. C. PLACEHOLDER. The 24 patent cards are separated into three categories: thrusters, robonauts, and refineries. Shuffle each category and stack them white side up in the three slots indicated on the Placeholder Sheet (2.5A). Resource Exploitation Tracks. Place a blue disk in the start spot of each of the four Resource Exploitation Tracks (2.5B). D. DISK POOLS. Place the clear, red, and blue disks into a pool. WT will be gained and discarded into this pool.
On your turn, calculate your dry mass and modified thrust and move your rocket and freighter (if any) per Section 6, and then select an operation to perform per Section 5. Then proceed to the next player clockwise. Note: It is helpful to have an object to pass around, so that everyone can tell whose turn it is. A cool rocket or celestial object would be nice.
5.0 OPERATIONS
5.1 INCOME OPERATION
During this phase, choose an operation to perform. The 8 choices are Income, Research, Free Market, Boost, Prospect, Refuel, Industrialize, or ET Production. Draw 1 WT income from the pool. Each clear disk is 1 WT, each red disk is 5 WT, and (only if necessary) blue disks are 10 WT.
This operation lets you pick a white card in your hand to sell for 3 WT. Return the card to the bottom of its relevant deck. Sale of Space-Built Products. Alternately, you may decommission (6.7) a black card in LEO to receive WT equal to the VP value of the cards product letter (2.6C), as shown on the Exploitation Track (8, 5, or 4 WT).
Families of Asteroids The formation of the asteroid belt was a violent affair that left shattered clusters in similar orbits. Such clusters are called Hirayama Families, the most important of which are depicted on the map. Another type of asteroid family is the Trojans: worlds that accumulate at planetary Lagrange points. The most numerous are the jovian Trojans, which precede and trail Jupiter by about 60. They may outnumber the main belt asteroids. The Greek camp of Trojans corresponds to the preceding Sol-Jupiter L4 point, and the Trojan camp corresponds to the trailing Sol-Jupiter L5 point. Asteroids in both camps are likely captured centaurs, and are mainly spectral type C or D. Also on the map is the martian Trojan Eureka, and the pseudoterrestrial Trojan Cruithne (Earths second moon). Tom Gehrels, Asteroids II, Univ. of Ariz. Press,1989.
Asteroid compositions, as inferred from spectral reflectivity observations, are: C = carbonaceous chondrite. Coal black deposits of fluffy graphite & tarlike organics. Up to 20% water as hydrides. The most common type in the main belt. Some have ice cores. D = "dark kerogens". Dormant comets with reddish-black organics & pyroxene. The most common type in the outer belt. M = "metalliferous iron". Pieces of the iron-nickel core of an unresolved planet. The Fe-Ni kamacites are very tough at daytime temperatures, but at night they undergo a ductile-tobrittle transition that makes them easy to crush. Little carbon. Included with type M is the rare type E (enstatite, a titanium alloy), & type W (wet metalliferous with hydrated silicates)*. S = stony chondrite. Silicates, sulphides, metals, and possible uranium & thorium fission fuels, but little water or carbon. Most NEAs (Near Earth Asteroids) are of this type. V = vestoid. These bright worlds contain howardites, eucrites, diogenites, & metals, but little carbon or hydrogen.
*An example on the map of type E is Nysa, and of type W is Hertha, both in the Nysa family.
LEO
start
E. SIGNPOSTS. If taking the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo or violet route, check the signpost to see how many burns to get to your destination. This number multiplied by your fuel consumption (2.6D) equals the fuel steps needed. Also indicated is the lander fuel possibly needed (6.4C). Gravity Assist. If the numbers of burns in the basic and expanded games differ (due to slingshots 8.3A), they are listed separated by a slash. Note: The number of burns listed assumes a stop at every Hohmann intersection, to take advantage of the free rotation at the start of each move. Example: A rocket with an output of 3 2 takes the LEO to Mercury orange route to Mercury. It will need 7 X 2 = 14 steps of 10 7 fuel for the 7 burns, plus 10 steps of lander fuel. No ship can carry more than 21 fuel steps, so this trip is doomed. # of Lander fuel Burns (6.4C) 5.5 SITE REFUEL OPERATION This operation loads extracts water from a site, loading it into your rocket as fuel. This adjusts your fuel figure per 5.4C. For fueling at LEO, see 5.4C. A. ISRU REFUEL. If you have a crew or robonaut at a site, gain a number of tanks of fuel equal to one plus the sites hydration (number of drops ), minus your ISRU rating (2.5E). Sites never run out of water. B. FACTORY REFUEL. A rocket at a factory site may add as many tanks as it can hold (up to 8 tanks). No ISRU unit is needed. Factories never run out of water. Optional: Each robonaut or Example: An unfueled rocket with an ISRU of 3 sits crew at a site can extract water on Mercury (hydration = 3). If it performs an ISRU with a single Site Refuel refuel, it gains 1 + 3 - 3 = 1 fuel tank. If it performs Operation. These units cant a factory refuel, it gains up to 8 tanks. share supports (8.2B). If this rule is used, the Divining Nubot C. WATER THEFT. It is felonious (2.3B) to refuel from the ability listed on the Santa factory or outpost of another player without permission. Claus refinery card subtracts
B. DRY MASS. Set your fuel figure upright on the Rocket Diagram (2.4A) in the row corresponding to the rockets dry mass. (the combined mass of all cards in the rocket stack). Set it in the far left spot of the row, marked with an exclamation point (!). This shows your rocket is dry (no fuel). Maximum Size. You are limited to a dry mass of 15. Fuel does not count toward dry mass. Important: If your dry mass changes, see 6.7A. C. LEO FUELING. At any time before or after your movement phase, you may add fuel to a rocket at LEO. Each WT discarded to the pool adds a tank of fuel. For each tank added, move the fuel figure to the right until it reaches the next jagged black column. These columns are labeled Tank #1, Tank #2, etc. Note: Cards and WT may be freely interchanged between your rocket and LEO stacks. See 5.9. Only full tanks can be converted into WT when unloading rockets. If there is a partial tank move the fuel figure to the left until it reaches the next jagged black column before unloading. Each tank is 1 WT. Example: A rocket has a Hall effect thruster (mass 2), a crew (mass 1), plus a Nanobot robonaut (mass 0). Its dry mass is 3. Loaded up with one fuel tank, it has 5 steps of fuel, as shown.
100 ton
probe:
+1
thrust
200 ton
scout:
+0 thrust
Tank #1
Dry mass =3
Remember: Refueling can decrease your modified thrust for your next turn per 6.1A, since your wet mass is increasing. D. TERRESTRIAL PRODUCTION. You may flip a black card in your hand over to its white side without cost, so that you can boost it from Earth. If you later wish to build its black side again, retool your factory to add the product per 5.7D.
Quest For Water No place in space has resource value without a local supply of water, primarily for rocket propellant and exofuels, but also for chemical and mineralogical processing, dust control, crops, and life support. Water is a storable and convenient source of hydrogen, the superior propellant for thermodynamic rockets. Water is a natural shield against energetic protons, kilo for kilo better than regolith or even metals. Finally, without recycling, each man-year requires 10 tonnes of water. (Although it is worth noting that human metabolisms convert carbohydrates plus oxygen into carbon dioxide and water, thus we are stoichiometrically net producers rather than consumers of water.)
Oxygen in the Solar System, Lunar & Planetary Institute, 2008.
A. REQUIREMENTS. Your rocket stack must have a card with an ISRU (2.6E) less than or equal to the hydration (2.2C) of the site. The site must not have been previously prospected (indicated by the presence of a disk). B. PROCEDURE. Roll 1d6. Prospecting is successful if your roll is less than or equal to the site size (2.2C). Therefore, it is always successful for sizes 6+. Claim Disk. If successful, set a disk of your color (to show the claim). If unsuccessful, set a black disk on the site, which prevents further prospecting or industrialization. (But rockets can still perform the refuel operation here.) Remember: The UN (purple) player gains 1 WT per 2.3B if a claim disk is placed. Raygun Prospecting. Using a raygun, you may prospect any number of adjacent site hexes (where each intersection, burn, and site counts as a space). Exceptions: You may fire over Hazard spaces (i.e., L-points and burns with a skull (6.4E) may be skipped over). Your raygun cant fire into site hexes with atmospheres (Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Titan).** Example: A raygun (ISRU = 0) on the HEO for the Koronis Family may prospect ten asteroids in one operation! This includes the asteroids in the Karin Cluster. Roll separately for each prospect. Buggy Prospecting. Using a buggy allows two attempts for a successful prospecting roll with one prospect operation. Alternately, if on Mars, Europa, Io, Ganymede, Callisto, or Titan, you may prospect all the hexes linked by the dashed yellow line (indicating a buggy road) with one prospect operation. Example: A buggy prospects Dresda. The roll is a 3, which fails because Dresda is size 2. But a second roll of 2 succeeds and places a claim disk. Assaying Smelters. Certain refineries (as listed on the card) improve the ISRU rating or prospecting roll, if carried by the stack doing the prospecting.
Solar System Water - For worlds in the Jupiter zone and beyond, surface ice is common since it wont sublimate if shielded from solar heat. Some of the larger outer worlds, like Ceres, Ganymede, and Europa, have polar ice caps and may have subterranean oceans. (Pockets of volcanic gases floating in the water under the ice may be suitable places to establish submarine bases.) The outer D-type asteroids have never been hot enough to chemically bind their water to minerals. Closer in, solar heat has bound the water of C- and W-types into hydrated silicates. A few main-belt asteroids are active comets like 133P/Elst-Pizarro. These must have lost their surface volatiles long ago, but were revived by recent collisions that exposed buried ices. M-, S-, and V-types are drier, but the larger ones may have primeval water protected by a permafrost layer. The moons of Earth and Mars, while anhydrous on the surface, may have buried ice crystals in the polar regions, or in places impacted by aqueous comets or asteroids.*** Even next to the sun on Mercury, there is ice in permanent shadows on the north pole. J. Lunine, 2009.
***Since this was written, the 2009 LCROSS impactor confirmed water in the south lunar pole. The map hydration of Luna has accordingly been bumped up a step.
one from the ISRU of all units collocated with the card.
ISRU Water Harvesting - Water is easy to obtain from worlds with icy cores, just inject steam into a wellhole. A more anhydrous world, with water in the form of hydrated silicates or as tiny ice crystals in the regolith, is more challenging. Crushed mater is sealed in a vessel and heated to 700K with steam at 1 atm pressure. The vapor is removed, and cooled to 280K to separate solids and gases. The liquid water (some of which is recycled to the first step) is outgassed briefly in a vacuum to remove dissolved gasses, and placed in storage. Assuming 4% water content in 70% of the top 2 meters of regolith, four tons of regolith must be scavenged to obtain 120 kg/day of water. In one year, just one game water tank is extracted from an excavated area of about 1100 m2 (about 24 X 24 meters). Lewis et al., Resources of Near-Earth Space, 1993.
*You cant boost into a freighter stack at LEO, because freighter technology (see footnote pg. 7) depends upon unlimited water, and LEO is bone dry.
**As a mnemonic, the map image of atmospheric worlds is marked with a faint halo.
During this phase, compute your modified thrust, and then move both your rocket and your freighter (if any) in any order. Your modified thrust** sets how many burns you may enter per turn, and how big a world you can land on without lander fuel (6.4C). It is calculated before your rocket moves, and is applied for its entire move. Use a blue disk in your Acceleration Track (2.4A) to show your modified thrust for the turn. A. THRUST MODIFIERS. Your rockets thrust is the first number in the thruster triangle (2.6D). Add or subtract the modifiers listed below to obtain the modified thrust. Wet Mass Thrust Modifier. This modifier is indicated in the waterdrop icon in the top row of the Rocket Diagram, depending on the fuel figure position at the start of your move. Exception: If you lift-off (6.4D), expend ascent stage lander fuel BEFORE computing your wet mass thrust modifier for the turn. Example: A sail built on Mars lifts off with 8 tanks of fuel. Subtract 10 steps for lift-off (just over 2 tanks left), then compute the wet mass modifier for the turn. The sails modified thrust is 2 - 1 = 1. Thrust-Modifying Supports. Some reactor and generator cards have a thrust modifier in their support triangle (2.6G). This applies only if your thruster (or one of its supports) needs the card as a support. Solar Power Modifier. If your thruster or its support has the solar icon on its triangle (2.6D, F), your thrust depends on how far from the sun it is, according to the modifier listed on the zone (2.2D) it starts its move in. (Apply this modifier only once, even if you have multiple solar components.) ESA Beamed Power. As part of a deal (5.9A), you may get power from the green player or from a player with a built ionosphere lasing refinery. If so, add one to your thrust for the turn per 2.3B. Open-cycle Cooling. Thrusters with the afterburner icon 2 allow you to dump coolant into the exhaust to increase thrust and get rid of heat. This option gives you +1 thrust for the turn, and [expanded game] satisfies 1 therm (8.2A) of cooling. This option costs fuel; decrease your fuel figure the number of steps listed on the icon. Immediately adjust your acceleration disk up one step, plus another step if your wet mass modifier improves due to the fuel burn. Example [expanded game]: A rocket uses a vortexconfined thruster (1 therm), supported by a Tokamak reactor (2 more therms). With only a 2-therm radiator, it must use open-cycle cooling every move the thruster is 1 used (to keep from melting). This increases the thrust (from 6 to 7), at a cost of an extra fuel step per turn.
This operation plays one black card in your hand into one of your stack slots (2.7B) or your rocket stack. This builds the factory product (5.7B) at the factory. This card must have a product letter (2.6C) that matches the factory type (C, M, S, or V). If you have more than one such black card, choose one. This card is either added to the stack, or can initiate a stack: If rocket stack, place a rocket of your color on the site hex of the factory. If outpost stack, place a disk on the site hex (stacked on the claim disk). If freighter stack, place a cube next to the claim disk at the site. Only one card is allowed here, a black card indicating the freighter cargo (6.6). Example: The UN player from the previous example decides to build and ship his first lunar product. He plays his S black card into his freighter stack slot, and places a purple freighter cube on the map.
62
A. BUYING & SELLING. You may exchange WT, claims, factories, cards in LEO (white side and crew only)*, or promises for services or actions as terms of a deal. These services can include use of the ESA powersat or the UN cycler (2.3B). White hand cards can be swapped as part of a deal, as long as the number of white cards for each trader remains unchanged. Important: WT (as fuel) or white cards may be transferred from your rocket to the stack of any cooperating player in the same space at the end of your move. B. TRADE CARDS. Downloadable expansion cards and rules are available.
Rocket Science A rocket is a vehicle that expels reaction mass, also called propellant, to make itself change its velocity by the law of action/ reaction. The faster the propellant is expelled, the smaller its propellant consumption. (Note: Propellant, the stuff expelled in one direction to make the rocket go the other direction, is normally not the same as fuel, the stuff that contains the rockets energy. A nuclear rocket might use uranium as fuel, but water as propellant. My rules are sloppy in this terminology.) Thermodynamic rockets The easiest way to accelerate propellant is to heat it, allowing it to acquire its velocity and direction in a nozzle. The fuel consumption varies with the square root of the temperature of the hot gases divided by the propellant molecular weight. Thus light elements such as hydrogen are favored as propellants in thermodynamic rockets. Electric rockets Propellant can also be accelerated electrically. Because electric rockets are limited by the electrical power available (assumed to be 60 MWe in this game), they have very low (miligravity) accelerations.
*Black cards and hand cards cant be traded because this leads to game accounting difficulties.
B. MOVEMENT REQUIREMENTS. To move, a rocket stack must have a working thruster with a modified thrust of at least one. Exception: A rocket with no thruster may enter hazards (6.4E,F) in a dashed aerobraking path as long as it doesnt enter a burn. Example: A rocket with a dry mass of 6 and one tank of fuel is transport class (wet mass thrust modifier of -1). Using a thruster with a thrust of 1, its modified thrust is 1 - 1 = 0. It cant move with zero thrust, so it jettisons one step of fuel to bring it to scout class [using expanded game rule 8.3D]. This class has a wet mass modifier of 0, allowing it to move. Dry Rocket. [Rule deleted]
Open-cycle Cooling - Things get hot in rockets, especially nozzles and reactor first walls. They can be cooled with liquid hydrogen, but what to do with the hot coolant? You can reuse it in a closed-cycle by cooling it through acres of radiators. Or you can dump it into the supersonic region of your nozzle, to join the reaction mass. This doubles thrust at the expense of fuel consumption. (Game note: Each thrust point added doubles the actual thrust, in real units.) Jet power is half the product of thrust and propellant exit velocity, so doubling the thrust halves the exit velocity for a given power level. The heat power absorbed in watts is equal to the mass flow rate of the coolant in kg/sec times the specific heat of the coolant (14800 J/kg-K for H2), times the temperature (3200 K, the melting point of the tungsten first wall***). Heat fluxes in the first wall can reach 12 MW/m2. To reject 120 MW of heat (one therm in this game) requires 2.5 kg/sec of hydrogen. More exotic technologies bubble the hydrogen coolant through a vortex of liquid tungsten, allowing temperatures up to 5930 K (boiling point of tungsten). A 10 cm-layer of molten tungsten at the vortex would stop essentially all the radiation from even the nastiest nuclear reactions (antimatter or D-T). For a first wall 1.6 meters in diameter, the tungsten alone would mass 20 tonnes!
***For fission reactors, the isotope 184W must be used, which is 10X less poisonous to thermal neutrons than normal tungsten.
B. CLAIM JUMPING. To claim jump, land on the claim of another player, and immediately replace the claim disk with one of your color. Your rocket must have a crew, and the site must not have cubes or be defended by crew. Claim jumping is felonious (2.3B). Note: It is not a felony to merely land on another players claim or factory. Example: Both NASA and PRC have rockets on Enkes comet. NASA prospects successfully, placing a white claim disk. On his turn, the manned PRC rocket feloniously decommissions its refinery and robonaut to industrialize the claim, replacing the NASA disk with a red disk and a red cube. C. LANDER FUEL PENALTY. If you enter or leave a site hex, you must move your fuel figure to the left a number of spots equal to the sites size. This simulates fuel used by a chemical lander going to or from the surface. T This penalty costs fuel only, and does not count against your acceleration. Direct landing. You may avoid burning lander fuel, for landings and lift-offs, if you have a modified thrust (6.1A) greater than the sites size. Signposts. The lander fuel required for a trip is shown on the signposts (5.4E). The number in the lander silhouette is the number of fuel steps needed, assuming the thrust is too low for a direct landing. Example: A rocket with a modified thrust of 3 lands on Nysa (size 3). Its fuel is decreased three steps. On its next turn, it reduces its dry mass (by dropping off a refinery on Nysa), which increases its modified thrust to 4 per 6.7A. It can blast off without burning fuel. D. LIFT OFF. A rocket stack on a site hex has three options for exit: 1. Ascent Stage Lander Fuel. Burn lander fuel per 6.4C to exit and continue moving. Per 6.1A, burn this fuel before calculating modifed thrust. Lift off is free if modified thrust is greater than the sites size. Note: You may not take an aerobrake path (6.4F) when lifting off. 2. Suborbital Hop. If a world has sites joined by a dashed yellow line per 5.6B, you can hop to one of them by expending a number of steps of fuel equal to the worlds size. If your rocket or outpost stack includes a buggy, you may move the stack along the dashed yellow line without spending fuel. 3. Decommission the rocket stack per 6.7. E. CRASH HAZARD . When entering a crash hazard L-point (marked with a skull), roll the die. A 1 = rocket decommissioned (6.7). F. AEROBRAKE HAZARD . When entering an aerobrake hazard L-point (marked with a parachute), roll the die. A 1 = rocket decommissioned. Aerobraking. If you follow an aerobrake path to land on a site hex, you avoid burning any lander fuel (6.4C). (But still must spend fuel for entering burns.) Sails. A sail card entering an aerobrake hazard is decommissioned, even if it is not the thruster being used. Example: A sail spends its 1 burn to enter the Mars HEO (highly eccentric orbit). It then coasts (6.2C) to the aerobrake hazard. The sail card is decommissioned, but the rest of the stack parachutes onto the Hellas Basin. Atmosphere Scooping. A rocket carrying the Atmospheric ISRU Scoop refinery [plus its supports, in the expanded game] may perform aerobrakes without risk. If ending its move on an aerobrake hazard, it may then perform a Refuel Operation, which adds as many tanks of fuel as the rocket can carry. You are scooping and liquefying the atmosphere to use as propellant. Note: If starting on an aerobrake, you may move to land, return to space, or linger. G. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. You may avoid making a crash or aerobrake hazard roll by paying 4 WT before the roll. (Represents a software upload.)
Landing Hazards Landing on some asteroids is more dangerous than others. An elongated asteroid that spins rapidly (with a day < 5.5 hr) has a rotational velocity that varies from spot to spot, and gravity is also deviated from the surface normal vector. Some asteroids are unstable "rubble piles": originally monolithic bodies that have been shattered and coalesced under the influence of gravity. Others are dumbbell-shaped contact binaries, formed when two smaller bodies come into gentle (but unstable) contact. Aerobraking A spacecraft can lose approach velocity and enter a capture HEO by making a close pass through the atmosphere. Repeated atmospheric passes at the low (periapsis) point circularizes the HEO into a low circular orbit. Any solar panels and radiators will need thermal protection, possibly using foamed ceramic heatshields fabricated from asteroidal rocks.
***This restriction applies only for entry. You may exit a comet during any sector.
Interplanetary Transport Network I admit the map looks a bit weird. If Hohmanns were always the minimum energy route, the map should be pure spirals. But this ignores the effects of gravity at the embarkation and destination planets. Lower energy paths wind between the Lagrange points, which are unstable gateways to highly perturbative, chaotic trajectories to all other Lagrange points in the solar system. These routes require almost no fuel, but they are glacially slow. Additionally, launch windows are sometimes decades or even centuries apart. Orbital Water Depots - Boosting out of Earths 9.5 km/sec gravity puts orbital water at the same price per kilo as gold! The Russian Proton boosts at $4000/kg, and the Shuttle boosts at $10,000/kg. For half the delta-v, a rocket tug can haul ISRU water to LEO from the martian moons or NEAs.
**Moving in a straight line by continuously thrusting to counteract the solar gravitation. Simply point your nozzle directly at the sun, and set the thrust to be equal to your weight.
D. OUTPOST. You can convert your rocket or freighter into an outpost by exchanging its figure for a disk and moving the cards into the outpost slot. Each full tank of fuel or ISRU fuel (5.5A) can be converted into a clear disk stored at the outpost. An outpost and fuel can be converted into a rocket per 5.4B,C. Factory Outposts. ET production (5.8) can build an outpost. Outpost Disk. Mark the outpost location with a disk of your color. If at a site, stack the disk on the claim disk. Coalescence. At the end of a rockets move, it can merge with any cooperating stack. A rocket can drop off outposts at any point of its move, which adjusts dry mass at the end of its move.
B. CREW DECOMMISSION. It is felonious (2.3B) to voluntarily decommission crew anywhere except at your ET factory or LEO. See glory (7.1). Space Colony. Decommissioning crew at your factory adds an extra cube at the site to represent a Space Colony. You may do this multiple times to make the colony bigger. Each cube is worth a VP per 7.1. A colony cube may be converted into a crew card in a rocket or outpost stack at the site. Rescue Pod. {Rule dleted}. C. RADIATOR DECOMMISSION. If a heavy radiator is decommissioned, reorient it to its light version per 2.6H instead of returning it to your hand. This rotates the card 180 and adjusts dry mass per 6.7A. Light radiators are decommissioned normally.
8 VP
7X
2 Player Game. Game ends at the end of the turn when 4 factories are built. 3 Player Game. Game ends when 6 factories are built. 4 or 5 Player Game. Game ends when 7 factories are built. A. PAYING TO END THE GAME. If a player has 3 ET factories built, or cubes in at least 2 space ventures (7.2), he may end the game by spending his whole turn paying 5 WT. B. FINAL REGIME. The phasing player automatically initiates an election auction (8.5B) at the end of the expanded game.
Rocket Science Chemical or nuclear reactions express their energy in radiation and energetic particles, and most of rocket science concerns getting the propellant to intercept this energy efficiently. Lines and windows characterize the opacity of a propellant across a radiation spectrum; lines are where the radiation is absorbed and windows are where the radiation gets through. Dirty reactions are those that generate products that are not easily absorbed by water or hydrogen propellant. This deals a double whammy: not only is escaping radiation wasted, but it also creates waste heat that must be rejected by radiators (other than radiation passing directly into space; for instance, half of proton-antiproton energy escapes via neutrinos). Examples of dirty reactions are high neutron fission, D-T fusion, and antimatter reactions. Clean reactions include chemical rockets and aneutronic fusion like 3He-D and H-B.
Robonaut Science As it was in the development of the New World in the 16th century, manpower is the biggest limiting asset in space. Hazardous or high radiation work will be done by robonauts, remotely controlled by humans. However, the speed of light time delay limits how distant the humans can teleoperate these machines. Hohmanns on the map are 500 light-seconds distant from each other. Assessing a body for mineral or volatile resources may be done three ways: (a) Raygun robonauts fire an energy beam at the surface from orbit. Of special interest is the 3m spectrophotometric signature that indicates water. (b) Buggy rovers scavenge and beneficiate regolith which has been enriched by solar wind space weathering. (c) Missile robonauts assay metals and silicates by melting them with thruster plasmas. Metals must be cut or melted at high temperature, or reacted at low temperature using gaseous carbonyls (see the CVD Molding - Carbonyl Volatilization card). Silicates from the inner belt are completely hydrated, having marinated in contact with liquid water for millions of years. These ices are released by vaporization. In the outer belt, the silicates of icy asteroids remain anhydrous, because the asteroid has never thawed.
*Anthony Zuppero has shown that the cheapest and most energy efficient means to move cargo, assuming unlimited water (as would be the case at an ET factory), is to use a low performance steam rocket. This would solar-heat water to 1100 K, by using inflatable mirrors. See www.neofuel.com.
**The Space Elevator is a cable that stretches from the Earths surface to GEO, with a counter-mass beyond. To support the tensile loads of its own weight, the cable is made from ultra-strong carbon nanotubes manufactured in space.
D. JETTISONS. By jettisoning fuel, cargo, or WT cargo, your rocket decreases wet or dry mass and so improves its modified thrust. Cargo Jettison. If you jettison a card, it is decommissioned. Decrease the stacks dry mass by following the procedure in 6.7A. Propellant Jettison. You may jettison water by moving your rockets fuel figure to the left a desired number of steps. See Example 6.1B. E. DIRT AS PROPELLANT. The dirt bucket icon on a thruster card allows a rocket to use regolith (space dirt) as propellant. A rocket with this icon can do the refuel operation at any site hex, adding as much fuel as it can carry, regardless of ISRU!*** Phileas Fogg Tactic. Besides regolith, these thrusters can use decommissioned cards as fuel (the machinery is ground up and fed into the engine hopper). Each mass point adds a tank of fuel. This may be on the fly as part of the spacecraft move operation.
F. INITIATING COMBAT. If the political disk is in war (8.6), your (nonfreighter) stacks may each initiate combat per 8.4 at the end of your movement phase against other cohabitating stacks or factories. Interception. Also during war, your stacks or ET factories may initiate combat against spacecraft which exit your space during their movement phase. This includes interception of spacecraft which pass through the spot you occupy. If such spacecraft are operational after the combat, they may complete their move normally. See the example on page 11.
Gravity Slingshots Suppose your rocket, bound for Mars from Earth, goes the opposite direction to Venus. If you fly past the trailing side of Venus (as it orbits Sol), its gravity will accelerate you (in both direction and magnitude) with respect to Sol. This gravity slingshot can be used to decrease the delta-v (by up to 10 km/sec) for the trip to Mars (or to other places in orbits superior to Earths orbit). Conversely, passing in front of Venus will slow you down (again with respect to Sol). Consider a ship returning to Earth. A grazing (180 km altitude) flyby in front of Luna can slow the rocket (with respect to Earth) by up to 1.85 km/sec, allowing it to be captured by Earth. However, a flyby of Luna cannot speed you up or slow you down with respect to Luna (or places in lunar orbit). Likewise, a close pass to Sol cannot help you reach anything in solar orbit. Therefore Sol has no slingshot value in this game.
E-mail from Dr. Nathan Strange, NASA
***Regolith collected by mass drivers and other dirt rockets is treated as water for all game purposes.
Thermodynamics Building rockets is all about Radiators For any space-based activity, all waste converting energy from one form to another. A reactor heat must ultimately be directly radiated to space. converts nuclear energy into radiation, either neutral , For a rocket with megawatts of power and charged plasma , or exotic . A generator converts closed-cycle cooling, radiator mass dominates total this radiation into electricity, either impulsive or mass. The Stefan-Boltzmann Law states that the DC . An electric thruster converts electricity into watts radiated per square meter of radiator equals thrust. The science that studies energy conversions (5.7 X 10-8 W/m2) (e) (T4), where e is the emissivity is called Thermodynamics. The Second Law of (typically 0.9) and T is the temperature at which the Thermodynamics tells how much energy is available heat is radiated. This temperature, varying as the 4th for useful thrust or electricity, and how much must power, depends on the thermodynamic cycle. In this be rejected as waste heat. Thermal efficiency is far game, radiators reject heat at around 990 K for earth more important in space than on Earth. In space, designs and 1150 K for space designs. Therefore, a things are easy to heat up, but can only be cooled 990 K design rejecting one therm (120 MW) requires down by radiation. (Space has no convenient river or a square panel 35 meters on a side, radiating both atmosphere with which to reject heat by conduction sides. Each millimeter of aluminum armor on both or convection). The heat engines applicable in space, sides of such a panel would add 6.6 tonnes! along with their thermal efficiencies, are: Thermionic Radiators suffer from diseconomies of scale, working 15%, Brayton 19%, Stirling 20%, Rankine 22%, fluid evaporation, vulnerability to meteoroids and AMTEC 45%, JTEC 66%, & MHD (open-cycle) 90%. hostile action, and dormancy and restart problems.
*A radiation belt is a torus of charged particles trapped in a magnetic field. Such magnetospheres provide protection against solar storms. Note that the dashed line of a radiation belt is not a route, so you cant travel along it!
**There are actually two belts, called the Van Allen belts (VAB).
Solar Events Sol has an 11-year Solar Cycle, ranging from minimal sunspots and storm activity to maximum. Solar storms often emit flares, a burst of radiation across the spectrum, that triggers radio blackouts and storms in the magnetospheres of planets throughout the solar system. The power density in the x-ray region determines the flare category: B, C, M, or X. The X-class flares are the biggest, endangering space electronics, solar cells, and astronauts (who have about 15 minutes to get into their storm shelters). Solar storms also emit expanding blobs of particles called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). Being particles rather than radiation, CMEs are rather localized, and propagate slower (1 to 4 days to reach 1 AU), but they can pack more punch when they hit. E-mail from Dr. Isabel Braun of
ETH, and Sandy Antunes of Goddard, 2010.
*A rocket carrying the Project Orion reactor or the n-6Li microfission thruster is immune from missiles (it can launch fission bombs towards anything that approaches, and has a shield designed to survive nuclear blasts.) Mass driver or MPD T-Wave thrusters may attack as robonaut rayguns rolling 2d6 instead of 1d6.
**Note that map spaces surrounded by a radiation belt, such as LEO, as well as the radiation L-points themselves, are considered inside the belt and protected from flares.
Nationalism. Only NASA (white) may perform the income operation (5.1). Paleoconservatism. Only NASA (white) is allowed to initiate a research auction (5.2). Capitalism. During an income operation (5.1), a player receives as many WT as the number of factories he owns. Note: An election per 7.3B is automatically held at the end of the game.
MASS: 1
1123 K.
REACTOR
CO to methanation
Flip Heat is transported by molten GENERATOR lithium inside molybdenum piping. side
MASS: 1
Li vapor
Adiabatic Section
=M
Al2O3 + C
This 650 MWth solid-core reactor can generate electricity, or expel coolant at 1440 K for thrust.
tor p
radia
heat pipes
Three AMTEC units produce DC current directly from the heat of a molten metal, generating 45 MWe at 45% efficiency.
AMTEC Thermoelectric
H2
60 MWe of resistance heating @ 3100 K can process ores or heat H2 for 10 kN thrust. Efficiency 1 is 81%. Tungsten Resistojet
54
ISRU 3
This rocket has no crew, leaving it vulnerable to glitches. NASA chooses to take the fastest route to Ceres to minimize this risk.
ROBONAUT
10
As part of his Boost operation, NASA discards 5 WT to load his rocket with five tanks of fuel. The fuel figure is placed as shown on the top of the next page (fuel figure #1). The map figure is placed on LEO start. The thrust is 5, plus the wet-mass modifier (-1) and the reactor modifier (+1). So a blue acceleration disk is placed in the 5 position. Year 2 move: Houston, we have a problem... The NASA rocket debarks, crosses a burn, and attempts to cross the Earth radiation belt. Unfortunately, it happens to be a solar active year (red sector), which adds two to the radiation level. A 6 is rolled, yielding a radiation level of 6 + 2 5 = 3. This is enough to decommission the light radiator (rad-hardness = 2), which adjusts dry mass to from 5 to 4. See fuel figure #2. So the mission stalls at the VAB spot with overheating generators! NASA has 3 options: (1) decommission everything and restart, (2) leave the stack as an outpost until new radiators can be delivered, or (3) continue the mission using open-cycle cooling. He chooses the final option and continues his move. Following the red route crosses two burns, burning 4 steps each, plus one more for afterburning (9 steps altogether). It is now scout class, so its acceleration disk goes up a step (to 6). NASA could have avoided this calamity by afterburning from the start, impelling him just a bit faster past the Van Allen belts.
*In 1937, Nazi astonomers detected Hermes as it zipped by Earth at about twice the distance to the moon. Subsequent passes came even closer without it being detected.
nuclear reactor
radiation shield
Fission
W resistors
Flip side
=C
Rad-Hard: 1
power feed
getter pack central coolant Hf foils return duct heat Dual-Mode source
MASS: 2
Thrust
+1
Basic Game
anel
=M
Flip side
MASS: 0
Rad-Hard: 5 generator
Cl2 CarboChlorination
Evapora Sectiontor
Mo / Li Heat Pipe
=S
REFINERY
Rad-Hard: 2oven, at
COOLS: MASS: 2
100 ton
probe:
+1
#12
thrust
200 ton
scout:
+0 thrust
Tank #1
400 ton
transport:
-1
thrust
Tank #4
#8
#9
Tank #2
#11
#9
Tank #3
#10
54 -1 +0
#7 #6 #3 #5 #2 #4 Dry mass =4 Dry mass =5
LEO, Year 25
Dry mass =2
54 -1
ROCKET DIAGRAM
54 -1
Start, Year 1
+1
#1
Year 3 move: An unscheduled fueling stop on a moonlet of Mars. The calamity left NASA with five steps of fuel (see fuel figure #3 above), not enough to get to Ceres. So he lands on Deimos, which costs no fuel. Years 3, 4, 5 operations: ISRU fueling on Deimos. The NASA resistojet has an ISRU equal to the Deimos hydration of three drops. Each refuel operation adds 1 tank. After 3 years, the fuel figure is on the fuel figure #4 position. Year 6: Failed prospecting. NASA prospects. The prospecting roll is 2, which fails, placing a black disk. (Only a 1 would succeed on Deimos.) Year 7: Resume mission. The rocket blast-offs (no fuel cost), and crosses a triangle burn (5 fuel steps) and stops at the second Hohmann intersection. Year 8: Enroute. Moves to the Hohmann intersection outside the Gefion family. Year 9: Gefion family HEO. Crossing the burn to Ceres HEO costs 5 steps (fuel figure #6). The modified thrust is six, not enough for a direct landing. Year 10: Direct Landing on Ceres. Since the rocket is now scout class, the modified thrust is 7 with afterburning (1 fuel step spent). See figure #7. The prospecting roll automatically places a white claim disk on Ceres. Year 11: Industrializing Ceres. The entire stack (refinery, robonaut and their supports) is decommissioned to establish a carbonaceous nanofactory. NASA holds two cards of product letter C: the Carbotherm refinery, and the AMTEC generator. He chooses the generator to be the factory product. Year 12: Ceres Factory Production. NASA builds it first product, the JTEC generator (the black side of the AMTEC generator). This is played into his outpost stack, and a white disk is stacked on Ceres to show its location. Year 13: Launch of ferry mission. NASA boosts a new resistojet to LEO. But unfortunately it wont work without a generator, and his new generator is on the Ceres outpost. He boosts his crew (cost 0 WT), and loads it with the robonaut and 6 tanks of fuel. This stack (output (96) has a dry mass of 1. Years 14, 15, & 16: Ferry mission to Ceres. The sector is blue, so the rocket takes the opposition route* to Ceres (see 8.3A), and lands with one step of fuel left (fuel figure #8). He replaces the outpost with the rocket stack shown. The dry mass is 2.
Basic Game Flip MASS: 0 side Rad-Hard: 5 MASS: 2 = M NASA LAUNCH FEES. power Receive 1 WT if any playergenerator pays for boosting feed (5.3).
Rad-Hardness: 5
Missile:
MASS: 1
ISRU 4
Expanded Game
MASS: 1
Basic Game
MASS: 1
H2
heat
exchanger
cold hi-pressure
heat
JTEC H2 Thermoelectric
GENERATOR
NASA Astronauts
PEM
heat
PEM
*By making fly-bys of Venus and Mars along the orange, blue, and yellow routes, the NASA ferry gets to Ceres in 3 burns. See below.
60 MWe of resistance heating @ 3100 K can process ores or heat H2 for 10 kN thrust. Efficiency 1 is 81%. Tungsten Resistojet
W resistors
hot hi-pressure H2
96
H2
54
Rad-Hard: 4
CREW
Year 17: Factory Refuel. A refuel operation at the Ceres ET factory yields 8 fuel tanks. The rockets thrust has two modifiers, -2 for wet mass (tug class), and -2 for the solar-powered generators (in the Ceres zone). Thus, the acceleration track is set at a modified thrust = 5 2 2 = 1. Year 18: Mission to Minerva. The rocket burns 6 steps of fuel (equal to the size of Ceres) for ascent lander fuel. It flies to the neighboring world of Minerva. The landing costs 3 steps of fuel (equal to Minervas size). See fuel figure #9. The prospecting roll succeeds by rolling a 3, equal to the size of Minerva. Another white claim disk is awarded. Years 19 & 20: ISRU refueling. Since Minerva is hydration = 3, each turn of refueling yields one tank. The fuel figure is moved to the Tank #4 column (figure #10). Modified thrust = 2. Year 21: Deal with the ESA. NASA pays the ESA player a bunch of WT to get beamed power, improving his thrust by one. He gets another thrust point by afterburning, costing one fuel step, plus 4 steps for the burn (see fuel figure #11). The total modified thrust is 4. Since this is greater than Minervas size, the lift-off is free. This saves two fuel steps. He ends his move on the Hohmann outside Ceres. Years 22, 23, & 24: Return to LEO. Following the red route to GEO (cost = 8 fuel steps), it performs an aerobrake to enter LEO. It survives the aerobrake and the radiation belt risks. It enters LEO with 2 steps of fuel. See fuel figure #12. Year 25: War with the European Space Agency. The ESA player exits LEO with a monster ship carrying 2 refineries to its claims in the Jovian system. NASA senses that this shipment must be stopped, or the game is lost. Noting that the politics is currently in war, NASA scrambles for an attack. By discarding 2 WT, it places its fuel figure as shown (figure #11). It exits LEO with a modified thrust of 4, safely crossing the radiation belt. Crossing 2 burns along the violet route (8 steps of fuel), it intercepts the ESA ship in the main belt. ESA attacks first with a raygun, successfully removing the generator with a roll of 5. Then NASA attacks with its surviving missile, the kamikaze crew (who are automatically decommissioned). The 2d6 attack roll is a 7, which decommissions everything but one refinery, which the ESA chooses to leave as an outpost. Victory Points. At this point, NASA has 5 VP for cubes and disks on Deimos, Ceres, and Minerva, plus 8 VP for the Rocket Stack at Ceres Ceres factory. This stack uses a resistojet
ROBONAUT
ISRU 3
Conjunction vs. Opposition Routes The Hohmann route to Mars is possible Earth to Mars Scale Pa t h B when Mars and Earth are in conjunction, which is when the two planets are at 150 million km their farthest distance from each other (400 million kilometers)**. This semi-ellipse (1 AU) is shown as path A on the diagram. This trip lasts 8 months, and is represented Venus Earth (flyby) on the map by the red route. Another type of trajectory is the opposition class, (start) which debarks when Earth and Mars are near their closest point. This trajectory, path B on the diagram, uses a gravitational slingshot at Venus. To make this journey on the map, take the orange route, but halts on the Hohmann leading to Mars (conjunction) Venus. On the next turn, after a Venus flyby, make a Mars flyby and aerobrake for a Mars direct landing. Alternatively, you can fly to Deimos. Both routes are Mars Pa a year longer, but cost less fuel than the Hohmann. A trip to the Venus-Sol L4 th A (opposition) (Hohmann) point followed by an Earth flyby is another fuel-efficient route to Mars.
**Counterintuitively, the cheapest path to Mars is exactly when its the farthest away from us.
11
Mars - Mission planners disagree if a conjunction or opposition trajectory is better to get to Mars, and if astronauts or robonauts are better suited to explore its surface. Even if robotic landers are used, humans are still needed in the vicinity, to avoid the 10-40 min. lag needed to teleoperate from Earth. Teleoperation takes place from Phobos in the NASA plan, and from the Sol-Mars L1 point in the Zubrin Athena plan. A typical nuclear-electric manned mission to Mars*** has a dry mass of 8 (for reactor, generator, radiator, crew, lander, & electric thrusters), plus 4 tanks of fuel. It takes 14 months for a round trip, including a month on the surface. Slingshots at Luna and Mars are used.
***Boeing STCAEM NEP opposition study (1991).