NationStates Jolt Archive

Izistan launches Lunar rover.
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Izistani News Network: Technology Desk.
March 19, 2005.

A Excalibur (http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/exclibur.htm) booster lifted off from the waters off of the Korolev Point spaceport at 10:32 AM this morning.
*cut to footage of an Excalibur hurtling out of the water*
Onboard is the Selena 4 lunar orbiter and the unmanned rover, Athena . The Selena is equipped with various instruments and cameras, but Athena has the really interesting gear. It carries four high resolution TV cameras, various experiments, and a number of solar powered radio beacons. These beacons will guide unmanned cargo landers to the surface of Mare Smythii for Project Kurchatov. The orbiter is expected to conduct mapping operations of the farside and nearside, it will also take radar images of the surface. The orbiter has a expected lifespan of five years, and the rover is expected to last about nine days on the surface.


OOC: I was inspired by the Lunokhod rovers of the 70's and the DLB project. Project Kurchatov is going to establiQuestionssh a Izistani presence on the Moon (AKA, a base, which I will call Horizen). /concerns are welcome.

OOC(October 24th 2005): This summer I found out that Mare Serenitatis had been claimed before hand. Henceforth, in order to not step on any toes, the location of the base has been changed to Mare Smythii. We decided to name the base Daemonfels instead of Horizen("Kurchatov" will probably change as well). I apologize for any inconvinance.

Star City Launch Complex - 03/21/05
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The sun was setting on the Star City launch complex, thin clouds skirting the sun to the west. Two days prior, the active signal from the landing beacons on the Moon had been received and now the two monstrous NKZ-4 rockets were moving along rails from the construction cave in the side of the cliff to their launch pads. They were carrying the main materials for the Izistani-Northerner lunar base in large metal containers at the apex of each rocket.

The rockets had reached their platforms and were now being held suspended by the armatures and cradle at their bases. Technicians were now coming down from the gantry and climbing into the rail transport that would carry them away from the launching site. Moisture was forming in the pits cut below the rockets as the air grew cold from the liquid hydrogen being pumped into the rocket's storage tanks and the seawater churning at the bottom of each pit.

The island that Star City was built on was a rather large piece of granite that had rudely been shoved from beneath the water's surface some few million years ago by a titanic earthquake. Owing to the stable nature of the island the engineers had found themselves building on, they took advantage of the granite shelf and had cut most of the launch complex into a cliff where the temperature variance would be negligible.

A short, computer-controlled, countdown began and the six nuclear engines on the first stage of the No. 1 rocket thundered to life and as the countdown ended, the gantry arms began to fall away. The rocket rose into the twilight glowing like the nuclear lance of some disgruntled fire god thrown heavenward. The No. 2 rocket would launch three hours later once the first rocket was well on its way to rendezvous with the Moon.