Layarteb
15-09-2005, 20:35
gallium arsenide
Launch Pad 39-B, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, was quiet. The ILSF-8D Pluto, the fourth shuttle of the NGSTS program, was sitting on the pad, pointed upwards. The two solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank glistened in the sun. The shuttle was without its Lunar Injection Boosters, the necessity for them being non-existent and the weight of them being necessary to lose.
Inside the cargo bay of the massive shuttle sat a single satellite, a §450M piece of hardware that barely fit in the bay. The satellite was the first and a test unit for the new microwave power program. The program was first announced years earlier (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9149338&postcount=5) but now was a reality.
The goal was to place a large satellite in orbit around Earth with the purpose of collecting unfiltered and undiluted energy straight from the rays of the sun. The energy would be collected inside the satellite and focused into a very concentrated and fine beam, in the area of 25m². The beam would be shot down to a power collection station in Pennsylvania, where the heat from the collected rays would be used to power generators and turbines. The system was 100% clean and highly efficient. Radiation from space would be filtered and cleaned by the satellite, atmosphere, and collection station. Radiated products filtered on the ground would be stored in drums and containers that would eventually be launched back into space, towards the sun by a single rocket.
The entire project had, up until now, cost a whopping §500B and so far only a single power station was built and a single satellite. The cost of the launch was factored into those numbers. If this test worked and the satellite acted efficently and as planned, there would be plans to phase out oil power plants all together.
At the time of the project announcement, nuclear power accounted for 40% of power in the Empire whilst oil accounted for 25%. The remaining 35% of power comes from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric powerstations. Vast amounts of private homes and housing projects use solar power for personal power.
As of current, some 52% of the energy in the Empire is nuclear power, 20% from oil, and 28% from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric. Iceland is supplied by geothermal, solar, and wind power. Ireland is supplied by nuclear and wind power. Ynoga and South Eastern Virigina are largely supplied by both solar and nuclear power, oil and geothermal making apperances. Dnalkrad is powered mostly by oil and wind power. Layarteb is powered mostly by nuclear power although all other forms are present.
The current goal of this microwave project is to reduce oil dependency to a mere 10%, effectively cutting it in half. Microwave power stations are planned to be built in all four provinces of the Empire with none in Iceland or Ireland. The entire project cost, if this test were to prove successful, would be a total of §1.85T or $3.34924T.
A lot was riding on this launch and this test and because of it, the best pilots and crew members were selected. In total there would be 4 men and 3 women aboard the flight. They were already in place, with twenty-five minutes until the launch. Pre-flight checks were being done and mission control was a very tense room to be in, especially now. With a total output now of 5,600,000 pounds, the massive shuttle system was weighing a total of 4,465,577 lb. without the 120,000 pounds of each LIB.
The clock ticked down and the onlookers used binoculars to see the shuttle pad and listened to small radios, listening to the preflight checks. The launch was scheduled for 13:22 and there would be a 6 hour window to get the shuttle off the ground. To the east, a massive storm was approaching, a tropical storm that was gaining strength and power. It would hit within the next 18 hours, probably as a category 2 hurricane. Everything was scheduled and all that was required was to get this single shuttle into space to deploy its payload. Whilst up there, the shuttle would be up for a total of 13 days, the other time being used to conduct repairs on several other satellites that were up for scheduled maintenance.
At 13:21:30, the 30-second countdown began. Everyone watched in amazement as the launch pad suddenly became alive. Birds suddenly turned to a flock and flew away as the massive shuttle began to come alive. At 10-seconds, the main engines lit, gimbling and rising to maximum thrust. At 3 seconds, the engines were at maximum power and at 0, the solid rocket boosters ignited, pushing and driving the shuttle upwards, increasing in velocity. The shuttle cleared the launch tower almost instantly and rocketed upwards. The shuttle went into its normal roll program so that it could enter space upside down. As it climbed, it tilted away from the pad, moving further and further downrange, its velocity only increasing. A thick cloud of smoke trailed behind the orbiter as the flames from its rocket boosters kept burning, feeding the shuttle with thrust.
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010125sked/launch.jpg
The SRBs jettisoned at 2:30 into flight, heading out to sea where they would be picked up and towed back for re-use. The external fuel tank would continue to feed the massive engines of the orbiter until 8:00, when it would drop off, breaking up in the atmosphere, raining parts down on the Indian Ocean.
Launch Pad 39-B, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, was quiet. The ILSF-8D Pluto, the fourth shuttle of the NGSTS program, was sitting on the pad, pointed upwards. The two solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank glistened in the sun. The shuttle was without its Lunar Injection Boosters, the necessity for them being non-existent and the weight of them being necessary to lose.
Inside the cargo bay of the massive shuttle sat a single satellite, a §450M piece of hardware that barely fit in the bay. The satellite was the first and a test unit for the new microwave power program. The program was first announced years earlier (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9149338&postcount=5) but now was a reality.
The goal was to place a large satellite in orbit around Earth with the purpose of collecting unfiltered and undiluted energy straight from the rays of the sun. The energy would be collected inside the satellite and focused into a very concentrated and fine beam, in the area of 25m². The beam would be shot down to a power collection station in Pennsylvania, where the heat from the collected rays would be used to power generators and turbines. The system was 100% clean and highly efficient. Radiation from space would be filtered and cleaned by the satellite, atmosphere, and collection station. Radiated products filtered on the ground would be stored in drums and containers that would eventually be launched back into space, towards the sun by a single rocket.
The entire project had, up until now, cost a whopping §500B and so far only a single power station was built and a single satellite. The cost of the launch was factored into those numbers. If this test worked and the satellite acted efficently and as planned, there would be plans to phase out oil power plants all together.
At the time of the project announcement, nuclear power accounted for 40% of power in the Empire whilst oil accounted for 25%. The remaining 35% of power comes from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric powerstations. Vast amounts of private homes and housing projects use solar power for personal power.
As of current, some 52% of the energy in the Empire is nuclear power, 20% from oil, and 28% from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric. Iceland is supplied by geothermal, solar, and wind power. Ireland is supplied by nuclear and wind power. Ynoga and South Eastern Virigina are largely supplied by both solar and nuclear power, oil and geothermal making apperances. Dnalkrad is powered mostly by oil and wind power. Layarteb is powered mostly by nuclear power although all other forms are present.
The current goal of this microwave project is to reduce oil dependency to a mere 10%, effectively cutting it in half. Microwave power stations are planned to be built in all four provinces of the Empire with none in Iceland or Ireland. The entire project cost, if this test were to prove successful, would be a total of §1.85T or $3.34924T.
A lot was riding on this launch and this test and because of it, the best pilots and crew members were selected. In total there would be 4 men and 3 women aboard the flight. They were already in place, with twenty-five minutes until the launch. Pre-flight checks were being done and mission control was a very tense room to be in, especially now. With a total output now of 5,600,000 pounds, the massive shuttle system was weighing a total of 4,465,577 lb. without the 120,000 pounds of each LIB.
The clock ticked down and the onlookers used binoculars to see the shuttle pad and listened to small radios, listening to the preflight checks. The launch was scheduled for 13:22 and there would be a 6 hour window to get the shuttle off the ground. To the east, a massive storm was approaching, a tropical storm that was gaining strength and power. It would hit within the next 18 hours, probably as a category 2 hurricane. Everything was scheduled and all that was required was to get this single shuttle into space to deploy its payload. Whilst up there, the shuttle would be up for a total of 13 days, the other time being used to conduct repairs on several other satellites that were up for scheduled maintenance.
At 13:21:30, the 30-second countdown began. Everyone watched in amazement as the launch pad suddenly became alive. Birds suddenly turned to a flock and flew away as the massive shuttle began to come alive. At 10-seconds, the main engines lit, gimbling and rising to maximum thrust. At 3 seconds, the engines were at maximum power and at 0, the solid rocket boosters ignited, pushing and driving the shuttle upwards, increasing in velocity. The shuttle cleared the launch tower almost instantly and rocketed upwards. The shuttle went into its normal roll program so that it could enter space upside down. As it climbed, it tilted away from the pad, moving further and further downrange, its velocity only increasing. A thick cloud of smoke trailed behind the orbiter as the flames from its rocket boosters kept burning, feeding the shuttle with thrust.
http://spaceflightnow.com/station/stage5a/010125sked/launch.jpg
The SRBs jettisoned at 2:30 into flight, heading out to sea where they would be picked up and towed back for re-use. The external fuel tank would continue to feed the massive engines of the orbiter until 8:00, when it would drop off, breaking up in the atmosphere, raining parts down on the Indian Ocean.