Sprinter Deep Space Probes

Centauri Spaceworks has launched two deep space probes: Sprinter I and Sprinter II.  Both are equipped with telescopes and large antenna observe the universe outside of the solar system and send back their findings.

Sprinter I

Sprinter I headed out past GRN.  In addition to exploring, one goal of its mission was to determine if it was possible to accelerate beyond the speedometer.  To test this, it accelerated up to the maximum speed shown on the speedometer.  The fuel tank was then jettisoned (after all the fuel was transferred to the Voyager X engine).  Sprinter I and the fuel tank were now traveling at the same speed but moving slowly apart.  Sprinter I fired its engine again.  This accelerated it past the discarded fuel tank, confirming that a vehicle can still increase its speed even though it is no longer measurable on the speedometer.

Sprinter II

Sprinter II was nearly identical to Sprinter I, but had a larger fuel tank.  Sprinter II was sent off towards GOL.  Its goal was to accelerate to a high velocity.  It consumed all of the fuel in the large fuel tank during an extended 3 minute burn.

Palm Tree Hotel Rennovations

The Palm Tree Hotel has been upgraded with a unique feature: a space pool.  Normally water in space is a bad idea. It floats around everywhere and is hard to contain.  But that is precisely why the Palm Tree Hotel is unique. No other station has the technology to create a space pool.

The Palm Tree Hotel accomplishes this amazing feat using jets of forced air to keep the ball of water in place.  As you climb out of the pool, the jets of air, like those on high end hand dryers, squeegee the water from your body.  The process leaves you dry, and the pool wet.

To anticipate the surge in guests coming to see this attraction, an additional Orion III has been docked to be used as an escape vehicle in emergencies.  This replaces the staff vehicle that was on standby for emergencies.  It is docked across from the new space pool.  The upper dock is used for staff and deliveries.  The  lower dock is used for for guest arrivals and departures.

Thruster Fuel Harvest

IGSpace's Super Fast Space Transport is a blast to launch.  If you haven't seen it, it is a pod on a first stage.  When it stages the pod takes off at a high speed; higher then other traditional second stages.   It makes it to orbit in about 45 seconds.

It is so fun that employees at Centauri Spaceworks had a competition to see who could reach orbit the fastest.  Of course the pod isn't able to preform re-entry so all the participants needed to be picked up by an Orion afterwards and brought back to HOM.  This left quite a few pods and lunar ascent modules in orbit around HOM.  The initial thought was just to let them burn up, however Jan Gilbert pointed out that they were full of valuable thruster fuel, and the fuel tanks at the Centauri Spaceworks were getting very low on thruster fuel.

Instead of letting all that fuel go to waste, Centauri Spaceworks flew a station builder and fuel silo from the Centauri Spaceworks workshop over to HOM.  The the pods and lunar ascent modules were docked to the silo one by one.  They used their batteries to power the fuel pump on the silo to transfer over any remaining thruster fuel.  All of the main engine fuel had been used up in order to boost the pods to the altitude of the fuel silo.  After each pod and lunar ascent module was emptied of thruster fuel, it was undocked and destructed.

The harvest was a big success.  It provided almost a full fuel silo worth of thruster fuel. Jan got a promotion and a complementary tank of petrol for her car as thanks for her great idea.

Sci-Fi Ship Contest Winner

A big thanks to everyone who submitted their sci-fi inspired ship for this contest.  I was impressed with the variety of ships that were entered.  It was hard to judge because they were so good.  Before we get to the results, here are the four entries.

Benoit13 - Discovery 1 - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Benoit13's Discovery 1

Discovery 1 from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Benoit13's design captures the engines in the back, the spine, and the sphere up front pretty well.  This is a pretty tricky build with getting 3 LP1's to orbit, as well as locking in an ATV with un-deployed solar panels.

The three pods in the front mimicking the three pods in the pod bay is a great functional addition.   The Voyager X antenna in the center of the ship is also a nice touch.

CommanderOz - Saucer - Mars Attacks or Independence Day

CommanderOz's saucer

Saucers from Mars Attacks

Wow.  This build is huge!  I'm really impressed by the size.  The saucer shape and the bubble dome are obvious.  Not using all standard modules and hubs on the inside gave it some interesting texture.

Great use of the ADS solar panels and the telescope to form a ray gun in the center.  RED doesn't stand a chance.

ISAAC Organization - Eagle Transporter - Space: 1999

ISAAC's Eagle Transporter

Eagle Transporter from Space 1999

The outline of ISAAC's ship matches up with the prototype really well for using a limited number of parts.  It mixes it up with some parts, like the ADS core, that you don't see used as often.  The trusses down the center do a good job at capturing the feel of the original.

Tesseractcubed - Cargo Ship

This one isn't  based on any specific ship which made it hard to compare. Tesseractcubed explained the different features in a comment on the contest page.  Not really much to add since there isn't an original to compare it to.

Results

As I said earlier, it was really hard to judge.  I enjoyed seeing the great entries and the creativity and skill used to create them.  I'm really impressed by all of them.  But this is a contest and a winner must be named.

The winner is Benoit13 and the Discovery 1!  Congratulations!

Hummingbird

The Hummingbird is a converted Slug Transport.  It features the same narrow nose as the Slug to allow it to dock at the narrow entrance to high security docking bays.  However it has several modifications that make it better suited to long duration missions between resupply stops.

One of the modules has been replaced with an oxygen garden to keep the ship supplied with atmosphere on long voyages.  To compensate for the lost storage space, one of the reverse LK Core engines has been replaced with a cargo bay.

The rear drive section has undergone modifications as well.  An additional hub was added between the rear engines and the cargo section to provide additional attachment points.  To maintain the ease of construction, the engines were push out to the sides to avoid needing to cut away some of the structure of the generator to fit them.   On the starboard side a refuel silo was added to allow the Hummingbird to operate for long periods of time without requiring resupply.  On the port side, a solar panel was added to help with the additional electrical load from the oxygen garden.

Slug Transport

The Slug Transport is a short range transfer ship.  It is designed to move cargo and personnel between two stations.

The Slug lacks an oxygen garden and relies on the O2 and CO2 scrubbers in the 4 LK Core Engine modules to provide the atmosphere.  It also lacks a large fuel reserve and instead relies on the on-board storage in the 4 engines to provide all the fuel it needs to depart, make its delivery, and then return to its home base.

The Slug lacks solar panels and takes its power from a nuclear generator.  This allows the ship to stay powered, but still narrow enough to fit through high security docking bay doors.  This narrow profile means it can dock at stations where larger ships cannot fit.

A big thanks goes to CommanderOz who created the SVG Station Planner Kit for Space Agency.  As well as Benoit13 and ISAAC who contributed to the kit.  The kit made it easy to quickly try out different arrangements of modules to see how they looked without actually having to build it in the game.  If you are designing stations or ships, I highly recommend you try it out.

ICBM History

 Centauri Spaceworks is doing some throwback ICBM launches to break up the routine of regular payload launches.  Yes, missiles.  The first steps into space were based on technology used for intercontinental ballistic missiles.  Since Centauri Spaceworks is dedicated to peacefully exploring space, and not blowing it up, all the payloads launched today will be dummies.

There are three ICBM based rockets on the schedule:  Mercury, Titan II, and Soyuz.  All three of these rockets can put a dummy explosive module payload into orbit with careful fuel management.  Adding a tug module as second stage makes it much easier to achieve orbit.

Mercury

Freedom 7, the craft that carried the first American into space, was launched on a Mercury-Redstone rocket.  This rocket was based on the first American ICBM, the PGM-11 Redstone.  Later missions in the Mercury Program would use a modified Atlas rocket, also developed from an ICBM.

Titan II 

The Gemini Program was also based on ICBM technology with the Titan II.  This technology was used in rockets for forty years with the last launch in 2003.

Soyuz

The modern Soyuz was developed from the R-7 rocket.  The first R-7 was designed to be used as an ICBM.  Derivatives of the R-7 hold a huge place in space history.  It was used to launch the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin.  Derivatives of it are still in use today.

Mars Prison Station

Mars Prison Station is now ready to house 6 of the systems most dangerous space criminals.  These are criminals who have committed crimes in space so horrible that no nation on the planet wants to let them land on their soil.

The Mars Prison Station takes high security to the extreme.  Unlike other stations, there are no vehicles on standby at the station. There is only one docking port and it is protected by docking bay doors.  Vehicles transferring supplies and personnel must follow strict procedures for docking with the station.

The outer bay doors remain closed until the incoming ship has been verified and all prisoner secured.  Then the doors are opened and the vehicle is allowed to dock, but the hatch is left closed.  The outer bay doors must be sealed before the hatch is opened.  Vehicles only remain docked for a few hours at a time while the transfer takes place. Once the transfer is complete, the hatch is sealed and a bed count is performed to make sure all prisoners are still secure.  Only after all the prisoners are accounted for are the outer bay doors are opened and the vehicle is allowed to depart.

The first prisoner scheduled to be to sent to the Mars Prison Station is Sergie 'Decompression' Tremp.  His nickname comes from his preferred method of murder by exposing his victims to the vacuum of space.

He was serving aboard the Toledo, a cargo ship in deep space.  He murdered the other 3 crew members by luring them into the air lock and then decompressing the airlock before they had a chance to put on their space suits.  After running out of victims on his own ship, he triggered the distress beacon.

Another cargo ship, the Loshad, was nearby.  When it arrived to help, he waited until it had docked and had opened the hatch to board.  Segie laid in wait in his space suit while the Loshad came to assist.  When a member of the Loshad crew was boarding the Toledo, Sergie, opened the other exterior hatches on the Toledo.  This immediately killed two of the crew members.  The other two crew members were able to seal off the hatch to the Toledo before all of the atmosphere escaped.

Sergie then killed one of the remaining crew members of the Loshad after she re-boarded the Toledo in a space suit to investigate what was presumed to be an accident.  Sergie slit open her space suit with a large utility knife.  At this point the last remaining crew member of the Loshad sent out his own distress call that also warned about the serial killer on the loose on the Toledo.

Sergie was found trying to drill a hole in the Loshad's hull when help arrived.    He managed to kill another three people during the struggle to capture and transport him back to the inner solar system.

Planetary Resupply Advances

Centauri Spaceworks has made advances in resuppply the planetary bases on BLU and PUR.  Previously these bases were supplied with with a cargo bay on LK Lander Legs.  After the  tanks and batteries were empty, they were  discarded.  Launching the supplies back to orbit to be recharged was cost prohibitive since the LK Core and LM Ascent stage can only hold three cargo.  This uses fuel and leaves the discarded lander legs on the surface.

The new approach documented below allows the expended tanks and batteries to be retrieved from the surface and recharged in an orbital station.  The resupply does take several minutes to complete, however it only uses a small amount of fuel, and does not require a launch of supplies from HOM.  This makes it much more environmentally friendly and cost effective.

For this proof of concept effort, Centauri Spaceworks launched a very small station consisting of an oxygen garden and an ATV.  The station was located in geosynchronous orbit above the base on BLU.  It was just above orbital velocity.  Below is the procedure for the cargo transfer and recharge.

Step 1: Pre-separation

• Secure cargo
• Close hatch
• Check that fuel switch is closed

Note:  If your station is relying on the ATV for power, at least one battery needs to remain in the ATV to power the station.

Step 2: Separation

• Undock
• Check velocity to insure it is still above orbital velocity
• Add velocity with thruster burn if required

The transfer won't work if the ATV is docked to something else.  The separation will  push the ATV into a lower orbit above the tops of the ground modules. If the station is set up at the correct altitude this will position the ATV for the transfer without using any fuel.

Step 3: Transfer Cargo

• Switch to cargo mode and prepare for transfer
• Transfer cargo
• Switch back to fly mode to prepare for re-docking

When the ATV passes overhead of the modules, you can transfer cargo between them.  This has a limited range so the ATV has to be in a low orbit and nearly overhead to the ground modules.  At this point the ATV will be moving faster than the ground modules so there is a limited time to transfer cargo.  It may take several orbits around to transfer all the cargo between the surface and the ATV.

Step 4:  Re-dock

This part requires some piloting skill.  You will need to use the main engines on the ATV to boost it to a higher orbit.   Despite the ATV and station having similar velocities, this is not a straight dock.  They have different ground speeds because of the difference in altitude.  The station makes a bigger circle so it takes a longer time to make a complete orbit  compared to the ATV.  You will need to time the ATV's burn so that it reaches the station altitude at the same moment the ATV passes beneath the station.

Step 5: Recharge

• Connect ATV and oxygen garden power
• Recharge tanks in the oxygen garden
• Recharge batteries in the ATV

Centauri Allows Reuse of Designs

Did you know you can use and adapt all of the ships and vehicle designs by Centauri Spaceworks?

So many other people and agencies have inspired the designs that are published by Centauri Spaceworks.  I hope that I can give back to and inspire others with my designs.  I don't want anyone to feel like they cannot copy or remix designs from Centauri Spaceworks.

The ship and vehicle designs are licences under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  This means you can use, adapt and share the designs you see here as long as you give appropriate credit to Centauri Spaceworks when posting. That is a simple as stating that the original design was by Centauri Spaceworks. If possible, a link to the blog is appreciated.

This is intended to encourage reuse and remixing.  It is not intended to make it more difficult by requiring a list of credits for each combination of parts.  The requirement for credit only applies to entire vehicles or stations.  If you reuse a feature of a Centauri vehicle or station, no credit is required.  Although it always appreciated.