Galvanized

[Vinyl]

Cats, I'm no rocket surgeon, but I don't think we had the technology to grow clones in vats in 2001.

As someone with a doctorate in rocket surgery, I can confirm that we didn't have cloning vats in 2001.

[Professor Fenway]

Unfortunately Cats, I can't accept you. At the moment, this is digital age technology; it's about 2023. There is SOME future technology (lasers, for example, can be mounted on ships, better ion engines, etc) but not at the level you described. Railguns DO exist, but they only work outside an atmosphere; otherwise the extreme friction of the round destroys the gun. There is a basic, compact fusion reactor on-board the ship (Henceforth referred to as Kamikaze). Cloning tech is not a reality, and neither are super-soldiers, since genetic technology has not advanced enough to do so.

That said, it doesn't mean that you won't get super-tech later in the RP (as hinted upon by the opening story). But for the moment, it is all digital age tech.

[Error]

So can team members request a mission briefing? Re: whyarewehere.txt

[Professor Fenway]

Everyone has read NASA communique, but yes, i'll call a briefing soon.

[Error]

Nuking it requires only a drone. So I meant why ship a team out to Jupiter? Politicians would scream bloody murder at the cost of that.

Unless we're to go investigate, then nuke.

[Vinyl]

All I want to know is why you've included a quote from 2010: Odyssey 2.

[cats]

Railguns function perfectly fine in atmosphere. He's not genetically engineered, he's not a clone; he is the result of a selective breeding program, which is feasible within the timeframe of this AU, or at least less far-fetched than a working fusion reactor on a ship meant to take soldiers to Jupiter in 2020.

[Error]

We could build such a ship now; except no country or organization wants to spend their precious money on building and operating it.

[Professor Fenway]

The nukes are to soften up whatever is there before Alpha goes in. They are obviously not of the Solar System and obviously hostile, and we know almost nothing about them. And if they can build a tower on Jupiter, then they're obviously very advanced. Hence nukes. There's 5 2-megaton warheads on the drone prepared to nuke Europa, and it will target locations of highest activity. Then Alpha comes down, investigates, kills whatever's left, steal tech, etc.

The cost came out of the U.S defense budget, since this was an issue of national security. Construction on it began as soon as the U.S detected the Tower and the Scar. It was disguised under an exploration mission into the unknown, and is supposed to slingshot around Jupiter and out of the Solar System. Enormously expensive indeed, but the President considered it important enough to build.

I'm almost done with the Kamikaze's deck plans. Hang tight.

Cats, the issue with rail-guns in this is that in atmosphere, the friction between the projectile and air causes massive amounts of friction as the shell is propelled, literally melting and warping the device after a few shots. In addition, they have very high power requirements necessary to generate the magnetic field to propel the projectile. So, in this timeline, they're only very large, ship mounted devices. The Kamikaze only has two, for example. No miniaturization. EMP grenades are also a no-go; can't miniaturize them enough to smaller than a medium rocket or bomb. I'm fine with the selective breeding thing, so accepted (without the miniature technology).

[cats]

Atmosphere doesn't have much to do with a railgun system. In fact, the vast majority of tests have occurred in the presence of air. Degradation of the rails is caused by the friction of the projectile along the rails, force on the circuit pushing the rails apart, and heat of the current. We wouldn't be going anywhere near Blitzer projectile mass with a handheld weapon; the effects of the current and friction can be compensated for by using stronger materials that I'd presume would be available to a project which was funded so exhaustively. The largest problem would be batteries and capacitors, but given that there's a functioning fusion reactor and batteries that can reliably sustain power armor for hours, it would be likely that those wouldn't be too much of a problem (esp. if a multi-turn hybrid rail/coil design is used). There are plenty of [url ="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdRkoWMiAQM"]proof-of-theory railgun demos[/url]. A railgun doesn't have to be huge, a handheld version isn't miniaturized, per say. Non-nuclear EMP generators are also a thing. Given the inferred progression in electrical, a small, single-use EMP generator would probably be possible.

I'll just scrap my character and rewrite the app, not sure if I like it very much.

[Julo]

OOC: Could we please stop arguing and do something more productive?

BIC:
Agatha was jogging through the crew section of the Kamikaze. She still thought that the name was rubbish. It was the first "real" spaceship of the human race and they called it Kamikaze. "But how would I name a ship, which has to fulfill a mission like this? The Peacemaker? The Screaming Eagle?" She shook her head and chuckled a bit. When she finished the third round, she noticed the commanding officer, who seemed to be very concentrated on a diagram of some sort.
"Can I sit down," she asked politely. Hallix looked up, nodded and looked back at the transparency. Agatha sat down, remained silent for a few seconds and then asked: "Mr. Farya, may I ask a question."
"Go ahead."
"Are you sure it's a good idea to nuke the scar?"
"As far as I can see yes. Why?"
"'Cause we have quite a big firework on this drone."
"That's what we want, what is the problem?"
"Well, when I was younger my parents and I went to France, to visit some, well, friends and celebrate new year's eve with them. The party was quite boring, so we children went ahead and stole all of the firecrackers. We then went to a small frozen lake and put all of the firecrackers on it, to see how big the hole would be, that we created. So we went on the lake, put all of the crackers in the middle and set them off at once. It was quite a bang and we made a freakin' huge hole in the lake, but that was not all. When we went close to the hole, the ice began to snap and we ran back to the shore, however one of us fell into the ice water. We pulled him outta there and brought him back home. You can't imagine the rage of our parents and the cold this guy had for a couple of weeks. And now we sit in front of the same problem, we have a huge ice surface, which is about 10k times thicker, but we have a bomb, which is a gazillion times stronger. My worry is, that if we nuke the scar, which is a structural weakspot in the ice already, we might set of a chain reaction, with cataclysmic results for that icy, innocent, lady below us. What do you think?"

[Professor Fenway]

Here is the Kamikaze floor plan. The left is the upper deck (main deck), the right is the lower deck (secondary deck). Rooms are labelled. Only two decks.

This was built on the ground and shot into orbit on a REALLY BIG ROCKET. Components were installed afterwards.

Note that the Inner Ring contains the food, recreation, and studies. The outer ring contains the crew quarters, medical area, fitness (gotta stay fit in space). They ARE unbroken, so you can run around the ring. I did some calculations, and the outer ring's velocity is approximately 25 m/s to maintain .7 G gravity. The outer ring is slightly less.

Why are there so many doors? Simply put; to be able to seal off sections AND have alternate access to other sections in the event of combat damage. There's also enough spare parts to rebuild everything. It's designed to be as efficient as possible, and as self-sufficient as possible. There IS some equipment in storage to collect and process asteroids for parts (very limited), water, or minerals for Hydroponics. It could survive a very long time. There is also a magnetic radiation shield around the ship.

Cats, i see your point. I'll allow a handheld railgun (shoulder mounted, mind you, so not like an assault rifle, more like a big, bulky rocket launcher) and i'll allow EMP grenades. Unless you want to remake your character, i'll accept you. There was some misunderstanding on our part.

I am accepting suggestions for the names of the two fighters and the dropship.

BIC:

Hallix drew a line on the transparency with the marker and made a few notes. "If the initial impact 500 years ago didn't destroy the ice," he replied, "Nor the constant activity, I doubt a few nukes are going to break it." He drew another line and rotated the transparency.

"That's an oddly specific date, Mr. Farya."

"I forgot that they haven't really told you anything." He pulled out his smartphone and tapped it for a bit before sliding it over to Agatha. There was a document written on it; the writings of Galileo.

"I think we've all seen Galileo's observations."

"Not this version. It's been censored. He observed the Monolith smashing into Europa, observed the Great Red Spot when it formed around the Monolith." He sighed and put the marker away. "Since we're nearing our destination, i'll send to everyone what I know. Protocols be damned, I don't like going in with my team knowing nothing about what we're fighting." He got up, put away the transparency and the smartphone, and climbed the nearby ladder to the center of the crew section and left through the hatch.

[Luna]

"No flying scalpels, that was one time, and he should have looked where he was going, stuff floats around in space," Sasha muttered stuffing a few boxes of gauss into a backpack. The thought of throwing megatons of explosives at something still bounced around in her head. "They didn't even tell us what we're nuking. I guess it's some staging point, and why do they need to ask us? They obviously know more, and why won't it just obliterate anything there, it's not like we're the Enola Gay dropping a little boy, this is the twentydamn first century," she continued to quietly rant to herself getting a few odd looks from anyone happening to be passing by. She noticed Hallix coming out of the crew area.

"Mr. Farya, you have some medical history reports you have yet to send me, I need those so in case i have to make any... emergency injections or what not that you won't have an allergic reaction," in reality she already had everyone's reports from NASA but she needed an excuse to talk to someone.

[Vinyl]

Cecilie drifted gently in her quarters as she performed regular (and unnecessary) maintenance on her weapon. She thought naught of anything but the gun, devoting herself to it and it alone. Well, until Sasha passed by the open door shortly before attempting to engage Hallix in a conversation. Glad I'm not him.

[Error]

Ash floated in the dropship hangar, staring at the blank walls and considering their mission. Hearing muffled voices nearby, she drifted out into the hall, ascended a deck, and dropped into the gravity torus; starting up a jog, she continued contemplating.

After several minutes - tossing polite nods and greetings to those nearby - she returned to the hangar; grabbing some utility grey paint and a stencil set, she spray-painted Nina on the side of the dropship.

OOC: If we're sticking with the 2010: Odyssey Two references...?