Stars in your multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the darkness with order and light.

[tookashirototheknee]

[Matt might be good at the network, but that doesn't mean he has complete control over his thoughts. Sometimes things slip through. But in this case, it's probably for the better.]

Oh, for the love of space peas, that's it!

[He pauses, and then sets out to make slightly more coherent comments. Standing in front of a mirror, at first all people can see is a detailed star chart. Anyone who is familiar with stars from earth would know this isn't exactly a view from Earth, but it's similar.]

So, I totally forgot that I got blessed with visions or hallucinations or something like that, but I had a... something of a star field. I don't know if I was there or in a planetarium or what, but I drew it out.

And then I realized. This is the star field as seen from Mars. I'd be a crap Garrison graduate if I couldn't figure that one out. So, uh, on top of everything else that's going on, we're going to Mars.

I haven't been there myself, but my dad's told me a lot about it, so I can help. I hope.

Comments

[vrepit_no]

So long as no one gets hurt, I am all for this. Even if we can get me to a computer with the files, I can probably store them in my arm till we get back.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Easier than getting a printout, I'm sure.

I think this might be the first time I've had a plan, going into a jaunt.

[[and what a plan it is...]]

[vrepit_no]

We don't usually know this much ahead of time. Odds are we're going to want ATVs that can stand up to a lot of dust and low gravity.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Can add an additional set of filters for the exhaust intakes on the hoverbikes. Temperatures might be different, but the basics should be about the same as Jangwa, from the sound of it. The lower gravity will give them a hell of a lift too. Should be able to catch some serious air time.

[vrepit_no]

What do you say to getting another couple of bikes built before we go?

[triggerhappytraitor]

I'll see what I can do.

[[He hasn't tried just making a bike whole cloth yet... time to find out if he can.]]

[vrepit_no]

If you can give me parts, I'll work right there with you. Maybe we can keep each other from adding too many extras.

[triggerhappytraitor]

To get in a few before the jaunt hits, yeah, they'll need to be a bit more streamlined. I should be able to create the frame as one piece, and then the main engine as a second. Should be enough parts and pieces in the garage already to fill out the rest from there.

[vrepit_no]

Perfect! I'll bring over the sketches I've got of the shuttle I'm familiar with- consoles and parts of the engine and wings, mostly.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Going to try and make a combination of the two?

[vrepit_no]

Not right away, but I thought we could look it over and see if you had ideas for streamlining at some point. The shuttle is pretty large, so we could use a way to slim it down but still allow two, three people in it.

[triggerhappytraitor]

A good idea, yeah. Need to make sure if fits inside a room so that Liminal doesn't make off with it. And the more lightweight it is, the less fuel it'll need.

[vrepit_no]

Yeah, that was part of my thought - remember how large the simulator was back in the dungeon? That's just the cockpit cabin. It's a ship meant to make 6 month trips in. So yeah, sizing it down without losing functionality will be important.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Aiming for something for a day trip at first, yeah. More a shuttle than a full fledged cruiser. Shouldn't be too hard to get all the controls and equipment into the condensed space, I'd think. Most of the early designs back home where super compact, with the bulk of it all being the fuel.

[vrepit_no]

Heh. That was a shuttle.

[He extends a memory to Tachibana, though he'll provide it for anyone else who asks: first, a launchpad with the shuttle docked and awaiting its final checks. Second, a short sequence of a shuttle being launched. ((OOC: as a note, he would not show these exact shots, but the shuttle would remain the same.))]

We haven't gotten to cruiser size yet.

[triggerhappytraitor]

That was just...?!

[[One moment, his science fiction knowledge is very small and mostly limited to things he saw on TV growing up, mixed with a "saw it on the news" awareness of the space program and some of the more hypothetical advances from one of his more vocal colleges. (At least he was pretty sure the talk about sending a car into space was hypothetical...)]]

But that was a long range mission, wasn't it?

[vrepit_no]

Yes. Our tech is probably more compact than it is in your era. We only needed a ship that size to do a long range mission with three people. Out to Pluto's moon.

The hard part, as always, is getting the ship off the planet. So far we kept using fuel pods like you saw there. Once we get out through atmo, we wait till the fuel runs out, then jettison the pods and start the engines.

They don't run on the same stuff. It's way more efficient than that, and you don't keep it up the whole time. Small, controlled pushes set you up on the right trajectory, and then you put her into a timed series of boosts to keep coasting unless you need to correct course for an unexpected object. [Beat.] Or the asteroid belt. [Beat.] Or a brief side trip to skim the rings of Saturn. That was great.