VIOLET
Manufacturer: Mectron
First Flight: March 20, 1967
Crew: 5
Height: 24 m
Diameter: 13.8 m (34.8 including 'wings')
Empty: 27,600 kg
Loaded: 143,500 kg
Powerplant: 1x Mectron HR-5 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine (450 kN)
Endurance: 140 hours (Block I), 210 hours (Block II), 400 hours (Block III), 3,500 hours (Block IV or higher)
Delta-V: 6,200 m/s
The Violet spacecraft looked very much like the skeleton of a shed that had been stuffed full of junk. The original Block I Violets, Azalea and Dendrobium, were assembled from six component blocks, all of identical size and proportions - 4.7 by 4.7 by 12 meters, the dimensions of the Indigo's cargo bay. The command and service sections were docked end-to-end and the four fuel sections mounted at ninety-degree intervals around the latter. Two 12 meter by 22 meter solar panels were mounted to opposing fuel sections, providing electrical power and radiative surface.
Trivia -
- The hastily designed 'Jumper' that Brazilian astronauts used for their early moon landings was never part of the plan; the Violet itself had originally been designed to land on the surface of the Moon and return to Earth orbit fully intact. This approach was abandoned once the actual cost of an individual Violet spacecraft became apparent.
- The Jumper is the smallest man-rated LOH rocket ever flown; that type was chosen so as to allow multiple trips between surface and orbit within a single mission, since the Jumper could then be refuelled from the larger Violet's fuel tanks.
- Despite common perception, Violet Blocks are not technical generations of production, but flight configurations. Block II configuration adds one mission and one fuel module for a total of eight and Block III an additional one of each for ten. Block IV, with fourteen fuel modules, separate propulsion, power, and supply modules, a 'hanger' module with purpose-built reusable lander, and instrument and habitat modules on opposite ends of a rotating carousel, masses well over a hundred tons even empty and nearly five times that when fully fueled. Only one Block IV has ever been assembled, as this level of ability is superfluous for anything other than visiting superior planets.
...done.
Yeesh, way to overwhelm me with your optimism, guys. ^_^ Given the alternate history video thing posted in General I'm kinda surprised.
Ja, -n
(Not even a comment on the shuttle equivalent being topsy turvy? Shame, shame.)
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."
Manufacturer: Mectron
First Flight: March 20, 1967
Crew: 5
Height: 24 m
Diameter: 13.8 m (34.8 including 'wings')
Empty: 27,600 kg
Loaded: 143,500 kg
Powerplant: 1x Mectron HR-5 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engine (450 kN)
Endurance: 140 hours (Block I), 210 hours (Block II), 400 hours (Block III), 3,500 hours (Block IV or higher)
Delta-V: 6,200 m/s
The Violet spacecraft looked very much like the skeleton of a shed that had been stuffed full of junk. The original Block I Violets, Azalea and Dendrobium, were assembled from six component blocks, all of identical size and proportions - 4.7 by 4.7 by 12 meters, the dimensions of the Indigo's cargo bay. The command and service sections were docked end-to-end and the four fuel sections mounted at ninety-degree intervals around the latter. Two 12 meter by 22 meter solar panels were mounted to opposing fuel sections, providing electrical power and radiative surface.
Trivia -
- The hastily designed 'Jumper' that Brazilian astronauts used for their early moon landings was never part of the plan; the Violet itself had originally been designed to land on the surface of the Moon and return to Earth orbit fully intact. This approach was abandoned once the actual cost of an individual Violet spacecraft became apparent.
- The Jumper is the smallest man-rated LOH rocket ever flown; that type was chosen so as to allow multiple trips between surface and orbit within a single mission, since the Jumper could then be refuelled from the larger Violet's fuel tanks.
- Despite common perception, Violet Blocks are not technical generations of production, but flight configurations. Block II configuration adds one mission and one fuel module for a total of eight and Block III an additional one of each for ten. Block IV, with fourteen fuel modules, separate propulsion, power, and supply modules, a 'hanger' module with purpose-built reusable lander, and instrument and habitat modules on opposite ends of a rotating carousel, masses well over a hundred tons even empty and nearly five times that when fully fueled. Only one Block IV has ever been assembled, as this level of ability is superfluous for anything other than visiting superior planets.
...done.
Yeesh, way to overwhelm me with your optimism, guys. ^_^ Given the alternate history video thing posted in General I'm kinda surprised.
Ja, -n
(Not even a comment on the shuttle equivalent being topsy turvy? Shame, shame.)
===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."