[RFC/discussion] Shuttles in Fenspace 1 - the Three Graces
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[RFC/discussion] Shuttles in Fenspace 1 - the Three Graces
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"Terpsichore" should be INSANELY maneuverable, to fit the "dance" aspect.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.'' -- James Nicoll  Quote:It's mentioned in the Fenchurch entry, but nobody's written it up yet... -Rob Kelk "Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007 -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
back on topic - the Graces would go absolutely spare if they weren't invited on the Delta Pavonis mission.. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979
They would, except that by my current timeline the Pavonis expedition leaves a good three weeks before Endeavour (re)launches, and the expedition's already back by the time all three Graces are active.---
Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
And Pegasus is sulking because she has to stay "Back at the ranch."
Mainly because her crew still has to attend school at PS 238.... ''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.'' -- James Nicoll 
Ah! That's what gets it founded!
-- Bob --------- The Internet Is For Norns.  Quote:That'd be the Jet Car. She's a mother of a mover, and Buckaroo loves to make 'em dance. You may have heard of jalopies, You heard the noise they make, Let me introduce you to my Rocket '88. Yes it's great, just won't wait, Everybody likes my Rocket '88. Gals will ride in style, Movin' all along. Ebony the Black Dragon Senior Editor, Living Room Games http://www.lrgames.com Ebony the Black Dragon http://ebony14.livejournal.com "Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
..okay, slacked enough on getting this done. Forgive the wiki markup; I've been writing straight in text & it's easier just to add the markup while writing.
Major changes here include adding a boatload of crap to the History section (I've tried to incorporate some of the ideas tossed about in the TSAB discussion, monkeying with the dates to fit my Graces timeline) and getting the vehicle quirks down. Could still use one or two for Discovery and Endeavour. Also, artwork. Everybody ready? Then let's begin. ![[Image: project-artemis.png]](http://fnord.sandwich.net/fenspace/project-artemis.png) Project Artemis, the Shuttle Handwavium Refit Program. Logo by Sean Breen, with assistance from Hokusai, Mike Okuda & Open ClipArt Project Artemis logo by Sean Breen, with assistance from Hokusai, Mike Okuda & Open ClipArt ^ Registry Number: | OV-103\ OV-104\ OV-105 | ^ Base Hull: | Rockwell International Space Shuttle Orbiter | ^ Drive Type: | Speed (handwavium impulse engine) | ^ Drive Rating: | Max velocity 0.05c | ^ Owner of Record: | United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration | ^ Flag of Record: | United States of America | ^ Home Port: | Kennedy Space Center, Titusville, Florida | ^ Purpose: | Scientific research vessel | ^ Launched: | 30 September 2013 (OV-105)\ 17 November 2013 (OV-103)\ 28 January 2014 (OV-104) | ^ Crew: | Varies according to crew rotation schedule | ^ Supplementary Crew: | Discovery (AI, MS-0, OV-103)\ Atlantis (AI, MS-0, OV-104)\ Endeavour (AI, MS-0, OV-105) | ^ Faction: | [[gazetteer:factions:'Danelaw] (United States) | ^ Status: | **Active** | ====== The Three Graces ====== "The Three Graces" is the informal nickname for the handwaved NASA Space Shuttle fleet. ===== History ===== The three surviving operational NASA Shuttles (OV-103 //Discovery//, OV-104 //Atlantis// and OV-105 //Endeavour//) were grounded after the official completion of the [[International Space Station] in 2010. Calls from the public, space industry experts, the astronaut corps and even certain Fenspace factions to have the Orbiters refit with handwavium were officially regarded as "not cost-effective." Unofficially, NASA management was interested in applying handwavium to the Orbiters as a way to keep their hand in the game. Unfortunately for NASA, the [[gazetteer:factions:tsab|Transrationality Science Assesment Bureau] controlled all government supplies of pure handwavium, and TSAB's Air Force patrons were unwilling to let NASA have access. The three Orbiters remained in long-term storage at Kennedy Space Center until 2012, when an anonymous donation((The donation coinciding with the [[gazetteer:factions:Soviet Air Force] visit to KSC on Yuri's Night 2012 being a massive coincidence, of course.)) of 100 gallons of //[[Hephaestus]//'s best structural handwavium and a pint of [[gazetter:handwavium:Memnosyne's Honey]. With the handwavium donation in hand, NASA spaceflight managers began what is considered the single greatest black-budget operation in agency history. Project Artemis ostensibly was a design project trying to create a spacecraft similar to the Orion CEV using TSAB technology. That's what Congress officially signed off on, anyway. In fact, the Artemis budget went to a cabal of Shuttle ground crews, who used the money to pay salaries while building on the initial handwavium stock and beginning the long process of handwashing the Orbiters. Meanwhile, the maskirovka Artemis design crew produced enough concept art and viewgraphs to convince the higher-ups that "progress" was being made on the "real goal." The work on Artemis was not simply refitting the Orbiters. Discussions among the project heads finally settled on keeping the Orbiter configuration as it was instead of the more radical internal mods done to //Ptichka// and //Pegasus//. This left the crew spaces a bit cramped for a crew working in 1g((Except for //Discovery//, see Vehicle Quirks.)) so the Artemis engineers retrofitted several Spacehab, Transhab and spare Space Station modules to provide extra equipment and crew spaces while on-orbit. This modular concept makes the Graces a good deal more flexible in terms of mission than most other fencraft. Eighteen months after work began, Artemis quietly unveiled the first fruits of their labor, as //Endeavour// rolled off the runway at Kennedy Space Center for a short circumlunar test flight. Reaction to the //Endeavour// flight was mixed; public opinion on Earth and in Fenspace was largely positive, while opinion within the halls of power was decidely less so. Outraged at the infringement on their turf, TSAB demanded - at full volume, and to everybody who passed by - that the Artemis project notes and flight hardware be transferred to them immediately. NASA managment refused on the grounds that the agency and the Orbiters were not under military jurisdiction. The fight between TSAB and NASA over control of Artemis would continue until the infamous "April Fools Day Purchase" of 2014, when NASA sold the entirety of Project Artemis to the [[gazetteer:companies:Stellvia Corporation], and then promptly leased the Graces back from Stellvia for pennies on the dollar. ===== Known Quirks ===== The Graces, having all been handwaved (more or less) at the same time, with (more or less) identical equpiment and (more or less) the same handwavium strains, actually manage to approach something of a uniform consistency. The individual Orbiters have their own quirks, of course, but at the same time the Graces //as a class// have several defined quirks. ==== Class Quirks ==== * **//Good Morning Starshine://** When in space, each Shuttle has to have a different song played to it at the beginning of each working day. If it doesn't get its wake-up call from home, it's sluggish for the entire morning, with maneuverability and top speed reduced by 5% (cumulative per day the wake-up music is missed, to a maximum of 75% reductions in maneuverability and top speed). The song has to be different each day. * **//I Am My Ride://** The Graces all have fairly well developed AI, but they have all taken the names of the orbiters they inhabit. Atlantis and Discovery use 29 year old Mediterranean female avatars, while Endeavour has chosen to represent herself as a 21 year old indigenous Australian woman. * **//Tough Old Bird://** The specifications for the Graces are well-founded in reality. However, any of the three can exceed these specifications to approximately 10% overage, or further with severe risks of damage to the system in question (or chassis). * baz ==== Vehicle Quirks (Discovery) ==== * **//Falling Free://** When the Orbiter is powered up, the crew cabin and main cargo bay are zero-g areas, even when //Discovery// is on the ground. * **//This! Is! (please don't make me finish this)://** Discovery is a huge fan of sword-and-sandal epics, the cheesier the better. While a showing of one S&S movie a week doesn't improve performance, not doing it leads to a sulky AI and "spontaneous," "random" malfunctions in various systems. * baz ==== Vehicle Quirks (Atlantis) ==== * **//Platonic Ideal://** //Atlantis// uses less fuel than expected whenever anyone on board is giving an allegorical philosophical lecture. It uses no fuel at all if the lecture is given in Greek //and// incorporates elements of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critias_(d ... )|Atlantis allegory.] * **//In Search Of...://** The Atlantis AI is the most intellectual of the Graces, except for her belief in the Lost Continent of Atlantis, and her voracious appetite for media and leads on same. * **//Under The Sea://** //Atlantis// enjoys the occasional dip in saltwater, especially if she's managed to find a 'hot lead' for the 'old country.' This drives the NASA ground crews nuts, but makes her popular with ex-Navy astronauts. ==== Vehicle Quirks (Endeavour) ==== * **//Walkabout://** Every so often, according to a schedule that only she knows or understands, //Endeavour// will disappear into the wilds of the outer solar system, without a crew, for up to a month. Nobody knows what //Endeavour// does out there, but if restrained from her walkabout will simply refuse to do //anything//. * **//Back In The Body Shop Again://** Endeavour is the most aggressive, the hardest charging, the most foolhardy of the Graces, and as such, is in the body-and-fender shop frequently enough for it to have become a joke. * baz ===== Stories ===== The Three Graces have been featured in the following stories: * foo * bar * baz ![[Image: project-artemis-emblem-collection.png]](http://fnord.sandwich.net/fenspace/project-artemis-emblem-collection.png) Ship badges for Project Artemis. Logo design by Sean Breen.--- Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Ooh, I like. I especially like what you've done with the April Fool's Day Purchase.
good stuff! -WG, posting from a Dell axim x50v]Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979
Likewise. I'm signing off on Noah's actions as described there, and I suppose I should take a few minutes out of writing Legend of Galactic Girls this weekend to describe Stellvia Corporation. (Executive-level overview EDIT: moved to its own thread.)
-Rob Kelk "Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007 -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Allrighty then. Any quibbles regarding dates? For clarity, the timeline is:
Apr 2012: NASA gets handwavium, begins Project Artemis. Sep 2013: Endeavour launches, people get stroppy. Nov 2013: Discovery launches, TSAB gets even more pissy. Jan 2014: Atlantis launches, etc. Apr 2014: NASA & Stellvia make end-run around TSAB.--- Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Looks good to me.
(BTW, any chance Noah could get those thousands of supposedly-no-longer-readable NASA computer tapes in the April Fools' Purchase? The multitude of AIs in Fenspace could probably decode them... ) -Rob Kelk "Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007 -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012 Quote:You're the designated business magnate, mate. If you wanna, there's always the possibility. One last bit of Graces-related art for today, this is a quick wallpaper I put together using the Artemis ship badges: fnord.sandwich.net/fenspa...lpaper.jpg (1280x1024 res, so it is hueg like xbox. You have been warned.) You'll note there's three more shuttles on the wallpaper than we've covered in the Graces. There's a reason for that... and that reason will be told later. Consider this a preview of things to come.--- Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
*whistles softly* Oooh. That is gorgeous work. Very nice indeed. Thanks for putting it together.
Seconded. I've saved that for use as wallpaper.
-- Bob --------- The Internet Is For Norns.
Well, thank you. I do try, and it's nice to see a project started in the dead of night actually turned out pretty spiffy. Of course, it takes real talent to fuck up starting from a Hokusai print, but hey...
Anyway, one last bit of Artemis art before moving on. Another dead of night project, apparently a certain someone felt left out of the festivities, so.... ![[Image: project-artemis---ptichka.png]](http://fnord.sandwich.net/fenspace/project-artemis---ptichka.png) And that's enough of that for a bit. Next stop: The Next Generation of Fenspace Shuttles! Stay tuned, true believers!--- Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!" |
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