Interstellar RPG

VX-H.S 473821 “Endurance” Diameter: 64 meters Power Supply: 4 Tokamak fusion reactors, Solar cells, Fuel cells Drive Type: Hybrid Variable-impulse Chemical/Plasma Engines (12) Crew Systems: Long-term Habitat Module, Air / Water Recycling, Cryogenic Hibernation Pods, Artificial Gravity (via Rotation). ————————— DESIGN: The Endurance is a modular ship composed of several boxy mission modules connected by tunnels, arranged in a ring 65 meters in diameter. The ring-like shape of the ship is made so that it can rotate to produce artificial gravity. It rotates at 5.5 rpm to produce centrifugal force that simulates Earth's gravity for the astronauts. ————————— Modules: There are twelve modules in the ship's design, each with its own purpose: Four of the modules serve as the main propulsion system of the Endurance, each mounting three high-efficiency, high-thrust plasma engines that propel the ship. ————————— Four modules serve as detachable cargo pods, intended to be ferried down to a planetary surface by the Landers to create a settlement. Two of the modules serve as crew habitats, with sleeping quarters, consumables, and air and water recycling systems. One module is the cryogenic bay, with the hypersleep pods for crew hibernation. This module also serves as the ship's sick bay. ————————— The last module is the command module of Endurance, containing the cockpit, communications equipment, meeting room, and navigational systems. The command module has linkages that travel to the docking collar, permitting the ship to be piloted by an attached support craft. ————————— Drive System: The Endurance carries sixteen landing pods. The Endurance itself is propelled by a series of twelve advanced magneto plasma rocket engines. The engines produce a distinctive blue exhaust plume of ionized gas when firing. The even spacing of the rockets permits the ship to accelerate and maneuver even while rotating to produce pseudo-gravity through angular momentum. ————————— Docking Hubs/Support Craft: The Endurance has a central/core docking hub that can mount six of its support craft at one time. The Endurance also has four side module docking ports which can only be docked to by Rangers. These side ports are easier to dock to instead of the Central hub ports when the ship is facing upwards over the atmosphere orbiting around a planet, or when needing to dock quickly. Overall, the ship has a total of 11 docking ports. ————————— The Endurance carries two Rangers and two Landers for a high degree of redundancy. Rangers are fast and aerodynamic scouting vessels, while the Landers are used to ferry cargo pods down to a planetary surface from the Endurance. Rangers can efficiently cruise through a planetary atmosphere and use chemical/plasma aerospike engines to achieve single-stage-to-orbit. Landers uses similar engines but are more derived from the bell shaped main engines of the Endurance. Each craft is efficient and powerful enough to achieve orbit multiple times. ——VEHICLES—— AsCII M-CX 22 “Ranger” The Ranger is designed along the lines of a lifting body, but is equipped with small, canted wings for additional lift and stability. —— Unlike its distant predecessor, the Space Shuttle, the Ranger uses a novel aerodynamic control system that relies on reaction control system (RCS) thrusters and electrically powered air jets to provide pitch, yaw, and roll control. This effectively eliminates a variety of moving parts such as flaps, ailerons, elevators, and rudders which would otherwise increase weight and mechanical complexity. —— While lacking traditional flight control surfaces, the Ranger is completely reliant on its electric air jets and is incapable of unpowered gliding. If the flight control system experiences a total loss of power, the Ranger would spiral out of control and fall from the sky, requiring its pilot and its passengers, to eject. Such an event is unlikely due to the installation of multiple redundant power sources and a negotiable flight computer, creating a more rugged and reliable spacecraft. Power is provided by twin miniaturized tokamak fusion reactors, a triple redundant fuel cell system, and high efficiency solar cells on its roof. —— The electric air jets also enables the Ranger to propel itself through a planetary atmosphere. High powered fans draw air from slot-like intakes near the nose and on the corners of the wing structure. Incoming air is accelerated and channeled through the trailing edges of the wings and through vents on its underbelly; which are covered by opening and closing louvers. Depending on the louver angle, airflow can be diverted, or vectored downward for precise vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) or rearward for forward flight. The Ranger is controlled by a fly-by-wire system. —— After a de-orbit burn, the Ranger's broad underbelly heat shield is used to shed most of its velocity against a planetary atmosphere. Once near the surface at lower speeds, its ventral thrusters and air jets are used to softly land on a planet's surface. Simple landing struts are deployed to keep the heat shield tiles from touching the ground. The Ranger is also designed to float in the event of a water landing. —— The Ranger's main propulsion system are twin linear aerospike hybrid plasma engines - a marriage of two different rocket engine technologies capable of achieving high thrust while greatly reducing fuel consumption. Chemical rocket engine exhaust is ionized into plasma and magnetically accelerated to very high velocities, vastly increasing fuel efficiency. This enables the Ranger to achieve orbit, accelerate to escape velocity, and travel to other planets, requiring little to no rocket staging. If available, local atmospheric oxygen is collected and burned during atmospheric flight, saving its internal oxygen supply for very high altitudes and orbital maneuvering. —— The Ranger's cabin/cockpit is capable of maintaining a pressurized Earth-like atmosphere. It is composed of two compartments; the forward section is a cockpit that includes four ejectable crew seats and two folding benches for four additional passengers. The cockpit also contains four hibernation tanks and contingency supplies for long duration missions. The aft compartment functions as an airlock. Inside the airlock are two ports (one aft and one on the floor) that can dock with other spacecraft. The aft docking port can lower down to serve as a gangplank to the surface when landed. —— ArEO M-XCX 24 “Lander” Unlike the Ranger's sleek, aerodynamic design, Landers appear as faceted, boxy spacecraft. The Lander's design was not optimized for fast and efficient atmospheric flight like the Ranger, but instead for effective and reliable atmospheric deceleration while carrying a heavy payload to a planetary surface. The high drag design removes the need for parachutes, spoilers, and other potentially failure prone drag devices. ——— The Lander's heat shield is located on its upper surface, thus performs atmospheric entry inverted, protecting the belly-mounted payload. The seats can rotate around the craft's forward axis. This maintains a comfortable upright position for its passengers and pilots while rotating and listing. To maintain visibility in any orientation, the lander has windows both top and bottom. The windows on its upper surface are made of sapphire to withstand the heat of reentry. The windows on the nose and sides of the Lander are protected by thermal insulation tiles that slide on top of the windows like a closet door. Flanking its fuselage are four faceted fuel pods, each tipped with electric air jet nozzles for atmospheric flight and reaction control system (RCS) thrusters for maneuvers in space. The RCS thrusters are fueled by hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide. ——— The Lander is equipped with six bell-shaped chemical/plasma rocket engines divided into two separate housings. These engines generate the far greater thrust required to propel the heavier craft into orbit. In fact, the Lander is powerful enough to propel the Endurance from a decaying orbit into escape velocity. ——— During atmospheric flight, the Lander uses electric air jets to maneuver to a chosen location on the surface before landing. The same air jets are used to rise from the surface before firing its main engines. The Lander is also heavily armored, enabling it to survive very hostile environments. The Lander carries a crew of four people and one robot, though there is space in the central compartment for additional passengers. It also contains four hypersleep pods and survival gear for long duration missions. ——EQUIPMENT—— Lockheed Martin SC442 “Mini Space Drill” (made for drilling into strong or weak materials on planets). Northrop Grumman BQ381 “Multi-Space Knife” (same as the Swiss Army Knife but bigger and having a tiny NASA emblem). NASA RCxS859 “Foil Jumper” (uses pressurized RCS for quick jumps or boosting). S&W 642. (A revolver). ———————————— ROBOTS: CASE, TARS. CASE & TARS are monolithic and have a cube like shape but can shift their form to reveal other cube-like appendages within their bodies. The geometrical proportions of the parallelepiped (depth, width and height) in "static" configuration are 1:4:8. They are designed to serve their assigned human and even sacrifice themselves for them. Their personality traits (such as humor, honesty, and discretion) can be altered in their settings. ———————————— GARGANTUA SYSTEM: Gargantua is a very massive, rapidly spinning black hole. It is orbited by the planets Miller (designated “G-446”) and Mann (designated “G-221”) as well as an unnamed neutron star. A main sequence star Pantagruel was located within a year's flight of Gargantua along with the habitable planet Edmunds (designated “G-7221”) Gargantua is within a several week spaceflight of the Wormhole.

Interstellar is so good you should watch it. Greetings: G1: Arrival at Gargantua. G2: Finding the abandoned Voyager 1 probe AT Gargantua!