The Western Isles Space Station (OOC, TWI Only)

[Corindia]

Launch Timeline

Hey TWIslanders, welcome to the official (by the power vested in me by me taking the initiative to do make it) planning thread for the potential Western Isles Space Station (real talk, we've been calling it the TWISS but that creates an awkward the The construction when you say out the full acronym, let's consider a different name like the Regional Space Station). Other things we should address include fundamental questions of administration and funding, which are discussions we can take to IC threads such as the League or ACESTI if we want to have some fun drama (or constructive compromise?) or simply hash out OOC here.

I've included some relevant factbooks on the matter, because if I'm being real, I expect you to have pertinent factbooks if you want to participate in a meaningful capacity. Polar and I put a lot of work into the CSJSS, and I would like to see similar levels of commitment on this project, simply because this is an important regional milestone and is something I would like to see done well. If we do a good job now, we could create an interesting RP environment and potentially a political football going forward.

Space Programs:
ANSA by Alteran Republics
PSSA by Polar Svalbard

Rockets:
Constelación II by Corindia

Satellites and other orbital Projects:
IslesNet by Athara Magarat
Corindi-Svalbardian Joint Space Station by Corindia

(There are plenty of other good factbooks on these subjects in the region, these are simply the first ones I could find, and I did not mean to exclude anybody!)

Alright now, I'm leaving this in your hands now, TWI! Just a few pointers, we should figure out the name, funding, administration, contribution of modules, contribution of astronauts, and relationship to the existing CSJSS. Keep in mind that simple tags are likely to be deleted, so if you want to follow this, drop a link to your factbooks or explain your interest in the project!

Aizcona: the “South” lab module, specializing in Earth and astronomical observation
Alteran Republics: electronics, radiation, and ballistic shielding
Corindia: "East" habitation module, docking ports
Townside: "West" science module
Athara magarat: toilets, 'West" science module
Vancouvia: fire suppression (potentially faulty)
Brulafi: external truss
Scantarbia: solar panels, heat dissipators, communications vis GNOSIS, ScantARM
Dothrakia: hub module
Miklania: EVA suits, life support in "North" module
Ioudaia: external experimental module, microgravity glove box

[Vancouvia]

Interested

[Athara Magarat]

Huehuehue

TWI Can Into Space indeed.

[Polar Svalbard]

As always I’m interested in space stuff. Polar Svalbard as shown has a large commitment to space with a number of satellites, private companies reminiscent of spaces/virgin galactic and now a joint space station

[Alteran Republics]

As stated on Discord, I'm very much on board with this. A.N.S.A. is at your service. I'm debating bringing in a new version of Atri Rosa with a rocket that looks more ... 21st Century, though it'll be a light lifter. The MALLARD programme will still do any heavy lifting.

[Corindia]

Alright guys, I'm sure not everyone is done filing in but I think we can start hashing out some basic elements of the project. Number 1 on the docket is the name. Now, I know we've been calling it TWISS for the last week or so, but let's consider that starting an acronym with "The" is a sin, and will lead to lots of situations where we end up saying "the The Western Isles Space Station is...". I think we should consider another name, maybe Regional Space Station, but I'm open to anything (ideally without a built in article). And if you guys are attached to the TWISS name we can keep it need be.

Also, and this one is more just for PS, should we build it on the CSJSS or keep it separate? I think we can just keep it separate, there are plenty of nations with launch capability so we won't be too bottlenecked, and we can certainly say that information was shared from our program with this general one to ease the construction of such a large project by such a diverse team. I saw the CSJSS as a prelude to a larger station at some point, even if I didn't anticipate it gaining momentum this quickly, but I think it still has a viable independent role alongside it.

[Razzgriz]

Will definitely be signing on with this project as well.

[Townside]

I would very much like to be a part of this!

Here's a dispatch about Astronomy in Townside, including the Land of Townside Space Agency.

I'll probably be piggy backing off Alteran Republics' space agency to launch anything up into space, but I can also contribute in other ways like monies, research, constructing parts on the ground etc.

[Corindia]

I would very much like to be a part of this!

Here's a dispatch about Astronomy in Townside, including the Land of Townside Space Agency.

I'll probably be piggy backing off Alteran Republics' space agency to launch anything up into space, but I can also contribute in other ways like monies, research, constructing parts on the ground etc.

You could construct all or part of a module like the Kibo module ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibo ) which serves as a lab and a base for external observation/experimentation, which seems like it would be well within your wheelhouse given the satellites you've launched and your experience in communication and observation.

[Thuzbekistan]

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooi

What if someone shot it down?

[Alteran Republics]

I'm good with a Regional Space Station too, makes more sense than the TWISS idea.
A.N.S.A. is of course ready to help with the heavy lifting with our MALLARDs and will be at the service of other nations. As for the station, I'd be happy to assist in the projects as two separate entities: could we work with the original Corindia/Polar Project, which in turn would help gain us experience and technical knowledge for the RSS.

[Union of Kalmar Republics]

the KNSA would be happy to construct or help construct a module and we would also take it up into space to.

[Athara Magarat]

Space Station of the Isles (SSI)?

ISS is already taken

[Corindia]

I'm good with a Regional Space Station too, makes more sense than the TWISS idea.
A.N.S.A. is of course ready to help with the heavy lifting with our MALLARDs and will be at the service of other nations. As for the station, I'd be happy to assist in the projects as two separate entities: could we work with the original Corindia/Polar Project, which in turn would help gain us experience and technical knowledge for the RSS.

Assuming Polar is fine w it then I'd be down for an astronaut exchange program of sorts, you could also do some of the resupplies for docking experience

[Alteran Republics]

Considering we already of Corindia and myself with heavy lift platforms, I'm not sure if we should have many - if any - more heavy lift platforms. In my mind, it would make more sense for us to have more of a collaborative affair - rather than every nation stating they can launch heavy gear into space just because they feel the need to.

Assuming Polar is fine w it then I'd be down for an astronaut exchange program of sorts, you could also do some of the resupplies for docking experience

Yes, that sounds like a capital idea!

[Almorea]

A bit late, my apologies.

Almorea doesn't have a space agency. The National University for the Space Sciences (NUSS) receives some federal cash to do that sort of thing. NUSS would provide personnel to the project on behalf of the Almorean government- it would specifically like to focus on the astronaut exchange.

[Polar Svalbard]

Considering we already of Corindia and myself with heavy lift platforms, I'm not sure if we should have many - if any - more heavy lift platforms. In my mind, it would make more sense for us to have more of a collaborative affair - rather than every nation stating they can launch heavy gear into space just because they feel the need to.

Assuming Polar is fine w it then I'd be down for an astronaut exchange program of sorts, you could also do some of the resupplies for docking experience

Yes, that sounds like a capital idea!

And Polar Svalbard since we also launched up our part of the station. But I'm totally down with what Corindia said in regards to your nation having an astronaut exchange program with the CSJSS and for you to send up the first round of resupplies.

[Townside]

You could construct all or part of a module like the Kibo module ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibo ) which serves as a lab and a base for external observation/experimentation, which seems like it would be well within your wheelhouse given the satellites you've launched and your experience in communication and observation.

I love the idea of building the Kibo module! The experiments would be a nice extension to what Townisde has already done in communications and observations. We can even name it the "Hope module" after Kibo. I also wouldn't mind building the whole thing, however, considering the real life Kibo module cost $3 billion to build and another $6 billion to operate over its lifetime, it might be a bit of a stretch, canonically, for a small country as Townisde to build the whole thing single-handed. However, if no one else will offer up their monies and resources for this particular undertaking, I can still make it work canonically, e.g. we build a slighter version of the Kibo module, or it's been under construction over many years before this, which is enough time to gather the resources/money etc.

Alright guys, I'm sure not everyone is done filing in but I think we can start hashing out some basic elements of the project. Number 1 on the docket is the name. Now, I know we've been calling it TWISS for the last week or so, but let's consider that starting an acronym with "The" is a sin, and will lead to lots of situations where we end up saying "the The Western Isles Space Station is...". I think we should consider another name, maybe Regional Space Station, but I'm open to anything (ideally without a built in article). And if you guys are attached to the TWISS name we can keep it need be.

I think Regional Space Station is OK. It's acronym, RSS, doesn't sound too bad either.

[Corindia]

You could construct all or part of a module like the Kibo module ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibo ) which serves as a lab and a base for external observation/experimentation, which seems like it would be well within your wheelhouse given the satellites you've launched and your experience in communication and observation.

I love the idea of building the Kibo module! The experiments would be a nice extension to what Townisde has already done in communications and observations. We can even name it the "Hope module" after Kibo. I also wouldn't mind building the whole thing, however, considering the real life Kibo module cost $3 billion to build and another $6 billion to operate over its lifetime, it might be a bit of a stretch, canonically, for a small country as Townisde to build the whole thing single-handed. However, if no one else will offer up their monies and resources for this particular undertaking, I can still make it work canonically, e.g. we build a slighter version of the Kibo module, or it's been under construction over many years before this, which is enough time to gather the resources/money etc.

Alright guys, I'm sure not everyone is done filing in but I think we can start hashing out some basic elements of the project. Number 1 on the docket is the name. Now, I know we've been calling it TWISS for the last week or so, but let's consider that starting an acronym with "The" is a sin, and will lead to lots of situations where we end up saying "the The Western Isles Space Station is...". I think we should consider another name, maybe Regional Space Station, but I'm open to anything (ideally without a built in article). And if you guys are attached to the TWISS name we can keep it need be.

I think Regional Space Station is OK. It's acronym, RSS, doesn't sound too bad either.

Most of the Kibo (which is a large module) is internal generic lab space, we could just spin that off into another module and let you focus on external observation equipment, should shave off a lot of the cost

[Athara Magarat]

I love the idea of building the Kibo module! The experiments would be a nice extension to what Townisde has already done in communications and observations. We can even name it the "Hope module" after Kibo. I also wouldn't mind building the whole thing, however, considering the real life Kibo module cost $3 billion to build and another $6 billion to operate over its lifetime, it might be a bit of a stretch, canonically, for a small country as Townisde to build the whole thing single-handed. However, if no one else will offer up their monies and resources for this particular undertaking, I can still make it work canonically, e.g. we build a slighter version of the Kibo module, or it's been under construction over many years before this, which is enough time to gather the resources/money etc.

I think Regional Space Station is OK. It's acronym, RSS, doesn't sound too bad either.

Perhaps you and I and some other non-space flight nations can work together on the "Hope module"?

Another IC reasons why AM would be interested in this sort of structure is basically this.

http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/p ... ocube.html

[Vancouvia]

Vancouvia would like to provide a faulty fire suppression system

[Corindia]

Vancouvia would like to provide a faulty fire suppression system

How will the fires that work as intended be suppressed then?

[Athara Magarat]

Perhaps space toilets and stuff as well. Lots of other stuff.

[Alteran Republics]

Perhaps space toilets and stuff as well. Lots of other stuff.

Always thinking of the details. I love it!

I think, as Polar and Mik have rightly questioned, I doubt I'll be able to expand ANSA to incorporate many more space faring projects. With the completion of the Scheme 9 programme, which will be cheaper to launch than a triple tandem Scheme 7, I can't quite see the possiblity of Altera now devoting resources to develop satelites, modules or the like.

Unless I do some drastic budget changes, such as axing the military, we would have to stick to ANSA providing launch capability only, with only token technical support in other fields (other than what was already discussed with Cor and Polar). Otherwise Ryansan's borrowing is going to start ballooning ...

[Corindia]

so here's a crude structural drawing I've made, as you can see it's not going to be as large as the ISS because, well, we aren't the US, Russia, Japan, etc.

There's 4 modules that need to go up, including the central ball which could go up attached to one of the main wings. Does this seem appropriate for everyone? Corindia can use another fraternite module for the habitation module, and it looks like AM and Townside can do all or part of the right module.