ISEO Discussion Thread (OOC) (TWI only)

[Reynaerdia]

International Space Exploration Organisation

Discussion Thread

Cosmic greetings to all! This thread is meant for discussion and world building around the International Space Exploration Organisation (ISEO for short).
ISEO is meant to be an organisation where smaller economies band together to fund a world class space program. Here we can discuss memberships, funding, procurement and most importantly our missions.
All ideas are welcome!

We can also share factbooks, dispatches and other information here.

Current Priorities

• Defining the tiers of membership
• Defining how we will handle funding
• Setting the requirements in contribution in order to be a member
• Setting our priorities in the types of missions we want to have
• Aligning on a timeline, (when was ISEO founded, do we have any missions in progress etc...)

[Reynaerdia]

So for the funding I’d suggest we do it in a similar way to ESA, they have a policy of "georeturn", where funds that ESA member states provide to the ESA are returned in the form of contracts to companies in those countries.
Outside a minimum membership fee (to keep the organisation afloat) the programs and missions that are funded should stay optional to be chosen by the member.

For membership I suggest that we have 2 tiers: Full member states and associate states.
Full members would have to participate in funding a number of missions and programs while associates have less commitments but don’t enjoy the georeturn policy.

[Balervia]

Balervia would like to be a full member

[Xokalderix]

Xokalderix would like to become a member

[Rhostohn]

Excited this is happening! Just a thought on timelines: If we're following real-world examples then the USA and the Soviets started their space programs in the 1950s, and JAXA is among the newer programs, founded in 2003 (though this was through a merger). If the ISEO is all smaller economies, then maybe we want to found toward the middle/latter end of this range?

[Reynaerdia]

Balveria, Xokalderix, Welcome! Your memberships have been noted.

For our timeline I agree with Rhostohn. We are all smaller economies and I do not think we could realistically start a space program in the 50's.
Reynaerdia would be dealing with the Gael economic crash in the 70's - 80's. So early 90's would be the time where it could start investing in R&D and other science programs.
I would suggest 1994 as the founding date. This also gives us a nice time frame to write about past mission.

For the writing of the dispatches about missions and discoveries, I would write a central dispatch about ISEO itself and then link everything to that one. I'll try to get some work done on it over the weekend. So every member can then freely set up their own missions (after we all agree on the time frame and funding of course) and write about the things that interest them the most.

For our new members, we are still looking for a nation to host the launch site. Ideally close to the equator and an area that is sparsely populated. From looking at the world map the southern tip of Balveria seems like a good spot.

[Rhostohn]

Not opposed to 1994, I think that gives us a good timeframe to establish solid rocket designs and at least get us into satellite and probe territory, if not manned missions. And thank you for taking on that drafting work, Reynaerdia!

Agreed that Balervia is our best candidate for a launch site at this time. Balervia, what's your geography like along your southern tip?

Also, how do we feel about the the discussion about the layout of the solar system last week? It didn't seem to me like the RMB was leaning in any particular direction.

[Reynaerdia]

Hi everyone,

I've made a very rough outline for the main dispatch, feel free to give suggestions on what to add, or if there are things you want to add about your nation specifically.
I'll start with my own suggestion, I'd like to host the HQ of the organisation. I think it would be fitting since I'm a neutral nation so well suited to host international organisations.

https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2821659

What the solar system discussion is concerned I think it would be best to wait it out a bit. Seems like there is no consensus yet. I personally like the idea keeping it closer to our IRL solar system but leaving some room for imagination on existing bodies and also leaving room for some undiscovered objects (like asteroids, comets or outer system dwarf planets).
We can start with fleshing out missions to things that wont cause lore issues later on, like our first satellites in Terrine's orbit, moon orbiters and landers and maybe a comet interception. Then once we are more established in the space lore of Terrine we can push the issue to get the solar system sorted.

Rhostohn, Xokalderix, Balervia
For now I'd mostly like to know when each nation joined if they weren't a founder nation, what facilities they provide or host (production centres, launch pads, communications, observatories,... ) and how much you are willing to spend on ISEO so I can get a rough number of our annual budget.

[Rhostohn]

This is an excellent start Reynaerdia, the write up you've done so far seems realistic. I noticed that "IDEO" is listed twice in the third paragraph; is that a typo or something separate from the ISEO? I'm in favor of you hosting the headquarters as well, seems only fair since you got the ball rolling on this whole thing.

What do we want to do for official languages? Open to all members? A select group like the UN? A common language for operations like air traffic controllers?

Agreed that we can wait a while on the solar system. There's plenty of other writing to do, and we'll have more momentum if we pick up some new members before bringing it up again.

I would like to bring Rhostohn in as a founder. We can provide excellent glassware (lenses and mirrors for telescopes, lasers, etc.), precision machinery (especially for rocket motors), and our mountain ranges will have plenty of dark sky sites for terrestrial observatories. Budgeting outside of the aforementioned components is going to be more difficult for us because of the way our government works, I think around 15% of the operations and admin costs is something we can manage.

Last thing, I'm not sure tagging a nation here sends a ping to their notifications. I'll send out telegrams so Balervia and Xokalderix have the link handy, and we may want to do that for new members going forward.

[Reynaerdia]

Ideo was indeed a most embarrassing typo. No idea how I missed that. I've corrected it.
Good idea to send out a telegrams, kinda annoying you don't get notified when you're mentioned in a forum post. I hope we hear something from the others soon.

For languages I think we could select a few global languages, this would mostly be for official documentation and publishing of research and communication between control centers and astronauts. ESA for example has English, German and French as the official languages.
On the other hand since we're a small group at the moment we could instead take all local languages for documentation and use the TWI equivalent of English (Alteran, I think) as the lingua franca for astronaut communications.

Rhostohn, the facilities you suggested sound great. I can already imagine an observatory sitting above one of your pine forrests. If you have an idea of specific locations or some info about them you can let me know, I'll add it to the overview or link the dispatches. No rush of course.

[Balervia]

Languages.

I think since that around half of the members are Gaeltic we should have Andarian as one of our languages and also Alteran as one of our languages

[Rhostohn]

Is Andarian the Gael equivalent of Alteran? I'm fine with using one or both of those, Vlams also makes sense to me since we're headquartered in Reynaerdia.

Rhostohn, the facilities you suggested sound great. I can already imagine an observatory sitting above one of your pine forrests. If you have an idea of specific locations or some info about them you can let me know, I'll add it to the overview or link the dispatches. No rush of course.

And thank you! Got some fun ideas for telescope sites. I'll turn them into a dispatch, I think I can manage something within the next week.

[Balervia]

I believe Andarian is the IC equivalent of French but I need to check with Dorm. Then we can also use Alteran. I think I should probably get to making a logo

[Balervia]

Excuse me for double posting but also I think maybe Banul or Jackson can be where the main communication centers since Banul is where the Tigan Airforce was formed

[Rhostohn]

Small ask for the logo: it would be fun to add stars (or something, stars feel appropriate for the ISEO) to symbolize each member nation, we can add/remove as our membership changes, if that isn't too onerous.

[Rhostohn]

Turn out the lights and heat up the hot chocolate, we've got telescopes!

https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2822666

[Balervia]

Here is the logo

[Balervia]

Hi everyone,
Rhostohn, Xokalderix, Balervia
For now I'd mostly like to know when each nation joined if they weren't a founder nation, what facilities they provide or host (production centres, launch pads, communications, observatories,... ) and how much you are willing to spend on ISEO so I can get a rough number of our annual budget.

I'd think Balervia would be a founding member since in the 90s most Tigans were excited about the future and space stuff. I think we would contribute around $1.5 billion anually. Since Balervia has a giant manufacturing and areospace industry we will be able to provide the rockets and sattelites

[Reynaerdia]

Great work on the logo! Really nice. The stars are also a good addition.
I also love the dispatch on the observatories. It's nice to see ISEO take shape, hopefully I can do my part too soon, I had a very busy week so haven't done much writing although I've already drafted some ideas that I'll try to work on next week.

I've updated the main dispatch and added some more information about the facilities that were discussed here and from the dispatch, I also linked it. I've also added the logo, with credit to Balervia of course. For languages I've put Andarian (fr*nch) and Alteran (english). Those 2 do seem like a good fit for an international organisation.

Now that we are a bit more established the role I see Reynaerdia playing is as a more research and training focussed member. In terms of production I'd like to focus on fuel production, R&D and software/hardware for computer systems. I'm also thinking of hosting a facility for astronaut training and equipment testing. It would have those giant pools, vacuum chambers, areas to simulate moon or other planer surfaces, etc. As well as a smaller control and communications centre that would focus on monitoring space weather and long term planning for satellite orbits.

I was also already thinking of our first mission. How about a small satellite launch in 1997, mostly to test our first launch vehicle. 4 years seems like an ok time frame to have developed a rocket. The satellite in question would be a small space weather satellite to monitor solar activity. This data could then help to plan following mission and to protect our orbital infrastructure from solar flares.

[Balervia]

Here is the photo of the ISEO Tower in Banul Sa Kibo mostly just offices and stuff but it has some tourist areas in it. At least ISEO is giving people a reason to visit somewhere else in East Portland other than Jackson

[Balervia]

I think the primary spaceport should be in Harbor Junction since it is near a giant lake. Well I dont think in Harbor Junction but like near it we could just carve out a small town and call it Space Port or something like that. but I think I should leave some stuf for someone else so I think that is the most in facilities Balervia will have.

[Rhostohn]

New logo looks fantastic! I also like our headquarters building, such a classy place to plan our conquest of the stars!

In favor of a satellite being our first mission, it sounds reasonable.

Dispatches for optics and machinery manufacturers are next on my list.