"Von Neumann’s War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John, Taylor Travis S.)”“This way,” John said as he led Roger around a corner to the high-bay area. “They’re running the third and final CBC outer shell today. We’ll get to see that thing manufactured. But what I want you to see is the second-stage fairing-test model. It doesn’t work. I mean, I know how to make it in Solid Edge and FEMAP as a finite element model, but we can’t figure out how to build the damned thing and fit it in the rocket’s aerodynamic shroud with the COTS and GOTS parts available.” “Why not?” Roger raised his left eyebrow in concern. “Well, we had the three second stage RL10B-2 engines modified to have twice the fuel and oxidizer like Dr. Powell’s trajectory design requires, but doing that makes the pressure vessels an odd size and there are no COTS or GOTS space-qualified tanks that will fit in the shroud.” John paused in his explanation and started chatting with a fellow running a piece of manufacturing equipment that looked more like a computer than a milling machine. “Oh, they’re about to weld that up now. If you hurry you can catch it,” the man told him. “Great, thanks, Mike.” John patted the man on the shoulder. “Roger, this way. That big crane and cylinder down there is where the booster core casing is rolled up. Mike there says they’re about to roll off the third CBC. Let’s hurry down to that end so we can see this better. Oh, one more thing. Stay inside the yellow painted lines, otherwise somebody will get a briefing about OSHA and safety.” “Yellow lines, got it.” As the two men made it to the end of the high-bay a “Watch this part; it’s cool as hell.” John pointed at the large welding apparatus as it dropped to the seam of the sheet-metal cylinder. Roger watched as a large welding rod that looked more like a pointed trailer hitch ball was pressed against the aluminum rocket tube while the ball was spinning at God only knew how many thousands of revolutions per minute. The welding rod was touched to the aluminum where it had been rolled together and it spun so fast that when it touched the metal the friction of it was hot enough to force the welding of the aluminum seam. The welding rod zipped down what it was turning into a rocket tube with a screech, sealing the seam with a near perfect joint. “That is some cool shit.” Roger grinned like a kid in a candy store. He allowed himself the break of standing and staring in awe for just a few moments more before it was back to the urgent business of the Neighborhood Watch. “Now, why don’t we get to looking at this second stage model, ’cause I’ve got to get back to work on the focal plane array packages for the telescope.” Roger put his hands in his pants pockets and the little kid’s giddy stare turned to a more serious one. “Right. It’s around the corridor here.” John led Roger to another room with a shake table in it. Atop the table was a one-tenth scaled model of the second stage system. There were three scaled engines on the table. The engines were the “stretched” or “extended” RL10B-2 motors from Pratt Whitney. In order to have twice the specific impulse and burn time, the tankage for both fuel and oxidizer had to be larger. The problem was that the rocket design team had not been able to find available tankage parts that had been flight-proven and were the appropriate size. Roger surveyed the parts and the various engineering drawings lying on the floor and pinned to the walls around the room. There was one Solid Edge drawing of the engines on a computer monitor. Somebody must have just been in the room and stepped out for a moment or their screen saver was turned off. “You see, Rog, if we use the tanks from any other engine, the pumps won’t fit, the frame will be too large to fit in the aerodynamic shroud without building a new shroud, or the structural design will be questionable, which means we aren’t certain about the shake and bake of the larger frame. And if we go to a modified shroud we have to run all new CFD models of the ascent friction and you know that Dr. Powell won’t be happy with that.” “Uh huh.” Roger frowned. “There just aren’t enough available COTS or GOTS engine parts to solve this problem.” John pointed to the model, pointing out the deficiencies in the design. “Open for suggestions here.” “Jesus, John, has this country been wrapped up in paperwork and bureaucracy for so long that just “Weeelll.” John stretched out the word. “I do have a solution, but it isn’t from a space-qualified piece of hardware and both the Air Force and NASA frown on such. But if—” “John. Let’s hear your idea.” “Okay. It really is simple, but you’ll have to get a waiver from NRO, or Boeing will never approve or build it. I’ve been round and round with them about it. In their mind, it’s just way too much risk. That’s really why I brought you.” He pointed to the computer monitor. “Here look at this. I’ve tried to convince them that this is what we need to do but… well, hell, it has been harder than it was getting them to agree to the mods for the strap-on boosters. Risk-averse assholes.” John pulled up a PowerPoint slide file and opened it. He scrolled through the slides to the second stage portion. “Here is the standard RL10B-2.” John grabbed the tankage portion with the copy tool, then pasted it into a new slide. He then duplicated the tank. “I want to take two tanks and cut one end off each and then just weld the damned things together. Oh, there would have to be some adjustments to the cryo pipes, a little bit of structural integrity support, and stuff like that, but it should work.” He finished creating the image on the PowerPoint slide. “I knew it was simple. Why don’t we just do it,” Roger said rather than asking. “I’m telling you, Rog, without you telling them that they would be free of reprisal if the thing fails, Boeing isn’t going to even consider it. It took us most of the first week to convince them to add the extra strap-on hardpoints. It wasn’t like we really “John, get started. I’m going back to the office to take care of this. You catch a cab back to the hotel.” Roger knew John could see that he was angry and that somebody was about to get a good old-fashioned southern “I don’t give a good Goddamn, Charlie. If John says he wants it done, then by God do it. We ain’t worried about political fallout here, we’re worried about the future of the freakin’ human race for crying out loud… un huh… no… no… uh… no… GODDAMNITALLTOHELL Charlie I said NO! If I have to fly to D.C. and get more horsepower behind my decision I’ll leave today and you’ll be looking for a new fucking job tomorrow. You hear what I’m telling you?” Roger had had enough of the corporate risk-averse culture that was holding back the program. The bean counters at the top of the culture were a larger impediment to the development of the program than the immense technical requirements and compressed schedule. Roger was irate and working on about a day and a half of sleep in the last month. “All right then… yes, okay. Well, Charlie I appreciate you getting this done. And I don’t want to have this conversation again. I want John Fisher to have a blank check and a rubber stamp approval with y’all from now on. We do “Okay, Charlie, thanks for your help. Hey listen, we’re doing great stuff here and don’t forget that part of it. Okay then.” Roger hung up the phone and screamed at the top of his lungs for about three minutes. Then he opened up his telescope modeling program on his laptop and went back to work. Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Powell, Davis, Dr. Ronny Guerrero, General Riggs, NASA MSFC Director Dr. Byron and the President’s science advisor sat in the VIP bunker at the east coast launch facility at CCAFS with several Boeing and Lockheed Martin higher-ups, USAF 45th Space Wing Program support manager, and other upper echelon contractors and members of the Neighborhood Watch program. Dr. John Fisher burst into the bunker VIP support room with two hours to spare before launch. He was obviously flustered; multiple beads of sweat had formed on his forehead, and his usually well-combed hair was in disarray. The sweat could have been from stress but maybe not — after all, it was a beautiful August day in sunny Florida, which meant hotter than hell. John pulled a laptop out of locked double bags, and set it down on the conference table and plugged it into the portable projector he also pulled out of the bags. “This Machine is Approved Top Secret/Neighborhood Watch” was stamped on the front and back of the laptop and the projector. “Sorry I’m late. There were some last minute hold procedures that I was tending to,” he said. “That’s quite all right, John,” Roger told him. “Yes, Dr. Fisher, just as long as we don’t miss the big show,” the science advisor to the President responded. George Fines pointed out the window at the rocket on the pad. “I can’t wait to hear you explain that behemoth to us.” Roger looked out the window across the lake to the launchpad. The fact that they could discuss Special Access Top Secret in a room with a window and people milling around outside in the hallway was a sign of the times. Things were changing in the old ways of doing things. Time and urgency didn’t allow for all of the slow security protocols to be followed, so new ones were used in the interim and they were all approved by the Office of the President of the United States of America. Otherwise, some of them would never get past standard security personnel. John clicked open the slideshow on his laptop and hit the magical keystroke combination that made the projector understand the computer and start displaying the laptop’s screen on the big screen at the end of the conference table on the south wall of the VIP bunker support room. “Okay. I think that’s it.” He clicked a few more buttons, scrolled to the slideshow and began. “Well, in order to get Percival to the planet Mars in as short a period of time possible, Dr. Tom Powell developed a strawman design for a launch vehicle. The Modified Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle out there on the SLC-37 CCAFS launch pad is the resultant product of his original design. It’s mostly the same as he originally suggested.” John paused and cleared his throat and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “It’s hot today,” he muttered. “That’s right, John,” Tom interrupted. “You fellas did a good job and built the rocket I had in mind almost to a T or at least as near as makes no difference.” “Uh, okay.” John nodded to Tom and continued. “Dr. Fines, as you may or may not be aware of the typical Delta IV Heavy configuration, this is a modified version of that. This rocket has even heavier capability than the Heavy. The rocket consists of the main common booster core (CBC) tube with a Rocketdyne RS-68 liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen (LO2/LH2) rocket motor base with a thrust vector control nozzle in the middle that can supply up to 650,000 pounds of thrust and 410 seconds of specific impulse. These CBCs were built in Decatur, Alabama, at the Boeing Delta IV rocket plant and they had to be modified slightly, but I’ll get to that in a minute.” John moved through the slides quickly. “On either side of the central CBC tube is another CBC tube assembly strapped on. Each of these CBCs has a modified upper stage fairing atop and their engines should produce the same thrust characteristics as the central CBC. This portion of the rocket is the standard Delta IV Heavy that you may have seen before.” He paused and noticed that Ronny was nodding in acknowledgement. “Now, in order to increase the throw weight of the launch vehicle and therefore the mission spacecraft velocity, eight Alliant Techsystems graphite-epoxy GEM-60 solid rocket strap-on boosters are also attached at the base of each of the three larger CBC tubes of the Boeing-built rocket. As you can see from the slide — or better yet from out the window — there are three of these boosters attached to each of the side CBCs: one at zero, ninety degrees and minus ninety degrees. Two solid boosters are placed on either side of the central CBC at ninety and minus ninety degree locations. The GEM-60 strap-ons enable the launch vehicle to accommodate a much larger spacecraft payload than the standard Delta IV Heavy, much larger.” Roger cleared his throat and nodded that he was going to interrupt. “You see, Dr. Fines, this was required because Percival’s throw weight to Mars was on the upper limit for a long mission timeline. The half-meter diameter primary mirror for the telescope alone ended up being about eighty kilograms. And with the other instruments and spacecraft structure, there was just no way the Delta IV Heavy and three upper stages would get the satellite to Mars in the hoped for four-to-five-month mission time. Tom here came up with the idea of adding the solid strap-on boosters to the rocket for the added boost. This did it on paper.” Roger smirked, then added, “It took some doing and some expensive modifications contracts for Boeing to do it in reality, but they finally got the ball rolling and did it and on schedule.” Fines sat quietly and nodded in response without making any facial expressions whatsoever. Roger nodded back to John to take over. “Above the CBCs we connected three modified and connected Pratt Whitney RL10B-2 cryogenic rocket motors to make up the second stage. Each of the modified engines will, hopefully, supply as much as 60,000 pounds of thrust over a burn time of 2250 seconds. Then above that is a single modified RL10B-2 making up the third stage. And finally, a standard RL10B-2 with half the burn time makes up the fourth stage.” “Above that,” Roger stood and moved to the front of the room, “is the payload.” He pointed to the payload shroud section. “The reason we’re here is the payload, of course. It’s attached atop the fourth stage and housed via the aluminum isogrid payload fairing and shroud. Here is where Percival sits.” Roger nodded to John to click the slides. “This project is a culmination of what mankind can do in a hurry if we really have to,” Ronny Guerrero added. He understood that it was a culmination of brilliant design, development, and manufacturing. It was also the culmination of less than five months worth of work that was completed by a small army of a few thousand men and women. Ronny wanted to make sure that the President’s advisor understood this. “Let’s hope it’s a successful culmination,” the science advisor said, smiling faintly. The Neighborhood Watch team sat quietly for the next hour and a half. John and Alan were in and out of the room checking with Launch Control to gather any good or bad news. The countdown was going as according to schedule. The men sat listening to the launch countdown protocols, anxiously awaiting the final countdown. Finally, after four and half months of around-the-clock effort from thousands of the space community’s best and brightest, the culmination of that effort was about to go. The Neighborhood Watch was about to happen. Of course, it would not arrive at Mars for nearly another five months. Tina and Charlotte sat at the Florida hotel’s beachfront with the water splashing at their feet as each breaker rolled in. Although school had started that week, they both were excited to miss a day or two of school, to sit on the beach and do nothing. Charlotte’s dad and Tina’s mother had insisted that the two of them make this trip. The parent’s of both of the teens seemed unusually “You know,” Tina dug her toes into the sand as the surf covered her feet. “I like this trip a lot better than the one to Hicksville.” “Aww come on, Tina. The Mars ride was fun. And you nearly wet your panties on that Moonshot thing,” Charlotte added with a laugh. “And you gotta admit, flying the Space Shuttle simulator and driving those little Lego Mars rovers was kinda cool.” “Yeah, but this is the beach,” Tina said, holding both arms out wide, cocking her hips to the left, and nodding to the ocean. Charlotte smiled and nodded toward the two young men with about three percent body fat surfing just north of them. Just then one of the surfers wiped out and stood up, shaking the water from his long hair. “I guess I’d have to agree with you on that one, Dingbat.” “You said it, Astrogirl.” Tina acknowledged the two hunky surfers with a whistle. “Uh huh.” “So when is it going to be?” Tina asked, shielding her eyes and looking to the north as her mother had told them to do, but at the same time not taking her eyes off the two hunky surfers. “It should be any second unless they had some kind of hold. You know what they’re launching?” Charlotte said as she searched the skyline for any sign of a rocket launch. “Well, Mom just said it was classified. But I don’t get why she could bring us to see a launch if it’s classified.” “Dingbat!” Charlotte said with a chuckle. “How they gonna hide from all the local people that a big, bright, and noisy rocket just fired off? My dad said it was classified and that I couldn’t ask him any questions about what is on it. But the fact that there’s going to be a launch isn’t classified.” “You think it’ll be that bright in the day — look!” Tina stopped midsentence and pointed north-northeast. “Oh wow! It’s really bright! And check out that smoke trail!” Charlotte was giddy and pointing at the modified Boeing rocket as it pulled upward from Earth’s gravity well. Both girls had seen smaller launches their parents had attended, but this one was different. The rocket’s rumble was a solid body blow, as heavy even as the shuttle launches. Others along the beach turned toward the sky to watch the massive rocket — one of the largest to launch from the Cape since the legendary Saturns. One of the surfers wiped out, but the girls failed to notice. None of them had any idea what was onboard, where it was going, or why. But, they were fascinated by the rocket, its bright glare and rumble going on and on… “Congratulations, John.” Roger shook Dr. Fisher’s hand and patted him on the back. “Doin’ good, right?” “That’s right.” John slumped in his chair in the VIP support room. “The launch vehicle functioned flawlessly and the telemetry reports so far tell us that the modified rocket system has pushed Percival into an Earth escape trajectory. Control tells me that the first stage combination of three kick motors fired and completed its burn, then separated. The second kick motor repeated the process from ignition to burnout with no problems. The third kick motor functioned likewise. The telemetry data downloaded from the star trackers to the main bus guidance and navigation computer tells that the software activated the algorithm to optimize the final thrust vectoring for the optimal burn vector to enter into the Mars incident trajectory. So, boss, my job is done. The spacecraft is on its way to Mars.” John grinned and loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar. “I’m gonna go find me an umbrella out there on the beach somewhere and sleep under it for about two days.” “Good job, John. That sounds like a really good idea.” Roger wished he could join him but there were payload checks that had to be run. But, all things considered, there was not really a lot to do over the next four and half months while Percival coasted toward Mars. Maybe the beach was a good idea. It would be a little less than five months before Percival would fly-by less than a hundred kilometers from the strangely changing planet, but in the meantime the instruments and science suite began to come online for checkouts and operational status. |
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