Forum:Federal States/Space Program

Forums → Federal States → Federal States/Space Program

I'd like to open discussion here of the Federal States' space program.

I think the best place to start is to mention some aspects of the real-world source-concept that are specifically worth emulating. NASA, in the US, has been, historically, a highly decentralized agency in geographical terms - like most US agencies. Hence there are NASA facilities all over the US map: Florida is well-known, but there's Houston, Huntsville (Alabama), multiple in California (JPL Pasadena, Vandenburg, Edwards, Ames Mountain View), etc. This decentralized aspect is worth emphasizing and even extending further in the FSA, because it allows mappers of different states to each have a small piece of the agency.

That said, it is understood that prior discussion (which had been either in discord or the old wiki, and not archived that I can find), the main "launch facility" will be in Cosperica. That makes sense - it should be as close to the equator as is reasonable in FSA's geography. Because of coriolis forces, early launch facilities were typically positioned "facing" eastward - the rockets would take off in that direction, and you want failed launches to land harmlessly in the ocean or desert rather than population centers.

Setting that aside, can we discuss some brainstorms for all the different and diverse facilities that would support that? An initial list, based on my very limited off-hand knowledge of NASA (no research done here):

• Mission Control (Houston)
• Research (Ames, JPL)
• Training (Huntsville)
• Shuttle-style vehicle staging (Edwards)
• ?

I think there's room for a greater level of decentralization, with some brainstorming.

Once we outline a rough number of main facilities, we need to set up an application process.

I suppose all this parallels the process discussed for military facilities. In fact, it might be easiest to just add "Space Program" onto the military - it's a historical fact that NASA and the US DoD have a deeply intertwined history anyway, and so the same is probably true for FSA's Space Agency. We could even make it simpler and leave it as an autonomous military branch for its entire history (a la the recent invention of the "Space Force" but projected back into history to the origins of the space program).

Having said that, except for this page here (Collab:Federal_States/Military) - which seems badly out of date - it doesn't appear there's much current discussion or coordination of the distribution of military facilities either. So let's do that too!

Some other points worth discussing:

• Name of Agency?
• Logo design
• ?

--Luciano (talk) 14:25, 19 June 2022 (UTC)

From a more “meta” standpoint, the Space Program could also be used to jump-start some long-standing collaborative areas like Piscipula or Cosperica if some sites are concentrated there. —TheMayor (talk) 14:30, 19 June 2022 (UTC)

For information, not suggesting we need to directly replicate this.. from the NASA website there are nearly 20 separate facilities, most (but not all) are based in or beside airforce bases/airport facilities, Area 51 is not mentioned. Cape Canaveral is the well known launch site but several of these facilities run test launches as part of manufacture/R&D processes;

1. Ames Research Center - IT, fundamental aeronautics, bio and space science technologies - Mountain View, California
2. Armstrong Flight Research Center - Flight research - Edwards AFB California
3. Glenn Research Center - Aeropropulsion and communications technologies - Cleveland Ohio
4. NASA Engineering and Safety Center - Independent testing, analysis, and assessments of NASA's high-risk projects - Cleveland Ohio
5. NASA Safety Center - Development of personnel, processes, and tools needed for the safe and successful achievement of strategic goals - Cleveland, Ohio
6. Goddard Space Flight Center - Earth, solar system, and universe observations, and space communications and navigation - Washington
7. Headquarters - Agency leadership - Washington
8. Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Robotic exploration of the solar system and Earth observations - Pasadena, California
9. Johnson Space Center - Human space exploration - Nassau Bay, Houston
10. Kennedy Space Center - Prepare and launch missions around the Earth and beyond - Florida
11. Langley Research Center - Aviation, space technology and Earth science​ - Virginia
12. Marshall Space Flight Center - Space transportation and propulsion technologies - Huntsville Alabama
13. Stennis Space Center - Rocket propulsion testing and remote sensing technology - Hancock County, Mississippi
14. NASA Shared Services Center, Financial management, human resources, information technology, and procurement - Hancock County, Mississippi
15. Goddard Institute for Space Studies - Broad study of global climate change - New York City
16. Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility - Safety and cost-effectiveness for mission-critical software - Fairmont, West Virginia
17. Michoud Assembly Facility - Manufacture and assembly of critical hardware for exploration vehicles - New Orleans
18. Wallops Flight Facility - Suborbital Research Programs - Virginia

I'd like to see Alormen host a manufacturing/assembly facility or an R&D facility. That might need to be associated with an airforce base. Could be a fun collab project for a mapper/group of mappers. Ruadh (talk) 09:56, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

In terms of structure it might be interesting to keep it as a branch of the military rather than a civilian spin-off. Without a cold war space race analogue (is there one?) then funnelling government money into rocketry/space research and the private aerospace industry wouldn't have been a priority. Ruadh (talk) 10:36, 14 July 2022 (UTC)