How did the Arks land?
Well, a better question would be how were they supposed to land?
Let's take Ark I because it was textbook. When the Ark I arrived at the Alpha Centauri star system, the AI examined the habitable world orbiting the B-star (later called Beth) and the one orbiting the A-star (later called Aleph) and decided the A-star planet was the better choice.
After circularizing its orbit around the target planet, the AI awakened the Captain who, in turn, awakened the Pilot and Co-pilot. Two of the men performed a two-step space-walk. Step one was going all the way to the back and jettisoning the propulsion module as it was no longer needed. After that was complete, the two men separated the cargo compartment in the back from the crew compartment in the front.
The command module and SSTO booster remained attached to the crew compartment.
Using solid rocket fuel retros, they began to descend into the atmosphere. As the hull began to heat up, they used their gigantic delta wings to force the ship to begin ascending again until it stalled nearly back at the edge of space.
With their velocity reduced by gravity, they began a second descent into the atmosphere, going much lower this time before re-ascending. They did this several times until they were going slow enough to stay within the atmosphere. The technique is a form of aero-braking. If you plotted the altitude as a function of time, you would see that it resembles a mathematical Bessel function.
[image error]
Once they had shed enough velocity and were able to glide safely within the atmosphere, they studied the planet and selected a landing spot, glided in and landed on the belly of the craft which was made of a much stronger metal than most of the ship. After landing, the three command crew members were then tasked with awakening the 500+ members of their crew.
Once the new colonists were settled, the command crew climbed back into the command module, ignited the Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) booster and went back into space. They docked with the orbiting cargo compartment and brought it down near the colony using the same aerobraking technique.
As I mentioned earlier, this was how it was drawn up on paper. Of the five Arks, only three were able to land this way. We all know about how Ark II landed; after all this was the subject of Rome's Revolution. However, how the Deucadons got there first is a story for another day.
Let's take Ark I because it was textbook. When the Ark I arrived at the Alpha Centauri star system, the AI examined the habitable world orbiting the B-star (later called Beth) and the one orbiting the A-star (later called Aleph) and decided the A-star planet was the better choice.
After circularizing its orbit around the target planet, the AI awakened the Captain who, in turn, awakened the Pilot and Co-pilot. Two of the men performed a two-step space-walk. Step one was going all the way to the back and jettisoning the propulsion module as it was no longer needed. After that was complete, the two men separated the cargo compartment in the back from the crew compartment in the front.
The command module and SSTO booster remained attached to the crew compartment.
Using solid rocket fuel retros, they began to descend into the atmosphere. As the hull began to heat up, they used their gigantic delta wings to force the ship to begin ascending again until it stalled nearly back at the edge of space.
With their velocity reduced by gravity, they began a second descent into the atmosphere, going much lower this time before re-ascending. They did this several times until they were going slow enough to stay within the atmosphere. The technique is a form of aero-braking. If you plotted the altitude as a function of time, you would see that it resembles a mathematical Bessel function.
[image error]
Once they had shed enough velocity and were able to glide safely within the atmosphere, they studied the planet and selected a landing spot, glided in and landed on the belly of the craft which was made of a much stronger metal than most of the ship. After landing, the three command crew members were then tasked with awakening the 500+ members of their crew.
Once the new colonists were settled, the command crew climbed back into the command module, ignited the Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) booster and went back into space. They docked with the orbiting cargo compartment and brought it down near the colony using the same aerobraking technique.
As I mentioned earlier, this was how it was drawn up on paper. Of the five Arks, only three were able to land this way. We all know about how Ark II landed; after all this was the subject of Rome's Revolution. However, how the Deucadons got there first is a story for another day.
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Tales of the Vuduri
Tidbits and insights into the 35th century world of the Vuduri.
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