Project Delta-V Novel

[francisdrake]

DELTA-V is a techno-thriller by Daniel Suarez about a team of adventurers who launch the first deep space mining operation.
This project is to create the ships and scenarios in Orbiter.

The first step is to set up the stage. The zip-file contains the asteroid Ryugu.
Please note, a line needs to be added to the Sol.cfg file:
Planet10 = Ryugu
(or whatever next planet number is free in your Sol.cfg file)
A scenario is in 'The Solar System/Ryugu'.

Edit: Added a first version of the Konstantin space mining vessel, in the DeltaV-00.zip
This is driven by a simple cfg-file, to show the overall vessel structure.

 

[Arvil]

I just added Suarez to my reading wishlist.

 

[francisdrake]

The Konstantin near Ryugu. The main vessel features are, from top down:

• Solar panels and communication antennas on a mast.
• Docking ports and airlocks
• Center hab torus
• Three arms with habs at each end. Number 1 and 2 are for living, 3 is a workshop.
• Four 'Honey Bees' space mining vessels. They will be deployed, grab an asteroid boulder

and use concentrated sunlight to melt and evaporate the boulders' material.

• A set of spherical tanks, containing liquid Methane and Oxygen.
• The engine compartment with 5 main engines.

When the ship is rotating at 3 rpm there is Earth-like gravity in the habs.
Before main engine maneuvers the rotation will be stopped.

 

[francisdrake]

How to fly to Ryugu?
Above are the orbits of the Konstantin (in a distant Earth orbit) and Ryugu, with the reference to the Sun, on Dec 13, 2033.
The green line (ship) and the yellow line (Ryugu) overlap. In the book this is date given as the ideal launch window.

How to find the ideal trajectory to Ryugu? It is not a Hohmann transfer. The book says:

• Start on Dec 13, 2033
• Initial burn dV = 1.7 km/s
• Travel time 48 days
• Arrival at Ryugu on Jan 30, 2034
• Orbit circularization burn dV = 1.9 km/s

Could it be the ejection burn is directly towards the target?
The second burn would then circularize the Solar orbit near Ryugu.
(Ryugu has no significant gravity, so the ship would just orbit the Sun near Ryugu.)

Any ideas?