05-20-2014, 11:48 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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[Spaceships] Building an Underground Missile Silo
I would like to design an underground missile silo using GURPS Spaceships and I have a few questions.
Dalton “give me a minute, man!” Spence
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05-20-2014, 09:31 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: [Spaceships] Building an Underground Missile Silo
Missile systems with multiple launch sites controlled by a single center (e.g., Minuteman) don't have the silos co-located with the control center, to make the latter more survivable; their remote silos are also just a concrete hole with a lid. So you're really looking (in US terms) for a Titan or even Atlas base.
The degree of isolation among the three structures in a Titan missile base suggests that you should either design it as three separate (albeit very closely linked) buildings or as one large building with a lot of "dirt" armor (or perhaps "cargo" spaces that just exist to absorb damage); I would probably go with the latter. In addition to these three main sections, there were also several redundant communications systems scattered around the site. Note that fuel tankage was provided by mobile trailers that sat exposed on the surface. The improvement of the Titan over the Atlas was that the liquid fuels were (relatively) stable and could remain loaded most of the time. The shells of all three structures are heavily steel reinforced concrete. There is a sealed steel shell, but it's for EMP rather than structural support. The silo cover is an enormous (hundred tons?) slab of reinforced concrete on rails, with a hydraulic ram to open it. Nothing else that's vital is exposed above ground level, so I'd say the whole thing is buried. Note that there was essentially no life support in a Titan base: once an attack started and the base was sealed, the crew was on residual air. When that ran out, they had the choice of suffocating or crawling out through one of the access tunnels. The silo should probably be designed as a hangar bay, since (for Titans, anyway) there was extensive maintenance carried out in it. Note that there is a huge void beneath the silo per se where water is dumped during the launch sequence. Not only does this carry away much of the heat of the exhaust as steam (through two vents beside the silo), but it also damps the noise and vibration that would otherwise tear the missile apart before it cleared the tube. You might consider adapting the "coolant tank" rule (SS1, 31). If you're not already familiar with it, I recommend the Titan Missile Museum as a resource. The missile silo interiors and launch sequence for Star Trek: First Contact were filmed there, though they didn't use the control center. The control center in the first part of War Games, on the other hand, was for a Minuteman base. Last edited by thrash; 05-20-2014 at 09:39 PM. |
05-23-2014, 10:20 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hamilton, Ont. CANADA
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Re: [Spaceships] Building an Underground Missile Silo
Thanks! I just have a few more questions.
Dalton “Atlas I'll have the answers I need!” Spence
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05-23-2014, 05:02 PM | #4 | ||||
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: [Spaceships] Building an Underground Missile Silo
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Can you? Yes, ASSuming your overall building is the right SM to have them. Whether you should is entirely up to you. :)
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base, missile, spaceships |
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