The Archangel II Mars Line Plan Poster showing the external configuration of the space plane.
The Archangel II Mars Line Layout Poster showing the internal configuration of the space plane.
Inspiration
In the design of Archangel II I have made one very obvious tribute to Concorde, but the rest comes straight from my own tortured imagination. The Concorde tribute is of course that beautiful ogival delta wing which, probably more than anything else, defined that amazing aeroplane.
Archangel II has to be able to operate in the dense oxygen rich atmosphere of Earth, in the vacuum of space, and the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars. I've positioned it at a particular point in time where certain key enabling technologies exist.
The first of those technologies is the ion drive. Today, small ion drive engines have been successful deployed on satellites and space systems. Archangel II takes that to the next level. The power for the ship, to support it through its long voyage to Mars, comes from three compact Tokamak fusion reactors. Small amounts of super heated plasma are drawn from the reactors and provide the thrust to move the ship in space. I've made the assumption that using the ion drives in the Earth's atmosphere is not allowed due to radiation concerns, so to get to the edge of space Archangel II employs six traditional scramjets.
The ion drives can make Archangel II go very fast indeed. However, the physics laws of Newton and Einstein mean that at the end of the journey the ship has to slow down again to make a successful landing. The Ingenieurs have calculated the optimum accelerate-cruise-decelerate pattern for Archangel II which defines its best Earth-Mars and Mars-Earth transfer orbits, and thus the journey time which at best is around six months.
Six months is a long time to be cooped up, even in a ship as comfortable as Archangel II. Consequently the second enabling technology is suspended animation - the ability to keep people asleep and in good health for months at a time. The normal operational mode is for passengers to spend the first and last three weeks awake and enjoying the journey, and the rest in a deep sleep in their cabins.
Six months is also a long time to be weightless. Humans need a bit weight to maintain muscle tone and 'feel normal'. To this end Archangel II is equipped with gravity plates. This great invention is able to create a localised gravitational force. Gravity plates are used to keep the bodies of people on Archangel II in contact with the floor and their minds in touch with a sense of normality. The other great trick with a gravity plate is to make things appear weightless. Archangel II is a big ship - too big to take off and land on Earth in the conventional sense. But with its gravity plates making it almost weightless, its scramjets and Concorde wing allow it to easily fly to the edge of space. They also make possible a gentle descent onto the surface of Mars.
On such a long voyage it is vital that the ship knows exactly where it is in relation to where it ought to be. The navigation task falls to Ereb, the Quantum Navigation Computer. Everything in space is moving all the time. Ereb's quantum capabilities allow it to keep track of the position of Archangel II with great precision. The ship management and risk assessment task is performed by Asu, the Artificial Intelligence. Although there are human flight crew on duty at all times, Ereb and Asu work non-stop to ensure Archangel II completes its mission.
Archangel II Mars Line backstory
After several failed and tragic attempts, humans successfully landed on Mars in 2049. The first expeditions explored regions in search of the best site for a permanent base. They tested survival systems, trialled building techniques and searched for water deposits. By 2055 a first permanent habitation unit had been established in the mouth of an ancient lava tube, complete with its own water supply drawn from sub-surface ice.
At that point Cerulean, who had been involved in building simple supply rockets, took the decision to invest in a much more capable spacecraft. They believed that the Mars colony was viable and would only get bigger. There would be a need to get people to Mars safely and in some comfort, and then back to Earth, so they initiated the Archangel project.
It took Cerulean ten years to build the first flight ready prototype. Archangel left the Earth's atmosphere for the first time in 2065, and touched down on Mars for the first time in 2068. The first Archangel proved the concept would work, but also demonstrated that the ship needed some major revisions to be truly successful, the most obvious being that it just needed to be bigger. Cerulean produced Archangel II which entered service in 2070. Initially six Archangel II ships were built - two to be heading to Mars, two to be heading to Earth, one reserve ship based on Earth and the final one kept as an operational 'lifeboat' stationed between the orbits of Earth and Mars.
A trip to Mars is a profound experience. It doesn't matter how much money you have or where you come from, crossing the void from Earth to another world affects everybody, and in different ways. Some find the sight of the Earth disappearing out of view too much to bear. They end up asleep earlier than they planned. Some find the vision of Mars overwhelming. Some go quiet as they try and process what is happening to them. And some just party on. Cerulean advise that you prepare; that you live the waking of the Red Dream Time so that when you walk on the surface you honour this foreign land.
Archangel II Mars Line short story "Vekaj"
Read the Archangel II short story Vekaj. A reluctant academic makes the most profound discoveries - he's in love, oh and there is life on Mars.
Archangel II Mars Line plan
The plan poster shows Archangel II's ogival delta wing. The wing bears six scramjets for in-Earth-atmosphere propulsion. Towards the rear of the ship and sitting above the wings are the three compact Tokamak fusion reactors connected to the two ion engine exhausts that provide propulsion in space. At the nose, tail and end of the wings are small jet ports used for manoeuvring Archangel II in space. The passenger and crew cabins act as lifeboats. In the event of a complete disaster befalling the ship, the cabins can be ejected into space. They carry their own life support systems which can keep the occupants alive for up to four weeks - enough time for a rescue by the lifeboat Archangel II.
Archangel II Mars Line layout
The layout poster reveals that Archangel II has two decks. The lower deck contains the crew quarters and all the rooms and equipment needed to operate the ship including the laundry, kitchens, food storage areas, sick bay and airlocks. The upper deck is for the passengers and includes a restaurant, lounge, reading room, mini gym and sauna.
Archangel II carries a Space Pug, a little ship that can be deployed into space. The Pug is used to complete inspections of the outside of the ship, help effect repairs, and take passengers on short tours.
The passengers also have access to the Star Deck Observatory which is effectively on the upper third deck buried in the tail. The staff however get access to the Staff Lounge right at the very back of the ship. This is one of the biggest rooms in the ship, with a huge window. Some of the crew will be awake for most of the six month journey and this extra space was found to be valuable for their mental health. In addition, once the ship has completed its acceleration phase it will turn through 180 degrees so that later it can use the ion engines to decelerate. This points the window in the Staff Lounge in the direction of travel. Staff can watch as they approach Mars and Earth.
Archangel II was a technical marvel, but Cerulean well understood that it was a ship of and for its time - which would be limited. The need for flying spaceships was fast disappearing with the development of the space elevators and the new fractal field force propulsion systems.