Lyndon_B._Johnson_Space_Center: Security Forces?

[kalos72]

Anyone know what type of security forces one would find at a location like this

Turns out its just north of Galveston...the ability to launch comm or surveillance satellites would be pretty nice to have.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Don't know about the 1990s period but certainly in the 2000s they used private security firms to provide everything from armed guards to security locks. So it's not inconceivable that they were using private companies to provide armed guards in the 1990s.

[James1978]

Anyone know what type of security forces one would find at a location like this

Peacetime or wartime

From what I can find, NASA sites seem to have contract security. Apparently the security force at the Kennedy Space Center is around 150 or so, including a SWAT team. I get the impression that security at JSC would just be gate guards, roving patrols, some physical security at mission control, etc.

Turns out its just north of Galveston...the ability to launch comm or surveillance satellites would be pretty nice to have.

There are no launch facilities at JSC. It's a training, R&D and administrative center.

[pmulcahy11b]

Anyone know what type of security forces one would find at a location like this

Turns out its just north of Galveston...the ability to launch comm or surveillance satellites would be pretty nice to have.

I never thought of that...

As for launching from Galveston, there's a private company gearing up to do that (IIRC), but it's way outside of the T2K timeline.

[CDAT]

Peacetime or wartime

From what I can find, NASA sites seem to have contract security. Apparently the security force at the Kennedy Space Center is around 150 or so, including a SWAT team. I get the impression that security at JSC would just be gate guards, roving patrols, some physical security at mission control, etc.

There are no launch facilities at JSC. It's a training, R&D and administrative center.

I was in some training with a guy from NASA security, in addition to everything above they also have armed helicopters (miniguns out the side) he showed up photos of all this just did a web search for it on public computer.

[pmulcahy11b]

I never thought of that...

As for launching from Galveston, there's a private company gearing up to do that (IIRC), but it's way outside of the T2K timeline.

Along those lines, would either side have bothered to use a nuke on the Ariete launch facilities in French Guyana And if not -- the base is a major training base for the Foreign Legion -- did anyone get stuck there Did the French try to get them out Did they become a local security force for civilians in the area

[stormlion1]

Private Security for the most part but really good money that around a launch its beefed up by Military Units on site and probably on call from nearby military bases. NASA might be a civilian agency, but it does launch military equipment so they would have a reaction force available and they wouldn't trust a military payload to a civilian security force.

[Rainbow Six]

Along those lines, would either side have bothered to use a nuke on the Ariete launch facilities in French Guyana And if not -- the base is a major training base for the Foreign Legion -- did anyone get stuck there Did the French try to get them out Did they become a local security force for civilians in the area

NATO Vehicle Guide (V2) lists the 3rd Foreign Legion Infantry Regiment as stationed in Kourou, French Guiana with a strength of 350 men.

I thought I read somewhere that the launch facilities were intact and the French were still in full control but I'm not sure where (I thought it might have been in the NATO Vehicle Guide but it only lists the Legion Regiment in the French order of battle and doesn't go into any detail) so it might have been speculation / fan work.

[kalos72]

I understand it may not have launch facilities but surely a bunch of NASA training scientists can help put together a small ICBM like rocket capable of launching a satellite.

Still need a functioning comms satellite you can work however...

[Targan]

I understand it may not have launch facilities but surely a bunch of NASA training scientists can help put together a small ICBM like rocket capable of launching a satellite.

Still need a functioning comms satellite you can work however...

When you say "put together" do you mean assemble from a full suite of existing parts Because in the middle of the Twilight War it would be difficult to say the least to manufacture from scratch any rocket capable of reaching orbit.

[kato13]

When you say "put together" do you mean assemble from a full suite of existing parts Because in the middle of the Twilight War it would be difficult to say the least to manufacture from scratch any rocket capable of reaching orbit.

I agree. My first thought is that you would need a stable well fed population of at least one million people before you would have the minimum infrastructure to consider building something from scratch. There are just so many dependencies. Of course at such a minimum a majority of production would need to be directed solely to space related manufacturing.

The fact that Israel (the smallest country to provide both launcher and satellite) performed a solo development and launch in 1989 when their population was 4.5 million, would seem to support that minimum population level. That population number comes with a lot of caveats though. Israel could go to the outside world for things like steel, titanium, solar panels, chemicals, transistors, etc, all of which would make things much easier from a production perspective.

[stormlion1]

How much of the equipment needed was bought from outside sources Where any of the parts repurposed from other projects Satellite is easy, if all you want it to do is beep. Its when you want it to multitask it gets harder. As for the rocket, well it might be relatively easy to put together a low orbit more or less unguided rocket. All you really need to do is build a V-2 Rocket in fact. Good bet someone would have the blueprints for that stashed somewhere.

[Tegyrius]

I'm thinkin' it's not gonna be as easy as a hand-wave. "Rocket science" is a catchphrase for a reason, y'know.

- C.

[kalos72]

Surely there is an ICBM sitting in silo some where without a warhead or something A V-2 style rocket isn't that hard...in theory of course.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Well... you can get by with a minimum of metallurgy knowledge to make the rocket and a graduate engineer could probably design a workable rocket but the fuel is a real "project killer". You need chemists but you also need facilities to manufacture the fuel and then that requires engineers and so on and so on.

Like Kato mentioned, there's a lot of dependencies and like Targan mentioned, it's going to be hard knowing exactly what you need let alone finding what you need in the T2k environment. And why would you use all those chemicals making fuel when you could be making fertilizer or explosives

This is the sort of project that needs a few years worth of collecting (not just parts or knowledge but also the people who know how to use that knowledge) and for that part alone, it's a good campaign idea.
But... it's certainly not something that a small population is going to care about when the best they can muster is farm machinery and some computers. This would be something for CivGov, MilGov or maybe even New America to undertake.

As for what Kalos said, maybe there's an unused ICBM sitting in a silo somewhere, anything can happen in the game world if the GM allows it but even with that, it seems kind of pointless to put a satellite into orbit if all you're making it do is go "beep".