Joint Efforts: Towards a Different Life
almost 5 years ago – Thu, May 23, 2019 at 10:58:07 PM

Hi,

Thank you so much for all your support! In this update, we'll conclude the story of Joint Efforts from Update #21 with a new wave of narrative unlocks!

In 1982, the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the American National Academy of Sciences (NAS) planted a seed of mutual cooperation that would grow into a space exploration project that lasted almost 20 years (plus 15 years of preparations) and brought together teams from 28 countries. The project turned out to be what is now known as the Cassini-Huygens mission, which saw NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) work together, and which, for its overwhelming success, was dubbed as the mission of firsts.

The aim of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was to study Saturnian system. It consisted of the Cassini orbiter developed by NASA/ASI and the Huygens lander constructed by ESA. Launched in 1997, it took Cassini 7 years to make it to Saturn’s orbit where it stayed until 2017, managing to discover seven new moons orbiting the planet. The probe was very active on its journey: it made about 26,000 images of Jupiter during a flyby, Jupiter's most detailed color study so far. 

On the other hand, the Huygens probe separated from Cassini in 2004 to focus on studying the Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. When it landed on it in 2005 with it’s robotic laboratory, it crossed out several checkboxes: the farthest landing from Earth, the first landing in the outer Solar System, and the first landing on a moon that’s not the Moon.

While on Titan, Huygens detected lakes of liquid hydrocarbon in what was the first discovery of lakes outside of Earth. Furthermore, the data from the Cassini spacecraft have pointed towards the possibility that there is liquid water under Titan’s ice shell. This would mean that it is possible that the organic material on Titan could spark a chemical reaction corresponding to the one that started life on Earth.

However, Titan wasn’t the only place where groundbreaking discoveries were made. It’s lakes were actually quite dwarfed by the salty internal ocean of liquid water that Cassini found in Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, and even geysers erupting from its south pole. Because of these findings, scientists came to the conclusion that if a life is to be found anywhere within the Solar System, it’s most likely to be right there.

To make sure there wasn’t a slightest chance of contaminating any of Saturn’s moons when Cassini’s journey came to an end in 2017, it changed its course into Saturn’s upper atmosphere where it disappeared in flames. It will be remembered as a probe that changed the way we understand the Saturn system and that greatly enhanced our knowledge on the possibilities of finding life in the Solar System.

This concludes the Joint Efforts story series. We hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as we have, and we’re looking forward to crossing the finishing line with you on board, which will be in just 7 hours from now! We can’t wait to hear what sort of collaboration agreements you will make in your space conquests and what breakthrough you will achieve during your time as space agency directors.

Let’s enjoy the last part of our mission together! THANK YOU!

Michal, Jan, and Marek

Joint Efforts: Into the Maze
almost 5 years ago – Thu, May 23, 2019 at 01:25:29 AM

Hi,

Thank you for all your support! In this update, we'll delve into the first part of the Joint Efforts story series.

In the aftermath of WW2, many European scientists left to work with either the US or the Soviet Union. During this time, it wasn’t possible for the Western European countries to rely on strictly national projects and resources to compete with the two superpowers. It was time to work together. At the center of these efforts was the Ariane project, which united several countries as they worked on developing a heavy-lift launch vehicle.

In 1961, France formed the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), which lead them to become the third country with access to space thanks to their Diamant rocket. They, however, saw the potential benefits of cooperation and shared the technology within Europe in order to improve upon the design and eventually develop the Ariane launcher family. In fact, 3 years after the beginning of this joint project, the European Space Agency (ESA) as we know it was established, which, presently, connects scientists and engineers from 22 countries.

The name of the Ariane rocket comes from the Cretan princess Ariadne who was, according to the Greek mythology, a goddess of (among other things) labyrinths and mazes. While the princess played a vital role when Theseus defeated the Minotaur and found a way through the creature's labyrinth, her modern counterpart was instrumental in helping us navigate, and better understand, the complex maze that is the universe.

In 2004, Ariane was the key to ESA’s Rosetta mission as it launched the Rosetta space probe with the Philae lander module into space to study the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. In 2014, Rosetta became the first spacecraft to orbit a comet while Philae achieved the first successful comet landing. The mission turned out to be a huge success, not only for being the most detailed study of a comet, but also for bringing together about 2,000 people to work together on this mission between 2004-2014.

We are incredibly happy that we can too, in our own way, connect people together. It makes us super-proud to see such a large community of amazing people (that’s you) work hand-in-hand to make this project a reality. Sometimes, an incredible stories can be written through such connections, just like when we had the chance to meet, and even compete over the universe, with Pamela L. Gay, an astronomer and a relentless promoter of science, Douglas Vakoch, the president of METI international, an institution figuring out how we should communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence, and ESA’s James Carpenter, who works on several missions to the Moon.

Tomorrow, we will conclude the Joint Efforts story with additional narrative unlocks!

Thank you, again, so much for being on this incredible journey with us!

Michal, Jan, and Marek

THANK YOU: Ready for Landing!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, May 23, 2019 at 12:12:54 AM

THANK YOU!

We can’t even express how happy and thankful we are that you have blasted through all the Space Race milestones! Our engineering team reports that the last missing piece, the Faction Headquarters, has just been installed into our launch vehicle!

With the Faction Headquarters, you’ll have access to the thematic powers of every faction / rocket! Choose a specific faction setup based on a historical leader and exploit their strengths. The leader that will stand at the helm of your agency determines factors such as which Control Cards you start with, how many astronauts you have available in the reserve / already on the Launch Pad, or if you have an advantage in Progress!

We have now unlocked all the financial stretch goals that we have carefully budgeted for and which we are confident we can produce the game with. However, that doesn't mean we’ll stop! There are still two more story updates to go, which means that you can look forward to additional waves of narrative unlocks with more gameplay content!

And...

Our thank you for your support

It was so amazing to have you on board during the flight! For us, nothing is more important that our community, and we want to show you how much we appreciate that you are here with us! We want to upgrade the Master Box bottom outer sides by imprinting the names of all the fellow astronaut backers as part of illustrations that will commemorate our journey and show that you really are a part of the team that made all this possible!

Now that we are in the last 48 hours, we would really appreciate if you helped us push the rocket even further ahead in the progress tracker by letting your friends know that the we are about to land! If you have a friend who haven’t heard about the game yet, now’s the best time to invite them to the launchpad! Our call-to-action signal is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardcubator/space-race-0/pledge/new

Thank you again for all your amazing support, comments, and suggestions. Thanks to you, we are able to make the game so much better!

Jan, Michal, Marek, Sisi, and Klobouk

Modern Days: The Final Frontier
almost 5 years ago – Wed, May 22, 2019 at 01:32:50 AM

Hi,

We’re getting close towards the finish of our space mission, and we’ll land in about 48 hours! It was an incredible journey so far, mainly thanks to having you on board! In this command center report, we’ll see how far we’ve got and also what to look forward during the final days of the campaign.

•  Campaign overview – let’s take a look at how far we’ve made it together.
•  Faction Headquarters – what do you think about the final stretch goal?
•  Modern Days story continue with more narrative unlocks!

Campaign overview

First of all, we want to really thank you for being here with us in this space mission. It’s so amazing to see how far the we’ve made it thanks to your support!

Space Race was funded in 93 minutes and, by the time of writing this, more than 2,800 wonderful backers have joined us in this mission! Thanks to your support, we have unlocked 31 Stretch Goals so far.

Let’s take a look at all the new gameplay elements and component upgrades that found its way into the game during this wonderful journey!

Component upgrades (Deluxe Bundle):

• Master Box to hold the base game and both expansions
• Full-color artwork inside the box
• Unique astronaut meeples for every faction
• Silk screen print for the astronauts
• Thematic back side for the Mission Control and Project tokens
• Rocket-specific Control Card artwork
• Professional blackcore cards with linen finish
• Rulebook with soft touch paper
• Custom plastic insert

Gameplay upgrades (including the Cold War expansion):

•  3 new Projects: thanks to a total of 13 different Projects, every game will require a different tactical approach. A strategy that will work once may completely fail the second time if you don’t adapt it.
•  10 new faction-specific Control Cards: with 24 unique Control Cards distributed between the factions, you’ll have a plenty of options to tweak the faction you play in order to achieve exactly what you want during the game.
•  7 new Mission tokens: there are now 21 Mission tokens in the game that you can either use to play of the 3 missions or choose the mission progress randomly for endless gameplay variety. No two games will be the same and you’ll have to devise your strategy accordingly!

Additional perks:

• Digital translations of the rulebook, card look-up sheets, and projects in CZ, FR, DE, IT, and ES.
• 3 downloadable illustrations in print resolution (link)
• Print-and-play kit (work-in-progress link)

This is so amazing, and it’s all thanks to you! But keep in mind there are still 2 more days before the landing. Stay tuned to see what else gets unlocked!

Faction Headquarters

There is one more final gameplay upgrade that we’d love to bring into the game with your help: Faction Headquarters! Every faction / rocket will have a unique HQ with thematic variable powers. At the beginning of the game, the HQ will let you choose between several faction setups that are based on its historical leaders. For example, playing as NASA with Wernher Von Braun in the helm will feel completely different than if Neil Armstrong is in charge!

The leader of your faction determines factors such as which Control Cards you start with, how many astronauts you have available in the reserve / already on the Launch Pad, or if you have an advantage in Progress. All the faction setups will have thematic strengths and weaknesses, giving you a distinct vibe every time you play!

Modern Days: The Final Frontier

The story of Modern Days from Update #15, #16, #17, and #18 continues with new narrative unlocks!

Falcon Heavy, a rocket that will be forever remembered as the one that launched Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster into space. Behind the wheel is Starman, a dummy astronaut listening to Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Life on Mars” in a loop. As a proper space-car commander, Starman is prepared for everything that might happen in – there is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as well as the most massively useful towel in the glovebox.

The Falcon Heavy 2018 test launch achieved more than sending the first commercial car into space. It actually demonstrated that SpaceX is able to launch heavy payloads onto the orbit of Mars (actually, the test launch overshot the orbit by a bit), showing off the rocket’s incredible capacity, which is the highest of all the currently operational vehicles. Altogether, it’s #3 on the list of the highest capacity rockets in history (after Saturn V and Energia). #4 if you consider the N1 as well. This is because the Falcon Heavy combines three Falcon 9 cores together (one central core and two boosters).

Although the Falcon Heavy was initially designed to carry people into space, there are no plans to get the rocket a human-rating certification because SpaceX would like to replace these rockets with the Super Heavy-Starship combination. This launch system is envisioned to carry 90,000 kg of cargo along with up to 200 people to Mars, which would follow along the proposed path of working on a Mars colony by 2025. 10 of these shipments should be enough to start a city and to realize Musk’s backup plan for the survival of the human race.

This concludes the story of the Modern Days. Which planet would you like to live on?

Let us know what you think about the Faction Headquarters! Thank you so much for your amazing support!

Michal, Jan, and Marek

Modern Days: New Milestones
almost 5 years ago – Mon, May 20, 2019 at 11:15:25 PM

Hi,

Thank you so much for all your amazing support! Let's take a look at what's new the latest message from the mission control:

•  New milestone reached – read a report from the engineering team!
•  Modern Days continue with a new narrative unlock!

New milestone reached!

Thanks you! Together, we were able to upgrade the Mission Progress tokens and also the government Projects to have a thematic back side so the Space Race history will come alive during the game! What's ahead? Once we reach the milestone that's now in front of us, we'll be able to have a Space Race how-to-play video made professionally, which will let you learn the game in no time without having to study the rulebook!

Modern Days

The story of Modern Days from Update #15 , #16, and #17 continues with a new narrative unlock! 

China became the 5th country with an independent launch capability when it launched the Dong Fang Hong 1 (The East is Red 1) satellite with the Long March 1 rocket in 1970. After that, its space program climbed forward two more steps as China became the 3rd country to independently send a person to space.

It was October 2003 when Yang Liwei became the first taikonaut to leave Earth, as he was carried by the Long March 2F rocket inside the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. This was his first and only flight. It was decided to no longer assign the new national hero to any future spaceflights. Only 10 years later, Chinese space program made it all the way to the Moon with the Yutu rover.

Yutu got its name after the pet rabbit of Chang'e, the Goddess of the Moon. Despite the odds and its life expectancy, Yutu survived 31 months on the Moon, collecting geological data, landscape pictures, and, occasionally, selfies. Jade Rabbit discovered a new type of rock and several distinct layers of the Moon before retiring as a lunar rover to keep Chang'e company.

The Modern Days story will conclude tomorrow. Stay tuned for the upcoming unlock!

Thank you so much for all your support!

Michal, Jan, and Marek