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Description

Have had this guy done and ready to go for a few months now, just didn't have the motivation to get it rendered. Took care of that today though and I'm planning on doing a stat card render here as well sometime this week. Have a few things to post now as well that I've been holding on to, just have been pretty bogged down as of late.

This is part of of my project "Under a Sea of Dead Stars" and represents one of several first-generation combat spacecraft I'm working on

Historical context:

"Polyus" was a massive orbital weapons platform developed during the 1980's by the USSR with the intent of countering satellites expected to be launched by the United States as a part of their Star Wars program. It was planed to feature a 1 megawatt carbon dioxide laser as its primary ASAT weapon but also is depicted with a 23mm R-23 cannon like those found on the Almaz stations for self defense. Additionally it was originally planned to feature a recoilless mine launcher capable of deploying nuclear space mines.
A prototype was constructed between 1985 and 1986 and utilized a TKS spacecraft as its propulsion block. It featured a functional laser and a small satellite launcher in place of a mine launcher as well as two pods containing deployable targets to be used to calibrate the laser. The craft was mounted to a Energia booster, though to due to conflicting hardware, the satellite had to be mounted upside down on the booster. This meant that once detached it would have to rotate 180 degrees in order for its thrusters to be oriented correctly to accelerate to a stable orbit.
The prototype was launched on the 15th of May, 1987 and successfully detached from its Energia booster, however a faulty guidance sensor caused the satellite to fail to stop itself during the planned 180 degree turn and instead rotated a full 360 degrees before stopping and firing its engines. The satellite quickly deorbited itself as a result, burning up over the Pacific ocean shortly afterwards.
Due to the failure of the program and the collapse of the Soviet Union a second vehicle was never produced

Alternate Timeline:

With the fault that doomed the prototype identified and the seeming threat of the Star Wars program looming large, work was approved to commence on a second spacecraft in late 1987. The new satellite was virtually identical to the original Polyus, though featured the R-23 cannon and mine launcher the original plans called for (though the nuclear mines would be replaced with more traditional explosive devices). The new vehicle was ready to launch late into 1989 but due to delays in production of a new Energia booster the launch slipped to 1990. Under the cover of a dark spring night the spacecraft climbed skyward, successfully detaching from Energia minutes after liftoff. Polyus performed its burn in the correct direction and entered a stable 300km orbit.
Laser calibration tests were carried out over the following months but halted due to collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A supply craft launched just before the fall boosted Polyus up to an orbit of 560km where it would remain largely untouched until 2011, by which point its orbit had decayed significantly and was at risk of re-entering the atmosphere. Gradual reboosts between 2011 and 2018 pushed the craft up to 750km negating the risk of it reentering, though by 2019 the spacecraft's systems had begun to show significant degradation due to its age. A crewed upgrade was planned to be launched in 2021 but due to both delays with the Angara rocket which was required to lift the heavy upgrade package as well as global events that will remain unspecified, the launched was pushed back significantly to 2028.
Crews were finally able to make it to the nearly derelict craft in early 2028 where work would be carried out to overhaul the many aging and failing systems onboard Polyus. Work concluded in 2030 with Polyus returned to satisfactory condition, conducting the first test firing of its laser in almost 40 years. In the mid 2030's a new craft using Polyus's original plans was built with the addition of a crewed section was built and launched to compliment its much older sister (Polyus-C). In 2039 Polyus would be rebosted to a geostationary orbit amid rising global tensions to better protect it from ground based weapons.
In 2042, after having never once deployed its weapons against another spacecraft, Polyus and her newer sister would be the centerpieces in the absolute mess that was the opening days of the Lunar Crisis.
Polyus-C had been moved to a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon, leaving Polyus in its geostationary orbit along with two warships from the US, USS Constellation and USS Essex, to fend off a hoard of PRC hunter-killer satellites outbound for the moon.
Polyus successfully held its own for two days, taking down a number of H/K satellites and missiles but eventually depleted its fuel for the CO2 laser. It was destroyed soon after by ASAT weapons deployed by H/K satellites.

Specifications

Background:

Built: 1987-1989

    Launched: 1990
Launch Vehicle: Energia
In Service: (USSR) 1990-1991, 1992-2042 Russia
Refurbished: 2028-2030

Fate: Destroyed during engagement with PLA Hunter-Killer satellites, Lunar Crisis October 29th, 2042

Dimensions:
  Length: 37 m
Diameter: 4.1 m
Launch Mass: 80 Tons

Armament:

Offensive:

    1 Megawatt Rated CO2 Laser
    Space-Mine Launcher

Defensive:
    23mm Rikhter R-23 cannon (2,000 rounds)
    (After 20250)

    Chaff & Flare projectors

Protection:
    None


Mobility:

Propulsion: [4 X] OMS Thrusters



Power:

[2 X] Deployable Solar Arrays

Description

Have had this guy done and ready to go for a few months now, just didn't have the motivation to get it rendered. Took care of that today though and I'm planning on doing a stat card render here as well sometime this week. Have a few things to post now as well that I've been holding on to, just have been pretty bogged down as of late.

This is part of of my project "Under a Sea of Dead Stars" and represents one of several first-generation combat spacecraft I'm working on

Historical context:

"Polyus" was a massive orbital weapons platform developed during the 1980's by the USSR with the intent of countering satellites expected to be launched by the United States as a part of their Star Wars program. It was planed to feature a 1 megawatt carbon dioxide laser as its primary ASAT weapon but also is depicted with a 23mm R-23 cannon like those found on the Almaz stations for self defense. Additionally it was originally planned to feature a recoilless mine launcher capable of deploying nuclear space mines.
A prototype was constructed between 1985 and 1986 and utilized a TKS spacecraft as its propulsion block. It featured a functional laser and a small satellite launcher in place of a mine launcher as well as two pods containing deployable targets to be used to calibrate the laser. The craft was mounted to a Energia booster, though to due to conflicting hardware, the satellite had to be mounted upside down on the booster. This meant that once detached it would have to rotate 180 degrees in order for its thrusters to be oriented correctly to accelerate to a stable orbit.
The prototype was launched on the 15th of May, 1987 and successfully detached from its Energia booster, however a faulty guidance sensor caused the satellite to fail to stop itself during the planned 180 degree turn and instead rotated a full 360 degrees before stopping and firing its engines. The satellite quickly deorbited itself as a result, burning up over the Pacific ocean shortly afterwards.
Due to the failure of the program and the collapse of the Soviet Union a second vehicle was never produced

Alternate Timeline:

With the fault that doomed the prototype identified and the seeming threat of the Star Wars program looming large, work was approved to commence on a second spacecraft in late 1987. The new satellite was virtually identical to the original Polyus, though featured the R-23 cannon and mine launcher the original plans called for (though the nuclear mines would be replaced with more traditional explosive devices). The new vehicle was ready to launch late into 1989 but due to delays in production of a new Energia booster the launch slipped to 1990. Under the cover of a dark spring night the spacecraft climbed skyward, successfully detaching from Energia minutes after liftoff. Polyus performed its burn in the correct direction and entered a stable 300km orbit.
Laser calibration tests were carried out over the following months but halted due to collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A supply craft launched just before the fall boosted Polyus up to an orbit of 560km where it would remain largely untouched until 2011, by which point its orbit had decayed significantly and was at risk of re-entering the atmosphere. Gradual reboosts between 2011 and 2018 pushed the craft up to 750km negating the risk of it reentering, though by 2019 the spacecraft's systems had begun to show significant degradation due to its age. A crewed upgrade was planned to be launched in 2021 but due to both delays with the Angara rocket which was required to lift the heavy upgrade package as well as global events that will remain unspecified, the launched was pushed back significantly to 2028.
Crews were finally able to make it to the nearly derelict craft in early 2028 where work would be carried out to overhaul the many aging and failing systems onboard Polyus. Work concluded in 2030 with Polyus returned to satisfactory condition, conducting the first test firing of its laser in almost 40 years. In the mid 2030's a new craft using Polyus's original plans was built with the addition of a crewed section was built and launched to compliment its much older sister (Polyus-C). In 2039 Polyus would be rebosted to a geostationary orbit amid rising global tensions to better protect it from ground based weapons.
In 2042, after having never once deployed its weapons against another spacecraft, Polyus and her newer sister would be the centerpieces in the absolute mess that was the opening days of the Lunar Crisis.
Polyus-C had been moved to a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the moon, leaving Polyus in its geostationary orbit along with two warships from the US, USS Constellation and USS Essex, to fend off a hoard of PRC hunter-killer satellites outbound for the moon.
Polyus successfully held its own for two days, taking down a number of H/K satellites and missiles but eventually depleted its fuel for the CO2 laser. It was destroyed soon after by ASAT weapons deployed by H/K satellites.

Specifications

Background:

Built: 1987-1989

    Launched: 1990
Launch Vehicle: Energia
In Service: (USSR) 1990-1991, 1992-2042 Russia
Refurbished: 2028-2030

Fate: Destroyed during engagement with PLA Hunter-Killer satellites, Lunar Crisis October 29th, 2042

Dimensions:
  Length: 37 m
Diameter: 4.1 m
Launch Mass: 80 Tons

Armament:

Offensive:

    1 Megawatt Rated CO2 Laser
    Space-Mine Launcher

Defensive:
    23mm Rikhter R-23 cannon (2,000 rounds)
    (After 20250)

    Chaff & Flare projectors

Protection:
    None


Mobility:

Propulsion: [4 X] OMS Thrusters



Power:

[2 X] Deployable Solar Arrays