The calm before the "storm"

Well, actually it's not that clam really. As we are winding down (a part of) our design effort, there have been a constant feverish activity over the past week, intended on closing the remaining open issues and verifying (as much as we can) the correctness of our intended simulation. I think that I have, in many occasions, vented some (a lot?) about how difficult it is to find engineering details on the Soviet space program. This have resulted in a lot of research work on our part and on a certain amount of frustration. Was the experience worth the trouble? Yes, most definitly. Sure we still have to see if the end result (that Orbiter's addon) will be up-to our expectations, but I really believe that our (the team) understanding and knowledge on rocketry and space vehicle engineering have greatly improved. And, this is an accomplishment I must said (especially for me, a big one!).

As dictated by my obsessive mind (OCD?), I have been, as before, fully consumed by this project over the past couple of months. So much so, that in numerous occasions, rocketry had find its way in my dreams ... Last night for example, although it's kind of fuzzy now, I was inspecting a rocket engine (a Russian one I believe), moving around feverishly, following the path of some pneumatic hose or something ... Yep, I'm that crazy.

As we are gearing-up to the start of the implementation phase, my anxiety has been building-up, slowly but surely. Dozen of questions have been circulating in my mind: Have we properly understand the schematics? Did we miss anything? Can we do this? Can I deliver what I said we could do? How bad will the frame rate be? Will our design hold? I do know that this is after all a for fun venture and that if we fail to deliver, only our collective egos will be crushed, but still I can't help the apprehension taking me over ...