A Very Different space race

[Straha]

POD:an asb decides the solar system and universe in general are less interesting than he'd like so he decides to change it. FTL,psionic powers,time travel and dimensional warping are possible. Thanks To the ASB's rejiggering of physics, interdimensional travel is possible with late 1950's tech(time travel is an offshoot of interdim travel) and FTL is a 1900's tech,. The ASB makes it so that binary or trinary stars with at minimum 5-6 life bearing worlds with intelligence beign more often than not. As a humorous gesture the ASB makes it so that closely related an identical lifeforms would appear on many worlds. The sol system is given 2 extra gas giants which are borth closer to the sun and both gas giants have many earth-sized moons. The kali gas giant Kali,a gas giant thats about .4 AU away from the sun with moons that have varous conditions but with 10 moons are full of life with the rest being terraformable. THe 2 other stars in the trianry system each of 5-6 livable worlds. Sol's livable worlds are Earth,Amtor(tropical rainforest world with steampunk gecko-men),Barsoom(desert with age of imperialism style mirror-humans),counter earth(a mirror of earth with mirror humans and 2 other intelligent races),Hecate(a world with life). The butterfly shield is up until 1918 when things start happening.

Divergence point from OTL

1918-prohibition fails to pass. This causes a backlash as the failure of the amendment against prohibition style laws.

1919-1924-events proceed pretty much as OTL minus prohibition. Without alcohol prohibition we never see a precedent for banning drugs...

1924-Huey Long elected govenor of louisiana. His liberal policies

1925-1928-

1928-the depression begins on scheduale.

1932-Huey Long elected president.

1933-Hitler takes power in germany

1934-Hitler passes in a series of laws that: mandate community exersises for germands,ban intoxicating substances,ban tobacco,ban caffiene,ban massive consumption of meat(think everything ther health nazis want but amplified and codified into law). The result is that once germany is defeated such laws or social campaigns as these are as discredited as anti-semitism is IOTL.

1935-Huey long increases in popularity as his programs

1936-Huey Long elected president and begins his new order program(think european social democracy style programs)

1937-Tesla distributes information regarding his deathray to the great powers

1938-munich happens as OTL
-the leauge of nations treaties against claiming antarctica.

1939-Hitler doesn't suspend research and development like OTL
-Britain claims antarctica and establises a permanent base there

1940-the US military is desegrated in a strageic move designed to

1941-Cigarships and mech robots appear in both the allies and axis's armies.

1942-Japan declares war on the USA
-the Weserflug P.1003/1 appears in the luftwafte's air force. In response to this the USA and Britian make the

1943-Focke-Wulf Fw 500 Kugelblitz fighter is deployed
-the V-3 missile is developed and used against many american airplanes

1944-saucerjet planes appear from germany
-the head of the german military in the west, rommel surrenders and turns over germany on the condition that the soviets don't get any of it.
-Plessy V. Ferguson decision repealed in USA and ruled as being uncostitutional, This leads to ending of segregation and eventually granting of equal rights for blacks by 1955.

1945-WWII ends with the USSR occupying korea,mongolia,poland,the baltics and moldovia. Romania and all the rest of eastern europe are finlandized.
-Rommel elected president in free elections that were supervised by the alliex
-Allies grab the German missile scientists. These are basically shared
between USSR, USA & UK
-united nations formed as a union that was more centralized with the great powers being given more power and control.
-in a last ditch effort, The Ho XVIII Amerika Bomber is used to hit boston in a last dramatic move by the SS
-become aware of a weapons system where a atomic
warhead could be placed upon a German V2. Various programs established to
develop this new weapon platform.
-the USA kicks all non-american researchers out of the nuclear program.
-the Commonwealth Space Agency(CSA) is established but it later is renamed to Commoneath & European Space Agency

1946-the UK,australia,canada,New Zealand,France,German establish the Commonwealth and European Space Agency(CESA)

[Straha]

1947-Beria takes power after Stalin and Zhukov die of foodborne illnesses(poison)
-Bob LaFollete Junior wins election to the senate, a distraught Joseph McCarthy kills himeself
-ICBM development not shut down like OTL

1948-the USA announces and aerospace program under the guidance of the USSF)
-an improved version of the Ho Amerika bomber is made and its called The Firestorm

1949-Truman authorizes a research project to develop a nuclear propulsion engine(NPE)
-the USSR flies a missile into space
- North American Aviation put up it's own money to start Rocketdyne
Propulsion as a serious effort to take the V-2 engine technology and
improve on it, partially in a bid to position themselves for the Navaho
cruise missile booster engine contract. Nike and other SAMs were speeded
up after the Soviet nuclear bomb was detected.
-DNA molecule discovered

1950-Eisenhower elected president
-Eisenhower begins pactifces of placing nearly self sufficiant zeppelin style bases in the atmospere. This leads to a soviet practive of doing so. The building of bases allows for an earleir but slower expansion into space. The bases from the start are meant to be for long periods of habitation. The idea of permanent bases is ingrained from the start.
-the birth control pill appears

1951-in a risky move, Sputnik is flown by the soviet union into orbit
-suborbital bombers,suborbital fighters and suborbital transports developed and used by both the USA & USSR.
-The Army ordered the Redstone missile, with a 3 ton payload (nukes
weighed about that much then) and the same range as the V-2. It used the
engine developed for the Navaho booster. The Air Force restarted it's
contract with General Dynamics that lead to the Atlas ICBM.

1952-the spaceplane program is expanded and used to help facilitate transport between high atmosphere and suborbital bases.

1953-Yuri Gagarin the first man in space
-first comsats establsihed
-undersea bases are set up by both the USA and USSR.
-the next group of Navy reusable recon/sounding rockets demonstrates an altitude capability of 600 Km., and much better reliability. They are used in 1954 in the Baltic and other border areas of the U.S.S.R. to gain rapid "look-over-the-border" recon ability.
-reusable recon torpedoes developed
-Redstone begins it's launch tests, but is hampered by budget priority problems within the Army. Atlas is downsized to 3 engines at takeoff (from 5 engines originally). Nike goes operational in late 1953.

1954-the USSR establishes the first space station in LEO, the USA responds by doing many stations.
-Project Orbiter--the US Army's orbital satellite program is begun.
-cable TV not ruled uncostitutional

1955-A civilian wing of the space program, NASA is set up NASA's forte is commericalizing current available prospects and doing unmanned probes. NASA is kept on a short leash and funding is small.
-the Army's "Major" is also used as a regular orbital launcher, with appropriate upper stages, for Army recon satellites. The Army and Navy are now competeing with each other, and with the Air Force's aircraft, for reconnaisance dominance. This provokes faster progress in both Army expendable and Navy reusable systems. The Army also starts to belatedly develop reusable rocket systems. As the public becomes concerned about missiles, the Navy allows more research use of it's reusable systems. Military communication satellites are launched as an experiment in battlefield coordination.

1956- l-1 throught l-5 are used by the USA as orbital location for large stations.
-the Navy launches a recon satellite using a large reusable rocket as a first stage. The Army's "Colonel" ICBM is test launched, and becomes operational in early 1958. Both Navy and Army launch satellites for the International Geophysical Year before the Soviets do in September of 1956. The services agree in late 1956 to launch satellites for civilian government agencies,companies and universities, if the civilians pay for the launch.
-looking glass 1-4 sattelites are set up around the equator as a US project that the UN can use. These sattelites are eventually made into full orbital labratories where the UN/US studies everytihng that can be stufied by sattelites.
-hubble telescope set up.

1957-Stanislaw Ulam comes up, along with help of other atomic experts in the General Atomics Corperation, with nuclear pulse propulsion. A large craft is propelled through space because small atomic explosions hit a "pusher plate". This allows for a greater use for space on the ship as far less is used for fuel, along with greater effecincy of the fuel.
-a soviet spacecraft orbits the moon and does a complete photographic flyby
-the USA buys some equatorial land in preparation for a future project.
-the global positioning system set up.
-the Army's "Colonel" ICBM goes operational. It is used late that year with a hydrogen/oxygen second stage to launch the first manned satellite. This is used to inspect Soviet spacecraft and experiment with destroying other American target satellites. The Navy's 3000 Km. range ship-launched expendable artillery rocket becomes operational

1958-the USA places a station in lunar orbit.
-a pro-democracy movement with socialistic leaning that rails against the USSR appears in cuba and is headed by a Fidel Castro.
-ORION and NERVA programs started
-the fascist regime in spain collapses and the republics of andalusia(southern spain and spanish morroc+the canaries and baleares),catalan republic and euzacadia declare independence.
-voting rights act passed
-due to worries about possible increases in cancer oncology and cancer medicine gets higher funding than OTL.

1959-in a desperate race, the USA's NPE spacecraft, the Adam Smith beats the USSR's chemical powered rocket.
-after being ostracized by the west, Batista accepts soviet aid and alliance
-Cuban bomber crisis
-a cheap and easy to make pill that cureall *all* STDs including viral ones is created.
-the probes Spirit and Opportunity do a flyby over barsoom and discover the intelligent civilziation living there. The civilization is revealed to american news and plans to contact are shelved for the moment.
-the first ABM system goes operational 3 months ahead of the first Soviet ICBM. The technology of ABMs is pushed to keep ahead of the Soviet ICBM threat. It is continually up-graded. This soon leads to pushing the warning systems into orbit. Naval comsats are now operational in Low-Earth Orbit.

1960-Kennedy elected president with Edmund Muskie as his VP
-a large wheeled permanent living station is set up. This station is called Von Braun Orbital
-Army second generation ICBMs become operational as semi-mobile
systems. The first 2-stage reusable rocket launches a manned vehicle for
managing ABM defenses. This is only one fourth as costly as the launches
on expendable rockets. Private firms are now allowed to sell launches to
communications companies and others from the reusable systems they build.
-Small robotic spacecraft are sent as far as the Moon.
-the USA sets up a lunar base that will over the years expand into a city.
-the cuban revolution as Fidel Castro takes power and establishes
-Walter Cronkite broadcasts and edition of the nightly news from Von Braun Orbital
-President Kennedy announces that americans will walk on mars and have a base there before the 1960's are over.

[Leej]

Odd that this should come up when I've been 'working' on something about a ASB earlier space race

[Straha]

heh sorry I disdn't know you were making a TL about an ASB earlier space race.... With livable worlds that are nearby and aliens the spacerace becomes a higher priority...

[Leej]

Mine is going along different lines, it started out as a mixture of too much final fantasy and alcohol.
Just a coincidence here, I haven't mentioned it before.

[Straha]

mine might have magic beign possible but it won't have too much effect until they fidn worlds with higher mana levels snd the universes's mana level gets raised to the higher level in the 2020's.

[Straha]

1961-the first interdimensional travel device is invented and premiered
-William Proxmire chokes on a steak and dies
-the first alternate worlds discovered are reich cold war,sino-aztec and pax britannica earths.
-in a move to make sure really close electiosn like in 1960 don't occur as mcuh proportional representation is established with the parties onyl needing 5% of te vtoe to get o nthe ballot
-the first fightersubs and surface seabases establsihed

1962-stations set up in lunar orbit as settlement bases
-human genome project begun
-the flying win design for fighterplanes is improved

1963-asteroid mining of near earth asteroids begins.
-kennedy dies in a car accident

1964-mined out near earth asterodis get converted into space stations with nuclear drives
-President Muskie's proposed "social greatness" welfare programs(think a competent version of the great society program) suceed

1964-Barsoom contacted and the nations are brought into the UN.
-the technlology to build permanent underground bases is devloped and is used.
-the american party founded as a very socially conservative third party
-subermersible aircraft carriers are developed

1965-J. Edgar Hoover fired and replaced with Edward Kennedy
-Prometheus 4 is the fitst orion ship to travel the earth-orbit-luna route on a regular basis
-the USSR puts its flag on ceres
-The USA,CESA and the USSR space agencies establish settlement on ceres

1966-THOR orbital weapon systems used and devloped
-the USSR and USA
-a CESA(commonwealth & european space agency) orion ship orbits jupitor
-the USSR lands a man on the moon
-HR 13742 passed. Federal Government legalizes/regulates marijuana and other narcotic/psychadelic drugs.


1967-the USA lands men on mars with the use of orion ships
-protests against the vietnam war start to a larger degree
-harm reduction programs to limit heroin and cocaine addiction begun
-WWIII begins with wars between argentina and britain,south africa and portugal, the USSR and china,isrela and the arab nations,india and pakistan and australia and indonesia(well I needed something to occupy the boomer generation)
-Tibet and Taiwan recognized by the UN. after they declare indepenence.

1968-in the democratic primaris Eugene McCarthy beats edmund muskie by a large margin
-Eugene McCarthy elected president.
-a permanent settlement colony is established. This colony will do research on mars as well as begin terraforming operations.
-Lichen and cybanobacteria are slowly released into the martian wilds to begin the terraforming. The
-The Altair IV personal computer is developed and put on the market.

1969-troops in vietnam are reduced
-the arab nations invade isreal

1970-the falklands are lbierated by britain
-space cruise ships are developed
-Baghdad dissapears in nucelar flame
-american industry expands with no deindustrialization

1971-the USA fully leaves vietnam to focus on other fronts
- 2 meter telescope installed at lunar base
-mexico has a civil war and the loyalist side asks the USSR for aid
-puerto rico given statehood

1972-Eugene McCarthy reelected in an FDR style landslide
-Manchuria and Sinkiang made into soviet puppet states.
-the arab invasion of isreal finally kicked out
-nearly sucessful communist revolt in cuba

1973-operation John Brown: the invasion of south africa's occupied terretories is done

1974-a lunar-lunar orbit beanstalk set up.
-occupation of south africa begun

1975-WWIII ends in a coalition victory and with only 25 nuclear weapons used(none on US or soviet targets)
-isrela to recieve the sinai and palestine to compost of 95% of the west bank
-kashmir and bangladest to be given independence
-yucatan and chiapas recognized by the UN
-the bantustans lesotho and swaziland are removed from Un representation and shown to be in south africa
-mexico,jamaica,canada,bermuda,bahamas,cuba placed in the Americna dollar bloc with slow amalgamation to take place
-the USA lands on Venus and a colony is set up. The colony begins terraforming efforts.
-the moon colony is given independence and recognition from the UN as Selene
-indonesia divided into many nations on ethnic lines. Timor and irian jaya are annexed by australia.

1976-Richard Nixon elected president
-white australia immigration policy ended
-the first primitive virtual reality systems are developed.
-state supported primaries are ruled unconstitutional
-occupation of south africa ends
-asteroid belt mining speeds up

1977-texas govenor Lyndon Baines Johnson arrested and put to death for seeling the soveites arms secrets.
-south africa liberalizes but doesn't remove
-in a move thats said to be crazy, the government of Selene begins a program of slowly terraforming the moon by first terraforming the craters.

1978-the first sheep is cloned sucessfully
- Teacher-on-Moon program begins, students work on-line with
resident teacher.

1979-commerical space-based mining and industry output becomes significant
-first ion drive
-the first organism is created in the lab with modified gene traits(glow in the dark tobacco)
-modified cyanpbarcteria and lcihen are released into mars along with some other microfauna.
-fusion power developed

1980-beginning of the age of slowboat exploration as the rest of the trinary syesmtem and the massive oort cloud begins to be settled by both governmnets and other organizationsd.
-Robert Kennedy elected president
-the USA sends a generation ship made from a hollowed out near earth asteroid to alpha centauri with severla political groups ranging from the technocratic University to the ultracapitlistic morganites to the treehugging gaians...

[Mike Stearns]

So is this basically a world that looks like a cross between Star Wars and Gear Krieg?

[Mr_ Bondoc]

Straha- Interesting little set up you hav edeveloped. Some things that you have to develop are the situation are the situation in the People's Republic of China, India, Germany, France and Great Britain. If anything, you can certainly get wild in terms of development. For instance some PODs from OTL are:

A)China- try to imagine an ATL wherein China leads the Belgrade Pact. In this ATL, China is a third bloc in the Cold War, based on the Non-Aligned Nations Movement. This means pretty much the entire Southern Hemisphere, except for Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and South Africa is united militarily and politically.
B) India-Try to imagine an ATL wherein the British actually sent troops to prevent Indian independence. Also try to imagine a revival of the 19th century cult of the Thuggee who worshipped Shiva. In that scenario, a lot of narcatics are used in order to train assassins.
C) Soviet Union- Try to imagine if rock and roll or jazz had actually survived as underground movements in the country. You can also try comic books starting in 1966. In 1973 , you can even have a "Summer of Love" complete with free love and narcotics. In any event, the Soviets don't have to be the monochromatic evil of OTL.

[Romulus Augustulus]

Lesotho and Zimbabwe aren't bantustans, by the way. They have never been part of the modern South African state. Lesotho was Basutoland, a British colony, and it was granted independence (September 9th, 1968) seperately from the Union of South Africa, and Swaziland was a British protectorate. They weren't bantustans.

[Count Dearborn]

RPG, RPG, RPG, RPG, RPG.