Alternate space timelines

Here's some randoms alternate space timelines (or ideas to develop)


Part 1

Single-stage-to-orbit

I've discovered recently that SSTO are doable since the 60's !

For example Saturn S-II and S-IVB were "potential SSTO" (among others rocket stages such as Titan first stage and Atlas, the 1.5 SSTO).

But these would be expendable SSTOs.
I mean that if you try to put a heatshield and a recovery system on these stages, there's simply no payload left.
Their payload is weak because there's no staging.
That's the reasons (along with the Shuttle) why they were not build in the 60's or the 70's.

Another way is the 1.5 SSTO such as Bono huge ROMBUS. This one had expendable drop tanks.
Now after putting a ROMBUS in low-earth-orbit replace its tanks by fueled-tanks carried by another ROMBUS. With its new tanks the first Rombus is free to fly to the Moon.

So we have two potential Space ATL here

- Bono's Rombus with two sets of expendable drop tanks (one for LEO, another for the Moon!)

- Bono - Garry Hudson' Saturn S-II or S-IVB SSTOs instead of the Shuttle in the early 70's.

Interestingly builder of the S-II was North American, which also build the Apollo capsule.

Douglas build Gemini and the S-IVB.

Imagine two kind of "manned SSTOs"

- a S-II with a reusable Apollo CSM on top
- a smaller, S-IVB with a reusable Gemini on top.

In brief, Saturn SSTOs could be build
- by Douglas or North American
- by a private firm led by Garry Hudson or Philip Bono.

Both stages used the J-2; a variant of this engine used the annular aerospike technology.
The J-2T-250k was tested in the early 70's.

This engine would help a lot improving performances of our S-II and S-IVB SSTOs... as Michel stated, aerospike tend to diminish fuel consumption of 30%.

Problem : these SSTOs are trapped in orbit because of course they have no heatshield nor recovery system.

But why not using these SSTOs to build modular "wet workshop" space stations ?
A first SSTO carry a multiple docking system for the following SSTOs.
Something similar was proposed in the 80's using Space Shuttle External Tanks.

(More Space ATLs to come)

Part 2 The Big Gemini Space ATLs.

I've discovered this spacecraft recently and loved it. You can build many Space ATLs around it...

1- Big G 1967

Launcher is Saturn INT-20.
In this ATL, no one ever heard of the Space Shuttle (which OTL date back from George Mueller BIS communication in August 1968)
Big G is elected as Skylab and MOL ferry spacecraft for the 70's.
Thus Apollo is supposed to continue... until 1970 and NASA post-Apollo 11 budget crunch.
NASA can't stand the burden of two manned spacecrafts, nor the cost of Saturn V.
But moon exploration is not lost after Apollo 17 as in OTL.
Why ?
Because Saturn INT-20 and Big G... become something very similar to Constellation/ Ares / Orion, 30 years earlier than OTL.
Saturn INT-20 fulfill the role of Ares 1 (with two F-1 only)
Saturn INT-20 fulfill the role of Ares 5 with four F-1
OR
two 156 inch boosters.
These boosters come from USAF ' Titan III successor.

Of course you need a LEOR (LEO rendez-vous) between Big G and the S-IVB.

2- Big G 1970

This time the Shuttle is cancelled in spring 1970. This nearly happened in OTL.
Big Gemini replace it, ok.
But again, two launchers are available for the capsule.

They were the Titan III and the Saturn INT-20.

Each launcher give you a different ATL because their performances are different.

Chose Titan III, and, as with the Shuttle, we are trapped in LEO to build Freedom/ISS.
Main difference : as Big G is much less expensive and risky than the Shuttle, it is ready in 1975.
Thus space station Freedom start long before 1984.
So it is not delayed by Challenger nor the end of Cold War.
Result : Freedom/ISS is achieved in 1992, not in 2015!

Even better : you can use the very last Saturn V (SA-515) to launch the space station core, because you build it in the late 70's.

Chose Saturn INT-20 and we can play "Constellation-return-to-the -moon" right from the 80's, not in 2004 or 2008...
That's the one I've developped in another thread.

Big Gemini 1970 has two main consequences on manned-spaceflight, in USSR and Europe.

USSR never develop Buran nor Energia, rather the TKS (sounds logical, Buran = Shuttle while TKS = Big Gemini).
now ESA
With a Freedom-in-the-70's and no Shuttle, Spacelab is dead. On the other hand, Colombus came earlier!
In brief : Colombus and Spacelab represent the same step for ESA.
This mean that Colombus is launched in the early 80's, maybe in march 1983... 25 years earlier than OTL.
Even better is the Hermes case.

The Spacelab/colombus case solved in 1983 mean that Germany is free to boost the CNES manned spacecraft program. By the way, if there's no Shuttle nor Buran, why would Hermes be a Spaceplane ?
So what the CNES develop from 1977 is no longer a spaceplane, it's... a capsule.
Then if this capsule is small enough, it can be launched by... Ariane 4, in 1989.
Thus we have ESA manned "Solaris" capsule flying in 1990.

Another knock-on effect is that the Chinese would probably have a spacecraft in the early 90s rather than the early 2000s. I was reading about the Shenzhou project and apparently it was hamstrung in the 90s by the fact that the Chinese political leadership insisted on building a shuttle, fearing that a capsule would look 'old-fashioned' and '1960s' and would make China look like it wasn't keeping up with the West. Sounds daft now, but it just shows how the shuttle harmed more space programmes than just the American one...

i see no problems with those TL

NOTE: the Bono SSTO like ROMBUS (proposed by Douglas (later McDonnel-Douglas))

Philip Bono with model of Rombus and variants Concept like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Bono

Rombus heavy SSTO 450 ton in LEO
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/rombus.htm

Ithacus 1200 soldier intercontinental troop transport or 450 tons in LEO
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/ithacus.htm

Pegasus Civil transporter or 120 ton in LEO
or 172 passengers and their luggage over 12000 km from Vandenberg to Singapore in 39 minutes.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/pegvtovl.htm

can be used for LEO or GEO flight but with refuel
ROMBUS can go to Moon and Mars or Venus !


like Project SELENA
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/proelena.htm
or Project DEIMOS
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/proeimos.htm

I like this idea of TL with medium ROMBUS 120 tons in LEO
used for ballistic intercontinental passengers transport
and go to moon and mars with modifide ROMBUS

like use of aerospike engine as Aerobraking on Mars and Venus

Arthur C. Clarke got the idea of telecommunications satellites in about 1945 but didn't think of patenting it. If he had, he could have been the billionaire founder of the British space program, the International Space Station might be called the Clarke Station and it would be operated by...(what's Britain's biggest hotel chain?)

Thande said:

Another knock-on effect is that the Chinese would probably have a spacecraft in the early 90s rather than the early 2000s. I was reading about the Shenzhou project and apparently it was hamstrung in the 90s by the fact that the Chinese political leadership insisted on building a shuttle, fearing that a capsule would look 'old-fashioned' and '1960s' and would make China look like it wasn't keeping up with the West. Sounds daft now, but it just shows how the shuttle harmed more space programmes than just the American one...

Click to expand...

Or even earlier... Shuguan in the early 80's.

In 1973 the PRC even trained its first stronaut group, to fly in the late 70's on board Shuguan.
The project went to naught because of the cultural (bloody) revolution.

Interestingly Shuguan and Shengzhou share the same launcher, the CZ-2.
Shuguan was to use the CZ-2A while Shengzhou use the CZ-2E.

China successfully tested an atmospheric reentry demonstrator in 1977, the FSW.

Btw China manned spaceflight in the late 70's (or the threat of it!) could push the CNES toward a "cheap and dirty" Ariane 4/ capsule instead of Ariane 5/Hermes.
This would happen between 1977 and 1982...

How would Japan react ? easy!
NASDA own Ariane was a licence-build Thor-delta, the N-1. It flew in 1975 and was later improved into the N-2 and H-1.

Builder of the Thor-Delta was Douglas. Douglas also build JASDF Phantoms and Eagles; it also build... the Gemini capsule.


Mitsubishi built Phantoms, Eagles and Thor-Delta under Douglas licence, so why not Gemini capsules ?

Thus Douglas, Mitsubishi and NASDA would team to create a powerful Delta able to boost a "Small Gemini " into orbit.

This "Small Gemini" is, quite simply, a "Big Gemini" without the cargo module. According to astronautix Big G crew module weighed around 6 tons.
The heatshield hatch would be used as basis for a small docking system.

Of course the N-1/N-2/H-1 won't have enough power; but Japan had powerfull solid-rocket-motors in the form of the Mu- rockets (Mu-3s and others). Around 50 tons of thrust each.
Graft two or four Mu- booster onto the Delta, and this would be enough...

Part 4 The trip to Mars (this is not Stephen Baxter "voyage"!)

Diem is not assassinated in 1963 and manage to hold South Vietnam enough to avoid the US intervention. The vietnam war is replaced by massive FMS contracts to Diem, until South Vietnam fell in 1967.

After Kennedy murder Johnson become president while Nixon give up its political carier in 1963.

Thus the 1968 election is Johnson Vs Rockefeller, the latter having a narrow victory.

In september 1969 president Rockefeller' "Space Task Group" decide in favor of a Mars flyby around 1981.

Price is costly for NASA.
First move is to cancell all Apollo mission after Apollo 12 !
Why ?
- Public don't give a damn about the Moon after Armstrong walk
- Going to Mars is a long haul, thus we need to start quickly
- We need A LOT of Saturn V to do that. Now we have eight of them.

These 8 Saturn V all have S-IVB, unuseful to build a martian spacecraft in LEO...
The scale and goal of the Skylab program is changed... the eight S-IVB are changed into "Planetary mission module" instead of space stations.

Two Skylab-PMM would be docked together to form the manned part of the ship.

Propulsion module and radiation shielding.

The huge NERVA-stage weight 248 tons and is called the Primary Propulsion Module.
Rockefeller order four more Saturn V (SA-515 to SA-518) in an improved variant. New F-1A, J-2S and 156 inch boosters rise Saturn payload to 260 tons in LEO.

Then Von Braun suggest to use the big S-II stage as a radiation shield between the NERVA and Skylab-PMM.
The second Skylab-PMM would keep its S-II attached once in orbit.
The LOX tank would then be filled with water to act as radiation shield, while the LH-2 tank would be changed into a huge wet-workshop.
Water would be carried by Titan III rockets.

One of the 5 J-2 is replaced by a docking port for the NERVA.

Builder of the Thor-Delta was Douglas. Douglas also build JASDF Phantoms and Eagles; it also build... the Gemini capsule

Click to expand...

Gemini is from McDonnell !
but they buy Douglas in 1967 and became McDonnell-Douglas

a Note to China

had China in 1946-49 separate in Republic of China and People's Republic of China
i m not mean Taiwan - China but South China and North China !
in 1955 the Republic of China (South) start "Wirtschaftswunder" ala Germany ("economic miracle")
wat has this to do with Space Flight ?

Tsien Hsue-Shen http://www.astronautix.com/astros/tsien.htm
rocketry Engineer send by Republic of China to Nazi Germany !
work with Hans Lippisch, Von Braun. he become a US citizen in 1949,
OTL in 1955 he was accused of being a Communist party member
and send back to Communist china

with the Republic of China had take Tsien Hsue-Shen with open arms
( Tsien married the cosmopolitan daughter of a senior military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek in 1947)

and his work ?
he proposed a Big V-2 like Rocket with ten passengers, flight from New York to Los Angeles
Tsien’s fundamental theoretical work on this concept lead to him being called the ‘Father of the Dyna-soar’
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/tsie1949.htm

in a Republic of China in economic boom with Tsien Hsue-Shen as China "Von Braun" in 1955
will they send Chines to Moon in 1969 ?