Archibald
Banned
On the shoulders of Apollo
Prologue
The usual issue when writing extended Apollo TLs is to not get lost into the zillion paper studies that were made between 1959 and 1974.
There are the last three landings that were cancelled (the infamous Apollo 18, 19 and 20) and then what ?
As per JFK 1961 deadline, nothing, repeat, nothing was planned beyond Apollo 11 until early in the year 1968
!
The official, real-world sequel to Apollo was to be Apollo Applications.
And indeed there was a flight manifest issued circa 1966 that someone cleaned up many years ago (and if you look carefully, Apollo 12 AS-507 Saturn V was to fly a completely different mission !)
As you can see it is a total wreck; it is nearly impossible to build a valuable TL on that thing (by the way, soon thereafter the Apollo fire was the final nail in the coffin and what little left of AAP ultimately become Skylab)
So what ?
Fortunately there are a host of scattered documents (thanks David Portree for his detailed analysis at his Wired Blog BeyondApollo) that give a better idea about a possible extended Apollo program.
The challenge is to cobble the dates together into a coherent timetable. [/FONT]
The background
Let's be clear before it starts: that TL budgetary and political background is not ours, nor even realistic.
If you want a realistic, honest-to-God political / budgetary post Apollo TL, go to Eyes Turned Skywards.
Unlike that TL authors, I'm forced to twist the political and budgetary background to fit the timetable (more on this later)
What matters here is the timetable of missions build from the documents I collected over the last five years. I pieced together what I consider to be the most realistic documents on hand (see below) [/FONT]
What I intend to do with this TL
First, to build the ultimate timetable - Apollo and beyond in the 70's and the 80's. Think of an Apollo flexible path.
Then, to pick some missions in the list and of course post a summary of it.
And now let's the fun begin !
Bibliography
"Showing the Way; NASA, the NRO, and the Apollo Lunar Reconnaissance Program 1963 - 1967" by Vance Mitchell - Quest, November 2010
"Skylab B: Unflown Missions, Lost Opportunities" -Frieling, Thomas J, Quest, 1996, Volume 5, Issue 4, page 12.
Beyond Apollo - "US/USSR Cooperative Space Laboratory (Skylab/Salyut)", McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company Eastern Division, 23 June 1972
"Study of an Evolutionary Interim Earth Orbit Program", Memorandum Report MS-1, J. Anderson, L. Alton, R. Arno, J. Deerwester, L. Edsinger, K. Sinclair, W. Tindle, and R. Wood, Advanced Concepts and Missions Division, Office of Advanced Research and Technology, NASA Headquarters, 6 April 1971.
Beyond Apollo - "Manned Planetary Reconnaissance Mission Study: Venus/Mars Flyby", NASA TM X-53205, Harry O. Ruppe, Future Projects Office, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 5 February 1965.
Beyond Apollo - “A Manned Flyby Mission to Eros,” Eugene A. Smith, Proceedings of the Third Space Congress, “The Challenge of Space,” pp. 137-155; paper presented at the Third Space Congress in Cocoa Beach, Florida, 7-10 March 1966.
Beyond Apollo - “Verification of the Existence of the 1978 Triple-Planet Flyby Opportunity – Case 720” A. Vanderveen, Bellcomm, Inc., Oct. 19, 1967.
"Manned Mars Landing - presentation to the Space Task Group" - slides used by Dr. Wernher von Braun - August 4, 1969.
"Definition of Experimental Tests for a Manned Mars Excursion Module", Rockwell project manager G. S. Canetti. January 12, 1968. Work was performed under contract NAS9-6464 for NASA Manned Spacecraft Center.
"Voyage" - Stephen Baxter, 1996 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_(novel)
Prologue
The usual issue when writing extended Apollo TLs is to not get lost into the zillion paper studies that were made between 1959 and 1974.
There are the last three landings that were cancelled (the infamous Apollo 18, 19 and 20) and then what ?
As per JFK 1961 deadline, nothing, repeat, nothing was planned beyond Apollo 11 until early in the year 1968
!
The official, real-world sequel to Apollo was to be Apollo Applications.
And indeed there was a flight manifest issued circa 1966 that someone cleaned up many years ago (and if you look carefully, Apollo 12 AS-507 Saturn V was to fly a completely different mission !)
As you can see it is a total wreck; it is nearly impossible to build a valuable TL on that thing (by the way, soon thereafter the Apollo fire was the final nail in the coffin and what little left of AAP ultimately become Skylab)
So what ?
Fortunately there are a host of scattered documents (thanks David Portree for his detailed analysis at his Wired Blog BeyondApollo) that give a better idea about a possible extended Apollo program.
The challenge is to cobble the dates together into a coherent timetable. [/FONT]
The background
Let's be clear before it starts: that TL budgetary and political background is not ours, nor even realistic.
If you want a realistic, honest-to-God political / budgetary post Apollo TL, go to Eyes Turned Skywards.
Unlike that TL authors, I'm forced to twist the political and budgetary background to fit the timetable (more on this later)
What matters here is the timetable of missions build from the documents I collected over the last five years. I pieced together what I consider to be the most realistic documents on hand (see below) [/FONT]
What I intend to do with this TL
First, to build the ultimate timetable - Apollo and beyond in the 70's and the 80's. Think of an Apollo flexible path.
Then, to pick some missions in the list and of course post a summary of it.
And now let's the fun begin !
Bibliography
"Showing the Way; NASA, the NRO, and the Apollo Lunar Reconnaissance Program 1963 - 1967" by Vance Mitchell - Quest, November 2010
"Skylab B: Unflown Missions, Lost Opportunities" -Frieling, Thomas J, Quest, 1996, Volume 5, Issue 4, page 12.
Beyond Apollo - "US/USSR Cooperative Space Laboratory (Skylab/Salyut)", McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company Eastern Division, 23 June 1972
"Study of an Evolutionary Interim Earth Orbit Program", Memorandum Report MS-1, J. Anderson, L. Alton, R. Arno, J. Deerwester, L. Edsinger, K. Sinclair, W. Tindle, and R. Wood, Advanced Concepts and Missions Division, Office of Advanced Research and Technology, NASA Headquarters, 6 April 1971.
Beyond Apollo - "Manned Planetary Reconnaissance Mission Study: Venus/Mars Flyby", NASA TM X-53205, Harry O. Ruppe, Future Projects Office, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 5 February 1965.
Beyond Apollo - “A Manned Flyby Mission to Eros,” Eugene A. Smith, Proceedings of the Third Space Congress, “The Challenge of Space,” pp. 137-155; paper presented at the Third Space Congress in Cocoa Beach, Florida, 7-10 March 1966.
Beyond Apollo - “Verification of the Existence of the 1978 Triple-Planet Flyby Opportunity – Case 720” A. Vanderveen, Bellcomm, Inc., Oct. 19, 1967.
"Manned Mars Landing - presentation to the Space Task Group" - slides used by Dr. Wernher von Braun - August 4, 1969.
"Definition of Experimental Tests for a Manned Mars Excursion Module", Rockwell project manager G. S. Canetti. January 12, 1968. Work was performed under contract NAS9-6464 for NASA Manned Spacecraft Center.
"Voyage" - Stephen Baxter, 1996 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_(novel)
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