I mean, it's primarily an engineering problem if your goal is to get an astronaut/cosmonaut to Mars, but don't care if they come home. The DPRK just basically yeeted a guy across the inner Solar System in a modified Soyuz capsule with 0 chance of coming home for the glory of Kim Il-Sung.
I think the question now is: Who's going to be left behind on Mars? Danielle won't leave the Korean Cosmonaut on Mars, she's too NASA for that. They lost two astronauts rescuing the Soviet Mars 1 crew in deep space. There's no way she's going to leave Best Korea's #1 Cosmonaut-who-totally-drank-his-own-urine-for-months on Mars to die slowly. In that thread, I think Ed is going to volunteer to stay behind on Mars because of that wound on his side. He's still getting salves for the pain, I think we're going to find out that he isn't healing in the low gravity and radiation on the surface. So the return to Earth will have the surviving Soviets, Danielle and the NASA crew, Helios, and our new addition from Best Korea.
I don't see them having a space programme is that out of the question, earlier on in this season it's been established the major space powers have been selling their tech (indeed, thats why they are there, to get a Soviet gizmo from the probe). DPRK was fairly affluent during the Cold War, especially compared to the last couple of decades.
It doesn't matter if it was mentioned early in the series it's a stupid thing to write and is completely unrealistic. And no North Korea was not affluent by first world standards so don't rationalize it.
Some random third world country like Argentina, South Africa or Iraq was more affluent than North Korea at that time. It was a stupid decision that drives the show into ASB territory.
I didn't say they were affluent by first world standards, but they were compared to the famine stricken disaster they are now.It doesn't matter if it was mentioned early in the series it's a stupid thing to write and is completely unrealistic. And no North Korea was not affluent by first world standards so don't rationalize it.
Some random third world country like Argentina, South Africa or Iraq was more affluent than North Korea at that time. It was a stupid decision that drives the show into ASB territory.
IMHO fusion power in the 1980s is already ASB territory. But with regards to North Korea, we should keep in mind Argentina, to a point Apartheid South Africa and even a bit Iraq need to balance their people's needs into their budgets. Or, at the very least in Iraq's case, a military capable of fending for itself instead of relying on China and the USSR if push came to shove.
North Korea, OTOH, can spend into whatever the current Kim wants, and they'll also be licensing Soviet technology, so their needs to do R&D is limited. And if your astronaut's lives matter little to you and you can put people in Earth's orbit, sending astronauts to Mars can be a matter of adding extra fuel, a greenhouse and crossing your fingers during the landing part. After all, you can go to Mars with a "regular" hydrogen or kerosene powered rocket - you need a bigger rocket, multiple launches and to carry little payload. Would it suck for that astronaut stuck in that tin can? Absolutely. But why should the North Korean king care?
That's it's official nameI will add that the Korean rocket refueled in orbit. Most likely at the Soviet orbital station. So fuel is not a problem. Interestingly, on the map of Mars, the Koreans have another "rover" to the northwest.
Why is North Korea called the People's Republic of Korea?
Likely just a production mistake, with someone accidentally leaving out the “Democratic” part of the DPRK’s nameWhy is North Korea called the People's Republic of Korea?
Likely just a production mistake, with someone accidentally leaving out the “Democratic” part of the DPRK’s name
Well since the spoilers are dead I guess I'll go and mention that all the way back in the end of Season 2 we saw the North Korean astronaut step foot on a Mars that was covered in a dust storm.I’m reserving judgment on the ending until I see the next episode. My hunch is that DPRK most likely got to Mars after the U.S. and USSR and there’s something about the mission that the Soviets or possibly the Chinese haven’t told us about yet (perhaps it links back to the Margo subplot?).
It's so sad that so much effort was spent on something so monumentally stupid. With a single stroke of their pen they have invalidated the premise of the entire season. It succeeds both in destroying any rewatch value Season 3 has but it also messes up with the characters and the wider world of the show as a whole. Every character's and every organisation's intelligence is immediately brought into question. Neither NASA nor Roskosmos tracked this vessel on any of its stages nor did they kept a close eye on it while they were out there, things that you would expect to be routine on a voyage to Mars, on which they were also embarking on. They just took North Korea at its word. No character, all of them trained astronauts and cosmonauts didn't think it odd that a North Korean thing was also on its way there, maybe take a second look, you know. Makes you wanna join the protesters outside JSC and "defund NASA".Well since the spoilers are dead I guess I'll go and mention that all the way back in the end of Season 2 we saw the North Korean astronaut step foot on a Mars that was covered in a dust storm.
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This subtle little hint from a year ago implies that the maned DPRK probe likely landed on the Martian surface in the middle of the dust storm in 1995 that covered Mars landing sites in episode 5 of Season 3, this storm prevented Helios from winning the race to Mars and allowed the Joint US/USSR mission to catch up and "win" the race to Mars...
The fact the North Korean astronaut was already standing on Mars during the 1995 dust storm that was covering the landing sites of Helios and the US/USSR can only mean one indisputable fact, that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea has likely triumphed against the impossible odds of being the first nation to land a man on Mars.