Chapter 1: Start of Something New
Hey there fellas!
For a while I've been wanting to do a somewhat serious/realistic alternate history post focusing on the Space Shuttle. Specifically, this Alt History is based around a odd but interesting concept: Early Lunar Access. Early Lunar Access (ELA) was an early 90s concept focusing around a "Cheap, Better, Faster" way to get boots back on the moon by the early 2000s. I will also be including some other early 90s concepts that will affect the story in their own right. There will be imagery from real life and kerbal space program alike to truly bring this timeline to life.
PS: I am leaning towards telling a narrative so there will be some discrepancies that don't line up with real life (that doesn't mean it will be a 100% no sense alt history)
Other: If you may be interested in something else, I'm actively working on, I have an Apollo alternate history that I make in Kerbal Space Program up on the ksp forum which is also somewhat mainly story with less realistic elements.
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.co...rbalized-apollo-era-alternate-history/page/1/ go check it out!
Without further ado let's get into this!
Chapter 1: The Start of Something New
Since the final moon landing in 1972, many have yearned to return to the moon. However, this dream has become more and more less of a possible reality as by 1990 it's been nearly 18 years since we left the moon. But, since the end of the Apollo Program, human Prescence in space has not dwindled. In 1981, Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center for the first time setting the country and the world into a new era of Space Exploration. By now it has been clearly known that the Space Shuttle is very capable of launching a multitude of different payloads into orbit and concepts were made to utilize the shuttle with payloads made for beyond earth orbit operations from satellites and probes to possible manned vehicles. But one program stood out amongst the rest: the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). SEI was originally announced on the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11 by George H.W. Bush and had concepts for large Super Heavy Lift vehicles like the "Comet" HLLV, Common Lunar Lander (CLL), and First Lunar Outpost (FLO). The only issue with these concepts was that it would make the shuttle less important and useful. The HLLV could be fully disposable, and the Saturn V derived version could've used the F-1 engine originally produced in the 1960s making it much cheaper than the Shuttle which wasn't expendable and used complex RS-25 engines. The CLL and FLO, although they were made to be cheap and effective, were very large and would require the massive HLLV to make it to the moon, and lastly there was the Early Lunar Access (ELA) and this was the craft that got a second look. ELA would've used a command module similar to that of the Apollo Command Module, three spherical liquid hydrogen fuel tanks, and four RL-10 engines. And the best detail: it was compact and able to be constructed in orbit by a space shuttle crew. However, a Titan IV would've been used to launch the Centaur-G upper stage into orbit prior to the shuttle launch with the shuttle then rendezvousing with the Centaur, then constructing the ELA, docking it to Centaur, and then finally leaving Earth for the Moon. The process was seen as time consuming and much more expensive due to the Titan-IV and Centaur-G however, ELA itself was somewhat cheap to construct and the Command Module kept a pretty much 1:1 design to the original Apollo Command Module just with technology of the time to replace the old 1960s hardware.
Concept art for an ELA mission once in orbit construction was completed.
The Apollo Command Module design would be modified slightly to have two slits pointing downwards for landing, the chosen landing type was by direct landing as to not waste fuel putting the vehicle into an orbit similar to that of Apollo. Then after landing, the crew would egress through the hatch and take a ladder down to the surface and history would be made. The return was according to how it was planned, was going to be rather mundane with the side fuel tanks being jettisoned, and the four RL-10 engines using the rest of the fuel available to set the capsule on a return trajectory over the Pacific Ocean. This would be the flight plan if it was anything more than a concept. By current estimates, the first launch would be around 1997 or 2000 which would set back the whole ELA program beyond what was originally planned for it. The first step to get this project off the ground was mockups. General Dynamics engineers began constructing life sized mockups of the Lander Stage, and Command Module for ground tests and simulations of what the full mission would look like once landing is accomplished. If Americans were to return to the Moon by the beginning of the 21st century, then these steps would become fundamental in putting these goals into reality, not just another dream.
For a while I've been wanting to do a somewhat serious/realistic alternate history post focusing on the Space Shuttle. Specifically, this Alt History is based around a odd but interesting concept: Early Lunar Access. Early Lunar Access (ELA) was an early 90s concept focusing around a "Cheap, Better, Faster" way to get boots back on the moon by the early 2000s. I will also be including some other early 90s concepts that will affect the story in their own right. There will be imagery from real life and kerbal space program alike to truly bring this timeline to life.
PS: I am leaning towards telling a narrative so there will be some discrepancies that don't line up with real life (that doesn't mean it will be a 100% no sense alt history)
Other: If you may be interested in something else, I'm actively working on, I have an Apollo alternate history that I make in Kerbal Space Program up on the ksp forum which is also somewhat mainly story with less realistic elements.
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.co...rbalized-apollo-era-alternate-history/page/1/ go check it out!
Without further ado let's get into this!
Chapter 1: The Start of Something New
Since the final moon landing in 1972, many have yearned to return to the moon. However, this dream has become more and more less of a possible reality as by 1990 it's been nearly 18 years since we left the moon. But, since the end of the Apollo Program, human Prescence in space has not dwindled. In 1981, Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center for the first time setting the country and the world into a new era of Space Exploration. By now it has been clearly known that the Space Shuttle is very capable of launching a multitude of different payloads into orbit and concepts were made to utilize the shuttle with payloads made for beyond earth orbit operations from satellites and probes to possible manned vehicles. But one program stood out amongst the rest: the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI). SEI was originally announced on the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11 by George H.W. Bush and had concepts for large Super Heavy Lift vehicles like the "Comet" HLLV, Common Lunar Lander (CLL), and First Lunar Outpost (FLO). The only issue with these concepts was that it would make the shuttle less important and useful. The HLLV could be fully disposable, and the Saturn V derived version could've used the F-1 engine originally produced in the 1960s making it much cheaper than the Shuttle which wasn't expendable and used complex RS-25 engines. The CLL and FLO, although they were made to be cheap and effective, were very large and would require the massive HLLV to make it to the moon, and lastly there was the Early Lunar Access (ELA) and this was the craft that got a second look. ELA would've used a command module similar to that of the Apollo Command Module, three spherical liquid hydrogen fuel tanks, and four RL-10 engines. And the best detail: it was compact and able to be constructed in orbit by a space shuttle crew. However, a Titan IV would've been used to launch the Centaur-G upper stage into orbit prior to the shuttle launch with the shuttle then rendezvousing with the Centaur, then constructing the ELA, docking it to Centaur, and then finally leaving Earth for the Moon. The process was seen as time consuming and much more expensive due to the Titan-IV and Centaur-G however, ELA itself was somewhat cheap to construct and the Command Module kept a pretty much 1:1 design to the original Apollo Command Module just with technology of the time to replace the old 1960s hardware.
Concept art for an ELA mission once in orbit construction was completed.
The Apollo Command Module design would be modified slightly to have two slits pointing downwards for landing, the chosen landing type was by direct landing as to not waste fuel putting the vehicle into an orbit similar to that of Apollo. Then after landing, the crew would egress through the hatch and take a ladder down to the surface and history would be made. The return was according to how it was planned, was going to be rather mundane with the side fuel tanks being jettisoned, and the four RL-10 engines using the rest of the fuel available to set the capsule on a return trajectory over the Pacific Ocean. This would be the flight plan if it was anything more than a concept. By current estimates, the first launch would be around 1997 or 2000 which would set back the whole ELA program beyond what was originally planned for it. The first step to get this project off the ground was mockups. General Dynamics engineers began constructing life sized mockups of the Lander Stage, and Command Module for ground tests and simulations of what the full mission would look like once landing is accomplished. If Americans were to return to the Moon by the beginning of the 21st century, then these steps would become fundamental in putting these goals into reality, not just another dream.
