And so ends the best space TL on this site, Well done all. Could we see a render of the shuttle II?
I mean, there are some other pretty good ones...I have a fondness for Rockwell Flyer and Right Side Up myself...
Show us a picture of Shuttle II you cowards!
Although I've gotten a gist of what the Shuttle-II looks like, anyone want to do a quick-n-dirty render (or even a sketch) of what it looks like? Still having a little bit of trouble visualizing it.
I join the chorus of those requesting artwork, or even just a simple diagram of Shuttle II.
I also join everyone requesting art of the Shuttle II.
Everyone here will be happy to know that we have Shuttle-II art in the pipeline, but schedule pressures resulted in a decision to pick either the hanger (as seen in
Part 32 or Shuttle-II. Given that
Space Station Enterprise is the star of the timeline, we picked the hanger, and to good effect.
Well done to both of you! It's been a pleasure reading.
Thank you.
I like that Hawai'ian name for the Mars Transfer Vehicle--it sounds neat and captures that long-voyaging spirit. And an interesting discussion of the new Shuttle, as well! Curious about ground-handling for the hypergols--since they're not actually used for Shuttle-II's propulsion system, and are only transferred to Enterprise, does the ground crew still need to wear protective gear as they do IOTL for X-37 and did for Shuttle, or is the system totally isolated when not plugged into Enterprise?
As for the Mars Transfer Vehicle name, it was picked for the same reason that Minerva and later Diana were selected for the Lunar program - e of pi was tired of Artemis, and I was tired of both Artemis and Ares as program names for the Moon and Mars respectively.
As for the fluids pallet, it would not be delivering hypergols on every mission, which would reduce the ground handling concerns. That said, when it does have hypergols aboard, I could easily see the need for the extensive PPE.
This does feed into the question of
Enterprise OMS/RCS now that the usual 'pipeline' as it were of hypergols is drying up...
ah now i get the mission patch
Yep. It makes the
plaque seen in the
Part 17 image annex even funnier (same names, different roles).
The work done by our art team has simply been outstanding.
In all seriousness this was a lot of fun. Being able to trash talk wet workshops is what brought me out of lurker mode and allowed me to meet all of you!
We are glad to have you (and others) comment, and enjoy the work.
Bravo! Glad to see a fitting successor to the veritable Space Transportation System, this TL is an absolute dream for Shuttle fans, seeing it fulfil it's potential.
Fundamentally, without a second orbiter being lost, the public perception of the system is going to be much higher, and correspondingly the public willingness to fund a replacement of the capabilities will also be much higher.
I think this is one of the best TL I’ve read here. Well done to all of you!
Thank you Bernard.
Thank you.
I also join everyone requesting art of [...] the moon base (you said there is a dome so I'm curious what that looks like).
Part 30 has a drawing of what the base configuration looks like. Rather than a 'dome', the base modules are under an arch (like a quonset hut) covered with regolith. The ends of the archway have piles of regolith positioned so as to further reduce exposures.
Great work! Like I said before, this really is the ultimate TL for Shuttle-derived hardware. I was not expecting the Enterprise ET to be converted into a servicing hangar.
Fantastic tl. I know you stated this as a shuttle derived space station but the way this as turned into a exploiting the OTL Space Shuttle to it's absolute limit while remaining realistic has made it so much more. It's certainly improved my opinion of the STS, while in OTL it was a white elephant that set space exploration back three decades you've shown that that didn't need to be the case and that it could have delivered at least some of initial hopes of properly managed and developed.
I think the Shuttle program gets unfairly maligned in a lot of the public internal narrative. The vehicle was responsible for something like half of all orbital payload delivery through 2016 as well as nearly all intact payload return. More people flew on the shuttle than on all of the other crew vehicles combined, and the shuttles were a widely recognized symbol of American soft-power for decades. Furthermore, the often used total program cost numbers hide that
any crewed space program would have had similar ongoing baseline costs, even if it hadn't generated any flights. The biggest thing we did for the Shuttle program was that we
gave it somewhere to go in the early 1990s. With that, the program was able to take on a focus that allowed political capital to be collected rather than spent getting the station together.
I saw the happy April Fool's day post first for some reason.. And then as I scrolled UP to the main thread-post I passed something, went back, stared, re-read it several times and FINALLY figured out it did NOT say "Kerbal Spacecraft Variants"... I think I may have been reading FAR to much into that 'first' post
Well, other than the LH₂ tank turned hanger, I think the station is build-able in KSP. HabiTank not yet, but who knows what may yet come from the community.
Wonderful, wonderful timeline and journey folks. thank you so much for let us ride along.
Randy
Thank you!
While our glimpse into this reality may be over, Enterprise flies on.
Fare thee well.
It was weird seeing people latch on to the "three stations" line
back in Part 1 when the same update had the line:
The orbiter’s legacy as “Space Station Enterprise” is poised to see it as a nexus for Western space programs for years to come, even as the decisions made forty years ago that saw the program’s birth still live on in the station’s unique capabilities and limitations.
We didn't
hide the plans, but we didn't broadcast them either. 😛
I shall join the chorus asking for a render of Enterprise in its final configuration. So cool…
That's an interesting request because it is predicated on the idea that
Space Station Enterprise has a final configuration. Certainly the station's look was stable between 1989 and 1995, and then again from 2003 to 2016, but with the conversion of the hydrogen tank, there are now options on the table that were not there before, and the station may change yet again. That said....
I suspect the whole paragraph about the PAO requesting the fly-around of the three shuttles is to set up the capstone render of this entire project, but that they decided to wrap up the thread on April 1st and the images aren't ready right now.
Looking back at this, one thing that doesn't seem to have been communicated clearly to our readers is that the entirty of the timeline had seen at least two drafts prior to the first section going live in December. We knew late last year that we would have thirty-three parts, and because we had a targetted end-date (April first, 2021), we ran a number of possible schedules backward. We wanted a schedule that would be a steady drum-beat of activity, and yet would also stretch out the posting period such that it would start in December 2020, making
Boldly Going eligible for a Turtledove Award in two different years. We didn't want to start too early however, becuase we were still doing revisions to certain chapters as late as the night before they were posted.
One thing surprised me was that once the posting schedule was established, no one ran the pattern forward and realized that there would be a post on April First. I always saw this as a gap in our 'security' if you will for the TL's finale.
Specifically responding to your comment, yes, "First, Last, & Next" is one of the pieces of artwork that is in the pipeline.
What did I not like about this timeline?
As a shuttle hugger, Discovery pulling a Columbia.
While an understandable dislike, I think that the go-fever of 1985 and 1986 was going to get someone in the shuttle program killed. The teams on the ground were being pushed too hard for something to not get overlooked. One of the other points that got made in the replies that I would like to bring up again is that if
Challenger hadn't happened when it did, then I seriously doubt that SRB Burn-through would have ever happened on the shuttle program. The weather didn't get as cold as it was at the Cape for STS-51-L for years, and NASA had already ordered the next batch of SRB case forgings to have the 'capture feature' that helped seal the FWC SRBs, and demonstrated a much greater capability to avoid leaks. Given that, and the very rapid nature of the launch plans for late 1986, it seemed reasonable that
something would get overlooked, and there would be a loss of the orbiter. This later accident window also allowed us to have the
Hubble,
Ulysses, and
Galileo missions be launched prior to the stand-down.
What did I like about this timeline?
Everything else!
No,seriously,this is be some very quality content from e of pi,who once again demonstrates his proficiency in the field of space timelines. My hat is off to you,goodsir. 😄
One of our goals in writing this timeline was to reach what we called "Break Even" when the total time that people who are not e of pi and myself spend thinking about and responding to this timeline meets or exceeds to the time we spent thinking about and writing it. Based on the reactions here so far, I am fairly certain that if we didn't get there, we got very close.
I'd like to remind everyone that while the narrative is done, the thread isn't. We've got art that is still in the pipeline and notes both official, semi-official, and un-official that will be coming out in the coming months, so stick around and keep an eye out!
