You, good sir, worry me!Grey Wolf said:
Thank you, Swamphen! Yeah, it's not the usual USA vs. USSR space race-thingie, I know! Hope it's entertaining, though!swamphen said:
My regards!
- Bluenote.
Ministry of Space, or Briiiiiits iiiiin Spaaaaace!
- Thread starter Mr.Bluenote
- Start date
My regards!
- Bluenote.
Really? That might very well be, Shark, but the rockets of Britain is nonetheless all, AFAIK, called something with Black at the beginning... Where did you read that if I may be so bold?Landshark said:
Best regards!
- B.
MoS, part XIII
Part XIII
Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change... Engineers operate at the interface between science and society!
- Dean Gordon Brown.
I could have gone on flying through space forever!
- Yuri Gagarin.
In the late 80’s the Soviet Unions economy became more and more strained. Commonwealth intelligence experts estimated that it neared the breaking point, but then again that had been said for nearly ten years now, Still, it was seen as a rather omnious sign, when General-Secretary Jevgenij Primakov brought two young and energetic men from the more liberal part of the Communist Party into the inner circle. The two men, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, did their best to revive the failing Soviet economy, but all their reforms met fierce resistance from the Kremlin Old Guard and the military, especially since Gorbachev and Yeltsin pleaded that the space progamme should be put on hold for at least a five year periode. Ironically, just weeks before the violent collaps of the Soviet Union, General Alexander Lebed finally pacified Afghanistan, the country that had damaged the USSR’s economy as much as the space programme. As the USSR fell apart behind him, General Lebed nonetheless secured his men’s loyality and ordered a withdrawal to the Motherland, or what was left of it! In the years to come Lebed and his Afghan-veterans would play a vital role in re-establishing order and re-create their country as present day Russia.
As the USSR totally disintegrated, so did the space programme that involuntaruly caused said collaps. Several former Soviet citizens and military personel were caught in space as the Cosmodromes at Baikonur, Kasputin Yar, Plesetsk and Valdivostock went off-line or got taken over by various nationalistic rebel groups. The Commonwealth Space Reaction Force now saw its first use as Griffyn Assault Shuttles escorted by AVRO Starfire deltas were used to board and “save†the stranded Soviets and secure their equipment.
With the Orion catastrophe, the US space programme went on a backburner for the rest of the 80’s as the national space effort was reorganised and the two competing space agencies, the United States Navy Advanced Research Projects and the Air Force Space Operations Angency, was merged into one agency, the National Aeronautics Agency, NAA. US President George Bush hoped to see the US re-enter the space race in the early 90’s with renewed vigour.
News began to leak from France that the Franco-German spacegun programme was soon the bear fruit. The project was led by the French-married, but former canadian, Gerald Bull.
A model of Bull’s spacegun design, Project Bonaparte, went on display at the Paris International Exhibition for Military Production in 1992, and two real size spaceguns were built by Giat Industries based in Versailles, in co-operation with Lohr Industrie of Hangenbieten, France. The guns had a 500-feet long barrel and weigh 2,100 tonnes, their rocket-assisted shells firing telephone-booth-size satellites up to 2,000 miles. The French and their German partners among other things hoped to launch satellites that would give them some independence from their US allies and add some space weaponry to their aging arsenal. General Albert Duprecht, the C-in-C for space related programmes and weapons, confirmed some time after the Paris International Exhibition that his country, and Germany, was working on space weapons that could be launched from Bull's spaceguns. He also revealed that the guns could launch shells with nuclear payloads.
The pirmary Bonaparte projects and, apparently, two alternative projects was placed in French Equatorial Africa, near Franceville. The area, normally known as Gabon, already had an extensive infrastructure and a well-educated and trained pool of manpower as the area had been home for a booming oil-industry since the 70’s. Still, it would take the French, and their German allies, nearly four years to build up sufficient infrastructure in the area, primarily in the form of a railroad from Port Gentil via Lambarene to Franceville and the launch site.
After the succes of the Elizabeth Moon Base the Commonwealth Space Agency and the clever lads and lassies at CSIRO began in 1991 to construct a mostly civilian Moon base named Edward. With the lessons learned from the building of the Elizabeth Moon base taken to heart the core of the Moon base was centered around a core of pressurized cylindrical habitation modules and unpressurized resource modules, but the real living areas was placed in huge pressurized, naturally, dome-like structures, called Rao-domes after its Indian inventor, Professor U.R.Rao. The domes used the newest technology and was made of composite materials, fibers and ceramics, which made them extremely resistant and safe.
As part of the effort to built Edward, as the Moon base was soon just called, construction began on the Zuckerman Space Station in L1- Moon/Earth transit orbit. Plans had originally called for the space staion to be built in the time between the construction of Elizabeth and Edward, but the CSA saw themselves capable of handling both projects at once. The smoothness of the process was a great tribute to MoS Digby Jones and his team at the Ministry and all the people in the CSA and at CSIRO.
British PM, Margaret Thatcher, and her successor, Michael Portillo, both basked in the successes in space and capitalized immensely from them as the Conservative Party now dominated the Parliament totally. It has to be said, though, that both PM’s loyally backed the efforts in space and made sure that neither the Ministry itself, not the inter-Commonwealth organs lacked British support!
The Conservatives popularity was also aided to no end by the booming British and Commonwealth economies. The emergence of the household computer in the late 70’s and early 80’s did wonders for the economy, but as the space programme expanded a string of new high tech materials and groundbreaking medicines was releashed and drowe the economy upwards like a AVRO Starfire delta firering its rocket booster.
As the Commonwealth’s infrastructure in space grew and the threat from the USSR deminised, the CSA turned to exploration and scientific missions to understand space and its invorenment. Rumors even began to surface about a suggested Mars project…
As part of this new series of civilian science missions a number of probes were launched from Kilimanjaro Launch Facility. The Endavour and the Beagle was sent around the Solar System to gather new knowledge and help the boffins back at CSA to understand space better. And as part of the very secretive Mars Project, or so the press at least believed, the Clarke, incl. the Darwin Robotic Rover, was launched and sent to the Red Planet.
Part XIII
Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change... Engineers operate at the interface between science and society!
- Dean Gordon Brown.
I could have gone on flying through space forever!
- Yuri Gagarin.
In the late 80’s the Soviet Unions economy became more and more strained. Commonwealth intelligence experts estimated that it neared the breaking point, but then again that had been said for nearly ten years now, Still, it was seen as a rather omnious sign, when General-Secretary Jevgenij Primakov brought two young and energetic men from the more liberal part of the Communist Party into the inner circle. The two men, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, did their best to revive the failing Soviet economy, but all their reforms met fierce resistance from the Kremlin Old Guard and the military, especially since Gorbachev and Yeltsin pleaded that the space progamme should be put on hold for at least a five year periode. Ironically, just weeks before the violent collaps of the Soviet Union, General Alexander Lebed finally pacified Afghanistan, the country that had damaged the USSR’s economy as much as the space programme. As the USSR fell apart behind him, General Lebed nonetheless secured his men’s loyality and ordered a withdrawal to the Motherland, or what was left of it! In the years to come Lebed and his Afghan-veterans would play a vital role in re-establishing order and re-create their country as present day Russia.
As the USSR totally disintegrated, so did the space programme that involuntaruly caused said collaps. Several former Soviet citizens and military personel were caught in space as the Cosmodromes at Baikonur, Kasputin Yar, Plesetsk and Valdivostock went off-line or got taken over by various nationalistic rebel groups. The Commonwealth Space Reaction Force now saw its first use as Griffyn Assault Shuttles escorted by AVRO Starfire deltas were used to board and “save†the stranded Soviets and secure their equipment.
With the Orion catastrophe, the US space programme went on a backburner for the rest of the 80’s as the national space effort was reorganised and the two competing space agencies, the United States Navy Advanced Research Projects and the Air Force Space Operations Angency, was merged into one agency, the National Aeronautics Agency, NAA. US President George Bush hoped to see the US re-enter the space race in the early 90’s with renewed vigour.
News began to leak from France that the Franco-German spacegun programme was soon the bear fruit. The project was led by the French-married, but former canadian, Gerald Bull.
A model of Bull’s spacegun design, Project Bonaparte, went on display at the Paris International Exhibition for Military Production in 1992, and two real size spaceguns were built by Giat Industries based in Versailles, in co-operation with Lohr Industrie of Hangenbieten, France. The guns had a 500-feet long barrel and weigh 2,100 tonnes, their rocket-assisted shells firing telephone-booth-size satellites up to 2,000 miles. The French and their German partners among other things hoped to launch satellites that would give them some independence from their US allies and add some space weaponry to their aging arsenal. General Albert Duprecht, the C-in-C for space related programmes and weapons, confirmed some time after the Paris International Exhibition that his country, and Germany, was working on space weapons that could be launched from Bull's spaceguns. He also revealed that the guns could launch shells with nuclear payloads.
The pirmary Bonaparte projects and, apparently, two alternative projects was placed in French Equatorial Africa, near Franceville. The area, normally known as Gabon, already had an extensive infrastructure and a well-educated and trained pool of manpower as the area had been home for a booming oil-industry since the 70’s. Still, it would take the French, and their German allies, nearly four years to build up sufficient infrastructure in the area, primarily in the form of a railroad from Port Gentil via Lambarene to Franceville and the launch site.
After the succes of the Elizabeth Moon Base the Commonwealth Space Agency and the clever lads and lassies at CSIRO began in 1991 to construct a mostly civilian Moon base named Edward. With the lessons learned from the building of the Elizabeth Moon base taken to heart the core of the Moon base was centered around a core of pressurized cylindrical habitation modules and unpressurized resource modules, but the real living areas was placed in huge pressurized, naturally, dome-like structures, called Rao-domes after its Indian inventor, Professor U.R.Rao. The domes used the newest technology and was made of composite materials, fibers and ceramics, which made them extremely resistant and safe.
As part of the effort to built Edward, as the Moon base was soon just called, construction began on the Zuckerman Space Station in L1- Moon/Earth transit orbit. Plans had originally called for the space staion to be built in the time between the construction of Elizabeth and Edward, but the CSA saw themselves capable of handling both projects at once. The smoothness of the process was a great tribute to MoS Digby Jones and his team at the Ministry and all the people in the CSA and at CSIRO.
British PM, Margaret Thatcher, and her successor, Michael Portillo, both basked in the successes in space and capitalized immensely from them as the Conservative Party now dominated the Parliament totally. It has to be said, though, that both PM’s loyally backed the efforts in space and made sure that neither the Ministry itself, not the inter-Commonwealth organs lacked British support!
The Conservatives popularity was also aided to no end by the booming British and Commonwealth economies. The emergence of the household computer in the late 70’s and early 80’s did wonders for the economy, but as the space programme expanded a string of new high tech materials and groundbreaking medicines was releashed and drowe the economy upwards like a AVRO Starfire delta firering its rocket booster.
As the Commonwealth’s infrastructure in space grew and the threat from the USSR deminised, the CSA turned to exploration and scientific missions to understand space and its invorenment. Rumors even began to surface about a suggested Mars project…
As part of this new series of civilian science missions a number of probes were launched from Kilimanjaro Launch Facility. The Endavour and the Beagle was sent around the Solar System to gather new knowledge and help the boffins back at CSA to understand space better. And as part of the very secretive Mars Project, or so the press at least believed, the Clarke, incl. the Darwin Robotic Rover, was launched and sent to the Red Planet.
Well, I have written most of it, but seem to have run out of steam - at least for awhile. I'm still trying to finish the Italia Eterna ATL and the Luftwaffe-thingie, so it might take some time. Fear not, however, MoS shall end at some point, and end well - Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the space ways!17inc said:ANY more story coming MR Bluenote or are you going leave us hanging
Haha, quite right! A good man, Mr.Portillo!Pax Britannia said:
Anyway, thanks for the interest, guys! I had a lot of fun writing it, so I'll try to finish this ATL before Christmas. I have one episode left, so it should be relatively easy to have done with...
Best regards!
- B.
MoS, part XIV
Part XIV
Every day you make progress. Every day may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discourage, only adds to the joy and gloty of the climb!
- Winston Churchill.
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum!
- Arthur C. Clarke.
The 90’s saw the completion of the Edward Moon Base and the Zuckerman Space Station. By 1994, some 3,000 people lived on the surface of the Moon, the two large partically self-supporting Moon bases housed most of them, but some 100 people or so lived in minor outposts and research stations – and most likely a few top secret military installations as well. A further 200 people lived in orbit around either Earth or the Moon, as HMSS Churchill and SS Zuckerman too expanded and was joined in orbit by a growing number of smaller space stations; manned orbital transfer points, MOWS and scientific research sations. Some 25 manned Commonwealth and US space installations og all sorts dotted the night sky and more was to follow. The few surviving Soviet space habitats and staions were quickly decommissioned by the Commonwealth spaceborn military and by the CSA – after close examination, naturally.
With the growing infrastructure in space and the availability of such spaceplanes as the SR-BAC TAV that was able to reach low Earth orbit realtively cheap it was only a question of time before some sort of space tourism would appeare. The interest from nearly every part of the Commonwealth society and nummerous other nations to spend a few vacations days in was found to be quite overwhelming. And soon BOAC and other airlines began to seek out partners for joint-ventures in space. BOAC itself sound one such partner in the American Hilton organization, and in 1991 construction began on the Orbiter Hilton. Later, the Luna Hilton would be built as part of the sprawling Edward Moon Base as well. The Orbiter Hilton could host some 25 quest, but was in the lmid-90’s expanded to accomadate up til a 100 people, including 50 questes. The Lunar Hilton was expanded seevral times over and joined by two other major hotel chains and one independent lunarian Bed and Breakfast – mostly used by personel stationed on the Moon or in Moon orbit. British PM, Michale Portillo, was one of the first quests at the Luna Hilton, as he visited the Moon together with the everpresent MoS, Digby Jones, in 1996.
The great interest in space tourism was seen in retrospect not all that surprising. Especially when one considers that in many major countries the tourist industry was, and still is, between ten and thirty times larger in revenue terms than the space industry, that it is a major creator of wealth and user of high technology - specifically of mass transportation and communications - and that holidays in space would have obvious attractions for the the masses of Erath who had grown up watching the sky in amazement as it was slowly claimed for humankind. The potential and, it was soone to be seen, actual demand for space tourism was such that the industry would become the largest revenue-earning use of launch vehicles and space stations in the year 2000. At that time the ever reduced cost of transporting people into space, either LEO or the Moon, made short holidays in space affordable to most middleclass Commonwealth citizens. The tourism boom in the 90’s led to further exploration and exploitation of space.
One of the nummerous promising features of space exploration and exploitation was acces to resources. From its now well established bases on the Moon and in both Earth and Moon orbit, the CSA bagan to take a closer look at the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. As part of the Mars Project, the CSA had developed some higly advanced porbes and a series of said probes were sent to explore the asteroide belt. Several asteroids were found to contain a high concentration of rare and thus higly valuable mineras, metals and other resources. As the new milennium dawned, the CSA considered sending manned missions to the asteroid belt or actually towing an asteroid into Mars or even Moon orbit for mining.
As the long series of various civilian science missions were launched - among them the Endavour and Beagle Solar survey probes - began to transmit vast amounts of data back, the Clark Mars-probe reached the Red Planet, and began to orbit and later successfully landed the Darwin Robotic Rover on the planet itself. RADAR-maps and other data soon flowed back to CSA Headquarters and Mission Planning. It was soon quite clear to the CSA leadership, and the MoS, that a true colonization would not be possible due to logistics and cost, but some sort of manned mission should be within reach of the CSA without hugely expanding the already quite beefy budget. A long series of explorational probes and missions was launched in the next years with the sole goal of supporting a manned mission to Mars around the end of the milennium. Mars, and its two moons – Phobos and Deimos - soon became very well known sizes as every square inch of the celestial bodies were mapped and explaored by robotic probes time and time again.
As part of the new push into space, the Dee Terrestrial Planet Finder was put into orbit in 1994. The Dee Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) infrared interferometer was developd by CSIRO as a mean to search for habitable planets in other solar systems. The Dee TPF could inspect planetary systems up to 50 light-years away. The TPF uses a cluster of 4 large 3.5-meter high sensitivity telescopes with revolutionary imaging technologies to measure the temperature, size, and the orbital parameters of planets as small as Earth itself in in the so-called habitable zones of distant solar systems. The habitable zones is were life is considered most likely to evolve by CSA scientists. Furthermore the TPF's spectroscopy will allow atmospheric chemists and biologists to use the relative amounts of gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and ozone to find whether a planet might support life.
As the USSR disolved into its vrious components and civil war erupted in many of the former Socialist Republics, Eastern Europe and the Balkans suddenly found themselves with no other master than their own homegrown ones, and soon ancient hatreds and grudges surfaced. For some time, no one dared interfer in the former USSR’s backyard. Only when Marshal Lebed brought some measure of control and stability to the old Soviet Empire and he openly declared that the rest of the world could go and do a rather obscene thing, he couldn’t care less, several British, German and Scandinavian politicians began to demand some kind of action. As newly elected Primeminster, Michale Portillo saw it as his, and the Commonwealths, duty to secure a peacefull Europe, and world in generel. At a larger conference at the United Commonwealth Command in Johannesburg, PM Portillo told the assembled officers and the invited members of the press, that the Commonwealth would not allow aggression to be unchecked, nor left unpunished. That he did so in front of a large replica of a Mjonir Ortillery piece made his point seem quite obvious even to the nationalistic hotheads in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.
In 1994 former Indian PM, Rajiv Ghandi, was elected as General-Secretary of the British Commonwealth of Nations, but commanded little or no real respect. Ghandi was to become one of the most unimportant General-Secretaries in the history of the Commenwealth. The various Commonwealht PM’s and the Commonwealth Council in Bombay and especially the Commonwealth Parlianment in Wellington picked up the political slack so to say. It will be interesting to see whether the position of General-Secretary will carry the same weight in the future as it did before Ghandi. It’s already more or less a given, that Ghandi will not run for a second term af General-Secretary.
Part XIV
Every day you make progress. Every day may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discourage, only adds to the joy and gloty of the climb!
- Winston Churchill.
There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum!
- Arthur C. Clarke.
The 90’s saw the completion of the Edward Moon Base and the Zuckerman Space Station. By 1994, some 3,000 people lived on the surface of the Moon, the two large partically self-supporting Moon bases housed most of them, but some 100 people or so lived in minor outposts and research stations – and most likely a few top secret military installations as well. A further 200 people lived in orbit around either Earth or the Moon, as HMSS Churchill and SS Zuckerman too expanded and was joined in orbit by a growing number of smaller space stations; manned orbital transfer points, MOWS and scientific research sations. Some 25 manned Commonwealth and US space installations og all sorts dotted the night sky and more was to follow. The few surviving Soviet space habitats and staions were quickly decommissioned by the Commonwealth spaceborn military and by the CSA – after close examination, naturally.
With the growing infrastructure in space and the availability of such spaceplanes as the SR-BAC TAV that was able to reach low Earth orbit realtively cheap it was only a question of time before some sort of space tourism would appeare. The interest from nearly every part of the Commonwealth society and nummerous other nations to spend a few vacations days in was found to be quite overwhelming. And soon BOAC and other airlines began to seek out partners for joint-ventures in space. BOAC itself sound one such partner in the American Hilton organization, and in 1991 construction began on the Orbiter Hilton. Later, the Luna Hilton would be built as part of the sprawling Edward Moon Base as well. The Orbiter Hilton could host some 25 quest, but was in the lmid-90’s expanded to accomadate up til a 100 people, including 50 questes. The Lunar Hilton was expanded seevral times over and joined by two other major hotel chains and one independent lunarian Bed and Breakfast – mostly used by personel stationed on the Moon or in Moon orbit. British PM, Michale Portillo, was one of the first quests at the Luna Hilton, as he visited the Moon together with the everpresent MoS, Digby Jones, in 1996.
The great interest in space tourism was seen in retrospect not all that surprising. Especially when one considers that in many major countries the tourist industry was, and still is, between ten and thirty times larger in revenue terms than the space industry, that it is a major creator of wealth and user of high technology - specifically of mass transportation and communications - and that holidays in space would have obvious attractions for the the masses of Erath who had grown up watching the sky in amazement as it was slowly claimed for humankind. The potential and, it was soone to be seen, actual demand for space tourism was such that the industry would become the largest revenue-earning use of launch vehicles and space stations in the year 2000. At that time the ever reduced cost of transporting people into space, either LEO or the Moon, made short holidays in space affordable to most middleclass Commonwealth citizens. The tourism boom in the 90’s led to further exploration and exploitation of space.
One of the nummerous promising features of space exploration and exploitation was acces to resources. From its now well established bases on the Moon and in both Earth and Moon orbit, the CSA bagan to take a closer look at the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. As part of the Mars Project, the CSA had developed some higly advanced porbes and a series of said probes were sent to explore the asteroide belt. Several asteroids were found to contain a high concentration of rare and thus higly valuable mineras, metals and other resources. As the new milennium dawned, the CSA considered sending manned missions to the asteroid belt or actually towing an asteroid into Mars or even Moon orbit for mining.
As the long series of various civilian science missions were launched - among them the Endavour and Beagle Solar survey probes - began to transmit vast amounts of data back, the Clark Mars-probe reached the Red Planet, and began to orbit and later successfully landed the Darwin Robotic Rover on the planet itself. RADAR-maps and other data soon flowed back to CSA Headquarters and Mission Planning. It was soon quite clear to the CSA leadership, and the MoS, that a true colonization would not be possible due to logistics and cost, but some sort of manned mission should be within reach of the CSA without hugely expanding the already quite beefy budget. A long series of explorational probes and missions was launched in the next years with the sole goal of supporting a manned mission to Mars around the end of the milennium. Mars, and its two moons – Phobos and Deimos - soon became very well known sizes as every square inch of the celestial bodies were mapped and explaored by robotic probes time and time again.
As part of the new push into space, the Dee Terrestrial Planet Finder was put into orbit in 1994. The Dee Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) infrared interferometer was developd by CSIRO as a mean to search for habitable planets in other solar systems. The Dee TPF could inspect planetary systems up to 50 light-years away. The TPF uses a cluster of 4 large 3.5-meter high sensitivity telescopes with revolutionary imaging technologies to measure the temperature, size, and the orbital parameters of planets as small as Earth itself in in the so-called habitable zones of distant solar systems. The habitable zones is were life is considered most likely to evolve by CSA scientists. Furthermore the TPF's spectroscopy will allow atmospheric chemists and biologists to use the relative amounts of gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and ozone to find whether a planet might support life.
As the USSR disolved into its vrious components and civil war erupted in many of the former Socialist Republics, Eastern Europe and the Balkans suddenly found themselves with no other master than their own homegrown ones, and soon ancient hatreds and grudges surfaced. For some time, no one dared interfer in the former USSR’s backyard. Only when Marshal Lebed brought some measure of control and stability to the old Soviet Empire and he openly declared that the rest of the world could go and do a rather obscene thing, he couldn’t care less, several British, German and Scandinavian politicians began to demand some kind of action. As newly elected Primeminster, Michale Portillo saw it as his, and the Commonwealths, duty to secure a peacefull Europe, and world in generel. At a larger conference at the United Commonwealth Command in Johannesburg, PM Portillo told the assembled officers and the invited members of the press, that the Commonwealth would not allow aggression to be unchecked, nor left unpunished. That he did so in front of a large replica of a Mjonir Ortillery piece made his point seem quite obvious even to the nationalistic hotheads in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.
In 1994 former Indian PM, Rajiv Ghandi, was elected as General-Secretary of the British Commonwealth of Nations, but commanded little or no real respect. Ghandi was to become one of the most unimportant General-Secretaries in the history of the Commenwealth. The various Commonwealht PM’s and the Commonwealth Council in Bombay and especially the Commonwealth Parlianment in Wellington picked up the political slack so to say. It will be interesting to see whether the position of General-Secretary will carry the same weight in the future as it did before Ghandi. It’s already more or less a given, that Ghandi will not run for a second term af General-Secretary.
Last edited:
The one episode I thought I had left in the MoS ATL somehow grew and I suppose that I'll have material for two further posts!
Hope you enjoy it!
Best regards!
- Mr.B.
Hope you enjoy it!
Best regards!
- Mr.B.
MoS, part XV
Part XV
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatening danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half!
- Winston Churchill.
The discovery of life on another planet is potentially one of the most important scientific advances of this century, let alone this decade, and it would have enormous philosophical implications!
- National Research Council
As the year 2000, and thus a new Millenium, drew nearer the Commonwealth Space Agency still led the way into both the future and into space. Several missions were undertaken to insure the succes of the comming Mars mission as the spaceborne infrastructure was beefed up considerably and prospecting of the main asteroid belt undertaken in earnest. The CSA hoped to extradite raw materials from the belt sometime within the next 20 years or so.
In the late 90’s some 20 upgraded Black Duchess rockets were launched with supplies and other loads of necessary eqiupment for the construction of the Mars mission ship and several others were launched directly at Mars to place supplies on the Red Planet in advance of the mission itself. These new Black Duchess Rockets, known as the G and Z variants, had their original engines replaced by newer ones. Ironically enough the new engines were based on the old Soviet designs for rocket engines. CSIRO, and thus the CSA, had learned a lot from the now defunct Soviet Union, amongst others how to build incredibly powerfull engines. A brand new series of super heavy rockets, the Black Lions, were more or less constructed around the Soviet Energija engines – named Vulcan in english -, and would enter service in 2005.
In Gabon, French Equatorial Africa, the impressing Franco-German spacegun, Project Bonaparte, was test fired in early 1999. Pictures of an exuberant Gerald Bull, a smug General Albert Duprecht, the C-in-C for space related programmes and weapons, and an even - if possible – more smug French President, Bruno Megret, watched as the first 1 tonnes projectile was fired into space from the nearly 200 meters long gun barrel.
Eventhough Project Bonaparte had proven a succes, it was close to nothing compared to the Commonwealth space programme. Still, the Franco-German succes spured the Americans into action after some fruitless years commemorating the failure of Orion.
In the USA, the newly formed National Aeronautics Agency, NAA, was finally beginning to get its act together, so to say. After having spent quite some time rearranging its structure and the merging of the United States Navy Advanced Research Projects and the Air Force Space Operations Angency , and, perhaps more importantnly, getting over the horrible Orion catastrophe, the NAA began to play a role in space. Eventhough the Americans had sent several missions into to space in the early 90’s and placed nummerous armed space stations and habitats in space in the late 90’s, NAA’s achievements paled compared to that of the Commonwealth’s Space Agency – something President Bush and his successor, Robert “Bob†Dole, was acutely aware of. The growing ambitions of the Americans was shown when Presidnet Dole in ’98 announced that the NAA would launch a Moon mission of their own and built a Lunar base within the next 5-6 years. This quite naturally got the Commonwealths attention, but it was ultimately up to PM Portillo to answer the unspoken American challenge to the Commonwealth’s space hegemony as the General-Secretary of the Commonwealth, Rajiv Ghandi, had proven quite unable to act the part of statesman.
As it once again befell the British PM to establish a common policy, he did so with typical elan, just as he had stopped the senseless slaughter in the Balkans and Eastern Europe previously. This time, however, Portillo chose a moment when he left Downing Steet for a meeting with Field Marshall Rose – the Chief of Staff – to deliver his messenge. The PM’s speech, directed more or less to President Dole personally, made the British stand very clear indeed: “Some 24 hours have passed since the Americans made their intentions in regard to the Moon clear. The British people and that of the Commonwealth, who have, at the sacrifice of many a good man, accepted the burden as the world’s prime arbitrator and in the end policeman, have a right and a duty, in conjunction with its allied nations and friends, to call upon the United States of America not to place obstacles in the way of peace and the common good. I therefore say to you, Mr. President, stop this foolishness and withdraw from the path of insecurity and hostility!â€
As Commonwealth space force was placed on alert, among them the HMSS Churchill with its reinforced Near Orbit Squadron, the Elizabeth Moon base with its now two Lunar Squadrons and of course the much feared – after the operations angainst the Soviet space installations - Commonwealth Space Reaction Force, the Americans saw sense and after some tense negotiations finally backed down. A compromise was reached in November 1999, where the NAA got Commonwealth permission – stated somewhat differently in the offficial documents – to send a mission to the Moon, but not to operate any bases there. American astronauts and scientists got several seats on CSA rockets and access to the Edward Moon Base, though.
All was not, however, trouble, hostility and fear. Not only did the year 2000 bring the Olympics to London, it also heralded a new Millenium, and the launch of the long awaited Mars Mission. All over the country, and the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Day, the Olympics, the Millenium and Launch Day was celebrated, and nowhere more so than in London. The old city truly seemed like the world's capital for while as celebrations of every kind and magnitude, from a few friends having a warm beer together to gigantic public festivals and improvised parties in the streets. Nummerous exhibitions that highlighted the most impressive aspects of the Commonwealth’s many advances was on show; rockets, planes, computers, cars and lots of others high tech gadgetry.
Especially Commonwealth Day 2000 was an impressive event as thousands of troops paarded through every major British city to the sound of patriotic anthems played by military bands. Marching among the troops were the elité Commonwealth Space Reaction Force in their dark grey uniforms and Commando-green berets. The CSRF recieved an applause nearly equal to that bestowed upon the Queen later in the day.
As the infrastructure on the Moon grew and the bases and outposts began to be connected by first primitive rails links, then the more advanced mono-rails, the Lunar population, and the various mining operations, boomed. Furthermore two mono-rail spurs were laid to reach the ice deposits at the poles. With access to ice, and thus water, living conditions improved dramatically, and it’s expented that the Moon bases will be more or less self-sufficient in 2010. During the greately expanded mining operations, Helium 3, an isotope which should be able to be used to obtain fusion, was discovered. As a result CSIRO stepped up research in this field.
On June the 8th, 2000, the first manned mission to the Red Planet, Mars, was launched under command of Rear Admiral Richard Noble, the hero of the Moon landings back in the late 80’s. A huge cycler – an open structure with four arms each with its cargo, both human and otherwise, placed at its ends -, the HMS Royal Sovereign, had been constructed in orbit and was now launched. Flight time was calculated to about 16 months. The cycler, and the mission in itself, represented the greatest leap in technology and man’s ability to achieve the unthinkable thus far.
Part XV
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatening danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half!
- Winston Churchill.
The discovery of life on another planet is potentially one of the most important scientific advances of this century, let alone this decade, and it would have enormous philosophical implications!
- National Research Council
As the year 2000, and thus a new Millenium, drew nearer the Commonwealth Space Agency still led the way into both the future and into space. Several missions were undertaken to insure the succes of the comming Mars mission as the spaceborne infrastructure was beefed up considerably and prospecting of the main asteroid belt undertaken in earnest. The CSA hoped to extradite raw materials from the belt sometime within the next 20 years or so.
In the late 90’s some 20 upgraded Black Duchess rockets were launched with supplies and other loads of necessary eqiupment for the construction of the Mars mission ship and several others were launched directly at Mars to place supplies on the Red Planet in advance of the mission itself. These new Black Duchess Rockets, known as the G and Z variants, had their original engines replaced by newer ones. Ironically enough the new engines were based on the old Soviet designs for rocket engines. CSIRO, and thus the CSA, had learned a lot from the now defunct Soviet Union, amongst others how to build incredibly powerfull engines. A brand new series of super heavy rockets, the Black Lions, were more or less constructed around the Soviet Energija engines – named Vulcan in english -, and would enter service in 2005.
In Gabon, French Equatorial Africa, the impressing Franco-German spacegun, Project Bonaparte, was test fired in early 1999. Pictures of an exuberant Gerald Bull, a smug General Albert Duprecht, the C-in-C for space related programmes and weapons, and an even - if possible – more smug French President, Bruno Megret, watched as the first 1 tonnes projectile was fired into space from the nearly 200 meters long gun barrel.
Eventhough Project Bonaparte had proven a succes, it was close to nothing compared to the Commonwealth space programme. Still, the Franco-German succes spured the Americans into action after some fruitless years commemorating the failure of Orion.
In the USA, the newly formed National Aeronautics Agency, NAA, was finally beginning to get its act together, so to say. After having spent quite some time rearranging its structure and the merging of the United States Navy Advanced Research Projects and the Air Force Space Operations Angency , and, perhaps more importantnly, getting over the horrible Orion catastrophe, the NAA began to play a role in space. Eventhough the Americans had sent several missions into to space in the early 90’s and placed nummerous armed space stations and habitats in space in the late 90’s, NAA’s achievements paled compared to that of the Commonwealth’s Space Agency – something President Bush and his successor, Robert “Bob†Dole, was acutely aware of. The growing ambitions of the Americans was shown when Presidnet Dole in ’98 announced that the NAA would launch a Moon mission of their own and built a Lunar base within the next 5-6 years. This quite naturally got the Commonwealths attention, but it was ultimately up to PM Portillo to answer the unspoken American challenge to the Commonwealth’s space hegemony as the General-Secretary of the Commonwealth, Rajiv Ghandi, had proven quite unable to act the part of statesman.
As it once again befell the British PM to establish a common policy, he did so with typical elan, just as he had stopped the senseless slaughter in the Balkans and Eastern Europe previously. This time, however, Portillo chose a moment when he left Downing Steet for a meeting with Field Marshall Rose – the Chief of Staff – to deliver his messenge. The PM’s speech, directed more or less to President Dole personally, made the British stand very clear indeed: “Some 24 hours have passed since the Americans made their intentions in regard to the Moon clear. The British people and that of the Commonwealth, who have, at the sacrifice of many a good man, accepted the burden as the world’s prime arbitrator and in the end policeman, have a right and a duty, in conjunction with its allied nations and friends, to call upon the United States of America not to place obstacles in the way of peace and the common good. I therefore say to you, Mr. President, stop this foolishness and withdraw from the path of insecurity and hostility!â€
As Commonwealth space force was placed on alert, among them the HMSS Churchill with its reinforced Near Orbit Squadron, the Elizabeth Moon base with its now two Lunar Squadrons and of course the much feared – after the operations angainst the Soviet space installations - Commonwealth Space Reaction Force, the Americans saw sense and after some tense negotiations finally backed down. A compromise was reached in November 1999, where the NAA got Commonwealth permission – stated somewhat differently in the offficial documents – to send a mission to the Moon, but not to operate any bases there. American astronauts and scientists got several seats on CSA rockets and access to the Edward Moon Base, though.
All was not, however, trouble, hostility and fear. Not only did the year 2000 bring the Olympics to London, it also heralded a new Millenium, and the launch of the long awaited Mars Mission. All over the country, and the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Day, the Olympics, the Millenium and Launch Day was celebrated, and nowhere more so than in London. The old city truly seemed like the world's capital for while as celebrations of every kind and magnitude, from a few friends having a warm beer together to gigantic public festivals and improvised parties in the streets. Nummerous exhibitions that highlighted the most impressive aspects of the Commonwealth’s many advances was on show; rockets, planes, computers, cars and lots of others high tech gadgetry.
Especially Commonwealth Day 2000 was an impressive event as thousands of troops paarded through every major British city to the sound of patriotic anthems played by military bands. Marching among the troops were the elité Commonwealth Space Reaction Force in their dark grey uniforms and Commando-green berets. The CSRF recieved an applause nearly equal to that bestowed upon the Queen later in the day.
As the infrastructure on the Moon grew and the bases and outposts began to be connected by first primitive rails links, then the more advanced mono-rails, the Lunar population, and the various mining operations, boomed. Furthermore two mono-rail spurs were laid to reach the ice deposits at the poles. With access to ice, and thus water, living conditions improved dramatically, and it’s expented that the Moon bases will be more or less self-sufficient in 2010. During the greately expanded mining operations, Helium 3, an isotope which should be able to be used to obtain fusion, was discovered. As a result CSIRO stepped up research in this field.
On June the 8th, 2000, the first manned mission to the Red Planet, Mars, was launched under command of Rear Admiral Richard Noble, the hero of the Moon landings back in the late 80’s. A huge cycler – an open structure with four arms each with its cargo, both human and otherwise, placed at its ends -, the HMS Royal Sovereign, had been constructed in orbit and was now launched. Flight time was calculated to about 16 months. The cycler, and the mission in itself, represented the greatest leap in technology and man’s ability to achieve the unthinkable thus far.
Thank you very much, Brett! I'm delighted that you enjoy it!brettmalherbe said:
Best regards!
- Mr.Bluenote.
Questions!
As I re-read some of this ATL before posting MoS Part XV I wondered whether or not I had created a different more British mood and world than OTL. Meaning, does this seem like a place with near total British (eh, Commonwealth ) dominance and is there anything I should have done in another way to enhance the, hm, differentness?
If I should re-write the MoS-thingie, what should I focus on - besides catching all the awfull typos, that is? Mood? Politics? People? Gear? Wars?
Comments? Thoughts?
Best regards and all that!
- Mr.Bluenote.
As I re-read some of this ATL before posting MoS Part XV I wondered whether or not I had created a different more British mood and world than OTL. Meaning, does this seem like a place with near total British (eh, Commonwealth
) dominance and is there anything I should have done in another way to enhance the, hm, differentness? If I should re-write the MoS-thingie, what should I focus on - besides catching all the awfull typos, that is? Mood? Politics? People? Gear? Wars?
Comments? Thoughts?
Best regards and all that!
- Mr.Bluenote.
Mr.Bluenote said:As I re-read some of this ATL before posting MoS Part XV I wondered whether or not I had created a different more British mood and world than OTL. Meaning, does this seem like a place with near total British (eh, Commonwealth
If I should re-write the MoS-thingie, what should I focus on - besides catching all the awfull typos, that is? Mood? Politics? People? Gear? Wars?
Comments? Thoughts?
Best regards and all that!
- Mr.Bluenote.
I noticed in one of your earlier posts that you had British PM's serving for 6 years rather than the traditional 4. Is this part of your timeline or a mistake? Apart from that I see nothing wrong with the TL
Ah, yes, that was a blunder! I looked at a list of OTL PM's, I think, and somehow got the notion that the period of service was a bit longer than normal, so to say.Pax Britannia said:
Will correct that! Thank you very much, Pax!Pax Britannia said:
Other comments or suggestions?
Best regards!
- Bluenote.
Flocculencio
Donor
Mr.Bluenote said:As I re-read some of this ATL before posting MoS Part XV I wondered whether or not I had created a different more British mood and world than OTL. Meaning, does this seem like a place with near total British (eh, Commonwealth
If I should re-write the MoS-thingie, what should I focus on - besides catching all the awfull typos, that is? Mood? Politics? People? Gear? Wars?
Comments? Thoughts?
Best regards and all that!
- Mr.Bluenote.
Just one little nitpick that I caught- "commando-green berets"
British commandos wear red berets.
birdie said:It is indeed
by coincidence, Bluenote told me a couple of days ago that he was thinking about reposting this.
Thank you both ever so kindly. And yes, as soon as I get through the next installment - Poor Old Britannia - in my The Death of Göring and the Victory of the Luftwaffe ATL, I'll start reposting the MoS ATL. Especially since most of the the thread seems horribly corrupted.
There are e few glitches and lots, lots I say, of typo's that I need to fix, so I hope to post a few installments at a time, and then at some point move it to Scenarios as with TDoGatVotL. I'm counting on the first chapter being up after the weekend.
Any ideas, comments and/or criticism will be taken into account in the reposting process, as I myself have a number of ideas for change.
God save the Queen!
- Bluenote.