Somehow a Mars mission in the 1980s gets approved by the Nixon White House. So, after getting his doctorate at the University of Washington, Zubrin joins the astronaut corps and is involved in designing the Mars mission, using his OTL ideas about living off the land, which lowers the cost of the mission. Zubrin is one of the crew of the Ares 1 that departs Earth orbit in the mid 1980s, lands on Mars, then returns triumphantly. Zubrin retires from the astronaut corps, goes into politics, and then all the rest falls into place.