AH Challenge:Soviet moon landing

Your challenge is to have the USSR be the first to land on the moon, prefrably around the same time the US did. Your POD can be anytime after 1940. You should also explore the after-affects of such a thing. Ready? Go!
 

Germaniac

Donor
might be ASB but if the Soviets can capture a significantly larger portion of German rocket engineers, notably Von Braun, they have a chance at building better rocket designs which were the ultimate failure of the Soviet Space Program. If you cant build the rocket it really doesnt matter what else you do.
 
Quicker Soviet offensive through central Germany ends up forcing Von Braun and his team to surrender to the Red Army. He and Koroyolev eventually manage to put a man on the moon by the early 70's whilst NASA lags behind.
 

ninebucks

Banned
I had an idea for a short TL recently, about what if the Moon landings really were fake.

Inevitably, as OTL conspiracists fail to realise, it'd be impossible to keep secret a faked moon landing, and within a week of the televised moon landing, the world's press is saturated with details of the fraud.

The Soviet Union, who had been as fooled as everyone else leading up to the launch, and were ready to concede defeat in the Space Race, suddenly become emboldened. The mothballed Soviet moon project is revived, and it is the Soviet flag that first flies on the actual moon, while in the USA NASA gets torn apart by populist rage.
 
might be ASB but if the Soviets can capture a significantly larger portion of German rocket engineers, notably Von Braun, they have a chance at building better rocket designs which were the ultimate failure of the Soviet Space Program. If you cant build the rocket it really doesnt matter what else you do.

They seemed to have had a plan to send successive rocket stages into orbit, then dock with them there and use the combined stages to propel themselves to the moon. Also, the Vostok 1, with Jurij Gagarin, weighed 4725 kg, compared to the 1224 kg of John Glenn's Friendship 7. They seemed to have an edge over the americans when it came to rocket power in the early 60's. I think the real problem would be to get to shifting orbits and docking before the american space program did, becasue once the other side has that advantage, they'll most likely be landing on the moon first.
 
Given that OTL the Soviets were ahead of the competition early on, ISTM that you'd just have to do something about the rather counterproductive rivalries that stalled their space program. Perhaps they decide to unite all their space program development teams into one body, the way the Americans did?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
One of the main problems was with the boosters and the equipment they were using to make the jump to the moon.

There wasn't even an airlock between the command module and lander. It was a one-man lander, and Alexei Leonov was selected to do it in OTL. The plan was for him to go EVA and actually go hand-over-hand from the command module to the lander, then go down to the lunar surface. In an interview, he called the idea: "Sporty."

That's...crazy.
 
orginal here https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=2179610&postcount=42

the sovjet have 2 major problems in 1960's space Program
one: Sergey Korolyov death in 1966
two: and take over of Sovjet Lunar program by to Vasili Mishin, how had serious alcoholism problems
his way of work were simple : Intrigue agains others and if he encounter problems, he get drunk into a coma !

if Sovjet reach the Moon, We must get rid Mishin
best way Vladimir Chelomei become Head of the Sovjet Lunar program
no Soyuz but Merkur spacecraft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur_(spacecraft)
as LK-1 around moon with UR-500 (Proton) Rocket http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lk1.htm

LK-700 Lunar landing http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lk700.htm
the Heavy Rocket UR-700 is build easy from UR-500 (Proton) Parts

Lunar orbital Almaz OPS supply by TKS
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/almazops.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/tks.htm

Lunar surface Base in AAP style
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/kleition.htm
Long term Lunarbase
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/dlbrbase.htm

attachment.php
 
The Soviets responsible for the lunar program said the main reason they couldn't beat the US to the moon was the inferior state of Soviet electronics technology. What they had simply was not up to the task at the time.
 
The Soviets responsible for the lunar program said the main reason they couldn't beat the US to the moon was the inferior state of Soviet electronics technology. What they had simply was not up to the task at the time.


Tallwingedgoat,

That's the real reason and one everyone always overlooks for some reason.

It wasn't the failure of the Proton booster or rivalries between design bureaus or any of the other excuses, it was a simple paucity of on-board electronics and computing power.

Granted, the Apollo missions flew to the Moon with less computing power than you have in your coffee maker, but even that was well beyond the Soviet capabilities of the time. As late as the 1975 Apollo - Soyuz Test Project, the Soviet Soyuz craft couldn't manage to dock with the docking module. Instead the US Apollo craft had to maneuver itself and the docking module to dock with the Soyuz.


Bill
 
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