Blue moon, a timeline inspired by the dark moon timeline where Britain and the commonwealth were the first to land a man on the moon.

Black_leader08

Hello all. I recently read the Dark moon timeline (which is fantastic by the way) and thought to myself, what if Britain landed on the moon. Of course there are issues with this. It doesn’t seem plausible that Britain would be able to launch, as this would require a launch site and a vehicle. At the same time, it offers a lot of freedom, as I can make decisions after the timeline splits that would not be justifiable in normal circumstances. Feedback is appreciated, as I’m not used to writing alternate history. It also isn’t finished, so I will post this now and I’ll post the finished product later. :)


Blue Moon



A timeline where Britain the commonwealth are the first on the moon.



April 1962: The first British rocket launches from Woomera. Named the Black Knight, it delivers a small satellite named prospero into Low earth orbit. Multiple other launches take place i between April and August.



August 1962: Woomera Launch site shuts down for expansion to accommodate larger spacecraft. The Mona Program, a space program made to land British people on the moon is considered by British government.



September 1962: The Mona program is announced and research and development begins on the new 3 stage disposable launcher called . Woomera development is completed before the end of the year, allowing launches to restart and Mona 1 to launch from Woomera.



November 1963: Research and development is complete, and construction of Mona 1, the first manned British Launcher vehicle begins. The first British astronauts are announced, with Mona 1’s crew consisting of, Thomas Lingestine, Oliver Mose, and Henry Gary. Kennedy remains in Washington to attend to issues regarding the Apollo program.



March 1963: Mona 1 is completed ahead of schedule, allowing for extra testing time and resources to be diverted into Mona 2. Mona 1 proves to be exceptional in all cases, with the launch being brought forward from May to July of 1963.



May 1963: Mona 1 launches from woomera launch site without fault, with the launch vehicle being a 3 stage disposable heavy launcher. The 3 Astronauts spend 5 days in orbit before de-orbiting and landing off the coast of Ireland. Mona 2 is completed the same month, and transported to Woomera launch site for final testing and launch setup



July 1963: Mona 2 launches, but suffers and the loss of 1 of the 3 engines, leading to an abort. A particularly hard landing on the beaches of New South Wales leads to the loss of 1 of the three astronauts, putting the program on hold whilst the government re-evaluates the safety of the vehicle.



October 1963: British government rules that the Mona program is fit to fly, but will have to undergo a series of tests before authorisation for crewed flights is granted. The first of these tests is an on pad abort, followed by multiple scenarios ranging from engine failure to lightning strikes.



March 1964: Mona is fit to fly once more, with Mona 3 being an unscrewed Lunar flyby on a new vehicle, this one a 4 stage disposable launcher called Aether, named for the Greek god of space. The launch date is selected as June of 1964.



April 1964: Mona 3 suffers major damage to the interstage and engine ignition system whilst being assembled. This incident pushes back the initial launch date to September as opposed to June.



July 1964: Mona 3 is completed and testing begins for the upcoming launch. The static fire test is barely out of safety margins, leading to a week delay whilst the engine is re-evaluated and replaced.



September 1964: Mona 3 launches and completes 16 orbits around the moon before completing a re-entry and recovery, although pressure in the Crewed module dips slightly on the 13th orbit. This is put down to a rushed manufacturing process, and Mona 3 is declared a success, paving the way for the first lunar landing. The British government announces an extension to the Mona program and its fleet of Aether rockets, with expanded funding and plans for a moon base announced in the wake of the successful mission.



December 1965: The British government announces the launch date of Mona 4 to 11, with Mona 9, 10 and 11 being the first planned Lunar landings. Development of the first British spacesuit begins. Mona 4 construction is almost complete, with Mona 4 planned to be an un-crewed mission to test the lunar landing RCS and docking systems.



February 1966: Mona 4 launches, with the Lunar lander passing with flying colours. With all tests being completed, the Lunar lander is certified for human use, with a maximum crew capacity of 3 astronauts. Mona 5 construction is almost finished.



May 1966. Mona 5 construction is complete, but heavy rain and lightening push the launch back by a month. As Mona 5 is being rolled back into the VAB, it suffers 2 lightening strikes. Engineers miss this, and it is set to launch in June.



June 1966: Mona 5 launches with 3 astronauts onboard. Roughly 3 mins after the Trans-Lunar injection burn is completed, the guidance system fails. The three astronauts fly around the moon and return home using manual inputs and successfully return.



August 1966: The Mona 5 Investigation Board is set up to investigate the failure. The cause is eventually narrowed down to the lightening strikes causing a short circuit that became more apparent after the shaking of the vehicle caused batteries to surge and cause a guidance system failure. Mona 6 is cleared to fly at its planned date. New safety measures are put in place stating how to deal with incidents and new pre-flight checks are put in place.



August 1966: Mona 6 construction begins, set to be a full test of docking, RCS, and navigation systems. The British government announces plans for a moon base, and Mona 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. The American government and congress begin to ramp up efforts in an attempt to beat the Russians and the British to the moon.



November 1966: The first Mona 6 parts arrive. The lower stage and CSM are constructed and placed in storage until the rest of the parts arrive.



December 1966: The rest of the Mona 6 parts arrive and are assembled. Mona 6 is set to fly in April 1967. For the first time, Australian Astronauts will be on a Mona flight around the moon. This will also be a full dress rehearsal, with the Australians detaching the Lunar module, flying to a height of 200 meters, dropping a small lander with science modules, and flying back to meet the CSM in Low Lunar Orbit.



February 1967: The British government announces that, should Mona 6 and 7 be a success, they will endeavour for a moon base as early as 1975. Mona 6 is reassigned for searching for potential base sites.



April 1967: Mona 6 launches from woomera and completes it’s mission, finding 4 potential sites. This is eventually narrowed down to 2. Mona 7 is set to launch in September 1967.

Thanks, and I’ll post the rest soon.
 

Garrison

Donor
Alex Sherman Cadriella said:
Refer to Ministry Of Space,Someone has used your idea
Click to expand...
On the other hand we have had a surprising number of alt space race TLs, alt Doctor Who, alt Star Wars and lets not even get into WWII. So the fact that Ministry of Space used the same sort of premise isn't an issue, its more how the British could credibly do this?
 

Black_leader08

Garrison said:
On the other hand we have had a surprising number of alt space race TLs, alt Doctor Who, alt Star Wars and lets not even get into WWII. So the fact that Ministry of Space used the same sort of premise isn't an issue, its more how the British could credibly do this?
Click to expand...
since the British did have a launch site in Woomera, its not unfeasible that with a politician change, they could of continued the Black Knight program well into the 1970’s. They could also (in the case of what I’m writing here) expand and make larger and more capable spacecraft. I find it not unlikely that if the polls had swayed in another direction, they could of been a major player in the space race.
 

RanulfC

Black_leader08 said:
since the British did have a launch site in Woomera, its not unfeasible that with a politician change, they could of continued the Black Knight program well into the 1970’s. They could also (in the case of what I’m writing here) expand and make larger and more capable spacecraft. I find it not unlikely that if the polls had swayed in another direction, they could of been a major player in the space race.
Click to expand...

Money and resources were a problem though. "Ministry of Space" gets around this by using a "black budget" with looted gold and other monies stolen from Nazi Germany, (who stole it during the Holocaust) after the war by the British. And who the proceeded to scoop up all the German rocketry research and scientists (including Von Braun) and destroyed what they couldn't move by an "Oops sorry about that off target heavy bombing raid" accident to delay Soviet and American development.

The downside of that though is the German research and scientist were NOT that helpful (or even used very much initially) by either the Americans or the Soviets and NOT having it doesn't slow them down much at all. But in context it WOULD have accelerated British work in several areas, but again how do they afford it? Britain had a pretty crippling war debt and reconstruction to pay for after all.
(Also a link to the original Timeline might help :) )

Randy
 
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Garrison

Donor
Black_leader08 said:
since the British did have a launch site in Woomera, its not unfeasible that with a politician change, they could of continued the Black Knight program well into the 1970’s. They could also (in the case of what I’m writing here) expand and make larger and more capable spacecraft. I find it not unlikely that if the polls had swayed in another direction, they could of been a major player in the space race.
Click to expand...
The Black Knight program is not really going to get you to a man on the moon and the 1970s are the era of the Three Day Week and IMF bailout for Britain.
 

RanulfC

Ah that thread, I see :) Really disappointed he didn't try again, it wasn't a bad premise at all.

As Garrison points out a "Black Knight" isn't likely to get a satellite to orbit let alone anyone given its size and capability. Let alone being what allows Britain to reach the Moon first. (Size and capability were very much issues with the "Black Knight" although the book "A Vertical Empire" does mention work done to add a liquid hydrogen stage to the vehicle as some 'future date' :) ) Even Blue Streak with Black Knight as upper stages isn't a very good satellite launcher let alone capable of larger payloads. There were studies and work done on better performing missiles and rockets, but no funding to pursue them or other things like satellite electronics or manned missions even if there were rockets to launch them.

A good timeline for a European lunar program is "The Selene Project" but to get a Lunar landing project out of anyone requires a LOT more than just 'motivation' to do so.
You need the resources and financial ability to pay for it all as well.
OTL's Project Apollo cost billions and took a major commitment of American resources, finances and effort to put a man on the Moon in around 7 years, but the Soviets couldn't match that level of effort and has not reached the Moon yet over 50 years later nor has anyone else for the very good reason that doing so is neither cheap nor easy no matter how 'motivated' you might be.

And keep in mind that the American Apollo program sprang from a VERY specific set of circumstances and background that no other nation faced, nor faces today and it was that background that drove the very surprising decision to go to the Moon when the entire American 'experience' in space was less than 15 minutes! Frankly in the scheme of things and expert thinking humans "might" get to the Moon by the year 2000 with a steady effort and maybe Mars by 2100 but that was considered quite 'radical' for the day because there was no pressing NEED to do so. Apollo was a miraculous and wonderful aberration but it should be rather obvious that it was unsupportable and unsustainable over time and we've been trying to 'build back' to that point ever since. But here we are almost 50 years AFTER the US went to the Moon still trying to go back in an economic and sustainable manner. And in general there's STILL no great incentive to do so and so the effort is of low priority and low funding.

You've obviously never read "The Ministry of Space" but the most unbelievable thing about the whole premise is not that Britain goes into space but that somehow they make it 'pay' and can organize and maintain a monopoly on it. The ending makes it rather obvious that this is done by not only maintaining their "empire" but exploiting it to even more a degree to help 'pay' for this all and the question at the end is a very poignant open ended one of "in the end is all this really worth the price we pay?"

The most basic question to ask is why would Britain get into this 'game' against two nations/powers that can both outspend and out build them if they don't have to? (And again keep in mind that the USSR actually DID have a "plausible" reason to race against the US but was unwilling to do so openly because they already KNEW they were not likely to 'win' the overall game. So they "only" tried a few headline grabbing stunts and never actually acknowledged being in the 'race' in the first place to deny the US a full propaganda victory. England and Europe for that matter don't even have that much of a stake in the game)

Now if we've made it this far, (and sorry I tend to be a bit long winded :) ) there IS actually a credible scenario I can suggest in that if the overall "Space Race" were slower and less of a priority, (I know that sounds bad but hear me out) then it's likely that more nations would have made more of an effort to participate.

Say for example the US puts up the first satellite instead of the Soviets, which is pretty much what everyone expected anyway. Then the US launches the first man into suborbital flight followed by the USSR launching the first man into orbit and a slow and steady "tit-for-tat" build up that Britain could the credibly take part in. Sure no one might reach the Moon before the new millennium but is that really a bad thing if it's supported by an ability to get anywhere in the Solar System using the same infrastructure?

Randy
 
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