DBWI: the USSR never lands on the moon

samcster94

Banned
I recently read a novel called ("The Wrong stuff")about the cosmonauts that landed on the moon, and it explained why the U.S. failed miserably in its plan. What can be done to reverse the fates???
 
I recently read a novel called ("The Wrong stuff")about the cosmonauts that landed on the moon, and it explained why the U.S. failed miserably in its plan. What can be done to reverse the fates???

The Soviets never landed on the moon. They filme the scene in the East German DEFA studio at Babelsberg.
 
I recently read a novel called ("The Wrong stuff")about the cosmonauts that landed on the moon, and it explained why the U.S. failed miserably in its plan. What can be done to reverse the fates???

Quite simply put Nasa was always to god damned cautious and never wanted to take risks, then Nixon came in and slashed their budget out of spite, then he got distroyed by water gate, and their was no political will for space travel because of our internal polatics, then you had the Regan Presiency when ford stepped down and Carter lost the presidency. And the Regan presidency was just one screw up after another and an economic disaster all around.

It was only in the 80s when the democrats retook power, after the republicans had utterally self distructed that Nasa got back on its feet, and this time we made sure they had stable funding that no one could take. Which is how we beat the soviets to mars.
 

Insider

Banned
Had USA stopped sending people up in death traps it would surely come in handy. First it was Mercury missile exploding on a lunch pad killing the human payload (a "pilot" would suggest that he could do something, the poor fellow didn't have any control over the rocket flight) had these been other times I would call him sacrificial lamb), then Gemini 8 breaking up in orbit, and one of Apollo spaceships burning up during the return.

Arguably Soviets didn't have the best record either, but they are the ones with infamously lax safety standards, and despite these they came out from first decade of space flight with just two deaths, when one of the early Soyuz missions depressurised in orbit. In fact they had many close calls. And each of these could send their space program back and give Americans some breathing space.

Had Soyuz 1 wasn't fitted with Vostock ejected seat, it would be one.
Had LK1 crew of Leonow and Bykowski did... anything else then what they did, and had the flight controll been any less competent, they wouldn't end their circumlunar flight alive, and certainly they wouldn't be in shape to escape sinking capsule after they "missed the landing zone, missed the country, and missed the continent they were aiming for" when landed 50 miles off the coasts of India.
The Soviets never landed on the moon. They filme the scene in the East German DEFA studio at Babelsberg.
Speak of the lunar landing and this sort of worms always crawls from under the rock.
 
Failed miserably? NASA was waiting to make sure they could both get their men onto and OFF OF the Moon. Something the Soviets hadn't put nearly enough effort into. I remember a newspaper clipping on the board in a nearby pub saying that the cosmonauts were starting a Moon colony. They did in a way, when the Soviets finally got up there again and built them a mausoleum.
 
What I've read here, clearly explains the Soviet Lead in Manned Space Exploration which they held until the 1990's.

Early efforts were always going to be very High-Risk because it was a transport and exploration type that had never been undertaken before - some who opposed it in those early days would argue that the Human Body couldn't survive even a few minutes of micro-gravity!

While NASA at the time (and still does) stressed the importance of Crew Safety, the USSR was far more willing to gamble on pushing their equipment right to the limit. Sometimes it would pay off handsomely for them, other times it proved a costly mistake.

None more so than the aforementioned Manned Lunar Landings. With a Soyuz LOK that was still being matured and debugged, an LK that while it worked well (fantastically even by NASA Standards) had only the most minimal margins for error, and the N1 LV whose engine arrangement and closed-cycle design, while, revolutionary and elegant, was a lot of steps into the unknown even with all they'd built up - small wonder it took a over decade for the N1 to get its reliability rating to better than 90%.

Compare to NASA and their more risk-averse nature - especially post-Gemini 8. While they didn't manage a Landing until well into the 1990's, they had built up a lot of experience with long-duration space habitation with their series of LEO and MEO Space Stations thanks to building some impressive medium-heavy lift capability, and becoming fantastic with on-orbit assembly. Utilizing these strengths to build missions to the Moon and then Mars with heavily tested, proven technologies and techniques. By proving their systems as much as they could so they and the crew had the confidence in them to perform the given mission.

To add, Electric Propulsion Systems. A NASA Stronghold. With an engine system with and Isp of over 4,000 seconds for BEO operations, NASA could afford to send the goods, the habitation, the exploration vehicles to Mars with the crew not far behind with their existing, reliable LVs and Earth Orbit Assembly.

In fact, I would say that this is constitutes NASA's greatest strength. The High Science Return Value from each of their manned missions.
 

samcster94

Banned
Failed miserably? NASA was waiting to make sure they could both get their men onto and OFF OF the Moon. Something the Soviets hadn't put nearly enough effort into. I remember a newspaper clipping on the board in a nearby pub saying that the cosmonauts were starting a Moon colony. They did in a way, when the Soviets finally got up there again and built them a mausoleum.
Those deaths are one of the saddest things humanity has experienced(and the moon's image in Russian culture has been dampened by the graves there). If the Americans had done it, they would have gotten the astronauts home in one piece and alive.
 
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