I think for this to happen we have to avoid WWI, in which case we may see a earlier and multipolar space race.
On Moon begin solarpower later nuclear fission powerYep, and what's going to power the mining equipment for starters?
I think for this to happen we have to avoid WWI, in which case we may see a earlier and multipolar space race.
NO!
WW1 let to WW2 and that gave technogly of spaceflight and policical montivation for Space Race
Without those wars mandkind would far behind of today technogly
You can have a much richer Europe to afford greater expenditure on space - and as a side point, you keep picking the technologies with the mind-boggling R+D costs that are absolutely unable to be recouped by use unrelated to space colonisation - or you can have the technology boost of the world wars.
Pick one.
Unless you do it this wayenough of them you can get expertise with launching them.
You dont move a million pounds into orbit. You move forty thousand pounds in to orbit fifty times.
Unless you do it this way
It's still a solution in search of a problem. There just aren't any plausible use cases for launching a few thousand tonnes at once instead of in many smaller launches (which can be done as needed, and allow you to benefit from economies of scale). The costs of Orion are also not-inconsiderable, to say nothing of the side effects.
ah so you mean an imperialistic approach to the space race for the continued European empires. Well France, UK and Germany would be the pioneers of course. Probably followed by the Netherlands and Spain. However, the first exploitations of space are gonna be meager and pretty pointless, for prestige alone so empire like The Netherlands and Spain will drop out eventually when they can't make money out of it. Leaving only France, Germany and the UK competing, where eventually a war will break out that will be mostly fought on the ground like OTL, except with kinetic bombardments from space and a fight over worthless territory on the moon. I wrote a story in which this scenario more or less has taken place, see my signature(the green planet).
Later on it can get iteresting with Russia and the USA joining in the competition, imperialistically. Unless USA is still part of European Empires.
The one thing Orion has is ridiculous amounts of Delta V, with both high specific impulse and high thrust. If you want to visit planets past Mars, that's what is needed for manned missions
A very good Exempel are robbert Godards and Herman Oberth, the First rocket Pioniers
They had to fight over twenty yrears for there dreams, to realize something
Both got ridculized and humiliated by public and Media As insane idiots with overzised fireworks
Then came WW2 and the Germans start to develop missles as weapons under von Braun and Orters
Also The First Computers and the Atombomb were bulid
So i pick that one
(We hadn't even launched a man suborbital at the time it was announced)
Avoid WWI and make it, to begin with, an action for prestige. That's feasible, especially if early lunar bases find Helium 3 which can then turn these outposts into mining stations kick-starting economic interest in space.
You can have a much richer Europe to afford greater expenditure on space - and as a side point, you keep picking the technologies with the mind-boggling R+D costs that are absolutely unable to be recouped by use unrelated to space colonisation - or you can have the technology boost of the world wars.
Pick one.
Thus the conundrum.
Would having the European powers lose their colonies in Asia and Africa without WW2 taking place drive them towards space exploration and colonization? Because part of the reason why the European powers started to colonize Africa and Asia was because they lost control over the Americas.