Forever Mankind

This is a TL idea that I worked on in the past. I've changed some things, have new ideas but I haven't written much. I was curious to post the prologue to see if it piques any interest and if anyone would be interested in helping me with this.

________________________________________________________________________Prologue________________________________________________________________________

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"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is....."


"Forever Mankind"
 
I absolutely approve of this. It is a terrible thought for Armstrong and Aldrin to die up there, and the human reaction to such a tragedy is hard to quantify, greatly depending on one's view on human nature. But it's nice for someone to try and tackle it.

My suggestions are this: The problem that would've doomed Apollo 11 would've been with the LM. Assuming Apollo isn't instantly cancelled (very unlikely), then Apollo 12's LM Intrepid is going to be checked and rechecked before ever allowed to integrate into the launch stack. This might mean a delay to 1970, and this a failure to land a man and return him by the end of the decade.

Soviet reaction will be mixed. They would not start rubbing it in. This isn't 1957, détente is going into effect, they themselves are hardly boasting a spaceflight superiority anymore, and American failure is now much more touchy than an unmanned rocket blowing up on the pad. Of course, the Soviet space program is going to try and convince the Politburo that investing into the Space Race once more will reap commercial and political dividends, but their own attempt at a Moon mission is a far fetch (the N1 still has many, many issues and might end up at most send payloads to LEO, if it escapes the axe at all. Remember, parts of the Politburo is going to be sick of the Khrushchev-era spending on areas like spaceflight).

NASA faces the issues they faced during the aftermath of both Apollo 1 and Challenger. Their ability to complete given missions with reliability and safety is called into question, and the other space programs, like that of the Air Force, are going to demand that some of NASA's resources and budget be allotted to them.

Finally, flip a coin to see if the 'Fake Moon Landing' conspiracy either gets smaller or bigger :p The argument is that if NASA faked the landings, then why make the first one a fatal disaster? The counter-argument, of course, is that Apollo 11 was real, but 12 and beyond were done by Kubrick once 11 'proved' how difficult it was to get to the Moon (these are conspiracy theorists I'm talking about).
 
For now this idea is dead, personal issues have stopped me from going forward with this. I might post the maps & several lists of leaders in the proper places in the future. Sorry this didn't come to fruition.
 
For now this idea is dead, personal issues have stopped me from going forward with this. I might post the maps & several lists of leaders in the proper places in the future. Sorry this didn't come to fruition.

Sorry to hear that. I hope your issues can be resolved.
 
Neat thread. I was very interested in the Apollo 11 Mission in High School and I always wondered what would have happened if Nixon had been forced to read that alternate speech.
 
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