You're right, I wrote this part a while ago, and just kind of wanted an excuse for the crew to have to pull off some crazy Apollo 13-esque, Kerbalish maneuvers.
NASA's Waterloo: A Realistic Mission to Mars Post Apollo
- Thread starter prolemasses
- Start date
Remember what I said earlier about a suspension of disbelief? There's only so much a space-focused timeline can do to change the general mindset of the public at large. For the sake of the story, let's assume that angry mobs are not marching on Washington, demanding that NASA be shut down.Not wanting to derail the thread but honestly at this point it's likely the average US citizen is more fed up than mad. Couple in the depression at getting 'beat' AGAIN and it would be likely they would fully support shutting NASA down rather than going to Mars. There is not much way to get around that with EVERY advantage NASA still lost. Keep in mind Kennedy was having second thoughts about Apollo and arguably it was only his martyrdom that kept Apollo going till the end. Once Apollo landed on the Moon everyone lost interest. In fact Proxmire and Mondale can probably make a lot of political hay out of this loss.
But again that isn't this time line so lets just let it go and see shall we
Randy
You can probably work around it--I don't have the system diagrams near to hand, but it's easy enough to say "they try it but the darned thing doesn't work." I'd just suggest editting it from "they don't try it out of fear it might not work" to "they try it and it doesn't work because part of it exploded."
Remember what I said earlier about a suspension of disbelief? There's only so much a space-focused timeline can do to change the general mindset of the public at large. For the sake of the story, let's assume that angry mobs are not marching on Washington, demanding that NASA be shut down.
Darn.. Well I guess we also can't assume that angry mobs march on Washington to string up Proxmire and Mondale for causing us to lose the Moon race? Ya know, just putting it out there...
Yes I'm suspending my disbelief so no worries.. I will note however that hasn't worked so well for me in Real Life(tm) so there is that little issue...
Randy
Part I Chapter 8
Part I Chapter 8
“First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the hairy chest.”
-Children’s playground rhyme, reportedly sang to Neil Armstrong by his six year old son upon his return from the Moon.
In the last few days before Apollo 11 was scheduled to launch, a record number of people converged on Cape Canaveral. Hotels filled up, restaurants ran out of food, people slept in their cars, and NASA security had to work 24/7 shifts to keep people from crowding onto closed beaches or climbing over fences, trying to get a good view of the launch. News crews from all over the nation and the world traveled to Florida, to report on the historic mission. Unlike in the USSR, where mission were usually kept secret until after they launched successfully, and only a single photo of the N1 Herakles had been made public, the launch of Apollo 11 was very much a public event. The eyes of the world would be upon the astronauts and their massive ride into space, even if they wouldn’t technically be the first. The American people were anxious to catch up to the Communists. Neil Armstrong was reportedly almost relieved when he learned that he wouldn’t be the first man on the Moon. He was a humble man, described by many as a “reluctant hero”. Though NASA always claimed that it was purely crew schedules and launch timing that determined who the first American on the Moon would be, many assumed that Armstrong, because he was not as glory seeking and hot headed as many of the other astronauts, had been pre-selected to some degree.
Finally, on December 10, 1969, with Armstrong, Aldrin, and Haise safely aboard, and all the final checks complete, the countdown began. Once it reached the thirty second mark, the massive crowds began chanting the countdown along with the booming announcer. At 8.9 seconds before liftoff, the ignition sequence for the massive F-1 engines began. The roar from the most powerful rocket engines ever built took a few seconds to reach the crowds. The members of the press and VIP’s gathered atop the Vehicle Assembly building heard them first, the sound drowning out the announcer. Finally, at zero, the clamps holding down the rocket were released and it began to lumber into the sky. Ice that had frozen onto the hydrogen and oxygen tanks on the upper stage began to break off, as the giant slowly rose on a pillar of flame. It took a full twelve seconds for the rocket to clear the launch tower. The crew shrouded by their launch escape system, could not see outside their windows, but could feel the acceleration and vibration as they were pushed towards the sky atop a giant flying bomb. Crowds cheered and screamed as they watched the vehicle slowly climb.
Each stage of the Saturn V performed as expected, with the S-IC first stage, and the S-II second stage impacting in the Atlantic Ocean. The S-IVB carried the crew into orbit. Like on Apollo 10 before them, the S-IVB ignited after three orbits, pushing the crew onto a trans-lunar injection. After the S-IVB burned out, the petal-like panels of the adapter connecting the CSM to the stage unfolded, revealing the lunar module. CSM pilot Fred Haise extracted the LM, and then pulled away from the stage to begin their coast to the Moon. As they flew to the Moon, during one of several TV broadcasts, the crew announced the names of their spacecraft. The CSM was to be named Columbia, and the LM was to be called Beagle after the ship that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos. The name had originally been suggested as a joke by Buzz Aldrin after their original planned name, Eagle had been deemed by the crew to be too similar to the name of the Soviet LOK, Sokol (Falcon). The crew liked the joke, and it stuck. Columbia and Beagle traveled to the Moon, Columbia fired its engine to capture the stack into lunar orbit, and the crew prepared for landing. Unlike Leonov, they would not need to make any spacewalks to reach their lander, they just needed to crawl through the docking tunnel.
This was one of the many features of the Apollo mission that NASA used when marketing the system as more advanced than that of the Soviets. Apollo could land twice as many men on the Moon, for almost three times as long. More scientific instruments could be carried, and more lunar samples could be brought back. In some circles however, these additional capabilities were seen as the reason why Apollo had not been first. The Soviets had developed a simpler system, and had gotten there faster, some believed. Like had happened when the Zarya 1 fiasco had shocked everyone, some proponents pointed to ways that the landing mission could have been done faster and cheaper by using Gemini capsules. The reality however, did not support this view. Apollo and the LM were already far into development when Gemini flights began, and the primary limiting factor timewise had been the development of the Saturn V, which the Gemini proposal almost certainly would have ended up needing. Indeed, even the final design for the proposed Saturn C-3 touted by some advocates as a smaller rocket that could be developed quicker, ended up just being a Saturn V with different quantities of engines on each stage. And the simpler Soviet system had arisen out of necessity due to the lower upper limits on their potential heavy lift capacity. The N1 Herakles was a more complex vehicle than the Saturn V, with a more troubled development, and had it not been for the Apollo 6 and 10 incidents, the Americans likely would have beaten the Soviets by months or even years.
These gripes by a few dissatisfied engineers back on Earth were ignored by those watching, and being thoroughly amazed by, Apollo 11. After Beagle separated from Columbia, Armstrong and Aldrin left Haise behind, and headed toward the lunar surface. Unlike the Soviet landing, the astronauts were very involved in the landing process, with Aldrin calling out velocity and altitude measurements, and Armstrong piloting the vehicle during final descent (confusing to some, as Buzz Aldrin’s official mission title was Lunar Module Pilot). Just after initiating final descent, the LM rotated, and Armstrong and Aldrin, positioned lying on their backs, saw the lunar surface up close for the first time. After all horizontal speed was arrested, vertical speed was slowly reduced to zero, the engine was throttled back, and Beagle began lowering itself down. One of the 1.7 meter long surface probes extending from the bottom of the landing legs contacted the surface, causing Aldrin to call out “Contact Light”. In response, Armstrong reduced the throttle to near zero, and the lander settled down on the lunar surface in the middle of the Sea of Tranquility, on December 14, 1969
“Houston, Tranquility Base here, Beagle is down safe.”
“We read you Beagle, that’s an early Christmas present for us down here.”
After landing, the crew began to plan for their EVA, though the schedule called for them to sleep. Armstrong and Aldrin however, were too excited to sleep. Finally, six hours after landing, in the early morning hours (at least back on Earth), of December 15, just 16 days before JFK’s deadline, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the LM, climbed down the ladder, and took his first step onto the Moon.
“We came here as one nation, in peace, for all mankind.”
More people watched Armstrong step out onto the Moon than had watched Leonov. The footage was also a little bit higher quality. The Astronauts planted the American flag, took lots of fantastic pictures, collected surface samples, and deployed their scientific instruments. Towards the end of their two and a half hours on the lunar surface, The Astronauts were surprised by a phone call by President Kennedy, which was broadcast live to the world.
“Neil and Buzz, today you have made every American proud. I know my brother would be, and I wish he was still here to see his dream brought to life. Thousands of hard working Americans helped make this a reality, and their dreams have been carried to the Moon in the form of two American heroes. It is my hope, and my goal, that today shall not be the high water mark of American exploration of Space. That this point becomes not the summit at the top of the pyramid, but a step of staircase, rising ever higher, in America’s journey to the stars. More Americans will walk on the Moon, and travel in space. We will continue to ensure that this vast new frontier is not taken by conquest, but peacefully explored, as it is the common heritage of all mankind.”
“First is the worst, second is the best, third is the one with the hairy chest.”
-Children’s playground rhyme, reportedly sang to Neil Armstrong by his six year old son upon his return from the Moon.
In the last few days before Apollo 11 was scheduled to launch, a record number of people converged on Cape Canaveral. Hotels filled up, restaurants ran out of food, people slept in their cars, and NASA security had to work 24/7 shifts to keep people from crowding onto closed beaches or climbing over fences, trying to get a good view of the launch. News crews from all over the nation and the world traveled to Florida, to report on the historic mission. Unlike in the USSR, where mission were usually kept secret until after they launched successfully, and only a single photo of the N1 Herakles had been made public, the launch of Apollo 11 was very much a public event. The eyes of the world would be upon the astronauts and their massive ride into space, even if they wouldn’t technically be the first. The American people were anxious to catch up to the Communists. Neil Armstrong was reportedly almost relieved when he learned that he wouldn’t be the first man on the Moon. He was a humble man, described by many as a “reluctant hero”. Though NASA always claimed that it was purely crew schedules and launch timing that determined who the first American on the Moon would be, many assumed that Armstrong, because he was not as glory seeking and hot headed as many of the other astronauts, had been pre-selected to some degree.
Finally, on December 10, 1969, with Armstrong, Aldrin, and Haise safely aboard, and all the final checks complete, the countdown began. Once it reached the thirty second mark, the massive crowds began chanting the countdown along with the booming announcer. At 8.9 seconds before liftoff, the ignition sequence for the massive F-1 engines began. The roar from the most powerful rocket engines ever built took a few seconds to reach the crowds. The members of the press and VIP’s gathered atop the Vehicle Assembly building heard them first, the sound drowning out the announcer. Finally, at zero, the clamps holding down the rocket were released and it began to lumber into the sky. Ice that had frozen onto the hydrogen and oxygen tanks on the upper stage began to break off, as the giant slowly rose on a pillar of flame. It took a full twelve seconds for the rocket to clear the launch tower. The crew shrouded by their launch escape system, could not see outside their windows, but could feel the acceleration and vibration as they were pushed towards the sky atop a giant flying bomb. Crowds cheered and screamed as they watched the vehicle slowly climb.
Each stage of the Saturn V performed as expected, with the S-IC first stage, and the S-II second stage impacting in the Atlantic Ocean. The S-IVB carried the crew into orbit. Like on Apollo 10 before them, the S-IVB ignited after three orbits, pushing the crew onto a trans-lunar injection. After the S-IVB burned out, the petal-like panels of the adapter connecting the CSM to the stage unfolded, revealing the lunar module. CSM pilot Fred Haise extracted the LM, and then pulled away from the stage to begin their coast to the Moon. As they flew to the Moon, during one of several TV broadcasts, the crew announced the names of their spacecraft. The CSM was to be named Columbia, and the LM was to be called Beagle after the ship that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos. The name had originally been suggested as a joke by Buzz Aldrin after their original planned name, Eagle had been deemed by the crew to be too similar to the name of the Soviet LOK, Sokol (Falcon). The crew liked the joke, and it stuck. Columbia and Beagle traveled to the Moon, Columbia fired its engine to capture the stack into lunar orbit, and the crew prepared for landing. Unlike Leonov, they would not need to make any spacewalks to reach their lander, they just needed to crawl through the docking tunnel.
This was one of the many features of the Apollo mission that NASA used when marketing the system as more advanced than that of the Soviets. Apollo could land twice as many men on the Moon, for almost three times as long. More scientific instruments could be carried, and more lunar samples could be brought back. In some circles however, these additional capabilities were seen as the reason why Apollo had not been first. The Soviets had developed a simpler system, and had gotten there faster, some believed. Like had happened when the Zarya 1 fiasco had shocked everyone, some proponents pointed to ways that the landing mission could have been done faster and cheaper by using Gemini capsules. The reality however, did not support this view. Apollo and the LM were already far into development when Gemini flights began, and the primary limiting factor timewise had been the development of the Saturn V, which the Gemini proposal almost certainly would have ended up needing. Indeed, even the final design for the proposed Saturn C-3 touted by some advocates as a smaller rocket that could be developed quicker, ended up just being a Saturn V with different quantities of engines on each stage. And the simpler Soviet system had arisen out of necessity due to the lower upper limits on their potential heavy lift capacity. The N1 Herakles was a more complex vehicle than the Saturn V, with a more troubled development, and had it not been for the Apollo 6 and 10 incidents, the Americans likely would have beaten the Soviets by months or even years.
These gripes by a few dissatisfied engineers back on Earth were ignored by those watching, and being thoroughly amazed by, Apollo 11. After Beagle separated from Columbia, Armstrong and Aldrin left Haise behind, and headed toward the lunar surface. Unlike the Soviet landing, the astronauts were very involved in the landing process, with Aldrin calling out velocity and altitude measurements, and Armstrong piloting the vehicle during final descent (confusing to some, as Buzz Aldrin’s official mission title was Lunar Module Pilot). Just after initiating final descent, the LM rotated, and Armstrong and Aldrin, positioned lying on their backs, saw the lunar surface up close for the first time. After all horizontal speed was arrested, vertical speed was slowly reduced to zero, the engine was throttled back, and Beagle began lowering itself down. One of the 1.7 meter long surface probes extending from the bottom of the landing legs contacted the surface, causing Aldrin to call out “Contact Light”. In response, Armstrong reduced the throttle to near zero, and the lander settled down on the lunar surface in the middle of the Sea of Tranquility, on December 14, 1969
“Houston, Tranquility Base here, Beagle is down safe.”
“We read you Beagle, that’s an early Christmas present for us down here.”
After landing, the crew began to plan for their EVA, though the schedule called for them to sleep. Armstrong and Aldrin however, were too excited to sleep. Finally, six hours after landing, in the early morning hours (at least back on Earth), of December 15, just 16 days before JFK’s deadline, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the LM, climbed down the ladder, and took his first step onto the Moon.
“We came here as one nation, in peace, for all mankind.”
More people watched Armstrong step out onto the Moon than had watched Leonov. The footage was also a little bit higher quality. The Astronauts planted the American flag, took lots of fantastic pictures, collected surface samples, and deployed their scientific instruments. Towards the end of their two and a half hours on the lunar surface, The Astronauts were surprised by a phone call by President Kennedy, which was broadcast live to the world.
“Neil and Buzz, today you have made every American proud. I know my brother would be, and I wish he was still here to see his dream brought to life. Thousands of hard working Americans helped make this a reality, and their dreams have been carried to the Moon in the form of two American heroes. It is my hope, and my goal, that today shall not be the high water mark of American exploration of Space. That this point becomes not the summit at the top of the pyramid, but a step of staircase, rising ever higher, in America’s journey to the stars. More Americans will walk on the Moon, and travel in space. We will continue to ensure that this vast new frontier is not taken by conquest, but peacefully explored, as it is the common heritage of all mankind.”
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Since Apollo 10 picked different names for its spacecraft, will a specific beagle (on the roof of his doghouse) be part of the artwork for this mission, instead?
Well, shit, I can’t believe the Russians beat us to the Moon!
Still, this is an interesting TL. Seeing space exploration go beyond OTL’s progress is really something to look at. Hopefully, we’ll see more developments in space colonization.
Still, this is an interesting TL. Seeing space exploration go beyond OTL’s progress is really something to look at. Hopefully, we’ll see more developments in space colonization.
I agree. More so than going to Mars IMHO. There's a reason the Americans are are predominately Hispanic and Anglo-American culturally rather than Viking: It's not about getting somewhere first, but about establishing a permanent presence first.
so that might be the only way to make sure NASA doesn’t get defunded and when the mineral resources are discover new gold rush
Err... What mineral resources are worth millions of dollars an ounce? Because that's the kind of price it would take to make shipping them to Earth worthwhile. At least assuming expendible rockets. Which, since the intro has a Saturn variant lifting the Mars mission, is still happening at that point. No?
I may steal that saying sometime*
In theory? Probably but there are two obvious issues with that idea:
1) The US isn't set up to do that anytime soon which is one of the major downsides to "waste-anything-but-time" programs like Apollo. They need a much better lander and trans-lunar transport system than they have and there's not really time to pivot that direction.
2) The premise of this thread
*-Specifically I can see that being quoted for anyone who does at Wolttaire suggests
Randy
A lot of these discussions on the best way to up the Soviets are being discussed within NASA, and will be discussed in tomorrow's post, which will be the final post of Part I.
No it doesn't have to be permanent, (though I know which way "I'd" go
) but it would have to be plausible and at the moment it's not within NASA's reach. (And I should ask, have we already seen the funding dip that occurred OTL since it looked like Apollo was going to beat the Russians? There'd be some concern when they beat us around the Moon and probably outright panic when they land first but the trend was downward since the mid-60s)Oh of course there are plenty... (Somebody tell that "Orion" fanboy to shutup and sit down we're not nuking our way to Mars alright? And quit pouting, you're an adult for heck's sake...
)RAndy