I am starting the planning for restarting a timeline where a large meteor hits New Hampshire on June 6, 1876. The blast is ~3.5 megatons, blowing a crater a mile wide in the middle of Lincoln, New Hampshire--a small town in the White Mountains.
By the time the dust has settled, the USA is all too aware that the sky itself holds dangers--dangers that can not be addressed from the ground.
Telescopes are built, astronomers coordinate to seek out dangerous materials above, and a shocked nation is determined to be prepared; the next one might hit New York or Richmond.
A commitment is made: The United States will prepare, and plan to be able to prevent such a disaster from happening again. If the USA puts an amount of resources about equal to ten percent of the average military budget into whatever it takes to figure out how to reach space, and then to do it, what's the earliest that a person might reach orbit and return?
My last try at doing this bogged down in details, and only got abut a week past the impact--next time, I'll be less detailed.
By the time the dust has settled, the USA is all too aware that the sky itself holds dangers--dangers that can not be addressed from the ground.
Telescopes are built, astronomers coordinate to seek out dangerous materials above, and a shocked nation is determined to be prepared; the next one might hit New York or Richmond.
A commitment is made: The United States will prepare, and plan to be able to prevent such a disaster from happening again. If the USA puts an amount of resources about equal to ten percent of the average military budget into whatever it takes to figure out how to reach space, and then to do it, what's the earliest that a person might reach orbit and return?
My last try at doing this bogged down in details, and only got abut a week past the impact--next time, I'll be less detailed.