So, I know the idea of an Apollo 11 failure has been explored a lot before, but I had a couple of nagging questions that I thought might bring some fresh air (pun intended) to this scenario.
Firstly, and it all hinges upon this question really: Do we have a consensus on the life expectancy for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during a 'best case scenario' lunar stranding?
In other words, what is the longest the astronauts can possibly be expected to survive in terms of food, water, and most critically oxygen in a scenario in which the only impediment to lunar takeoff is fuel and there is zero damage to the astronauts, the lunar module, their spacesuits, or their food and oxygen reserves, etc.?
My second question is probably a little absurd but bear with me here...
What if (in the above 'best case scenario') someone, maybe Kissinger or Thomas O. Paine or both but somebody, suggests contacting the Soviet Union for help?
A few mere months after the successful Apollo 11 mission OTL Henry Kissinger became excited about the prospect of NASA contacting their Soviet Russian counterpart concerning what would become the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
From Wikipedia:
'In October 1970,
Soviet Academy of Sciences president
Mstislav Keldysh responded to
NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine’s letter proposing a cooperative space mission, and there was subsequently a meeting to discuss technical details. By January 12, U.S. President
Richard Nixon's Foreign Policy Adviser
Henry Kissinger enthusiastically espoused plans for the mission, and expressed these views to NASA administrator George M. Low: "As long as you stick to space, do anything you want to do. You are free to commit--in fact, I want you to tell your counterparts in Moscow that the President has sent you on this mission."'
Bear with me.
The Russian Zond 7 launch:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_7
...would occur less than a month after Apollo 11's lunar landing.
With the contemporary mindset of the intelligence communities of both sides it would be unbelievable to me if the United States government wasn't aware of the Soviet launch preparations - or indeed the other way around - and I might even go a step further to suggest that the timing proximity of our lunar landing and their lunar flyby were at least somewhat mutually intentional.
Most of the planning and preparatory work for the Zond 7 launch was almost assuredly already complete during this time. So...
What if someone from the White House or from NASA (or both) reaches out to the Soviet Union to request assistance in the form of a controlled landing from a Zond 7 filled with oxygen reserves, food, and water equivalent to the stranded astronaut's short term needs? We could offer to pay for the entire project and dangle some form of an Apollo-Soyuz Joint Lunar Landing Mission as a reward - read: a lunar rescue.
Not only would this be a scientific and diplomatic coup, it would be a necessity, as the existing Apollo mission parameters simply do not allow enough seats for four returning astronauts; as it is my understanding that a minimum of two Apollo astronauts would be required to fly such a mission with a maximum of three returning astronauts in terms of seat-room.
We need to dock with a Soyuz manned by at most only one cosmonaut to even get everyone home.
NASA communicates to the marooned astronauts that there is some form of plan being developed to dissuade them from taking a dramatic approach concerning cessation of their inevitable suffering.
If the Soviets agree, we might see some sort of frantic deep-into-the-night planning and calculation session involving all of NASA and Russia's best and brightest communicating via translators over the phone. The launch is moved up nearly a month in the course of a night and a day and it's only just slightly possible that it barely succeeds.
With a lifeline of supplies Aldrin and Armstrong remain stranded but alive.
Now...
Three near simultaneous Soyuz launches are planned and in the preparation stage (Soyuz 6, 7, and 8) at this time.
These will take some more time to fast-track but with full cooperation it's possible. In OTL these three launches failed to rendezvous with each other as planned, but they all successfully returned to earth. If one, two, or even all three of these are launched unmanned with supplies for the moon we can certainly buy some time.
In the meantime a U.S. unmanned supply launch replacing Apollo 12 can be simultaneously planned and implemented.
Between these two to four unmanned launches the astronauts can be provided with enough food, water, air, supplies, and perhaps additional shelter to buy some time for the Apollo-Soyuz rescue.
Any hypothetical plan for this Apollo-Soyuz mission would be tricky and a bit technical and I'll need some help here. It seems like we could only have four total cosmo/astronauts in space for the mission in order to successfully bring home the rescuers and the Apollo 11 crew (a total of six: three returning with the Soyuz and three returning via Apollo Command Module).
I just wrote out three paragraphs of options for various docking, detaching, and launch combinations and deleted it, realizing both that I was rambling and strangling the possibility for discussion and also that I myself am less than qualified to work for NASA...
For that matter, any one of the unmanned Soyuz or Apollo resupply landings could simply drop surplus fuel if that's all it would take, but I'm not sure Aldrin or Armstrong would be up to attempting a repair and takeoff after such a period of anxiety and exhaustion. That option also robs the U.S. of a minor diplomatic revolution and the U.S.S.R. of a potential (free) lunar landing - albeit a cooperative one. Finally, any spare room for fuel would be room that could be used for food, water, and oxygen and I doubt that even with mission control coaching them through it the astronauts would be capable of such a critical refuel and repair.
At any rate, that should be enough to stimulate some real discussion on the possibilities of this topic.
Could the never before mentioned 'Zond 7' be the fresh possibility we need to finally have some new discussion on the topic of a stranded Apollo 11 lunar rescue?
What would the results be for both countries' space programs and is there a future for more cooperation? A joint moon base (now that essentially supplying something like it had already been extensively accomplished) before an international space station?
What about the diplomatic possibilities?
If I do enough research on this would anyone want to read a half-political/half-pop cultural timeline surrounding this POD with such an event as the centerpiece? And would you rather read a version in which this scenario ended in triumph... or in tragedy?
The 'Zond 7' unmanned supply option...
Discuss!