That is why I advocate for Ranulfs Idea of interservice competition and an ealier space race
Red Moon: What if the Space Race continued?
- Thread starter aoisnwiwij the gpuser
- Start date
Prologue
The first post might be delayed, but here's a sneak peak.
Once again, though the design is a bit lacking I'm still very excited!
The title is great, "Once in a Red Moon..."
Nuclear "missile" engines were dropped pretty early in the planning because the needed thrust-to-weight wasn't there due to the nuclear engine mass. (Even without shielding) The initial idea of using a nuclear engine for an ICBM was from the military misunderstanding (which was a general problem with the public and a LOT of writers who should have known better
) of how a nuclear reactor worked. The militaries general idea was to use the 'warhead' as a reactor till it got the target then have it blow up, this was pointed out by the AEC and most military physicists to NOT be the way either a reactor or a bomb actually worked. Couple that with the low T/W (despite the theoretical high ISP) the military soon dropped the idea.NERVA (which was an acronym) was given by the AEC not the military standing for "Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications" and was meant to study a wide range of nuclear powered rocket designs. The engines themselves were given different designations and names depending on the proposed applications or experiments. (A 'small' engine named "PeeWee" or one designed to explode being named "TNT"
)In fact there WAS competition between nuclear engine design teams with the NERVA 'beating" the likely more capable "Dumbo" design (scroll down to "Dumbo" entry) mostly due to NIH (the former coming from the more weapons design oriented Los Almost nuclear engineers) and a disbelief that nuclear weapons designers could also design a rocket engine. (And keep in mind another set of those "weapons designers" were playing around with "Orion" at the time as well
)Randy
As you can tell, the first post has obviously been delayed. This is because I am not in the mood for writing stories at the moment. The prologue will come out when I am.
Forcing oneself to write is never a good course so take the time you need
I will point out I've been thinking more on the subject and I'll point out that in some ways Korolev and the N1 could be considered part of the problem rather than an solution. One thing I've thought about is a situation where Korolev and Glushko bury the hatchet earlier and get along better allowing Korolev access to Glushko's engine expertise. Enough pressure applied to Glushko "from above" and he's likely to move out of his comfort zone with storable propellants and move into the more advanced engine designs we know from OTL that he was actually capable of producing. The design philosophy of the proposed UR-700 launch vehicle is actually more in line with Soviet capability both in manufacturing and testing than the N1 was but it was designed to use storable propellants which Koroleve distrusted. A kerolox version could have been built and with enough support early enough been on par with the Saturn V in some respects.
Just some thoughts
Randy
TrueForcing oneself to write is never a good course so take the time you need
Keeping up with this could be a bit of struggle
Came back positive for Covid so I'm going to be on and off for most of the week
Realistically I can suggest that you take a look at the thread "Yangel Presents first" which had some good suggestions on organizing the Russian program.
Randy
Could I have a link for Yangel Presents First please?Keeping up with this could be a bit of struggle
Came back positive for Covid so I'm going to be on and off for most of the week
Realistically I can suggest that you take a look at the thread "Yangel Presents first" which had some good suggestions on organizing the Russian program.
Randy
Here you go:
Yangel Presents First (and the R-56 rocket flies)
In February 1962 Nikita Khrushchev organized a meeting of the USSR’s Defense Council with the main missile designers in the Soviet Union. In attendance were Chelomei, Korolev and, courtesy of Glushko's maneuverings, Mikhail Yangel. At stake was who would get to design the USSR's heavy lift...
www.alternatehistory.com
Randy
As you can obviously tell, this project is on hiatus, mostly because I completely forgot about it 💀
Okay. Update. I have COMPLETELY forgotten about this project. Like, I forgot everything about it's existence. That's why it's been on hiatus. I PROMISE that I WILL start work on it. I am DEEPLY sorry.
When do you prefer the project to come out? I don't feel like doing it anytime soon but if I don't it might never start so I have to do something.
You will be able to vote in the poll I have linked below.
www.reddit.com
I am incredibly sorry to have kept you all waiting.
You will be able to vote in the poll I have linked below.
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
It's ok. You can take all the time you need as long as you are satisfied with the end result.
Well we have the reddit votes, with two of them betting on the story coming out in March and one vote for it in June this year.
Time unfortunately flies so fast these days so the story will eventually come out, probably.
I'm sorry guys. The reason I haven't been posting much at all is because I haven't been in an alternate history phase. But now I'm back in it. I actually already had a set date for the first post, but wasn't into alternate history enough to write it. But now since I'm back in this phase I'll start writing soon. Good thing the set date hasn't already occurred yet. I have a specific holiday in mind 😉😉.