soviets on the moon

Let’s say the Soviet space program successfully put a man on the moon, surprising the Apollo program planners…….
What happens after that?
Does America go to Mars? Set up a moon base?
How would this damage america’s prestige?
I know you’d need a POD quite early, perhaps around the early 1950s…..
 
You damn well are going to have an American response, probably do something like being first on the darkside or first permanent moon base. The research and infrastructure for that would probably make a mars run easier, especially if the go the Nuclear propulsion route.
 
Let’s say the Soviet space program successfully put a man on the moon, surprising the Apollo program planners…….
What happens after that?
Does America go to Mars? Set up a moon base?
How would this damage america’s prestige?
I know you’d need a POD quite early, perhaps around the early 1950s…..

You might need Korolov to live longer than he did - perhaps if he isn't sent to the gulag for the terrible crime of original thinking?
 
No they have to one up the Soviets, and actually have the capability to do so, therefore they will. OTL the Soviets knew they lost their lead and couldn't regain it so throttled back and focused on practical matters. Here the US will have people demanding they one up the Soviets, and the resources to do so.
 
I agree. If the Russians beat the Americans to the moon, it is entirely possible that the American may decided to try and leapfrog the Russians and go to Mars.
 
Depends on how flamboyantly the Soviets get there. If it looks like a one-off, we go to the moon several times and show off how much more we can do.

I don't know that the Soviets have the economic resources for a sustained effort. It would be great if, instead of ASTP, we get a joint Soviet/American lunar program. That's certainly where I was hoping things would go in my Sputniks TL.
 
Let’s say the Soviet space program successfully put a man on the moon, surprising the Apollo program planners…….
What happens after that?
Does America go to Mars? Set up a moon base?
How would this damage america’s prestige?
I know you’d need a POD quite early, perhaps around the early 1950s…..

You're definately going to need a POD set in the early-mid 1950s for the SU to be able to put a man on the Moon. Where LOX/LH2 is taken seriously and developed, making it possible to use it by the 1960s. This would provide them with the TLI capability neccesary to perform a serious Manned Lunar Mission, in OTL, their design was far too marginal, with no upgrade capability. Selecting either the UR-700 or R-56 over the N1 would also be a major boon since they had real performance upgrade ability, as opposed to the N1.

The US would most likely set up either a permanent or semi-permanent Lunar Base, being within their budgetary capabilities, which the SU would quite probably lack the financial resources for.

With the Lunar Base at least, NASA could claim that they are doing real scientific research, repairing any damaged pride & prestige - assuming that the Soviets had been first. If not, it would help it further IMHO.

Mars is still unlikely since 'Battlestar Galactica' was still the dominant ideology at the time. Until 'Mars Direct' or something along those lines is developed, you can forget about any manned mission to Mars.
 
I don't understand what you mean. Could you explain a bit more, please?

I think that what he means by this is the fact that Mars mission ships were designed like battleships and consequently very expensive. A Mars mision by the eighties was doable, but it needed NERVA and nuclear propulsion in order to lower launch costs to a minimum. Even then, the bill would still have been massive. It would certainly have been worth it in my opinion (spin offs), but still extremely expensive.

Mars Direct while still rather expensive, lowers costs greatly through in situ resource utilisation and having missions staying on Mars for months instead of mere weeks. Thence making them more profitable from a financial standpoint.
 
I don't understand what you mean. Could you explain a bit more, please?

The old designs called for monster ships to be assembled in orbit. These designs were on the drawing board back when the first Battlestar Galactica aired. I suppose they could have just as easily called them Star Destroyer designs. At any rate, they wanted to assemble something the size of an attack submarine and launch this thing to Mars. Considering how much trouble they had with that joke of a space station (I'd like to see where every penny of that hundred billion went), if they started back in 1979, they might just now be finishing the assembly.
 
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