Hi, everyone. I'm new here, this community seems unusually intelligent and pleasant, unlike much of the rest of the Internet. I have a website that is somewhat similar in style to your wonderful forum, but I only speculate on the future there, not the past. It's interesting for a change to speculate retrospectively. Hope you enjoy.
My alternative timeline begins with the aftermath of the Challenger disaster that forces change in NASA's management and long term strategy.
October 1, 1986
Acting NASA Administrator William Robert Graham leaves his post following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Reagan Administration, faced with public disillusionment with the space program, recognizes need for radical change and reform. In order to restore both confidence and public enthusiasm that NASA has been steadily losing during the last 10 years, President Reagan nominates Carl Sagan for the post of NASA Administrator. He is an astrophysicist closely involved with many of the NASA scientific missions and a famous science popularizer, as well as a critic of Reagan's Star Wars space defense proposal.
October 8, 1986
NASA Administrator Carl Sagan announces that the entire direction of the space program is being reviewed and will consequently be drastically altered. It will, according to Carl Sagan, focus on unmanned scientific space exploration aimed at expanding our understanding of the reality that surrounds us. "At the present moment we have only scratched the surface of what awaits us even next door, cosmically speaking, in the Solar System. We will take the American public on journeys that will broaden our horizons on an unprecedented scale and more importantly, won't cost a single more life." Critics are alarmed that Sagan may scrap the Shuttle Program which has been strenuously developed over the course of a decade. Sagan has been a critic of the Space Shuttle program since the early 70s, because of the extraordinary expenses it required and had virtually no potential for advancing space exploration.
December 28, 1986
NASA Administration unveils its plans for the future. It explains to the public that Space Shuttle was a successful endeavour in that it generated a great number of useful spin-off technological advancements, but that it is also a dangerous and a very costly program. More so, the cost of the Space Shuttle, is incomparable to robotic space probes. Manned space mission in the current state is unjustified, according to the new administration, it jeopardizes space exploration of the Solar System and beyond. "Time will come for mankind to settle and colonize worlds beyond our little blue planet, but now the time is to learn and discover. With the funding available to us, we cannot accomplish both to an acceptable end. Manned space program will be preserved, but not in a capacity that hinders our progress in exploration."
The new plan, dubbed Reaching Out, includes:
- Limiting the number of Space Shuttle launches to not more than one per year. Conducting, instead, micro-gravity experiments on much cheaper vomit comets (aircraft that briefly provides a nearly weightless environment)
- In-situ exploration of every planet in the Solar System within 20 years, via either orbiters or landers.
- Conducting a sample return mission from Mars no later than by 1995.
- Developing new propulsion systems that go beyond the conventional chemical rocket constraints.
- Prioritizing funding for the Hubble Space telescope.
- Establishing permanent robotic presence on the Moon by early 1990s.
My alternative timeline begins with the aftermath of the Challenger disaster that forces change in NASA's management and long term strategy.
Space Exploration: 1986 - beyond
Different Approach.
Different Approach.
October 1, 1986
Acting NASA Administrator William Robert Graham leaves his post following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Reagan Administration, faced with public disillusionment with the space program, recognizes need for radical change and reform. In order to restore both confidence and public enthusiasm that NASA has been steadily losing during the last 10 years, President Reagan nominates Carl Sagan for the post of NASA Administrator. He is an astrophysicist closely involved with many of the NASA scientific missions and a famous science popularizer, as well as a critic of Reagan's Star Wars space defense proposal.
October 8, 1986
NASA Administrator Carl Sagan announces that the entire direction of the space program is being reviewed and will consequently be drastically altered. It will, according to Carl Sagan, focus on unmanned scientific space exploration aimed at expanding our understanding of the reality that surrounds us. "At the present moment we have only scratched the surface of what awaits us even next door, cosmically speaking, in the Solar System. We will take the American public on journeys that will broaden our horizons on an unprecedented scale and more importantly, won't cost a single more life." Critics are alarmed that Sagan may scrap the Shuttle Program which has been strenuously developed over the course of a decade. Sagan has been a critic of the Space Shuttle program since the early 70s, because of the extraordinary expenses it required and had virtually no potential for advancing space exploration.
December 28, 1986
NASA Administration unveils its plans for the future. It explains to the public that Space Shuttle was a successful endeavour in that it generated a great number of useful spin-off technological advancements, but that it is also a dangerous and a very costly program. More so, the cost of the Space Shuttle, is incomparable to robotic space probes. Manned space mission in the current state is unjustified, according to the new administration, it jeopardizes space exploration of the Solar System and beyond. "Time will come for mankind to settle and colonize worlds beyond our little blue planet, but now the time is to learn and discover. With the funding available to us, we cannot accomplish both to an acceptable end. Manned space program will be preserved, but not in a capacity that hinders our progress in exploration."
The new plan, dubbed Reaching Out, includes:
- Limiting the number of Space Shuttle launches to not more than one per year. Conducting, instead, micro-gravity experiments on much cheaper vomit comets (aircraft that briefly provides a nearly weightless environment)
- In-situ exploration of every planet in the Solar System within 20 years, via either orbiters or landers.
- Conducting a sample return mission from Mars no later than by 1995.
- Developing new propulsion systems that go beyond the conventional chemical rocket constraints.
- Prioritizing funding for the Hubble Space telescope.
- Establishing permanent robotic presence on the Moon by early 1990s.
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