Vietnam Money Used for Space

In "The Stone Dogs," Erik Von Shrakenberg explains to the American president that the Draka think the Alliance thinks it can expand out into space and leave the Draka marginalized on Earth--hence the "no peace beyond Luna" policy.

What if the US decides on a less stringent containment policy Earthside during the Cold War and to invest more in space colonization? Given the timing involved, I'm thinking the Vietnam era would be likely.

Who cares about Vietnam if we own the Moon!

Sorry, had to get a little jingoistic there.
 
Well, if the Viet war budget was diverted to something more useful like a space program, our technology and and knowledge of space would be around 15 years ahead of our current time
 
What'd the POD to make colonizing space with 1970s technology economically viable?

That would be a long-term effect of the POD. Cities on the Moon would be something in the future.

In the short term, probably more lunar missions and space stations. Probably some militarization of space, but that happened to a degree in OTL.

(The U.S. had aircraft-launched anti-satellite missiles; the Soviets had plans at least for a space station armed with 30mm cannon)

You assume in TTL 1970s space technology would stay that way. It might not.
 
First, one has to make Vietnam as an imperative go away. I suppose if Ho were somehow regarded as a South East Asian Tito who could be troublesome to both China and Russia, we could have avoided that entanglement.

I doubt that the entire pot of money that was spent of 'Nam would have been spent on space. For one thing, LBJ had the Great Society to fund. Nevertheless, one could see Apollo Applications being done full bore, with a lunar base and a really big space station in the 1970s and people on Mars by the earlty 1980s. But what then?
 

Thande

Donor
Not really happening in the real world - the US was at peace bar a couple of interventions throughout most of the 80s and 90s, and that didn't yield an increase in NASA's budget.

Assuming it could somehow happen - actual space colonisation is a way off, but a regular moonbase and manned missions to Venus, Mars and the asteroid belt are all possible with relatively minor additions to existing Apollo technology. The problem is funding the production of the Saturn Vs and the other equipment, which was set up to distribute pork across the southern states and thus was ruinously expensive.
 
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