I see this kind of the opposite, the outer system has some surprises and getting an early probe there to warn of say the super high radiation belt of Jupiter would be pretty handy. As well as getting other potential design issues for such long range communication sorted, temperature management, etc. Then a grand tour could be done with a second generation platform with larger ambitions and sizes, rather then having just a first gen platform with its higher fail chances.
I guess one could split ones attention as you suggest instead, but I do think an argument can be made of focusing one route down for maximum efficiency and program learning. Like for instance, if one ran all the probe programs, then the design teams would presumably have a lot of experience, resources and more up to date parts to work with from the other programs. In such a scenario the Soviet Union could be going to all the planets with rapidly improving probes, getting many of the first looks and follow up studies for many of the planets.
All good points, and I am not sure about committing ourselves to a station so early. We come back to the question of how much prestige there is in a station? How big a difference would a station make to Intercosmos as well? All things we can't be sure of before the dice are rolled.
Certainly, it will be easier for the Americans to pivot to a station, whereas if we go for probes and nuclear drives, they will have more catching up to do. We haven't heard much about American probes lately, which I am interpreting (perhaps wrongly) as meaning that they've been too focused on their manned moon program to keep up.
I dunno. It seems to me that nuclear drives aren't all that helpful if we don't have active, ongoing programs to do good science in space and bring back a steady stream of new results. With Venera dead in the water and the Luna program probably winding down sooner or later, we may find our planetary science operations withering if we don't have something for them to do next.
Yeah, I have some concern that this might happen as well. If nothing else, slacking on the probe campaign might mean our probe builders and designers loose some practice.
You both have me thinking that the station program at least should be left for later.
I'll chime in I guess, but I'm not all the enthused about the lunar program? It's a great achievement and all, but I don't see how it would outweigh the scientific value of developing probes to explore the outer reaches solar system, or getting a space station up and running in the long-term. The space progra's first priority sjpuld be scientific developments and research first and one-upping the Americans second, in my view. Trying to claw back the lunar race just seems like a coping mechanism.
My guess is that 75% of the reason Klim is seeing recommendations for nuclear engines is because Glushko wants cosmonauts on the moon. Sure, nuclear drives let us crank the probe campaign to 11, but I find the little aside where we're told "A two-stage moon mission in the American scheme could be conducted with our current rockets assuming a hydrogen stage" very telling.
So if you aren't keen about putting men on the moon, the one project that gets significantly less interesting are the nuclear drives. That said, nuclear drives would keep Glushko happy and enable the deep space probe program to do utterly bonkers stuff, so either way you want to go, we aren't at the fork in the road where we have to choose our focus yet.
Well... This might be the fork in the road for if we want to race a station into orbit. But if we decide we don't care if the first manned station is Soviet or American, the question of station now or not doesn't really impact any other choice.
Two of our possible space projects talk about the benefits of nuclear rockets, I very much think we should start them together. 10 RpY nuclear + 5 RpY light launcher + 15 RpY outer systems + jovian puts us at 100 RpY, 5 below the funding cap so there is leeway for bad rolls. This would leave the manned program mostly by the wayside, but we don't have enough of a resource cap to do both stations and probes without half-assing both.
I don't think that light launchers are really a priority. If you are spending a free dice to start three things, go for nuclear drives, outer systems probes and jovian probes.
I only proposed doing light launchers because I thought it might be worth waiting before starting work on more useful things.
Still, it depends on what ones goal is in the end, where one wants to end up.
This is a good question, what is our priority? My sense so far is "probe program" and that people are keen on the super fancy nuclear drive version of the probe program and that even a space station is 3rd priority behind probes and satellites, with moon landing bringing up the back.
I am certainly leaning towards the probe program with nuclear spice. It means that we have the high-ISP engine to allow us to do anything we want in space, when we want and a continued focus on robots and electronics, conceding leadership in manned efforts to the Americans in the meantime. We're probably reaching the point that civilian demand for high tech electronics will be starting to pick up, with calculators being the killer app of the moment, but continuing a high demand for the best of the best from the space program won't hurt at all.
Regards,
fasquardon
