I also not that from the 'crunch' sound and the hole in it, it sounds like the thing, uh, broke. So like, I was expecting there to be plentiful small bits of material that could be quietly removed, or at least a decent view of a cross-section of what it's made of.
Blue Marble to Red Ruins
- Thread starter Usili 2.0
- Start date
- Timeline Post-1900
Jimmy C
Mostly Harmless
Because it being a meteoroid means it came from somewhere beyond the moon, so that little excursion netted a sample from another celestial object they hadn't sent a mission to yet.
Also, the fact that they dropped it is extremely unprofessional, it's the kind of thing that would get that researcher dismissed from the lab. Since you want them to discover that it is artificial, having them chip or drill into it and find out instead would be better.
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pronouns
- He/Him
First off, thank you to the both of you and also brmj just for the critique on this. Critique is really appreciated and something that I find really helpful, especially in terms of learning in mistakes I've made or unintentional being very vague/not clear in certain aspects. With this chapter at least, it does reveal that I probably didn't do such a good job in checking through it all, so again, thank you very much for this.
For Vehrec, I'll be working on correcting that a bit in the chapter edits.
For Jimmy C, I was admittedly trying in terms of the first bit to go for a bit of... grumbling really, since there is only so much 'upmass' (that being in terms of returned materials) that can be brought back from the moon, and that by bringing the meteorite back, it means that they couldn't bring other samples from the moon.
And also, thank you for that, and I'll be working to correct that in the chapter edit.
Jimmy C
Mostly Harmless
But the fact that it could have come from somewhere like an asteroid or Mars means that it's a priority sample, the scientists back in mission control would absolutely tell them to bring it back even if they have to discard some other samples to do so. Then, it's up to the labs to figure out where it came from.
Several years back, Opportunity came across a meteorite while roving on Mars, everyone was really excited at the discovery. Imagine if they could bring it back to Earth.
The upmass isn't as big a limitation anyway. Although I don't recall exact numbers, I'm sure the J-class missions were able to bring back tens of kgs of samples.
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah that's entirely fair. I also have to share that I just went 'oh god, I'm an idiot' when I went to double check the total amount of samples recovered from Apollo 17 (as an example to take a look at), and I just realized that I somehow misread kilograms as pounds (and so I was in turn writing the assumption of the geologist as it taking up ten percent of the total samples recovered rather than just five percent (which is a lot less in comparison!)). :|
Last edited:
IX
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Apologies for the delay on this. I've just been stuck with writer's block recently on this and I was spending some time on reworking out some of the outline on this and double checking through some stuff on this. Hopefully I can try aiming to get back towards getting updates on this regularly, and not a month between updates on it. :/
IX
As both the United States and the Soviet Union undertook efforts on long duration spaceflight by space stations in 1973, the eyes and minds of many in both space programs were already planning for where to set onwards next; to go beyond low orbit and the moon towards Mars. In the wake of the initial celebrations of the Apollo lunar landings, it had been considered for a time among engineers from both space programs to continue on towards Mars, however the fiscal environment had made it apparent that it would never happen. Now in the wake of the Mariner Discovery, the desires to send an astronaut or cosmonaut to Mars had been supercharged, in the goal of seeking to arrive at the ruins first.
However, before the chance to land anyone on Mars could be performed, there was the need to understand Mars much more, so as to allow those who arrived there to be able to survive in the significant different conditions from either Earth or the Moon. Many unknowns were still present for Mars, such as the full atmospheric composition, significantly more detailed orbital imagery, the Martian weather, soil composition, the magnetic field, the gravitational field, and many other factors. The determination to understand the gravitational field, was something that had come more-so for the Americans in the wake of the irregular nature of the Moon's gravitational field as determined by the Lunar Orbiters and subsatellites carried by Apollo 15 and 16.
To be able to solve the needed questions, would require launching robotic missions to Mars, but missions launched to Mars could not be launched willy-nilly. The nature of the universe dictated that the planets moved while orbiting the sun, meaning that Mars would not be in the same spot as it was on launch when the robotic mission would finish between Earth and Mars. Thus, one had to launch the mission based on where Mars would be when it was supposed to arrive, rather than where it was now. The time when everything was in the 'right' configuration to head to where you were going were known as 'launch windows'. Launch windows governed everything in terms of rocket launches, no matter if one wanted to put a satellite into a desired orbit, to rendezvous with another object in orbit, or to go beyond the Earth to reach another destination. All of the planets had a consistently repeating launch window based off where the planets were in their orbits. If one wanted to head to Mars, the launch windows between Earth and Mars were 'open' every twenty-six months, when both planets would be in the right configuration to allow a mission to be sent out.
Following Mariner 9's discovery, four launch windows were available through the rest of the 1970s, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1979. For both the United States and the Soviet Union, it represented four separate launch opportunities available to each state through the rest of the decade to send additional robotic missions towards Mars, to both explore it ahead of crewed missions and to find out more about what exactly the ruins inside Steinbacher Crater were like.
The Soviet space program would make the first effort, launching a total of four Protons towards Mars throughout July 1973. The four Protons would make up a pair of orbiters (Mars 4 and 5) and a pair of landers (Mars 6 and 7), identical to those launched in the prior window of 1971. As a result of the higher demands imposed to reach Mars for 1973, the orbiters and landers had to be launched separately towards Mars, with the orbiters launching at the beginning of the window, in order to act as relays for the landers which would follow up with their launch at the end of the window. As the instrument suites and designs were identical to those sent in 1971, it would primarily improve upon the existing data that had already recovered, but also at the same time with flaws that were already present in the designs of the orbiters and landers.
In the start of the 1970s Sergey Afanasyev, the head of the Soviet rocket program, had placed his support behind a Mars Sample Return mission (entitled Mars 5NM) that could be launched in 1975 in order to act as the Soviet answer to the Viking program, which would have the Soviets leapfrog the Americans by returning a sample of Mars back to Earth. In addition to the launch of a Sample Return mission, it was planned for a launch of a modified Lunokhod rover in the window prior to the launch of the Mars Sample Return in order to test technologies such as the aeroshell, in order to verify that they worked. Needless to say, a host of technical issues such as the concerns of a parachute failure on reentry causing a release of Martian soil samples across Earth and over whether or not systems on the spacecraft such as the avionics, could withstand the three-year trip in space, presented doubts that the project could be done. Georgy Babakin, the head of the Soviet planetary program, had opted to not proceed with the project citing the issues, but in the wake of his death, the project would be resurrected by Afanasyev, and following the discovery made at Steinbacher Crater, would be given a significant boost behind its sails.
Like before, numerous issues and concerns such as protection of the Earth biosphere from Martian bacteria and the lifetime of the avionics were significant issues that would need to be resolved before the mission could be flown. The delays from the cancellation of the project and its resurrection had already forced the precursor mission to launch in 1975 followed by the Mars Sample Return flight in 1977, but the list of issues that would need to be resolved before it could fly was still paramount. Numerous systems and components, ranging from the requirements of the usage of the Block SR to send the rover and Mars Sample Return mission to Mars, to the aeroshell needed to land the Mars Ascent Vehicle, and the three-year plus lifetime of the orbiter were all examples of what had to be worked on and completed before either of the missions could be flown.
At the same time as work was progressing on the Mars Sample Return plans, preparation and work was underway for the launch of an additional pair of orbiters and landers towards Mars in 1975 (in part from an expectation of a delay for the precursor mission to fly in 1977). Rather than flying copies of the previous missions, a new design would be utilized for the orbiters and landers considering the issues that had come about with Mars 2 and 3. It was planned that the new Mars orbiter bus would also be used for the Mars Sample Return mission and its precursor (rather than the Mars 2 and 3 buses as originally proposed), thus setting the kind of lifetime requirements as a baseline design for the proposed Mars 8/9 missions. The work on the dual orbiter-lander mission could not come into a better time, as news came that the Block SR stage would not be ready for flight until 1976, setting Mars 8 and 9 to be sent towards Mars to compete with Viking.
In comparison to the Soviet Union, the United States would be unable to launch a robotic mission to Mars in the 1973 window in part from the demands imposed by the Viking Program, and also over concerns in attempting to 'rush' in building a mission to reach Mars [1]. The Viking Program, like Mariner Jupiter-Saturn, had come about from a much more expensive and broad program, canceled because of the mounting costs and reenvisioned as a program with a more focused goal. The mission for Viking, like Voyager [2], was the search for evidence of life on Mars but unlike Voyager, it had been messaged that it would not act as a precursor to a crewed Mars mission and also would have a significant reduction of costs in comparison (such as the launch vehicle using a the Titan IIIC with Centaur rather than the Saturn V as Voyager proposed).
At the core of the Viking Program, was the Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer and the biological suite. The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) was the heart of the organic investigation. The GCMS was arguably one of the most complicated portions of the entire program, second to that of the biological suite, being designed to search for organic material in the Martian soil. The biological suite in comparison was intended for life detection. The biological suite was made up of four biological tests, pyrolytic release, labeled release, the gas-exchange experiment, and the light-scattering experiment. The four tests represented a significant spectrum of tests that were all designed to measure some portion of the metabolic process for Martian organisms.
The discovery made by Mariner 9 at Steinbacher Crater caused an ensuing impact on Viking, NASA's next mission to Mars. While there was an initial furor and debate on if Viking still needed the biological tests considering the discovery, it was only apparent that life had existed on Mars, but it did not answer the question of if life still existed on the planet or not. Viking was still NASA's next Martian program, but it was a program that was facing financial issues as a result of growing cost overruns because of the kind of leading edge technology required to be developed for the program, such as the entire chemical and biological suite for the landers. The cost overruns that Viking was dealing with would be alleviated to a degree by the general funding increase that NASA had received, as the drive towards Mars began to slowly accelerate.
While Viking's funding had been burgeoned and reduced the cost overrun issues, it could not help in other ways such as hardware issues that had to be dealt with. Emerging as one of the paramount hardware issues prior to the discovery, was the issue of the Viking lander biological suite. The biological suite as designed, was sized for the four experiments that had been planned from the start, but a mire of issues ranging from available power, to the increasing size and complexity of the experiments and the available size that was allocated for the entire biological suite was causing all kinds of issues. This was not including the issues that was being encountered by TRW (the contractor assigned to build the biological suite). After significant discussion, a decision had been finally reached to solve the issue; one of the four biological experiments would have to be deleted. The decision to eliminate one of the biological experiments was met with uproar by the biological team, arguing that the decision to eliminate one of the experiments was driven by the continued cost issues rather than issues such as weight or power [3]. The experiment to be eliminated after significant discussion both on the engineering standpoint and biological standpoint would be chosen as the light-scattering experiment, which was deemed as the least damaging in terms of science lost and one of the more difficult to build. However, it was explicitly guaranteed that the light-scattering experiment would be flown in a follow-on Viking flight (after Viking 1 and 2).
Besides the lander, the other major portion of the Viking Program was the orbiter. One of the most crucial tasks of the Viking Orbiter was the kind of orbital imagery that would be performed prior to separation of the lander in order to verify site selection of where the scientists wanted the landers to land. A meeting of the ongoing cost overruns had been initiated for Viking in September 1971 with one of the options considered being the deletion of the Orbiter Imaging System, and it had become apparent at that time that the Viking Orbiter could be faced with a series of major cuts because of the mounting cost overruns from the Lander. The discovery made by Mariner 9 at Steinbacher Crater rapidly reversed those ideas, with the imaging system for the Orbiter being vital for the needed follow-up imagery of what had been discovered, especially at the significantly improved resolution that could be expected from Viking over Mariner 9.
As work on Viking progressed, work on follow-on missions for the remainder of the 1970s was underway. A series of vital questions were still unanswered about Mars, ranging from the basic questions of what did the Martian atmosphere and surface consist of in terms of elemental composition to the more advanced such as how exactly has the Martian atmosphere come to be? Many of the questions that lay unanswered were vital for the designing of any kind of crewed Mars mission to explore what lay in Steinbacher Crater. The follow-on missions would be expected to be built off the knowledge garnered from Viking and the missions that followed it, with each window seeing missions that were hoped to build off the knowledge of the previous one. The instruments for the missions however would lag behind the results discovered from the missions that preceded it, with the 1979 missions probably to be the first robotic missions that could build off of the knowledge and results gained from Viking (if not the 1981 missions).
The 1977 window would represent the first of the follow-on missions, and had been heavily contested between focusing more heavily on landers versus orbiters. Part of the issue between the two was the limited amount of capacity that was available by NASA's Deep Space Network for missions that could be flown. After significant discussion, from a scientific, engineering, and crewed mission planning standpoint, the decision was taken towards an orbital science outlook towards the planet. In addition to the purely operated orbiters that would be sent to Mars, the backup Mars Viking Orbiter and Lander would be sent in 1977 for additional research that could be performed. With the announcement of a new mission set for launch in 1977, Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (as the principal flight centers involved in designing spacecraft) set to work.
After the initial analysis of both designs, NASA announced that rather than flying of two either kind of orbiter (as had been normally done), they would be flying both of the orbiters. This in part was a result of both of the submitted designs representing a particular focus in their design and the both of them offering if launched together an explicitly 'complementary' approach towards the science gained rather than being explicitly oppositional. Ames had submitted a Pioneer mission [4] which would work to study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, the composition of elements on the Martian surface, and the interaction of the solar wind with Mars. JPL had submitted a modified Viking orbiter [5] which would work on a geochemistry survey, measurement of the gravity field, and a detailed investigation of the Martian geology and climatology from orbit. As part of the announcement (from discussions held prior to the announcement), Viking 4 (as the JPL proposal) would be fully tasked towards mapping out the Martian surface in an even further detail ahead of any crewed missions, with Pioneer 12 (designated Pioneer J internally) to fly and study the Martian upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetic field in addition to the interaction of the solar wind on the planet. Pioneer 12 would have the gamma ray spectrometer deleted (intended to map out the composition of elements on the Martian surface), in exchange for additional instruments to better study its assigned mission, something that the spinning spacecraft was well designed to determine.
With the missions for 1977 set, work began on outlining what the 1979 launch opportunity would see in terms of missions sent. A variety of options were being considered in the NASA Headquarters along with inside Ames Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Langley Research Center (who was in charge of the Viking Program and the lander). Most of the proposals focused on landed science, ranging from making the Vikings mobile in some fashion to working on entirely new rovers as a mobile lab to a 'network' of penetrators across Mars. Each of the proposals was supported in some fashion by one of the flight centers, with Langley in favor of making the Viking landers mobile, to JPL wanting to design entirely new rovers as a mobile lab, to Ames wanting to do a network of penetrators for a long-duration gathering of info across Mars. For now, no real concrete decision had yet been reached by NASA in part from the effort being pushed into Viking and a series of other programs in progress.
The robotic programs of both the United States and the Soviet Union had a singular goal in the wake of the discovery, be able to find out enough information before the crewed program could be sent. A variety of plans were already underway for the rest of the 70s, to send a plethora of orbiters and landers to find out the most basic information about Mars that was not known about. For the 1980s, there was still a debate on what would follow up those missions prior to the arrival of astronauts and cosmonauts, with most of the ideas being thought around a Mars Sample Return in order to better understand the Martian soil and also over the concerns on how best to deal with Martian bacteria. But for both, the work being undertaken by the robotic program paled in comparison to the crewed program...
[1] Pioneer H was identified as being available to utilize, but the concerns of a loss on launch for either Pioneer F (launched as Pioneer 9) or Pioneer G (launched as Pioneer 10) in addition to the series of modifications required for Pioneer H as an orbiter was felt to be enough that Pioneer H could not be flown to Mars in the 1973 window.
[2] For reference sakes, this does not refer to the pair of Voyager probes launched in OTL, but rather the preceding Mars Voyager that had been worked on during the 60s.
[3] While IOTL, the removal of one of the experiments was because of cost, it's mentioned by NASA's Headquarters that there were also concerns driven by weight and power, while the biological team responded in that the weight issues weren't that serious, so this was something of a judgement call I had to determine when doing the research for this bit.
[4] This is based off the proposed Pioneer Aeronomy Geology mission, of which is available to read more on here.
[5] This is based off the proposed Mars Polar Orbiter mission from the Space Science Board Summer Study held in 1974.
IX
As both the United States and the Soviet Union undertook efforts on long duration spaceflight by space stations in 1973, the eyes and minds of many in both space programs were already planning for where to set onwards next; to go beyond low orbit and the moon towards Mars. In the wake of the initial celebrations of the Apollo lunar landings, it had been considered for a time among engineers from both space programs to continue on towards Mars, however the fiscal environment had made it apparent that it would never happen. Now in the wake of the Mariner Discovery, the desires to send an astronaut or cosmonaut to Mars had been supercharged, in the goal of seeking to arrive at the ruins first.
However, before the chance to land anyone on Mars could be performed, there was the need to understand Mars much more, so as to allow those who arrived there to be able to survive in the significant different conditions from either Earth or the Moon. Many unknowns were still present for Mars, such as the full atmospheric composition, significantly more detailed orbital imagery, the Martian weather, soil composition, the magnetic field, the gravitational field, and many other factors. The determination to understand the gravitational field, was something that had come more-so for the Americans in the wake of the irregular nature of the Moon's gravitational field as determined by the Lunar Orbiters and subsatellites carried by Apollo 15 and 16.
To be able to solve the needed questions, would require launching robotic missions to Mars, but missions launched to Mars could not be launched willy-nilly. The nature of the universe dictated that the planets moved while orbiting the sun, meaning that Mars would not be in the same spot as it was on launch when the robotic mission would finish between Earth and Mars. Thus, one had to launch the mission based on where Mars would be when it was supposed to arrive, rather than where it was now. The time when everything was in the 'right' configuration to head to where you were going were known as 'launch windows'. Launch windows governed everything in terms of rocket launches, no matter if one wanted to put a satellite into a desired orbit, to rendezvous with another object in orbit, or to go beyond the Earth to reach another destination. All of the planets had a consistently repeating launch window based off where the planets were in their orbits. If one wanted to head to Mars, the launch windows between Earth and Mars were 'open' every twenty-six months, when both planets would be in the right configuration to allow a mission to be sent out.
Following Mariner 9's discovery, four launch windows were available through the rest of the 1970s, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1979. For both the United States and the Soviet Union, it represented four separate launch opportunities available to each state through the rest of the decade to send additional robotic missions towards Mars, to both explore it ahead of crewed missions and to find out more about what exactly the ruins inside Steinbacher Crater were like.
The Soviet space program would make the first effort, launching a total of four Protons towards Mars throughout July 1973. The four Protons would make up a pair of orbiters (Mars 4 and 5) and a pair of landers (Mars 6 and 7), identical to those launched in the prior window of 1971. As a result of the higher demands imposed to reach Mars for 1973, the orbiters and landers had to be launched separately towards Mars, with the orbiters launching at the beginning of the window, in order to act as relays for the landers which would follow up with their launch at the end of the window. As the instrument suites and designs were identical to those sent in 1971, it would primarily improve upon the existing data that had already recovered, but also at the same time with flaws that were already present in the designs of the orbiters and landers.
In the start of the 1970s Sergey Afanasyev, the head of the Soviet rocket program, had placed his support behind a Mars Sample Return mission (entitled Mars 5NM) that could be launched in 1975 in order to act as the Soviet answer to the Viking program, which would have the Soviets leapfrog the Americans by returning a sample of Mars back to Earth. In addition to the launch of a Sample Return mission, it was planned for a launch of a modified Lunokhod rover in the window prior to the launch of the Mars Sample Return in order to test technologies such as the aeroshell, in order to verify that they worked. Needless to say, a host of technical issues such as the concerns of a parachute failure on reentry causing a release of Martian soil samples across Earth and over whether or not systems on the spacecraft such as the avionics, could withstand the three-year trip in space, presented doubts that the project could be done. Georgy Babakin, the head of the Soviet planetary program, had opted to not proceed with the project citing the issues, but in the wake of his death, the project would be resurrected by Afanasyev, and following the discovery made at Steinbacher Crater, would be given a significant boost behind its sails.
Like before, numerous issues and concerns such as protection of the Earth biosphere from Martian bacteria and the lifetime of the avionics were significant issues that would need to be resolved before the mission could be flown. The delays from the cancellation of the project and its resurrection had already forced the precursor mission to launch in 1975 followed by the Mars Sample Return flight in 1977, but the list of issues that would need to be resolved before it could fly was still paramount. Numerous systems and components, ranging from the requirements of the usage of the Block SR to send the rover and Mars Sample Return mission to Mars, to the aeroshell needed to land the Mars Ascent Vehicle, and the three-year plus lifetime of the orbiter were all examples of what had to be worked on and completed before either of the missions could be flown.
At the same time as work was progressing on the Mars Sample Return plans, preparation and work was underway for the launch of an additional pair of orbiters and landers towards Mars in 1975 (in part from an expectation of a delay for the precursor mission to fly in 1977). Rather than flying copies of the previous missions, a new design would be utilized for the orbiters and landers considering the issues that had come about with Mars 2 and 3. It was planned that the new Mars orbiter bus would also be used for the Mars Sample Return mission and its precursor (rather than the Mars 2 and 3 buses as originally proposed), thus setting the kind of lifetime requirements as a baseline design for the proposed Mars 8/9 missions. The work on the dual orbiter-lander mission could not come into a better time, as news came that the Block SR stage would not be ready for flight until 1976, setting Mars 8 and 9 to be sent towards Mars to compete with Viking.
In comparison to the Soviet Union, the United States would be unable to launch a robotic mission to Mars in the 1973 window in part from the demands imposed by the Viking Program, and also over concerns in attempting to 'rush' in building a mission to reach Mars [1]. The Viking Program, like Mariner Jupiter-Saturn, had come about from a much more expensive and broad program, canceled because of the mounting costs and reenvisioned as a program with a more focused goal. The mission for Viking, like Voyager [2], was the search for evidence of life on Mars but unlike Voyager, it had been messaged that it would not act as a precursor to a crewed Mars mission and also would have a significant reduction of costs in comparison (such as the launch vehicle using a the Titan IIIC with Centaur rather than the Saturn V as Voyager proposed).
At the core of the Viking Program, was the Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer and the biological suite. The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) was the heart of the organic investigation. The GCMS was arguably one of the most complicated portions of the entire program, second to that of the biological suite, being designed to search for organic material in the Martian soil. The biological suite in comparison was intended for life detection. The biological suite was made up of four biological tests, pyrolytic release, labeled release, the gas-exchange experiment, and the light-scattering experiment. The four tests represented a significant spectrum of tests that were all designed to measure some portion of the metabolic process for Martian organisms.
The discovery made by Mariner 9 at Steinbacher Crater caused an ensuing impact on Viking, NASA's next mission to Mars. While there was an initial furor and debate on if Viking still needed the biological tests considering the discovery, it was only apparent that life had existed on Mars, but it did not answer the question of if life still existed on the planet or not. Viking was still NASA's next Martian program, but it was a program that was facing financial issues as a result of growing cost overruns because of the kind of leading edge technology required to be developed for the program, such as the entire chemical and biological suite for the landers. The cost overruns that Viking was dealing with would be alleviated to a degree by the general funding increase that NASA had received, as the drive towards Mars began to slowly accelerate.
While Viking's funding had been burgeoned and reduced the cost overrun issues, it could not help in other ways such as hardware issues that had to be dealt with. Emerging as one of the paramount hardware issues prior to the discovery, was the issue of the Viking lander biological suite. The biological suite as designed, was sized for the four experiments that had been planned from the start, but a mire of issues ranging from available power, to the increasing size and complexity of the experiments and the available size that was allocated for the entire biological suite was causing all kinds of issues. This was not including the issues that was being encountered by TRW (the contractor assigned to build the biological suite). After significant discussion, a decision had been finally reached to solve the issue; one of the four biological experiments would have to be deleted. The decision to eliminate one of the biological experiments was met with uproar by the biological team, arguing that the decision to eliminate one of the experiments was driven by the continued cost issues rather than issues such as weight or power [3]. The experiment to be eliminated after significant discussion both on the engineering standpoint and biological standpoint would be chosen as the light-scattering experiment, which was deemed as the least damaging in terms of science lost and one of the more difficult to build. However, it was explicitly guaranteed that the light-scattering experiment would be flown in a follow-on Viking flight (after Viking 1 and 2).
Besides the lander, the other major portion of the Viking Program was the orbiter. One of the most crucial tasks of the Viking Orbiter was the kind of orbital imagery that would be performed prior to separation of the lander in order to verify site selection of where the scientists wanted the landers to land. A meeting of the ongoing cost overruns had been initiated for Viking in September 1971 with one of the options considered being the deletion of the Orbiter Imaging System, and it had become apparent at that time that the Viking Orbiter could be faced with a series of major cuts because of the mounting cost overruns from the Lander. The discovery made by Mariner 9 at Steinbacher Crater rapidly reversed those ideas, with the imaging system for the Orbiter being vital for the needed follow-up imagery of what had been discovered, especially at the significantly improved resolution that could be expected from Viking over Mariner 9.
As work on Viking progressed, work on follow-on missions for the remainder of the 1970s was underway. A series of vital questions were still unanswered about Mars, ranging from the basic questions of what did the Martian atmosphere and surface consist of in terms of elemental composition to the more advanced such as how exactly has the Martian atmosphere come to be? Many of the questions that lay unanswered were vital for the designing of any kind of crewed Mars mission to explore what lay in Steinbacher Crater. The follow-on missions would be expected to be built off the knowledge garnered from Viking and the missions that followed it, with each window seeing missions that were hoped to build off the knowledge of the previous one. The instruments for the missions however would lag behind the results discovered from the missions that preceded it, with the 1979 missions probably to be the first robotic missions that could build off of the knowledge and results gained from Viking (if not the 1981 missions).
The 1977 window would represent the first of the follow-on missions, and had been heavily contested between focusing more heavily on landers versus orbiters. Part of the issue between the two was the limited amount of capacity that was available by NASA's Deep Space Network for missions that could be flown. After significant discussion, from a scientific, engineering, and crewed mission planning standpoint, the decision was taken towards an orbital science outlook towards the planet. In addition to the purely operated orbiters that would be sent to Mars, the backup Mars Viking Orbiter and Lander would be sent in 1977 for additional research that could be performed. With the announcement of a new mission set for launch in 1977, Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (as the principal flight centers involved in designing spacecraft) set to work.
After the initial analysis of both designs, NASA announced that rather than flying of two either kind of orbiter (as had been normally done), they would be flying both of the orbiters. This in part was a result of both of the submitted designs representing a particular focus in their design and the both of them offering if launched together an explicitly 'complementary' approach towards the science gained rather than being explicitly oppositional. Ames had submitted a Pioneer mission [4] which would work to study the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, the composition of elements on the Martian surface, and the interaction of the solar wind with Mars. JPL had submitted a modified Viking orbiter [5] which would work on a geochemistry survey, measurement of the gravity field, and a detailed investigation of the Martian geology and climatology from orbit. As part of the announcement (from discussions held prior to the announcement), Viking 4 (as the JPL proposal) would be fully tasked towards mapping out the Martian surface in an even further detail ahead of any crewed missions, with Pioneer 12 (designated Pioneer J internally) to fly and study the Martian upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetic field in addition to the interaction of the solar wind on the planet. Pioneer 12 would have the gamma ray spectrometer deleted (intended to map out the composition of elements on the Martian surface), in exchange for additional instruments to better study its assigned mission, something that the spinning spacecraft was well designed to determine.
With the missions for 1977 set, work began on outlining what the 1979 launch opportunity would see in terms of missions sent. A variety of options were being considered in the NASA Headquarters along with inside Ames Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Langley Research Center (who was in charge of the Viking Program and the lander). Most of the proposals focused on landed science, ranging from making the Vikings mobile in some fashion to working on entirely new rovers as a mobile lab to a 'network' of penetrators across Mars. Each of the proposals was supported in some fashion by one of the flight centers, with Langley in favor of making the Viking landers mobile, to JPL wanting to design entirely new rovers as a mobile lab, to Ames wanting to do a network of penetrators for a long-duration gathering of info across Mars. For now, no real concrete decision had yet been reached by NASA in part from the effort being pushed into Viking and a series of other programs in progress.
The robotic programs of both the United States and the Soviet Union had a singular goal in the wake of the discovery, be able to find out enough information before the crewed program could be sent. A variety of plans were already underway for the rest of the 70s, to send a plethora of orbiters and landers to find out the most basic information about Mars that was not known about. For the 1980s, there was still a debate on what would follow up those missions prior to the arrival of astronauts and cosmonauts, with most of the ideas being thought around a Mars Sample Return in order to better understand the Martian soil and also over the concerns on how best to deal with Martian bacteria. But for both, the work being undertaken by the robotic program paled in comparison to the crewed program...
[1] Pioneer H was identified as being available to utilize, but the concerns of a loss on launch for either Pioneer F (launched as Pioneer 9) or Pioneer G (launched as Pioneer 10) in addition to the series of modifications required for Pioneer H as an orbiter was felt to be enough that Pioneer H could not be flown to Mars in the 1973 window.
[2] For reference sakes, this does not refer to the pair of Voyager probes launched in OTL, but rather the preceding Mars Voyager that had been worked on during the 60s.
[3] While IOTL, the removal of one of the experiments was because of cost, it's mentioned by NASA's Headquarters that there were also concerns driven by weight and power, while the biological team responded in that the weight issues weren't that serious, so this was something of a judgement call I had to determine when doing the research for this bit.
[4] This is based off the proposed Pioneer Aeronomy Geology mission, of which is available to read more on here.
[5] This is based off the proposed Mars Polar Orbiter mission from the Space Science Board Summer Study held in 1974.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Just to be clear, nobody's planning any space probe launches to take advantage of the Grand Tour launch window?
Jimmy C
Mostly Harmless
For some reason, the Soviets were never good at launching missions beyond Earth orbit. Venus, inside Earth's orbit, they could do. But not Mars. They had like only one Mars mission that could be declared a success, but the amount of science it returned was redundant compared to what Mariner 9 returned in the same period. Post Cold War, the Russians did not fare any better, I haven't even heard of any Russian Mars mission post-2000.
The chances are not good for the Soviet missions to do anything here.
The chances are not good for the Soviet missions to do anything here.
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- Location
- [REDACTED]- United States of America
Good thing this is an OTL then.
None of that boring 'reality' or 'history' shit in this thread.
I am really enjoying this.
Jimmy C
Mostly Harmless
It's up to the author. I would suggest the Soviets spend some of that increased funding on checking their launch vehicles. Most of their Mars failures were due to the rockets and the probes never even reached Mars as a result.
If they are to form, their sample return mission might explode when trying to launch from Mars.
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Also as this month is the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, there's going to be some good programs I'd recommend watching, with what's going to be on PBS here, and a more general bit here.
I have discussed a bit as for what's basically happened IOTL, with the cancellation of Grand Tour and it coming back around as Mariner Jupiter-Saturn (which is what happened OTL, with MJS becoming Voyager). I will be discussing more on the Outer Planets soon enough.
The issues with the Soviet and Russian space program (if not counting the early bit of the space program, like pre-71) has usually been more-so with the spacecraft rather than the launcher (with Mars 96 being the only rocket-based failure, as the upper-stage failed to complete circularization). Like from what I recall in reading Robotic Exploration of the Solar System, Mars 4-7 basically suffered the issue of the circuits that were manufactured for it were done with improper materials and so had a ticking clock on them, and wound up basically failing somewhere in the process of flight (note, this is what happened IOTL and not ITTL as it happened after the PoD from what I recall). There was also the fact that after Viking, the Soviets shifted to Venus rather than continue towards Mars, and in comparison from Mars to Venus, there was both additional payload capacity to head to Venus and also having a shorter flight time from what I recall.
Just to be clear, nobody's planning any space probe launches to take advantage of the Grand Tour launch window?
I have discussed a bit as for what's basically happened IOTL, with the cancellation of Grand Tour and it coming back around as Mariner Jupiter-Saturn (which is what happened OTL, with MJS becoming Voyager). I will be discussing more on the Outer Planets soon enough.
Good thing this is an OTL then.
None of that boring 'reality' or 'history' shit in this thread.
The issues with the Soviet and Russian space program (if not counting the early bit of the space program, like pre-71) has usually been more-so with the spacecraft rather than the launcher (with Mars 96 being the only rocket-based failure, as the upper-stage failed to complete circularization). Like from what I recall in reading Robotic Exploration of the Solar System, Mars 4-7 basically suffered the issue of the circuits that were manufactured for it were done with improper materials and so had a ticking clock on them, and wound up basically failing somewhere in the process of flight (note, this is what happened IOTL and not ITTL as it happened after the PoD from what I recall). There was also the fact that after Viking, the Soviets shifted to Venus rather than continue towards Mars, and in comparison from Mars to Venus, there was both additional payload capacity to head to Venus and also having a shorter flight time from what I recall.
Jimmy C
Mostly Harmless
I meant the whole rocket, not just the engines pushing the rocket out of the atmosphere. Because they have failures to leave LEO, failures during transit and failures to insert into orbit or landing. Basically, they've had failures of the delivery system at every point even before the actual spacecraft with the scientific instruments can have a chance to fail, and they have those fail too. Just look at the summary of all Mars missions on wiki.
Just have them be more deligent about ensuring the vehicles are in proper order prior to launch, and I'll find that believeable. Or you could have the next batch fail and goverment screaming (and throwing money) at them to make sure the batch after that doesn't. Even more believeable.
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- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's not correct? After separation of the spacecraft from the rocket when the rocket has put it on the right trajectory and done fine, then any kind of failure on the spacecraft is a spacecraft failure and not a rocket failure. Like, Mars Observer is a case-clear example of a spacecraft failure because of the failure of the fuel pressurization system. There is no way that is a rocket failure.
Jimmy C
Mostly Harmless
Very well, maybe I was just being pendatic about the terminology. Just have the Soviets check their spacecraft better.
One other thing I hope you will think about is the longer term and wider ranging consequences of a sustained effort to reach Mars on the economies of the USA and USSR. Just to get one manned mission to the Martian surface from this point in time could cost up to the price of a fleet (admitedly, that's a wild guess, but we have plenty of experts here who can fill us in on the details) And that doesn't count lengthy stays and additional missions yet.
That could have an impact on their military adventures in this period. The USA can afford it, the USSR may have to make hard choices. Maybe they'd scale back such adventures, or seek to gain more from them.
One other thing I hope you will think about is the longer term and wider ranging consequences of a sustained effort to reach Mars on the economies of the USA and USSR. Just to get one manned mission to the Martian surface from this point in time could cost up to the price of a fleet (admitedly, that's a wild guess, but we have plenty of experts here who can fill us in on the details) And that doesn't count lengthy stays and additional missions yet.
That could have an impact on their military adventures in this period. The USA can afford it, the USSR may have to make hard choices. Maybe they'd scale back such adventures, or seek to gain more from them.
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Again, just apologies for the delay on this. I've just been stuck with some bad writer's block as of late in general, and it's just been rather frustrating in trying to write this out.
X
August 10th, 1973
"The utilization of cryogenic or nuclear propulsion to return from the moon and to head beyond to Mars will require significant developments in cryogenic technologies. Among the most pressing of new developments will include minimal boiloff of cryogenics in space and transfer of cryogenic materials in a minimal-gravity environment…
The utilization of cryogenic propellants to head to Mars represent the most mass efficient way to reach the planet, and the studies currently being performed baseline the use of cryogenic propellants. Keeping liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as liquids in space represents a significant challenge, as the thermal heating from the sun will inevitably heat up the cryogenic elements and turn them into a gas rather than keep them as a liquid. In addition to the issues of solar heating, there is also the significant temperature difference between the two, with liquid hydrogen staying as a liquid below -423°F and liquid oxygen staying as a liquid below -298°F.
One of the most pressing concerns is the storage of cryogenic propellants over time. Boiloff of an unprotected tank would be significant, with it being expected that for the time taken for a Mars transit, the stage would be rendered empty of propellants. In order to prevent a loss of an unreasonable amount of propellants, a significant reduction of propellant boiloff per day would be required, which for the amount of time required for an conjunction-class mission would represent a significant technological challenge…
In addition to the kind of problems associated with preventing boiloff losses for stages, there is also the matter of cryogenic propellant transfer in space. Cryogenics compared to hypergolics represent a significant magnitude harder in transferring propellant because of the kind of temperatures involved. It is in part from these temperatures that the fluid mechanics involved at these low temperatures become even more difficult to solve…
The significant quantities of propellants required for any kind of manned Mars expedition however raise a significant question in mind. How would one best store the propellant required for the launch window? It has been raised that each stage of the Mars Transfer Vehicle could store the propellants, however with the time between windows and for fueling the stages could pose a significant issue in terms of boiloff losses. There is an option available that could work as an alternate for the fueling of the stages; the development of a propellant depot. The propellant depot would allow the storage of large amounts of propellant that could then subsequently be transferred at once to the Mars Transfer Vehicle. A development of an alternate boiloff system involving sunshields would be necessary for such a depot…
Considering the kind of work involved for cryogenic propellants to head to Mars, it should be acknowledged that it will require a significant amount of testing on the ground and in flight of proposed methods to verify that they can work. The Centaur stage represents the cheapest option available that could be utilized for testing, ranging from boiloff testing, propellant transfer testing, and even the test of a mini-depot for boiloff testing. One major requirement for the utilization of propellant transfer testing in space will be the development of an automated transfer system in order for the Centaur stages to find themselves in the middle of space without a human onboard…"
Lewis Research Center Study on Cryogenic Boiloff and Propellant Transfer Relating to a Mars Mission
November 14th, 1973
Dimitri stared out at the launchpad, a cigarette in mouth. The N1 looked like a reverse ice cream cone from the distance, vapors slowly coming off the rocket… or was that from his cigarette? He shrugged, just wondering what in the hell he was even out here for, for the launch. He was just some backup for a backup flight controller, when the original backup got hit by a car.
"Hello Dimitri, got another of those?" Alexei asked, wrapping his jacket around him. "Would love one of them."
"Last one I had since I had to leave at two fucking AM," Dimitri said, "Besides if I had one, why would I give one to you?"
"Because it's fucking cold?"
Dimitri laughed, and holding the cigarette in his teeth, he went to his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. "That's perfectly reasonable," he said, handing over the cigarette. "That was my emergency one, so I hope you're happy."
"Quite," Alexei said, clicking the lighter to light it up.
The silence was prolonged between the two of them, the voice of the launch announcer slowly counting down. And then came the sudden light igniting from the base of the rocket, slowly beginning to climb. The sound rapidly followed, the roar of the engines emanating from the N1 as it slowly climbed up into the darkened sky.
"So what was the payload this time around, another unmanned lunar landing attempt?" Dimitri asked, the orange embers of the N1 trailing away, as the confirmation of first stage separation and second stage ignition occurred.
"Yeah," Alexei responded. "All ex-hardware that was proposed before it got axed for a new design."
"Mhm."
Dimitri dropped his burnt out cigarette to the ground, crushing it with his heel. The N1 had for the most part disappeared entirely, and the launch activities were slowly starting to wrap-up as it continued towards its parking orbit.
"You hear about the recent news from the Ministry of Defense?" Alexei spoke, his eyes looking out beyond the horizon.
"What kind of news?" Dimitri asked, cautious about what Alexei was going to be saying.
"There's news that they are going to be pushing to get rid of the toxic propellants used, considering the previous failures of Proton."
"I see," Dimitri spoke, thinking for a bit on the kind of… cleanup that was required in the event of a Proton failure, especially at the pad.
"Break's over, so I'll be heading out now," Alexei spoke, dropping the cigarette and crushing it under his heel. Dimitri nodded to Alexei as he passed, and stuck a hand in his pocket searching for another cigarette, and groaned upon the realization that he had given it to Alexei.
December 16th, 1973
Staring at the night sky, all Julia could feel was exhilaration at it all. The sheer mightiness of the cosmos all across the sky, it just made her wonder at it all. How had it all come to be? What else was out there? And yet among the biggest of questions was on if they'd ever meet life out there. She shivered for a moment, the coldness of the night seeping in.
"Hey Julia, are you out here?" a voice shouted.
"Yeah I'm out here Tom!" she yelled back, turning her head towards the voice.
"Still have your head stuck in the stars?" Tom said, making his way up to her.
"Who wouldn't?" Julia said with a smile at her younger brother. "Just consider what's out there!"
"Emptiness and wondering why anyone would head out there?"
"Oh shove it," Julia said, pushing her brother a bit.
"And about the aliens out there? I know Rob's scared about them."
"Your friend Rob is scared of anything," Julia said, taking a seat on the ground, "So what did you come out here for?"
After a couple of seconds, came the reply. "Was just wondering where you were, especially considering how late it is."
Julia took a look at her brother, knowing that the time he spent before the reply meant he wasn't telling her everything. But it wasn't something she just wanted to contend with now.
"So what do you want to do after you leave?" Tom asked.
"Become an astronaut of course, after all as you said, my head's in the stars," she teased.
"Seriously Julia!" Tom replied with a laugh next to her.
"I meant it seriously Tom. It's just there's so much out there that can be explored, and especially with what is out there on Mars."
Tom sneezed hard, rubbing his arms after the sneeze. "Knew I should've grabbed my coat."
"Might as well head inside then since you forgot your coat," Julia said.
She sighed for a second, taking a quick look at the stars above. She was going to get up there, and was preparing to work to the bone to head out there.
January 10th, 1974
Jason Miller yawned as he made his way down the stairs, knowing he was running early for the first time in a while. It really hadn't been his fault lately, moreso his roommate's because of constantly coming back late at night. Making his way out of the apartment building's door, he took a quick look at the time. 7:25. "Eh, I've got enough time to grab the paper," Jason spoke to himself, braving the snow that was drifting down.
He nodded at a couple of the other workers making their way up and to work, trudging through the slush that occupied their feet. Stopping in front of the rather close newsstand, Jason took a look among the papers that were present. "How much for the Times?" he asked.
"Twenty cents," came the reply from it.
"Right," Jason said, handing over a quarter as he went to grab a copy of the New York Times.
Taking a look at the front page, the headlines on the top part of the page were all embroiled as part of the gas lines. And there among them were the increase of prices for Con Ed. 'Just my luck,' was the thought embroiled in his head.
'Now hopefully the train's on time,' was the thought rolling in his head afterwards as he made his way to the station.
It was about a two block walk to the subway station, the newspaper kept tight under his arm as Jason made his way towards the station. Taking a look to his left, he could see the theater across the street with the new Star Trek movie poster front and center across it. From what Tim had said the other day, it was focused on something involving protecting a sentient alien species from being eaten. Tim had joked that it was probably going to be quite relevant as soon as the aliens came to take us over.
Shaking his head, Jason saw the sign for his local station, 86th Street, and proceeded down the stairs, the warmth from the trains making their way out towards the entrances. Grabbing the token in his pocket and paying the fare, he heard the noise of the train waiting below. "Shit!" he said, quickly moving towards the stairs, the train pulling away from the station.
Jason groaned, making his way down the stairs and being the only passenger left on the platform. "Might as well read the paper," he muttered, cracking open the New York Times.
Taking a look at the bottom of the page revealed something not contending with Nixon, oil, or anything else but with space. "NASA Announces New Astronaut Group Amidst Budgetary Concerns". Opening up the article, NASA had apparently announced the selection of their eighth group of 'astronaut candidates', which had been described by the New York Times as a 'microcosm' of America. The agency's first women and Hispanic astronaut candidates had been selected, with three women, three black, and one Hispanic among the sixteen selected candidates in total [1]. "Amidst NASA's hiring of new astronauts, growing concerns have been raised over the mounting expected costs of the Space Transportation System and a recent CBO study estimating the potential costs of a manned Mars program… [continued on Page 7]"
Grumbling for a minute as the article concluded at the front page, Jason turned to open the paper to page 7. "Whoosh!" the local roared in, coming into the station, the wind from the subway blowing the paper across the platform.
Cursing to himself, Jason quickly folded up what remained of the paper under his arm as he got into the graffiti-covered subway car. He ignored the dirty looks of the other commuters who had wound up with the pages of the paper on them, grabbing onto the pole as the car began moving and took off to its next station.
We believe that in the aftermath of our learning that Mars has sentient life, that we are not yet ready to venture out to meet with the native Martians. They will come to us, being our much more advanced brethren in the stars, and ones that have solved the problems that we face today.
Among these problems include war, hunger, violence, prejudice, and many more that plague our society today. It should be recognized that while we can and should work to solve these problems, the arrival of the Martians will help to solve these problems in a much better fashion. The Martians, a species of red humanoids represent our future where we are destined to head, being younger cousins to them…
… And now comes the question. When do we meet them? At what time are we destined to finally meet with them? This is a critical test for us and one that we must meet, lest we fall into chaos and destruction that will spell our end. If we can pass the tests that have been set out for all of us, we will meet with them in July of 1982.
Above all, we must not land any person on Mars…
[1] Okay, I'm doing a footnote here, just to clarify a bit on the usage of the language there. It was basically intended to emulate the language that was used for the selection of the OTL Eighth Astronaut Group by the New York Times here.
X
August 10th, 1973
"The utilization of cryogenic or nuclear propulsion to return from the moon and to head beyond to Mars will require significant developments in cryogenic technologies. Among the most pressing of new developments will include minimal boiloff of cryogenics in space and transfer of cryogenic materials in a minimal-gravity environment…
The utilization of cryogenic propellants to head to Mars represent the most mass efficient way to reach the planet, and the studies currently being performed baseline the use of cryogenic propellants. Keeping liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as liquids in space represents a significant challenge, as the thermal heating from the sun will inevitably heat up the cryogenic elements and turn them into a gas rather than keep them as a liquid. In addition to the issues of solar heating, there is also the significant temperature difference between the two, with liquid hydrogen staying as a liquid below -423°F and liquid oxygen staying as a liquid below -298°F.
One of the most pressing concerns is the storage of cryogenic propellants over time. Boiloff of an unprotected tank would be significant, with it being expected that for the time taken for a Mars transit, the stage would be rendered empty of propellants. In order to prevent a loss of an unreasonable amount of propellants, a significant reduction of propellant boiloff per day would be required, which for the amount of time required for an conjunction-class mission would represent a significant technological challenge…
In addition to the kind of problems associated with preventing boiloff losses for stages, there is also the matter of cryogenic propellant transfer in space. Cryogenics compared to hypergolics represent a significant magnitude harder in transferring propellant because of the kind of temperatures involved. It is in part from these temperatures that the fluid mechanics involved at these low temperatures become even more difficult to solve…
The significant quantities of propellants required for any kind of manned Mars expedition however raise a significant question in mind. How would one best store the propellant required for the launch window? It has been raised that each stage of the Mars Transfer Vehicle could store the propellants, however with the time between windows and for fueling the stages could pose a significant issue in terms of boiloff losses. There is an option available that could work as an alternate for the fueling of the stages; the development of a propellant depot. The propellant depot would allow the storage of large amounts of propellant that could then subsequently be transferred at once to the Mars Transfer Vehicle. A development of an alternate boiloff system involving sunshields would be necessary for such a depot…
Considering the kind of work involved for cryogenic propellants to head to Mars, it should be acknowledged that it will require a significant amount of testing on the ground and in flight of proposed methods to verify that they can work. The Centaur stage represents the cheapest option available that could be utilized for testing, ranging from boiloff testing, propellant transfer testing, and even the test of a mini-depot for boiloff testing. One major requirement for the utilization of propellant transfer testing in space will be the development of an automated transfer system in order for the Centaur stages to find themselves in the middle of space without a human onboard…"
Lewis Research Center Study on Cryogenic Boiloff and Propellant Transfer Relating to a Mars Mission
November 14th, 1973
Dimitri stared out at the launchpad, a cigarette in mouth. The N1 looked like a reverse ice cream cone from the distance, vapors slowly coming off the rocket… or was that from his cigarette? He shrugged, just wondering what in the hell he was even out here for, for the launch. He was just some backup for a backup flight controller, when the original backup got hit by a car.
"Hello Dimitri, got another of those?" Alexei asked, wrapping his jacket around him. "Would love one of them."
"Last one I had since I had to leave at two fucking AM," Dimitri said, "Besides if I had one, why would I give one to you?"
"Because it's fucking cold?"
Dimitri laughed, and holding the cigarette in his teeth, he went to his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. "That's perfectly reasonable," he said, handing over the cigarette. "That was my emergency one, so I hope you're happy."
"Quite," Alexei said, clicking the lighter to light it up.
The silence was prolonged between the two of them, the voice of the launch announcer slowly counting down. And then came the sudden light igniting from the base of the rocket, slowly beginning to climb. The sound rapidly followed, the roar of the engines emanating from the N1 as it slowly climbed up into the darkened sky.
"So what was the payload this time around, another unmanned lunar landing attempt?" Dimitri asked, the orange embers of the N1 trailing away, as the confirmation of first stage separation and second stage ignition occurred.
"Yeah," Alexei responded. "All ex-hardware that was proposed before it got axed for a new design."
"Mhm."
Dimitri dropped his burnt out cigarette to the ground, crushing it with his heel. The N1 had for the most part disappeared entirely, and the launch activities were slowly starting to wrap-up as it continued towards its parking orbit.
"You hear about the recent news from the Ministry of Defense?" Alexei spoke, his eyes looking out beyond the horizon.
"What kind of news?" Dimitri asked, cautious about what Alexei was going to be saying.
"There's news that they are going to be pushing to get rid of the toxic propellants used, considering the previous failures of Proton."
"I see," Dimitri spoke, thinking for a bit on the kind of… cleanup that was required in the event of a Proton failure, especially at the pad.
"Break's over, so I'll be heading out now," Alexei spoke, dropping the cigarette and crushing it under his heel. Dimitri nodded to Alexei as he passed, and stuck a hand in his pocket searching for another cigarette, and groaned upon the realization that he had given it to Alexei.
December 16th, 1973
Staring at the night sky, all Julia could feel was exhilaration at it all. The sheer mightiness of the cosmos all across the sky, it just made her wonder at it all. How had it all come to be? What else was out there? And yet among the biggest of questions was on if they'd ever meet life out there. She shivered for a moment, the coldness of the night seeping in.
"Hey Julia, are you out here?" a voice shouted.
"Yeah I'm out here Tom!" she yelled back, turning her head towards the voice.
"Still have your head stuck in the stars?" Tom said, making his way up to her.
"Who wouldn't?" Julia said with a smile at her younger brother. "Just consider what's out there!"
"Emptiness and wondering why anyone would head out there?"
"Oh shove it," Julia said, pushing her brother a bit.
"And about the aliens out there? I know Rob's scared about them."
"Your friend Rob is scared of anything," Julia said, taking a seat on the ground, "So what did you come out here for?"
After a couple of seconds, came the reply. "Was just wondering where you were, especially considering how late it is."
Julia took a look at her brother, knowing that the time he spent before the reply meant he wasn't telling her everything. But it wasn't something she just wanted to contend with now.
"So what do you want to do after you leave?" Tom asked.
"Become an astronaut of course, after all as you said, my head's in the stars," she teased.
"Seriously Julia!" Tom replied with a laugh next to her.
"I meant it seriously Tom. It's just there's so much out there that can be explored, and especially with what is out there on Mars."
Tom sneezed hard, rubbing his arms after the sneeze. "Knew I should've grabbed my coat."
"Might as well head inside then since you forgot your coat," Julia said.
She sighed for a second, taking a quick look at the stars above. She was going to get up there, and was preparing to work to the bone to head out there.
January 10th, 1974
Jason Miller yawned as he made his way down the stairs, knowing he was running early for the first time in a while. It really hadn't been his fault lately, moreso his roommate's because of constantly coming back late at night. Making his way out of the apartment building's door, he took a quick look at the time. 7:25. "Eh, I've got enough time to grab the paper," Jason spoke to himself, braving the snow that was drifting down.
He nodded at a couple of the other workers making their way up and to work, trudging through the slush that occupied their feet. Stopping in front of the rather close newsstand, Jason took a look among the papers that were present. "How much for the Times?" he asked.
"Twenty cents," came the reply from it.
"Right," Jason said, handing over a quarter as he went to grab a copy of the New York Times.
Taking a look at the front page, the headlines on the top part of the page were all embroiled as part of the gas lines. And there among them were the increase of prices for Con Ed. 'Just my luck,' was the thought embroiled in his head.
'Now hopefully the train's on time,' was the thought rolling in his head afterwards as he made his way to the station.
It was about a two block walk to the subway station, the newspaper kept tight under his arm as Jason made his way towards the station. Taking a look to his left, he could see the theater across the street with the new Star Trek movie poster front and center across it. From what Tim had said the other day, it was focused on something involving protecting a sentient alien species from being eaten. Tim had joked that it was probably going to be quite relevant as soon as the aliens came to take us over.
Shaking his head, Jason saw the sign for his local station, 86th Street, and proceeded down the stairs, the warmth from the trains making their way out towards the entrances. Grabbing the token in his pocket and paying the fare, he heard the noise of the train waiting below. "Shit!" he said, quickly moving towards the stairs, the train pulling away from the station.
Jason groaned, making his way down the stairs and being the only passenger left on the platform. "Might as well read the paper," he muttered, cracking open the New York Times.
Taking a look at the bottom of the page revealed something not contending with Nixon, oil, or anything else but with space. "NASA Announces New Astronaut Group Amidst Budgetary Concerns". Opening up the article, NASA had apparently announced the selection of their eighth group of 'astronaut candidates', which had been described by the New York Times as a 'microcosm' of America. The agency's first women and Hispanic astronaut candidates had been selected, with three women, three black, and one Hispanic among the sixteen selected candidates in total [1]. "Amidst NASA's hiring of new astronauts, growing concerns have been raised over the mounting expected costs of the Space Transportation System and a recent CBO study estimating the potential costs of a manned Mars program… [continued on Page 7]"
Grumbling for a minute as the article concluded at the front page, Jason turned to open the paper to page 7. "Whoosh!" the local roared in, coming into the station, the wind from the subway blowing the paper across the platform.
Cursing to himself, Jason quickly folded up what remained of the paper under his arm as he got into the graffiti-covered subway car. He ignored the dirty looks of the other commuters who had wound up with the pages of the paper on them, grabbing onto the pole as the car began moving and took off to its next station.
We believe that in the aftermath of our learning that Mars has sentient life, that we are not yet ready to venture out to meet with the native Martians. They will come to us, being our much more advanced brethren in the stars, and ones that have solved the problems that we face today.
Among these problems include war, hunger, violence, prejudice, and many more that plague our society today. It should be recognized that while we can and should work to solve these problems, the arrival of the Martians will help to solve these problems in a much better fashion. The Martians, a species of red humanoids represent our future where we are destined to head, being younger cousins to them…
… And now comes the question. When do we meet them? At what time are we destined to finally meet with them? This is a critical test for us and one that we must meet, lest we fall into chaos and destruction that will spell our end. If we can pass the tests that have been set out for all of us, we will meet with them in July of 1982.
Above all, we must not land any person on Mars…
[1] Okay, I'm doing a footnote here, just to clarify a bit on the usage of the language there. It was basically intended to emulate the language that was used for the selection of the OTL Eighth Astronaut Group by the New York Times here.
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- Location
- Hiding
Bloody cultists.
I liked the first bit, the report. Aside from the work on a propellant depot, it looks like they are seeing some of the problems with opposition-class missions. Good, going to Mars on one of those is…silly. Very silly. And noting the insanely cold tempatures needed for LH2 is the first step to switch to methane, which might then get them to ISRU… Mars Direct, here we come!
I liked the first bit, the report. Aside from the work on a propellant depot, it looks like they are seeing some of the problems with opposition-class missions. Good, going to Mars on one of those is…silly. Very silly. And noting the insanely cold tempatures needed for LH2 is the first step to switch to methane, which might then get them to ISRU… Mars Direct, here we come!
Fucking cultists. They're gonna try and pull a Contact on crewed launches, aren't they? Hell, they might start with the Eighth Astronaut Group.
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Roughly, yes. It's been something I've been thinking about for a while in terms of some of the aftereffects of what the discovery might be on.
Also apologies for the late reply on this, but yes, I have been thinking about the longer term and wider ranging consequences of what an effort to reach Mars might've looked like in terms of the kind of effects on the economy and budgets for both states.
... I literally just noticed I wrote opposition instead of conjunction despite rereading it and checking it over multiple times. Dang it. I swore I double checked it. >.>
I'll be editing that to just fix that damned stupid error I made. >.>
Also just as a reminder to everyone, but please do remember about Rule 2.
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Okay, so as a couple of questions I felt like asking in here just to gauge how people are feelings:
1) Are there any preferences towards what kind of updates people prefer the most? Like say textbook style, PoV style, or to keep it as a mixture of both?
2) Is there anything that is felt to be... lacking so far? Like, it could be things I haven't necessarily covered, things I might've missed, other things.
Just really wondering on that, and answers would be quite appreciated.
1) Are there any preferences towards what kind of updates people prefer the most? Like say textbook style, PoV style, or to keep it as a mixture of both?
2) Is there anything that is felt to be... lacking so far? Like, it could be things I haven't necessarily covered, things I might've missed, other things.
Just really wondering on that, and answers would be quite appreciated.
Miss Teri
The Queen
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1)Keep it as both.Okay, so as a couple of questions I felt like asking in here just to gauge how people are feelings:
1) Are there any preferences towards what kind of updates people prefer the most? Like say textbook style, PoV style, or to keep it as a mixture of both?
2) Is there anything that is felt to be... lacking so far? Like, it could be things I haven't necessarily covered, things I might've missed, other things.
Just really wondering on that, and answers would be quite appreciated.
2) A bit more on how other planetary missions are affected and maybe a bit about the new Astronaut selection would be interesting.
1: I prefer textbook style mostly, but that's because I'm a weirdo that loves combing through timelines, codex entries, encyclopedias and other informational chapters. Not to say I don't like POV story chapters, I just like the info more ^^
