Belitopia - Notice: Mid-Season Break
Belitopia
I hope you are enjoying our world of Belitopia. We’re going to be taking a few weeks off for our mid-season break while celebrating the holiday season. However, stay tuned! There might be some bonus content coming out during the break! We will continue the second half of Season 1 in the new year, where we plan on talking about Space Station Freedom, our two Apollo moon bases, a heavy lift space transport system, and our very first space station in lunar orbit! Thank you for listening to our world of Belitopia, and see you next year!
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Belitopia S1E5 - Skylab +
Belitopia
The Space Race wasn’t just about who could get to the moon first. There were other battlefields where the space race was fought. One of those battlefields was in building a permanent manned presence in space in the form of a space station in low earth orbit. Such a station would not only be a great place for space based research, but also a starting point for military use of space. Winning the battle over low earth orbit against the Soviet Union was just as important as beating them to the moon. Low earth orbit wasn’t as glamorous as the race to the moon, so it did not receive as much...
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Belitopia S1E4 - The Venus Flyby p2
Belitopia
Links and More Information . Introduction In the last episode of Belitopia, we started our story of the Venus 1 voyage. In this episode, we conclude our story of this historic voyage. Venus 1, a mission launched as part of the Apollo Applications Program, used Apollo technology with some necessary extensions in order to send a crew of two astronauts on the first ever flyby of another planet. This mission never happened in reality, but a version of this mission was in the planning stages before budgets were cut. But this is Belitopia. In our world, funding did occur, and the Venus Flyby...
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Belitopia S1E3 - The Venus Flyby p1
Belitopia
Among the many missions that came out of the Apollo Applications Program, one of the most amazing was the Venus Flyby mission. Imagine, using the same Apollo technology that brought us to the moon, for a long duration mission to fly by our nearest planetary neighbor, the planet Venus. Humans, traveling to another planet in our solar system. It was an ambitious plan. Unfortunately, in real life, funding for this mission never materialized. It wasn’t even close. Yes, there was some actual planning that went into a proposed mission, and some early plans were created. But no serious...
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Belitopia S1E2 - Apollo Applications Program
Belitopia
The Apollo space program was much more than a set of missions to the moon. It was also a technology platform that provided the basis for future space programs. A technology platform that the Apollo Applications Program was created to leverage and enhance. In real life, not much came of the Apollo Applications Program. Very little funding was given to the program, and the program suffered. A stunted Skylab space station, and a Apollo-Soyuz joint docking in space were all that came out of the Apollo Applications Program. At least, that’s what happened in real life. But this is not...
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Belitopia S1E1 - Apollo +
Belitopia
The Apollo space program. The quintessential peak of human kinds manned space program. The funding that went into this program was astronomical, around $120 **billion** dollars, adjusted for inflation. But once we landed on the moon, we lost interest in space. With the reduced interest in space came reduced funding...and our future in space suffered. But, what if funding didn’t stop suddenly… This is “Apollo Plus”. For more information, please see . Transcript What if the world was different? Science fiction is usually utopian or dystopian, either unrealistically good or...
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Belitopia S1E0 - Welcome to Belitopia…
Belitopia
This is the world of “what if”. What if we had continued the space race, what would our space footprint look like? What if we had invested heavily in a transportation infrastructure around the globe, how would that change how we get from point A to point B today? What if we decided as a species that world hunger was not acceptable, how would we have solved it with technology? What if we had solved the autonomous car problem 50 years ago, how would that have changed how we worked and played today? What if sustainable energy was standard practice for a generation, how would that change how...
info_outlineThis is the world of “what if”. What if we had continued the space race, what would our space footprint look like? What if we had invested heavily in a transportation infrastructure around the globe, how would that change how we get from point A to point B today? What if we decided as a species that world hunger was not acceptable, how would we have solved it with technology? What if we had solved the autonomous car problem 50 years ago, how would that have changed how we worked and played today? What if sustainable energy was standard practice for a generation, how would that change how we interacted in our world today?
How would our world be better? How would it be worse? How would it be, just different? Belitopia is this world, this world where the what if’s come true, and the world is a better place, a worse place, a different place.
In season one of Belitopia, we look at the space program. What if the space race had continued after Apollo? What if we continued to invest in the space program at the same or greater levels than we did previously? Many experts believe that every dollar we invest in the space program, returns 8-10 dollars in improved technologies to our world. What if we truly recognized that and invested significantly greater amounts of money in the space program? What if we discovered that there are natural resources in space that are worth pursuing. Resources that can solve our energy problems, our food problems. Resources that were economically viable to pursue.
It’s not utopia, it’s not dystopia. It’s believable science fiction. This is Belitopia.
Transcript
What if…things were different…
What if…different decisions were made, important decisions, in our world…
What if…our leaders made different choices?
What if…different political and social climates existed in our world, with different priorities and different expectations?
What would be changed and what would be the same?
Welcome to the world of what if…
Much of science fiction is based either on a utopian view of the world, or, as happens in much of modern science fiction, on a dystopian view of the world:
- a natural disaster
- the zombie apocalypse
- disease, suffering
The world is either unbelievably great…or unbelievably bad.
There doesn’t seem to be much in the middle.
But what if we looked at science fiction with neither a negative nor a positive bias?
What if we instead looked at…a realistic world.
...a believable world.
This is that world…the world of Belitopia.
In season one of Belitopia, we look at the space program.
What if the space race had continued after Apollo?
What if we continued to invest in the space program at the same or greater levels than we did previously?
Many experts believe that every dollar we invest in the space program, returns 8-10 dollars in improved technologies to our world. What if we truly recognized that and invested significantly greater amounts of money in the space program?
What if we discovered that there are natural resources in space that are worth pursuing. Resources that can solve our energy problems, our food problems. Resources that were economically viable to pursue.
Bottom line, what if we believed it was worth our while investing in space and space technology?
We’ll explore what happens to the Apollo space program with continued funding.
What happens to our long term plans for exploring the lunar surface?
What about space stations? Skylab? And what about the space station Freedom?
We’ll talk about the Apollo Applications Program, an ill-fated and under funded program with vast plans for continued space exploration. In this new world, these programs are carried thru, fully funded, enhanced, and expanded.
What is this Venus Flyby mission? How does that change the excitement of space? How did that bring back the energy and vibrancy that the world felt after we landed on the moon? How did this mission provide additional fuel towards an accelerated space program?
And what about our long desired journey to Mars?
What about permanent settlements in space? Research stations? Transit centers? Lunar bases? An L5 transportation hub?
What about greatly accelerated electronics, computers, and even greater miniaturization technologies?
But this isn’t regular science fiction. This isn’t a pure imagination world. It’s a world that could have happened, perhaps should have happened, if only a few things had been different. It’s the dream of a space age that meets its promise and exceeds its expectations.
Our story will be presented in the form of a mock documentary series, taking place in the future, that looks back at the history of our modified world. Looking back at it’s presence in outer space.
This is the world of Belitopia.
Welcome to the world of what if…