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 we interacted in our world today? From the space program to high speed trains. From bridges to artificial intelligence. From pop culture to politics. From war to religion. Belitopia is about the world of what if. What if, different decisions were made in our history? Different priorities held by our leaders? Different politics involved? Let’s see the world as it could have been, perhaps should have been, and might still become. Welcome to Belitopia.

Belitopia - Notice: Mid-Season Break 11/30/2019

Belitopia S1E5 - Skylab + 11/28/2019

Belitopia S1E5 - Skylab + 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 public attention, nor political attention, nor ultimately funding...at least in real life. But in the world of Belitopia, the value of the fight for low earth orbit was critical, and the Skylab series of space stations was important for long term American presence in space. Even though it was important, that doesn’t mean we focused on it. In fact, one of the great lessons for America on space exploration came when we lost focus on the value of low earth orbit, and Skylab I, our first space station in low earth orbit, failed to deliver on its plans and promises. Instead, it would take two follow on Skylab space stations, Skylab II and Skylab III, before America would understand what it would take to maintain a long term presence in space in low earth orbit. This is...Skylab Plus. Welcome to Belitopia. Links and More Information . Introduction The space race was actually fought on two fronts. The first was the race to the moon. This is what Project Apollo was originally created for. The second was the race to a permanent presence in low earth orbit...the permanent manned space station. While the former was the more politically important race, due to the very public prestige associated with the voyage, the latter was actually a more important goal. Understanding, driving, and controlling human presence in low earth orbit was critical for many reasons: First, it provides long term research opportunity into the impact of space and the value of space based industry. Second, it provides research into earth and what makes the planet function, including significant improvements in weather forecasting, climate study, and geological research. Third, there are huge advantages to the military and in national security for the purposes of proactive spying, reactive security monitoring, and even — weapon delivery. Fourth, low earth orbit is a perfect jumping off point — a transfer point if you will — for future missions into deep space. All of these reasons made the race for low earth orbit just as important as the race for the moon. It just was not as politically or socially charged of a mission as the moon race was. Ultimately, permanent manned stations that could be used for research and as a transfer station for future missions was the mostimmediate goal. But before we could do that, we needed to understand what it took to create, support, and populate such a station. What we needed were baby steps, and we needed them fast before the Soviet Union could establish their foothold. It was truly a race. This is the story of Skylab. Skylab was a program for space stations based on the Apollo technology, and part of the Apollo Applications Program that we’ve spoken about in previous episodes. In real life, there was a single Skylab space station, and the results from the stations were…well...mixed. It was a damaged station that limped along, yet still provided huge research benefits for us. In Belitopia, Skylab I was just the first of a series of three Skylab space stations that were built. In Belitopia, Skylab was a true space station program that contributed greatly to our long term knowledge of space and space colonization. What follows is a fictional documentary about the Skylab space stations and our race with the Russians toward having a long term presence in low earth orbit. The documentary is presented as if it takes place in the year 2040, some 70 years after these events took place. The documentary, titled “Our World in Space”, describes the race to build space stations in low earth orbit and how the Skylab program gave the Americans a lead in space research and an understanding of how to live and work for long periods of time in space. The documentary describes these events as a future historical record of past events. While fiction, it’s based on much of the original Skylab I mission outcomes, along with thought and consideration on what follow-on Skylab missions would be like. This documentary is about the Skylab program and its impact on our long term presence in space. The Skylab program, in the world of Belitopia. Documentary — Out World in Space, 2040AD Hello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Skylab Program”. Most people thought the space race was all about the race to put a man on the moon. But the space race was actually fought on two fronts. The first was the race to the moon. This is what Project Apollo was originally created for. The second front, and in some ways perhaps a more important front, was the race to a permanent human presence in space, particularly a presence in low earth orbit. This was the race for the first permanent manned space station. While the moon race was the more politically important goal, due to the very public prestige associated with the voyage; it was the latter goal that was actually a more important goal. Understanding, driving, and controlling human presence in LEO, or low earth orbit, was critical for America’s dominance in space. This is because low earth orbit is where all the space action would be. Low earth orbit is where we could build transfer stations for missions to other destinations. Low earth orbit is where we could do research on our home planet, including important early research on climate and weather patterns. Low earth orbit was where we could spy on our enemies and they could spy on us. Low earth orbit was the beaches of Normandy for space. Conquering low earth orbit was D-Day for the space race. Humans needed permanent manned space stations in low earth orbit. It was that simple. While ultimately permanent space stations that could be used for research and as transfer points was the goal, to accomplish that goal we needed to understand what it took to create, support, and populate such a station. After the United States was successful in beating the Russians to the first lunar landing, the Soviet Union transitioned their space program quickly from one of racing toward to the moon, to one of racing toward owning low earth orbit. Very quickly, they built and launched a space station. On April 19, 1971, less than two years after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, the Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, humankind’s very first space station. This was a full six months before the United States could launch their first space station, Skylab I. Once again, the Soviet Union beat America in space. But Salyut 1 had significant problems. The first crew that visited Salyut 1 could not successfully dock with it due to a problem with the docking module on Salyut 1. They couldn’t even open the door to the station. Instead, they had to return home without ever sitting foot in the station. The second crew sent to Salyut 1 was the first and last crew to actually enter the space station. This second crew was on board a mere 23 days before a fire forced them to abandon the station permanently. What’s worse, while the crew was reentering the earth atmosphere to come home, a pressurization problem in the ship...killed the entire crew. When the ship was recovered once it landed on earth, the crew was found inside, dead. This was the Soviet Union’s first attempt at a space station, but not their last attempt. They would create six other Salyut space stations in their race against the Americans. But before the Soviet Union could replace their first station, it was America’s turn. For the United States, the first space station needed to be based on the same technology that powered Apollo. The space station program was part of the Apollo Applications Program, and the goal was to make significant use of Apollo technology. Project Apollo had already proved itself in landing on the moon. It was planned to be used for the future upcoming Venus Flyby mission, and there were plans to use Apollo technology for the first lunar bases. But before it was used for any of these other projects, it was used to create Skylab. America’s first space station, Skylab I, was quickly built and quickly put into space. It was seen as a relatively simple project. Unfortunately, it was seen as so simple, that the team was not focused, and the station quality suffered. Like Salyut 1 with the Soviet Union, Skylab I would have significant problems. Let’s look back at the creation and history of Skylab I. The History of Skylab I Shortly after the formation of the AAP agency in October of 1969, this was the agency spinoff from NASA that was responsible for reuse of Apollo technology, and shortly after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon for the first time, one of the very first projects for AAP was to figure out how to create a manned space station in low earth orbit. The decision was made to build a station quickly and cheaply, simply to get it into space ahead of the Russians. Hence, Skylab I was born. Skylab I was very simple. Take the 3rd stage of the Saturn V rocket, add some solar panels, telescopes, and other research equipment, pressurize the vessel so that it could be used by shirt sleeve crews in low earth orbit, then send it into space. Apollo command-service modules would be used to transport crews to the station, and the crews would perform simple scientific activities over medium to long duration voyages. It would be that simple. Skylab I was quickly developed, and it was developed on a shoe string budget. After all, this was going to be easy. Skylab I, unfortunately, was not the first space station into orbit. That honor would go to the Soviet Salyut 1. However, the problems with Salyut 1 were well publicized, and America was sure we could do better. Finally, on October 13, 1971, Skylab I was launched. But, unfortunately, karma knocked on the door of this space station as well. During the launch, the outer shielding for the station was torn off, as was one of the folded solar panels. The result? Skylab I was in jeopardy of boiling to destruction in the extreme heat of the sun in earth orbit. Without the protection of the outer shielding, there was no way the station could support a human crew and keep them alive. Unless a solution was found, Skylab I would have to be abandoned even before it was put into service. But American ingenuity came into play. Over the next 10 days options were considered and a plan developed. The plan was to send up a large parasol...an umbrella if you will, that would be used to cover part of the space station and keep the sun’s energy from boiling the station. The umbrella would protect the station, and save the program. America ingenuity saved the day. And 11 days after the launch of the space station, the first crew of Skylab I arrived at the station with the parasol. They were able to deploy it as well as release the remaining solar panel to finally make the station habitable. The crew struggled getting the docking adaptor on the station to work correctly, though, a problem that waseerily reminiscent of Salyut 1, but they were able to clear up the problem and enter the space station to continue their mission. Skylab I was saved. The lesson of Skylab I — never more would our attention falter when it came to an important mission. Too much was at stake. The value received from a space mission is usually in proportion to the amount invested — time, money, and focus. The more you invest, the more you get out of the program. That lesson would serve the space agencies well for many years to come, and would be one of the main reasons why the manned space program continued to receive the funding it needed. The remainder of the Skylab program would receive the attention required, and funding necessary, to be successful. In all, three separate crews made Skylab I their home from October 15, 1971 until March 1, 1973. The longest crew stayed for 210 days, a record at the time. Skylab I was a success, and America was once again the leader in establishing a presence in low earth orbit. This was a lead that would actually be extended when the Soviet Union’s next attempt at putting a station into space, Salyut 2 which launched on April 3, 1973, became a complete and utter failure. While no human lives were loss, the ship itself was destroyed. It survived in orbit for a mere 13 days before it burned up in the atmosphere, having never even being visited by a human crew. Skylab II While successful, Skylab I was limited. It was small, it was injured, and it didn’t have the power it needed to support our needs in space for the long term. Instead, a larger and more powerful space station was needed. This is where Skylab II came to be. Based on the same overall technology as Skylab I, Skylab II was nearly twice the size of Skylab I. It consisted of two sections that were launched independently, each section launched on its own Saturn V rocket, each section the size of the original Skylab I, and each section looking very similar to the core of the original Skylab 1. The two sections were joined in space to create a larger space station. The new station, which looked much like two main Skylab modules attached together, was assembled in space by an assembly crew launched separately over a 24 day period during February of 1974. Once the assembly was complete, the larger station was capable of supporting two complete three person crews simultaneously — six astronauts total, at a time. The result was a station that could perform significantly more research with more astronauts involved. Skylab II supported six missions from March 10, 1974 until May 5th, 1977. The fourth crew, that of the Skylab II-M4 mission, was a three man crew that broke the record for the longest stay in space of 426 days, or around 14 months. The long duration habitation research of the latter Skylab I missions and the early Skylab II missions was critical in the evaluation of impact on the human body on long duration missions. This was critical research for both the upcoming Venus Flyby mission, but also for the planned manned bases on the lunar surface. Skylab II was a huge overall success. While most of what it accomplished did not receive the media attention that the Venus Flyby mission received, it was extremely important in the ongoing space race with the Soviet Union over the control and ownership of low earth orbit. The Soviets Meanwhile, the Soviet Union wasn’t sitting back and watching. Their first two attempts were major disasters. But on May 25, 1974, Salyut 3 launched. Salyut 3 remained in orbit for eight months. This was followed shortly after by a Salyut 4, Salyut 5, 6, and finally a Salyut 7. Overall, the entire Salyut program consisted of seven separate space stations. The last station in the series, Salyut 7, was launched in April of 1982 and was occupied for over two and a half years concurrently. Salyut 6 was in service for nearly five years! Finally, on February 19, 1986, the Soviet Union launched and began space based construction on the Mir space station. This would be the first permanently manned space station in low earth orbit. Mir was continuously manned and operated for over fifteen years before it was finally retired and de-orbited in March of 2001. Skylab III Meanwhile, back in America, hot on the success of Skylab II, the United States was getting ready to launch Skylab III. Still based on Apollo technology, Skylab III was essentially three Skylab I modules fastened together. These three segments were launched from three distinct Saturn V rockets, and were assembled in orbit using two separate three person assembly crews over the course of nearly three months. Finally, on Jun 4, 1977, the first habitation crew arrived at Skylab III and stayed on board for 301 days. Over the course of the next seven years, a total of eighteen crews would visit Skylab III. At one point in time, three separate, three person crews would inhabit the stations at once. Nine astronauts at once were on board the space station. Over the course of these missions, the longest duration stay by an astronaut was 522 days. That’s nearly 18 months, or a year and a half. The longest any human has spent in space. The United States was learning how to live and work in space. The Skylab Program The Skylab program was extremely valuable to our developing knowledge about how to live and operate in space. The research from Skylab helped us understand the impact of long duration missions in space. This was critical not only for the Venus Flyby mission, but for the future planned missions to Mars and beyond, along with our planned long term habitation of the lunar surface. And it was needed for our research, development, and launch of Space Station Freedom, America’s permanently habituated space station. Space Station Freedom was substantially larger than the Soviet Union’s Mir space station, and substantially larger than any of the Skylab stations, and it became a critical jumping off point for future lunar missions and deep space missions. Freedom was our first and most stable permanent home in space. But that is a story for another time. For now, it should just be known that Space Station Freedom would not have been possible without the research that was performed by the twenty five distinct crews on board the three Skylab space stations. Skylab was a quiet but hugely critical success for the United States space program. Summary Skylab truly was invaluable in our gaining experience in space. It was critical to our future missions and future plans. It was critical to our long term success in space. As mentioned in the documentary, Skylab led to Space Station Freedom, which gave us a permanent presence in space. Space Station Freedom was substantially larger and more stable than the Soviet Union’s Mir station. Mir was the Soviet Union’s last major space project. The space race would soon be over. Space Station Freedom, the Apollo lunar landings, the Venus Flyby, and the early lunar bases were all United States projects. While the Soviet Union was first in almost every goal of space exploration, it was the United States that ended up being the most successful and ultimately the leader. But the push to space continued, even if the competition was less fierce. Joint projects between nations, including the United States and Russia, were starting to occur. In real life, the manned space program only was built as part of a joint, multi-nation effort. The International Space Station was the largest, and the only, large scale manned mission in space. The United States did not continue with manned space missions, focusing instead on robotic missions. But that was not the case in Belitopia. In Belitopia, the United States was the driving force for the continued exploration and exploitation of space by manned space missions. And later, after the eventual split-up of the United States, the leadership in space exploration and exploitation was continued by the Western Alliance of States and Providences, which included parts of the Western United States. We will continue to explore more of these missions in future episodes...of Belitopia. If you enjoyed this documentary about the Skylab series of space stations, and would like more information about them, including mission milestones and timelines, ship diagrams, and plans, go to our website at . /episode/index/show/belitopia/id/12195920

Belitopia S1E4 - The Venus Flyby p2 11/14/2019

Belitopia S1E4 - The Venus Flyby p2 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 mission actually occurred. We left off after part 1 in the middle of the mock documentary, “Our World in Space”, as it describes the Venus Flyby mission in greater detail. This fictional documentary takes place in the year 2040, 65 years after the mission took place. We left the documentary in part 1 after talking about the Christmas Miracle burn that saved the crew and mission in December of 1975. Now, let’s continue with our story. Let’s re-enter the documentary where we left off. We’ll talk about the flyby itself, the mission home, and the unprecedented and untried process used to slow down the ship in time for reentry into the earth’s atmosphere for a safe and slow splashdown. Now back to the voyage of Venus 1 — the Venus mission, in the world of Belitopia. Documentary — Our World in Space, 2040AD Hello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Venus Flyby”. Part 2. The rest of the flight to Venus was, indeed, uneventful. After the Christmas Miracle burn on December 29, 1975, the next 43 days of the mission were busy preparing for the flyby. Long before the flyby itself would occur, many scientific experiments and studies were planned involving solar experiments with the sun, deep space experiments, and eventually Venus studies as the ship neared the flyby itself. The crew of Venus 1 was very busy. In fact, they were too busy to spend time thinking about what almost happened. They were too busy to think about what happened that resulted in the need for the Christmas Miracle burn in the first place, and how lucky they were that they were saved. Backlash from the Crisis That wasn’t true on earth, however. On earth, there was significant discussions, among government leaders, NASA and AAP leaders, as well as among the general public. Their were two concerns. The first, would the STS engine continue to function for the rest of the trip, and can the mission end successfully as planned on day T+210? Most people were convinced that the engine would continue to work properly, but, there still were concerns. The second was a more actionable concern. While Venus 1 was in process, plans were progressing for a Venus 2 and Venus 3 flight. These two additional Venus flyby missions were similar in nature to Venus 1 using the exact same technology. The research and science they would perform would be different, but the basic flight plan was the same. Venus 2 was set to launch during the second planetary alignment window two years later in July of 1977. Venus 3 was scheduled to launch a year later in May 1978. However, the crisis on Venus 1 and the need for the Christmas Miracle brought heightened attention to the fact that there was only one main STS engine on the service module. If that engine were to fail, the mission would undoubtedly end in disaster. The engine was considered highly reliable, but still, it was a single point of failure. Unlike the Apollo moon missions, there was no free return trajectory that was available with the planned Venus missions profiles, so the engine would be required in order to safely return the spacecraft home. Given this concern, an unfortunate and unpopular decision was made. Apollo technology, as is, had insufficient safeguards built in to avoid any single point failure problems. Newer systems and better technology beyond Apollo was needed before we could safely attempt another mission beyond the moon. This effectively put an end to the planned Venus 2 and Venus 3 missions, and put to an end the development of a similar Mars 1 flyby mission that was still in the early planning stages. Those missions would have to wait for better technology, technology that would not be available for many years yet. The Flyby The flyby itself was actually a very short window of visibility into Venus. Over 100 days into a 210 day mission, the flyby itself, the entire purpose of the trip, would occur during a very short two day period. After nearly 100 days in space, the entire purpose of the trip would be over in a matter of a few dozen hours. Planning was crucial to make sure that the ultimate advantage could be taken of the two day flyby. Sleep was minimal as the crew readied themselves for the flyby. There would be no sleep at all during the 48 hours of the flyby itself. Anticipation at its climax, the crew was getting ready. The flyby, adjusted for the changes caused by the Christmas Miracle burn, started officially at 15:35 hours on February 10, 1976 and ended at 8:12 hours on February 12th. The flyby of Venus, the planet named after the Roman Goddess of Love, occurred just two days before Valentines day, the holiday of love. This wasn’t the original plan. But, by, coincidence, coincidence created by the Christmas Miracle burn, the flyby would occur near Valentine’s Day. This was deemed a positive omen by the mainstream media and considered a good sign for the ongoing success of the mission. A sign of good luck that the crew — and those following on earth — desperately needed. United States President Gerald Ford, acting along with the congress of the United States, declared Valentines Day, February 14, 1976, an official day of celebration for the ongoing success of the Apollo Venus Flyby mission. And success it was. After the incredibly brief encounter with Venus, the ship was spun around by gravity and was now headed back on their four month return voyage home. Through March and April, the ship continued its trip to reach earth. Two Earth Assist Burns were needed. Nerves were fragile and everyone was at high alert as the first burn approached. After all, the SPS engine had not been used since the Christmas Miracle. If it failed again, all would be lost. It had to work. And it did work. It worked flawlessly. For over two months everyone was In a heightened state of anticipation to see what would happen when this burn occurred. Yes, all the experts said the engine was fine, but the proof was in the actual firing of the engine. Over two months after the Christmas Miracle, the STS engine worked perfectly and the crew was still on their proper course home. The second earth assist burn, EAB-II, occurred two months later and it too worked flawlessly. The crew of Venus 1 was perfectly aligned with earth and were heading home. All that remained now was to slow down enough to land safely. The Slowdown The ship, after all, was traveling at unheard of speeds for previous manned space flight. The spacecraft was speeding toward earth at a relative speed of nearly 10,000 miles per hour. A significant amount of that speed needed to be shed before a reentry into the earth atmosphere could be considered. But how was this speed reduction going to occur? For the moon missions, this step was easy. While the ship was traveling at a high speed, the speed could be shed off by simply skipping into the earth atmosphere at such an angle that speed would be reduced by atmospheric friction, converting the speed to heat. For the Venus mission, though, the speed was too excessive to make that possible. If Venus 1 attempted to enter the atmosphere at the speed they were traveling, they would burn up in a matter of seconds, creating a fireball that could be seen for hundreds of miles. Before any attempt to enter the earth atmosphere could be contemplated, a significant amount of speed needed to be scrubbed. This speed reduction was accomplished by a series of maneuvers. These maneuvers involved the use of the gravity of the moon and the gravity of the earth to reduce that speed. The speed would be loss by a series of slowdown flybys of both the earth and the moon. The series of maneuvers were to occur over the last 14 days of the trip. This final stage of the voyage started on May 18, 1976, when the habitation module, which served as the crews primary home for the last 191 days, was undocked and left to float away. With most of the consumable resources consumed, the habitation module was no longer needed and would simply serve as a nuisance during the final maneuvers of the mission. So on May 18, the habitation module was separated from the ship and was sent into a trajectory that would send the spent module out past earth orbit and into deep space. The habitation module was the primary home for the two astronauts for the last seven months. It served its purpose near perfectly. Now, spent, it was abandoned. Meanwhile, the remaining Command-Service Module was sent onwards towards the second Lunar Flyby of the mission. This one, near the end of the mission, was designed to shed off a significant amount of excess velocity. The Lunar Flyby II occurred on May 19, 1976, and sent the ship on a quick 2 and a half day trip towards earth. The shortness of the trip to earth was because the ship still had too much velocity. While slower than its previous cruising velocity, if the ship were to try and re-enter now, it would still burn up. So, more speed needed to be shed. An additional burn of the service module engine occurred, and this burn aligned the spaceship into a position for a slingshot flyby past earth and back towards the moon. This earth flyby shed a significant amount of additional speed. On the way back to the moon, another minor course adjustment burn was performed, and Venus 1 was prepared for its third, and final, lunar flyby. Lunar Flyby III occurred on May 25, 6 days since the last Lunar flyby. This time, enough speed was shed so that the ship could ease gently towards the earth at normal Apollo reentry speeds. Finally on May 31, 1976, the voyage of Venus 1 officially ended with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 13:22 hours mission time on day 210. The voyage of Venus 1, the first crewed ship to leave the Earth-Moon system and travel to another planet, was a success. Celebration The end of the trip occurred at a perfect time. The United States was deep in the middle of its Bicentennial celebration. On July 4, 1976, the crew of Venus 1, David Mason and James Ahmed, became guests of President Gerald Ford at the White House and were showcased during several Washington DC Bicentennial events. The pride of the US space program and the pride in the success of the Apollo program in general, had never been as great as this, since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon for the first time a mere seven years earlier. It was not forgotten, though, that the voyage had almost ended in trajectory. If not for the Christmas Miracle burn, rather than being with President Ford on the steps of the capital during a celebration of the United States’ 200th anniversary, the crew of Venus 1 would have been zooming past Venus and headed toward a fiery death. And rather than a source of national pride during the Bicentennial, it would be a time of mourning for the people of the United States. This realization, more than anything, is what put a halt to the development of the Venus 2 and Venus 3 flyby missions to Venus. It’s what put a halt to the early planning for the planned Mars 1 flyby. Never again would Apollo technology be used to move humans beyond lunar orbit. The risk of having no backup engine in case of a catastrophe was an understood risk at the time, but now in hindsight it was a seemingly unacceptable risk for deep space missions. For humans to travel into space, programs and space technology beyond Apollo would be needed. These programs and technology would, of course, eventually be created. But for now, Apollo was the means towards that end. Many things were ultimately accomplished by the Venus 1 mission. The crew set a multitude of records that would stand for many years to come. They were the fastest humans in the world. They travelled furthest from the earth, and they also travelled a further total distance than any human ever. They set the record for the longest duration space mission at the time and proved that humans could endure the long duration trips necessary for interplanetary travel. Even with the engine failure and the need for the Christmas Miracle, all objectives of the mission were met and many were exceeded. The trip of Venus 1 to and around the planet Venus was a huge success. Summary That is the end of the documentary from Belitopia. This two part episode described Venus 1, the first manned mission to leave the earth-moon system. The first manned mission to travel to another planet. If you enjoyed this documentary about the Venus 1 voyage, and would like more information about this mock mission, including mission events and timelines, ship diagrams, and course plans, go to our website at . This Week in History — November 5th, 2024 November 5th, 2024. Election Day. On this day, the State of Washington voters, by an huge 78% to 22% margin, passed a referendum supporting the California Free Trade Bill. This put the State of Washington clearly on the side of California in “The Great Golden Standoff”. Washington State was now squarely in the sights of the United States government, as they struggled to try and hold the nation together. Tariffs, and nationalism, it was beginning to look like these issues would ultimately be the cause of the downfall of the United States of America, and the formation of the new super powers already growing in the Pacific Rim and elsewhere. This was a dark day in US history, and the newly elected nationalist president would have a huge challenge trying to keep the United States united, and the international community mollified. /episode/index/show/belitopia/id/12028751

Belitopia S1E3 - The Venus Flyby p1 11/05/2019

Belitopia S1E3 - The Venus Flyby p1 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 program was budgeted. Given the significant budget cuts after the moon landing, the Venus Flyby mission didn’t really have a chance. That was in the real world. But this is not the real world… This is…the “Venus Flyby” mission. Links and More Information . Introduction In the last episode, we talked about the Apollo Applications Program, and the future use of Apollo technology beyond its use in landing on the moon. During the late 1960’s, one of the missions that was considered for the Apollo Applications Program was a Flyby mission of the planet Venus. As we discussed previously, due to lack of support from both the Johnson and the Nixon Administrations, the mission never really was taken seriously. But there was some actual planning that went into this proposed mission. In fact, you can check out Wikipedia and other online sources, and you’ll find information about what was proposed in the late 1960’s for this trip. A high level outline of a mission plan was created. A link to that proposal is included in the links above. But this is Belitopia. In our world, Johnson and Nixon did support the AAP program, and the Venus Flyby mission was funded. This episode describes a significant variation from the initial plans that were created in the 1960’s. Instead, it describes a trip that I believe is more inline with what would have actually occurred, if we were allowed to invest in and create such a mission. In our version of the mission, the one that occurred in the world of Belitopia, the mission was named Venus 1 and it sent two astronauts on a planned nearly seven month round trip on a flyby pass around the planet Venus. What follows is a fictional documentary about this flyby mission. The documentary takes place in the year 2040, 65 years after the mission took place. This documentary, titled “Our World in Space”, describes the Venus Flyby mission in greater detail, as a historical record of past events. While fiction, it’s based on much thought and consideration on what it would take to make such as trip possible. This documentary is about the voyage of the first humans to leave the Earth-Moon system and flyby another planet. This documentary is about the voyage of Venus 1 — the Venus mission, in the world of Belitopia. /episode/index/show/belitopia/id/11795219

Belitopia S1E2 - Apollo Applications Program 10/22/2019

Belitopia S1E1 - Apollo + 10/08/2019

Belitopia S1E1 - Apollo + 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 unbelievably bad. There doesn’t seem to be much in the middle. But what if we looked at science fiction differently? What if we instead looked at a realistic world? A believable world. This is the world of Belitopia. … In this episode of Belitopia. The Apollo space program. The quintessential peak of human kinds manned presence in space. The funding that went into this program was astronomical, around $120 **billion** dollars, adjusted for inflation. But once we established John F. Kennedy’s dream of putting a man on the moon, we lost interest in space. Our society moved on, and the will and drive to do more and more in space went away. With the reduced interest in space came reduced funding. Like having whiplash, the Apollo program was stopped suddenly. But, what if it didn’t stop suddenly… This … is … Apollo Plus. Welcome to Belitopia. … From the space program to high speed trains, from bridges to artificial intelligence, from pop culture to politics, and war to religion. Belitopia is about the world of what if. What if, different decisions were made in our history? Different priorities held by our leaders? Different politics involved? Let’s see the world as it could have been, perhaps should have been, and might still become. Welcome to Belitopia. Start of Episode Hello everybody, and welcome to Apollo +. Apollo, the United States space program that put a man on the moon. The Apollo program ended after Apollo 17 returned to earth on December 19, 1972. The Apollo program stopped … abruptly. By some people’s thinking, this was the end of the real manned space program. Everything else that came after Apollo 17 was a shadow of what went on before. The reason? Well, people lost interest in space. There was enough other things going on in the late 60’s and early 70’s to keep people’s interest. Who cared about going to the moon anymore? It was old news. After losing interest in space, the space program lost funding…no more big Apollo-type programs…nothing. NASA spent the next 50+ years squeaking by on as little money as they could squeeze out of the government budget…it was, really, a national embarrassment. The halting of the Apollo program was so sudden that many people believe the whole entire program must have been faked. We never landed on the moon, it was a fake. And so there wasn’t any more “there” there… So went the conspiracy theories. But, it did happen. We did land on the moon…and we did so five additional times. Six times in total, human-kind landed on the moon. Each flight had accomplished more and more important space objectives. Each flight did something new and different. Apollo accomplished many space objectives, including: First time we left the vicinity of the earth and entered into the gravitational pull of another object, namely the moon. First time we docked two ships together in orbit around an object that was not the earth. A task that was essential if we wanted to eventually complete our mission to land on the moon, and continue our expiration into space. First time humans landed on an object that wasn’t earth…namely the moon. We left the safety of our ship and walked around on the surface of another astronomical object. We brought home rocks and soil samples gathered from the surface. And we picked up objects left behind from previous unmanned trips to the moon and returned them home, to allow us to study the long term effect of exposure to space on them. We examined and learned the geology of the moon in greater detail, and travelled significant distances along the surface of the moon to explore areas far away from our ship. We did all this with Apollo, until Apollo 17. Then, we stopped. It wasn’t as if we had run out of ideas. We actually were already building more Apollo space ships. We were building Apollo 18, Apollo 19, and Apollo 20. We had plans for those trips. Apollo 18 was going to visit the Copernicus crater, Apollo 19 was visiting Hadley Rille, and Apollo 20 was going to visit the Surveyor 7 site at Tycho crater. The ships were built, crews selected, and missions were being organized. We were that far along. But the funding stop was so sudden and so significant, we mothballed the ships, told the crews we weren’t going, and scrubbed the remaining missions. Plans that were developed were abandoned. How would it have changed if funding had not stopped? What would have happened to the manned space program if we had continued funding into the future? Before we can answer that question, we have to understand why funding stopped, and what might have kept us going and kept the money flowing for more Apollo missions. It’s impossible to know for sure, but there are many possible reasons that could have contributed to the drop in funding. For example: While Apollo 11 was an amazing journey and an Amazing heroic story, Apollo 12 was, well, pretty much a dud. The mission had planned and promised a color video camera that would allow live color views of the lunar walk. But, the camera did not function, and as such there were no live views from the surface. Rather than showing nothing, the networks used actors on a stage to reproduce what was going on on the moon surface. People who tuned in to see live pictures from the moon, instead saw actors on a make shift stage. The audience turned away in droves. Viewership plunged. The public, really, never regained interest in Apollo. Apollo 13 recaptured our interest momentarily, but only because of a possibility of a looming disaster in space. Before the crisis, the popularity of Apollo 13 was at an astronomically low level. A planned live broadcast from the Apollo 13 command module right before the accident, wasn’t even carried by any of the broadcast networks. They had planned on showing brief clips of the broadcast during their “evening news coverage”, and that was it. If not for the accident, nobody would have cared at all about the trip. The remainder missions, Apollo 14-17 were seemingly only minor incremental improvements over the preceding mission. They were scientifically extremely interesting, most definitely, but from a public viewing standpoint, it was simply more of the same. Additionally, fear of another Apollo 13-type problem were weighing down on NASA, and pressure to avoid such an accident was great. So NASA was less willing to take unnecessary risks in future missions, making the missions that did occur “safe”. Safe and boring. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, President Nixon was not, frankly, a fan of the Apollo program. This is because the program was JFK’s dream, not his. It was Nixon’s democratic predecessor that pushed for it. It was nothing Nixon was interested in. Given all of this, Apollo 18 and beyond were doomed. But, what if the camera on Apollo 12 had broadcast stunning pictures, in full color, from the surface of the moon? What awe inspiring views would we have seen that would have energized the population? What if Nixon was a fan of the space program…and Apollo…and saw the possibilities of the future of space exploration as his predecessor JFK had? What if Apollo was seen as the point of national pride and accomplishment that it, quite frankly, truly was? And what if the value of continuing that point of national pride encouraged further funding? That’s what we are going to explore this season on Belitopia… Everything else we discuss in this podcast this season will be based on the premise that we did continue significant funding for Apollo, and that the funding and national interest did not subside. Imagine this new world. Imagine finishing Apollo through Apollo 20. Imagine a world where we had an enhanced Skylab, a world where humans went further than the moon. Imagine what the manned space program future would be like. What would this world in space be like today? What about in 20 more years? What would this world be like? Welcome to Belitopia. What follows is a fictional documentary, a mocumentary, that takes place in the year 2040, 80 years after the start of the space program. This mocumentary, titled “Our World in Space”, describes the history of the enhanced Apollo lunar program in greater detail, as a historical record of past events. We will use this same future-mocumentary format many times in upcoming episodes in this season of this podcast. It’s a future view of our historical record. While fiction, it’s based on much thought and consideration on what could have happened, along with plans that were actually in the works at NASA before funding was cut. This mocumentary is about the history of man’s early establishment of a presence on the lunar surface. This is what Apollo Plus is all about. Here, in the world of Belitopia. Documentary Entering the world of Belitopia. The year, 2040. This is the documentary, “Our World in Space”. … Hello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Apollo Moon Missions”. The history of the space program in the United States started 80 years ago, on May 5, 1961, when Alan Shepard Jr spent America’s first 15 minutes in space. And this began the 80 year growth to the space program we have today. But we are not hear to talk about Alan Shepard, and we are not here to talk about space today in 2040. We are here to talk about our first critical success in space. A space program that ran in the late 1960’s, the 1970’s, and ended in the early 1980s. We’re here to talk about project Apollo. The Apollo space program. Some people call it the beginning of our push to put humans deeper and deeper into space. The beginning of our long term occupation and colonization of space. The purpose of Apollo, initially, was to land the first man on the moon. It did this historic feat, and it did so much more. The original Apollo program was broken up into a series of four phases, each phase designed to provide more and more capabilities for us to explore the lunar surface. Phase I The original Apollo Phase 1 missions, that is Apollo 11 through Apollo 14 were known as the “Initial Apollo Phase” of the moon landing. These four missions were designed to give us experience in traveling and landing on the moon. While for Apollo 11, landing anywhere on the moon was considered a success, Apollo 12 had to be more accurate. Apollo 12 landed in the Ocean of Storms, a mere 600 feet from their objective, the resting place of the Surveyor III unmanned spacecraft that landed on the moon in April of 1967. Given the failure of Apollo 13 to actually land on the moon, the pressure was increased on Apollo 14, which was given the job of performing a pin point landing in the Fra Mauro highlands, near the crater of the same name. Ultimately, the ability to make landing on the moon a safe, regular, and reliable event was the goal of phase I. Phase II The next phase of Apollo was Phase 2. These missions featured extended stays on the moon and the ability to explore larger areas for longer periods of time. Apollo 15 through Apollo 17 focused on lunar stays of 3-4 days and featured experimentation with the Lunar Rover in order to explore larger areas. Apollo 17 had in its crew a geologist who could interpret the geology of the moon that was visited during their stay. Apollo 18 featured a week long stay in the Copernicus crater, not far from where Apollo 12 previously landed. Besides exploring this prestine crater, the Apollo 18 crew visited the Apollo 12 landing site. They picked up and returned an experiment left by Apollo 12 nearly four years earlier. This was also the first time that a crew of one mission, visited the site of another manned mission. Phase III Phase 3 consisted of two, extended duration Apollo missions to the moon. Apollo 19 visited Rima Hadley to continue the exploration of an area originally visited by Apollo 15. This time, the crew remained on the surface for nearly two weeks and explored the largest area covered by any Apollo mission, covering nearly 150kilometers of the lunar surface. Apollo 20 was the last of the initial Apollo lunar missions, and featured 18 days on the lunar surface at Tycho crater. While Tycho crater is extremely popular and well known today, it was also well known at that time. Tycho crater’s popularity originally arises from it being the location of the monolith found on the Lunar surface in the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001 A Space Odyssey and Arthur C Clark’s book of the same name. A great tribute having that location be the landing location to end the highly successful Phase III of Apollo. And of course, Tycho crater will continue to play an important role in human kinds exploration of the lunar surface, as we will talk about later. These phase 3 missions were highly significant to the space program, because they gave us a great understanding of the geological makeup of the moon. Many people believe it was during these later Phase 3 missions, when we started to realize the economic benefit of the resources available on the lunar surface, and in outer space in general. The moon has provided mankind a great laboratory for learning and understanding this value, and Phase 3 of Apollo just touched the surface of understanding this value. It’s probably safe to say that Apollo Phase 3 was the true start of the Golden Age of crewed space travel, an age of growth in the space program and humankind’s presence in space that we are still enjoying the benefits of to this day. Phase IV Apollo Phase 4’s ultimate goal was to create the first manned base on the surface of the moon. To do this, it first had to start with the launch of several unmanned Lunar Orbital Survey Missions. These were a series of four unmanned ships sent to the moon during the summer of 1974, to insert satellites into lunar orbit. These satellites were necessary in order to provide the trans-Earth-Moon communications needs that would be required for the Phase 4 manned Apollo flights. The next step, was the construction of the lunar bases themselves. However, this required the ability to add a new capability in our set of tools for exploring the moon. It required the ability to execute a Lunar Surface Rendezvous, something that up until this point had never been accomplished. … A quick sidebar here. The history of the space program has shown that more and more increased rendezvous capabilities have been important milestones along our journey into space. All through the history of the space program, the ability to rendezvous in harder locations and further locations from home were hurdles that had to crossed. Whether it was Project Mercury and our ability to rendezvous a ship after splash down with a rescue vessel in a timely manner, or Project Gemeni which managed to achieve and practice rendezvous in earth orbit, and finally Apollo which required the ability to rendezvous in lunar orbit, 250,000 miles from earth. All of these were important objectives in our learning how to live and travel into space. But Phase 4 of Apollo required a new rendezvous capability. It required the ability to rendezvous on the surface of the moon. We saw a limited test of this in Apollo 18, where that crew visited the site of the Apollo 12 landing. But for Phase 4 of Apollo to be successful, NASA needed to launch multiple rockets towards the moon, and have all the ships land at the exact same location, within a mere matter of meters from each other. Each ship carried parts of the lunar base that were to be assembled on the lunar surface to create the full lunar base. If the parts could not be delivered accurately to the correct location on the lunar surface, precisely, then they could not be assembled into the finished station. In all, four unmanned Saturn V rockets were used to send components of the lunar base to the moon so they could be assembled by a manned crew at a later date. All four components had to land at the exact same location. … During the course of the winter of 1974 and the spring of 1975, these four rockets sent parts of the base to the planned location of this first lunar base, which was going to be at, of course, Tycho crater, the landing location scouted out for this purpose by Apollo 20. Then, on August 3, 1975, the crew of Tycho 1 started their trip to Tycho base. The two man crew finished most of the assembly of Tycho Base, and the crew of Tycho 2, launched September 5, 1975, finished the rest of the assembly. Tycho base was now ready for long term habitation of the lunar surface. Apollo Phase 4 proved that lunar surface rendezvous was possible, and that a base could be assembled on the lunar surface from parts sent in multiple rockets to the surface. This capability was required to build Tycho base, and it was required for the 12 separate crewed Lunar Landers that visited Tycho Base from 1975 until 1980. Additionally, in 1977, a second base was built near Tsiolkovskiy crater on the far side, the back side, of the moon. This base required communications satellites in orbit in order for it to communicate with humans on earth, or for that matter, with humans on Tycho base on the front side. This new, opposite side of the moon, base was named Borman-Lovell-Anders, or BLA for short, after the crew of Apollo 8. These three men were the first humans to ever see the far side of the moon. This base had 10 separate 2-person crews land and occupy the base from 1977 until 1981. Post Documentary That was the documentary from Belitopia, describing how the early days of Apollo. From Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, to Tycho 10’s 242 day stay on the lunar surface, the Project Apollo lunar program was highly successful. As we will learn in later episodes, however, lunar exploration was not the only accomplishment and outcome of project Apollo. There were many more interesting outcomes. Real life cancelled plans, but plans that in the world of Belitopia, actually happened. But, that’s for future episodes. If you are intrigued by this enhanced Apollo program and enhanced Apollo voyages to the moon in the world of Belitopia, and would like to see more information on these missions, including a discussion with dates of each of the missions to Tycho Base and Borman-Lovell-Anders Base, please go to our website at belitopia.com/apollo. That’s belitopia.com, slash a-p-o-l-l-o. This week in Belitopia history 2025 May 1st, 2025. The day of the signing of the CAWA Declaration of Freedom Act. This day for ever more would be known as Uno de Mayo. On this day, California and Washington State officially declared their independence from the United States. They create CAWA, a loose alliance of cooperation and support between the two newly created nation-states. To add insult to injury, the United Nations agreed, via a near unanimous vote, to recognize California and Washington State as independent from the United States. The one descending vote, however, was an overriding veto by the United States, effectively halting the resolution. None-the-less, Uno de Mayo would forevermore be seen as the start of the power of the Pacific rim countries and the begin of the long slow fall of the United States as a superpower on the world stage. Next Episode On the next episode of 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... /episode/index/show/belitopia/id/11538386

Belitopia S1E0 - Welcome to Belitopia… 09/28/2019

Belitopia S1E0 - Welcome to 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 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… /episode/index/show/belitopia/id/11427929

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