Mariner 4 Alternate Universe, What if...? |
Mariner 4 Alternate Universe, What if...? |
Sep 29 2006, 11:01 PM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
What if Mariner 4's flyby had occurred right across Tharsis & Coprates Chasma, showing volcanoes & canyons instead of heavily cratered terrain? (I understand that trajectory determinants prevented this from happening, of course, but still...). Do you suppose that Mars exploration would have been thrown into hyperdrive during the heady '60s, perhaps enough to sustain manned efforts beyond Apollo?
Doug, my apologies if this is OT for this section...there seem to be some interesting implications here for the imaginative, though. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Guest_DonPMitchell_* |
Oct 1 2006, 07:44 PM
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James Burke wrote that they kept a picture of Venera-1 on the wall at JPL, to remind them that the Russians were ahead. They were well aware that Mariner-2 was a huge stroke of good luck, with a pretty crappy spacecraft.
Sputnik, Luna-3, Vostok-1 were all a bit disturbing to the US. There could have been more impresseve successes --photos from Mars and Venera capsules on Venus in 1962, and a Moon landing with pictures in 1964, etc. But ultimately, I don't think the Soviet system could have stayed ahead. Landing a man on the Moon was carefully calculated to be the first major thing that America could do before the Russians, with almost no danger of getting scooped. They knew they had to catch up, but they also knew they were up against a burocratically planned socialist economy that couldn't make enough toilet paper for its people, much less land a man on the Moon. I admire the spunk and cleverness of the Soviet scientists, but they were working in a hopeless system. They couldn't get modern electronic parts, they couldn't get sufficient QA. They flew 6-ton spacecrafts to Venus, filled with vacuum tubes and gears and relays. It's fascinating, but there was never any question of them beating the Americans. |
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