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Project Apollo started as a program simply to land a man on the moon before the Russians. But, as time went on, the Apollo technology found more and more uses as we learned how to live and work in space. Apollo technology gave us earth orbiting space stations, two bases on the` lunar surface, a lunar orbiting space station, communications satellites a quarter of a million miles from either the earth or the moon, and a crewed mission to flyby the planet Venus.What a legacy.But what’s next? Now that we’ve proven we can live and work in space, what is our next challenge in space?The next challenge is learning how to live in persistently and sustainably in space. How can we have a permanent presence in space?That is the subject of season 2 of Belitopia, and this final episode of season 1 gives you a glimpse into the missions and technology that are next inline after Project Apollo, and the Apollo Applications Program is complete.LinksLink to episode (https://belitopia.com/110)Apollo Program Information (https://belitopia.com/apollo)Help support our show (https://belitopia.com/support)Review and rate us on Podchaser (https://www.podchaser.com/Belitopia)Keep Informed when season 2 is about to start (belitopia.com/signup)Neil deGrasse Tyson - StarTalk (https://www.startalkradio.net)Space Resource quote - StarTalk, Nov 27, 2016IntroductionThis season of Belitopia has been all about project Apollo, and extensions and enhancements to the use of project Apollo technology in order to further human presence in space.Using Apollo technology in Belitopia: We landed on the moon. We lived and worked in earth orbit. We lived and worked in lunar orbit. We lived and worked on the lunar surface. And we visited our nearest neighbor, the planet Venus.All of these missions were possible extensions to the real world Apollo program, if we would have just committed the financial resources to make it happen. And in the world of Belitopia, we did commit those resources and these missions occurred.So, this begs the question. Why didn’t we do these missions in real life? Well, you have to remember what was the primary driver for the Apollo moon mission in the first place. It was politics. We were afraid of the Soviet Union and what they could accomplish in space. Sputnik scared America, and our response was to build a space program to prove we were better at space exploration than the Soviet Union. It took many years...decades...before we caught up with the Soviet Union. They kept beating us to space firsts......first man in space...first man in orbit...first unmanned ship to the moon...and many others.We needed a victory.We eventually found that victory in July of 1969 with the landing of the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin won the space race for us. It wasn’t because we, the United States, were better at space than the Soviet Union...we weren’t. Rather, it was because we finally were able to beat them at something. Beat them at one thing...landing a man on the moon.But once we did that, for all practical purposes, the race was over. The political drive that motivated the need for the space program was gone. We gave up, and we moved on to other more pressing national priorities, such as the war in Vietnam.The only reason there were Apollo missions beyond the Apollo 11 moon landing was because of the momentum involved in stopping it. The political pressure to stop investing came almost immediately, and eventually the program was swallowed up by the pressure and we stopped after Apollo 17. We had plans for more Apollo missions, and started building the space craft necessary for Apollo 18-20, but by the time Apollo 17 happened, there was no stopping the pressure to stop the investment, and the program was scrapped.The Russians had beat us on many accomplishments in space, but we had beat them on one accomplishment, and that was enough for us. And it was all the American public...and the political powers to be in the United States...could stomach. There was no longer enough motivation to continue the space race.But there are other reasons why we ***should*** explore outer space. Natural curiosity was a big driver for the program, and the space program created a host of auxiliary technology that improved our every day lives. These were reasons enough to continue the space program. But we also are just beginning to realize there might be valuable resources in space, resources valuable enough to worth exploring.But in the real world, none of these reasons were enough to justify continuing the space program. In the world of Belitopia, though, these reasons were enough, and the Belitopian world is a better place because of it.There is a great quote that describes for me why space exploration is so important in the world of Belitopia — and why it should be in our “real” world. The quote is by the famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on his show StarTalk in late 2016. The quote is:“There is an outer space treaty for the peaceful use of outer space. So the goal is when we all go into space, we will treat each other kindly. I don’t have the confidence that others have in that. I want to believe it. But, I say to myself, if you can treat each other kindly in space, then why not do that here on earth? Why do you have to be in space to not kill one another? However, my one glimmer of hope, is that so much of human conflict in the history of civilization has been derived from scarcity of resource and access to those resources. And I look at space. Astroids, comets...stars with limitless energy...and I realize…we should all realize…that space is a limit***less*** supply of natural resources. Space may be the only place where peace is guaranteed, because in fact, we would have run out of all reasons for why to kill one another.”If there has ever been a better reason for space exploration than this, I don’t know what it would be. This quote says that space exploration is important because it gives us access to uncountable amounts of natural resources, and that in turn reduces or eliminates our needs to kill our fellow human beings here on earthThis is why, in my mind, the world of Belitopia is so important.The Apollo Applications ProgramAnd the greatly expanded Apollo program was the first step in this. The expanded world of Belitopia began, if you recall back in episode #2, with the formation of the Apollo Applications Program, AAP, as a formalized program with a real budget and real objectives. In the real world, the AAP was a program that never really materialized. But in the world of Belitopia, it was fully realized and it turned into a separate agency, distinct and separate from NASA, that allowed us to create and expand the reach of the Apollo program in Belitopia. It was because of this expanded AAP program......That the Skylab space station became a fully funded, multi-space-station program....That the Lunar Skylab space station existed at all....That we were able to create two long duration lunar bases on the lunar surface....That a sophisticated human transportation network was created between the earth and the moon, as was the case with the LT missions used to send crews to the lunar bases and stations....That a powerful communications network was created covering the entire earth-moon system, allowing us full communications without blackout areas anywhere in the earth-moon system....And that, finally, humans left our earth-moon system on a flyby voyage around the planet Venus.All of this was possible because of the power of Apollo, and the vision of the Apollo Applications Program.Earth Based InfrastructureOne thing we did not talk about much this season, is the impact this expanded Apollo program had on the infrastructure needed on earth to launch all of these missions. In Belitopia, the space infrastructure needs on earth were substantially greater than they were in real life. We went from launching a dozen Apollo spacecraft into space over a 5-6 year period, as what happened in real life, to suddenly in the world of Belitopia, we needed to launch over 90 Apollo spacecraft. At any given point in time, there could be up to a half dozen distinct missions going on simultaneously...each needing a mission control center on earth to operate it. We needed the ability to build, assemble, launch, operate, and land a significant number of Apollo-based, crewed missions.For that, we needed expanded earth-based infrastructure.Let’s focus just on the NASA and AAP infrastructure pieces required. Obviously, the large contractors that provided equipment to NASA, such as Grumman, Boeing, North American, and Douglas needed to have expanded manufacturing infrastructures. But let’s focus just on the visible pieces of infrastructure needed within the NASA and AAP government program spaces themselves.Let’s start with the cape, where the missions all started. It’s where the rockets were assembled, and where they were launched.The various components that made up an Saturn Apollo launch vehicle were assembled in Florida in the Vehicle Assembly Building. At the time, the Vehicle Assembly Building was the largest building ever built. But with the expanded role of Apollo, the single Vehicle Assembly Building would not be sufficient. The existing Vehicle Assembly Buildings could simultaneously assemble three Apollo vehicle stacks. In Belitopia, at the peak of operations, there could be up to 9 vehicles being assembled at once. This required the construction of two additional Vehicle Assembly Buildings, each as massive as the first.Then there are launch pads. There were several launch pads at the cape in Florida that were used for launching Apollo spacecraft. But with the accelerated launch schedule, there would need to be four fully operational launch pads available, each one capable of launching at Saturn V or Saturn IB rocket into space. There were four launch pads in the real world at various stages of c

We landed on the moon. We built a habitat on the moon.We are living in earth orbit, and we are living in lunar orbit.We are living on the far side of the moon, with no visibility to earth...ever.With four space stations, two lunar bases, and over 35 crewed trips between the earth and the moon, how can we possibly communicate with each other over the long term?How can we keep all these missions in communications with earth?The answer, is a communications network that grows and becomes more sophisticated as time goes on. By the end of the Apollo-era, we can communicate over a half million miles without the requirement that we be line of sight with an earth based antenna. This required a sophisticated network of communications satellites and technologies…and a bit of luck.This is the Apollo Lunar Communications Network. In the world of Belitopia.LinksEpisode Details (https://belitopia.com/109)Belitopia Information from this Episode (https://belitopia.com/lunarnet)Lagrangian Points (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point)Lunar Fronzen Orbits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_orbit#Lunar_frozen_orbits)Precession (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession)Lunar Wobble - NASA (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10836)Lunar Libration - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libration#Lunar_libration)Earth Rise - Famous picture from Apollo 8 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise)As we near the end of season one, we’re going to try a slightly new format for this episode. We aren’t going to use the future documentary format, rather we are going to stay in a current day conversation. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about the fledgling communications network being built in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s to support the various Apollo missions we have previously discussed in season 1. We’ve talked about part of this network briefly in episode 7, when we talked about the lunar base on the far side of the moon...the BLA base. But there’s a lot more to that network than you imagine, and a lot more to lunar communications in general than you might think. This network was the first such extra-earthly communications network, and it was developed during the early days of the space race.Global Earth Dish NetworkDuring the early Apollo days, during our first missions to the moon, one of the initial communications problems that had to be solved was how do you keep the moon-bound Apollo space craft in communications with earth, when the earth keeps rotating. That means, mission control, in Houston, Texas, was only in line of site of the Apollo space craft for relatively short periods of time every day — a few hours at most.In order for Houston to maintain a 24 hour a day communications with the moon-bound space craft, a series of satellite communications stations were built around the globe. As the earth rotated, different stations around the globe were in line of sight communications with the Apollo spacecraft at different times during the day. These stations were in direct communications with Houston via landline communications channels...essentially phone calls. Each station, when it was their turn, would relay signals between the Apollo space craft and mission control. The result was a virtual 24 hour a day continuous connection between Houston and the Apollo spacecraft.This was a great start. But as the 1960s moved into the 1970s more and more spacecraft were put into space between the earth and moon. This put a drain on this earth bound satellite network. Plus, the earth bound network required the United States to have facilities at foreign bases around the world, meaning there was a political aspect to maintaining the communications network.Something better was needed.Earth Orbit Communications SatellitesThe decision was made to invest in a satellite based communications network for lunar communications. This started out as a series of low earth orbit satellites that could communicate with spacecraft on the way to the moon. By utilizing several of these satellites, at any given point in time, at least one satellite and/or a ground station was in line of site of the moon at any given point in time. These satellites relieved pressure on the ground base network, but did not eliminate the need for the ground stations to exist.Eventually, as satellite technology improved, larger and more complex geosynchronous orbit satellites were put into space. This required a fewer number of such satellites in order to maintain communications with the moon, and it eliminated the need for the ground based network. At least one geosynchronous orbit satellite was in line of site with the moon at all times. They would communicate between each other, and one of them would send a signal back and forth to Houston. The result was a continuous communications network between earth and any moon bound craft, 24 hours a day, without the need for earth based relay stations around the globe.Near vs Far Side of the MoonBack in episode 7, which was part 2 of the Lunar Base series, we learned that we built a base, named the BLA base, on the far side of the moon...the side of the moon opposite that of earth.As you are most likely aware, the moon rotates at the exact same speed as the rate it revolves around the earth. While this may seem like a big coincidence, it actually is pretty common in our solar system...that is to have a moon rotate around its axis at the same rate as the moon rotates around the planet. It’s a phenomenon called tidal lock.Our moon is in tidal lock with earth. Tidal lock is the reason why we always see the same side of the moon from earth. The same side of the moon is always facing the earth. Therefore, until the space program, no human had ever seen the back side of the moon. While the Russians first took pictures of the back side of the moon from their Luna 3 probe in 1959, the first humans to see it in person were the crew of Apollo 8 as they orbited around the moon in Christmas of 1968. This is the Apollo crew that took the famous picture of the “rising earth” over the lunar horizon. This amazingly popular picture is believed by some to be a major contributor to the start of the global conservation movement.The BLA base, named after these astronauts from Apollo 8, was the first human establishment built on the far side of the moon.But being on the far side of the moon, it meant it was not in line of sight with the earth, ever. Hence radio signals could not get from earth to the base, which made it impossible to communicate with the base directly. This generated a huge problem that would have to be solved.Early Lunar Orbit SatellitesOne possible solution to the problem was to put satellites into lunar orbit, just like we did in earth orbit. Eventually, this would happen, but in the early days of the moon program, it was discovered that it was difficult to maintain an orbit around the moon for any significant period of time. Irregularities in the mass of the moon causes any object in lunar orbit to naturally decay and eventually crash into the lunar surface. This was a huge problem. While a solution was found to this problem in time for the Lunar Skylab program to take advantage of a stable lunar orbit, it took awhile for this capability to be discovered, and it was of limited usefulness during the planning and creation of the BLA base.Another solution was needed.L4 and L5 Lagrangian PointsThat solution involved satellites placed at the Earth-Moon L4 & L5 Lagrangian points.What are the Lagrangian points? The Lagrangian points are positions relative to the Earth and Moon that provide stable orbits ... stable positions ... where satellites and other objects can exist without having their position degrade and fall into either the earth or the moon. Links to more information about the Lagrangian points and where they are located are in the shownotes.There are five such points in the earth-moon system. However, two of them are quite useful for our communications purposes...they are the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points.These points are in an orbit around the earth at the same distance from the earth as the moon is from the earth. They also are the same distance away from the moon as they are from the earth. The earth, moon, and Lagrangian point form an equilateral triangle...that is a triangle with each of the three sides the exact same length. There are two such points, one that is in orbit ahead of the moon, orbiting the earth in front of the moon. The other is in orbit behind the moon...that is orbiting the earth behind the moon.Satellites could be placed at either of these two locations, and they would remain in that stationary position relative to the earth and the moon. They would be stationary relative to the moon, and would rotate around the earth at a rate equivalent to the rate the moon rotates around the earth, namely once every 27 days.How would satellites in these orbits appear from either the earth or the moon? From the earth, the satellites in either L4 or L5 would appear to move across the ecliptic at the same speed as the moon...in other words, they would rotate through the zodiac once every 27 days. From the perspective of the moon, they would appear to be stationary in the sky, just like the earth appeared to be stationary in the sky.Where in the lunar sky they would appear would depend on where you were on the lunar surface. But the key was that one of the two satellites, either L4 or L5, or the earth itself would always be visible from any point on the lunar surface. This made communications satellites at these two positions valuable in communicating with astronauts on the lunar surface.In the specific case of the BLA base, the base is nearly directly on the opposite side of the moon from the earth. This position meant the satellites would appear very low in the east or western sky...L4 in the eastern sky, L5 in the western sky. These two satellites would be used to communicate between the

The United States was forming quite a bit of a space complex.They had space stations in low earth orbit, learning how to live and work in space, eventually to establish a permanent presence in low earth orbit.They had bases on the surface of the moon. Learning how to live and work on the lunar surface, 239,000 miles from earth, and in the case of the BLA base, not even visible from the surface of the earth.They even had satellites far from earth at the earth-moon Lagrangian points.All of this has been discussed in past episodes of Belitopia.But what was left was an orbital presence above the surface of the moon. We’ve had many ships that have orbited the moon. Every Apollo mission that went to the moon, orbited the moon for some period of time. Yet, given the constraints of the Apollo command module, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for long term study of the lunar surface from lunar orbit.This was the purpose of the Lunar Skylab program. Provide an environment for the long term study of the lunar surface from low lunar orbit.This is…Lunar Skylab. Welcome to Belitopia.LinksEpisode Details (https://belitopia.com/108)Belitopia Information from this Episode (https://belitopia.com/lunarskylab)Skylab + Episode (https://belitopia.com/105)Apollo Lunar Bases p1 Episode (https://belitopia.com/106)Apollo Lunar Bases p2 Episode (https://belitopia.com/107)Lunar Frozen Orbits (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_orbit#Lunar_frozen_orbits)Topic IntroductionThe goal of the Lunar Skylab program was to send a Skylab-like space station into *lunar* orbit — 60 miles above the surface of the moon — then occupy the station with long duration crews that could study the lunar surface in greater detail, along with learn how to live in zero G far from the surface of the earth.In real life, this program never took place. There was never a space station built beyond low earth orbit. But in Belitopia, we deployed a Skylab-like space station into Lunar orbit in order to facilitate the study of the lunar surface, to facilitate telescopic study of the space without the worry of earth’s atmosphere, and explore alternative transportation mechanisms between lunar orbit and the lunar surface.What follows is a fictional documentary about the Lunar Skylab space station. 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 construction and occupation of this lunar space station. The documentary describes these events as a future historical record of past events.While fiction, it’s based on research into how such a station may have been constructed, what it would have been used for, and how it would have benefited humankind. Theis documentary is about the Lunar Skylab program and its impact on our long term presence in space. The Lunar Skylab program, in the world of Belitopia.DocumentaryHello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Lunar Skylab Program”.The Lunar Skylab. A space station 60 miles above the lunar surface. The first long duration human habitat to be built in space that was not in low earth orbit.The technology wasn’t hard for the station itself. The space station was essentially identical to the Skylab I space station, except it utilized many technology improvements that were built into Skylab III.The hard part was, how do we put it into lunar orbit? After all, the original skylab was launched into low earth orbit using a Saturn V rocket, at least the first two stages of it. That was easy. But now, the goal was to send the same station not 100 miles above the surface of the earth, but they needed to send it 239,000 miles away to a lunar orbit.They did this by making use of a third stage to the Saturn V, and putting the skylab station above that third stage. The additional third stage was actually an S-IVC third stage — the same third stage that was used for the Venus Flyby mission. An extended and more powerful third stage than the standard S-IVB that was used to send the Apollo spacecraft to lunar orbit.The Lunar Skylab was launched from earth on October 10, 1977. The single Skylab module was put into low earth orbit by the first and second stage of the Saturn V rocket. There it remained for a short stay while it was checked out and verified that it was undamaged during the launch. Then, the third stage S-IVC engine fired and sent the Lunar Skylab module on its 239,000 mile trip to the moon. The stations arrived in lunar orbit on October 13, 1977. The solar panels were deployed automatically, and the station was ready for occupation. The station was put into an orbit roughly 60 miles above the surface of the moon.A Stable Lunar OrbitRemaining in lunar orbit was a challenge. Due to variation in the composition of the moon, and changing densities, objects in lunar orbit tended to fall out of orbit. This was an ongoing problem with many previous unmanned satellites sent to the moon, along with all the Apollo manned voyages to the lunar surface. Maintaining a stable orbit was nearly impossible.However, during the many missions that came before the lunar skylab was ready for launch, it was determined that there were four stable orbits…called frozen orbits…where a satellite such as the Lunar Skylab station could exist and remain in orbit for the long term. The easiest orbit was at an 86 degree angle, which was a nearly polar orbit. This was possible, but it would mean it would be difficult for ships arriving from earth to dock with the space station, if they were also destined to land on the lunar surface. Given this, a much more equatorial orbit was desired. A second frozen orbit was found to exist at a 27 degree angle above equatorial, and this was considered to be close enough to be reasonable for docking with lunar surface bound space ships, such as the LT missions that transported crews to the lunar surface.Once the Lunar Skylab was in a safe and stable orbit above the lunar surface, the first crew for the station left earth. This was on October 13, 1977. The crew of Lunar Skylab M1 departed earth and arrived in lunar orbit on October 16, 1977, when they docked with the orbiting space station. They remained at the station for some 40 days before returning to earth on November 28, 1977. Their primary purpose was to setup and test the various components that made up the space station, and make sure it was ready for long term occupancy.In all, seven crews visited the lunar skylab over a period of roughly three years. The longest duration stay was Lunar Skylab M4, which stayed for 386 days.The Lunar Skylab included a telescope mount, just like the original Skylab I and the currently active Skylab III had. The telescope was used to take deep space pictures from lunar orbit. This was especially useful when the ship was in the point of its orbit where it was in the shadow of the sun, and away from the glow of the earth. The darkness at this point gave unprecedented access to the night sky that was great for deep space exploration, much better photographs than was possible from using standard 1980s technology telescopes. This created tremendous opportunities for deep space discovery.Lunar Geological PhotographyIn addition to taking pictures out towards outer space, the various crews of the Lunar Skylab took significant pictures of the lunar surface. One of the crews of Lunar Skylab, the M4 crew, which stayed the longest at the station, had among its crew a astro-geologist who could study the pictures real time and decide what additional pictures should be taken of what parts of the lunar surface. This meant the pictures that were taken weren’t just random pictures of the surface, but were strategically placed photographs of important characteristics of the lunar surface. This sort of intelligent target determination was only possible because a live, human astronaut was onboard the station. This could not be accomplished with 1980s technology using an unmanned satellite. It must be done using a crewed space station. This research was invaluable to the study of the composition of the lunar surface. Among other things, these photographs helped determine where there was likely to be deposits of water under the lunar surface, and where particularly valuable and/or interesting minerals were located. The value of this research was incredible, and that value alone justified the cost of the mission.The New Lunar LanderThe Lunar Skylab was also used for one other important project, that of testing out a new prototype lunar lander that was being developed in the late 1970s. This land, which was designed as a long term replacement for the old disposable Apollo LMs, was a reusable lander that could land and take off over and over again. It did not leave behind it’s descent stage, as did the old LM, so it did not create a lunar graveyard. It could be reused over and over again. As long as it had a sufficient supply of fuel, it could land and take off multiple times during a single mission. It also had the capacity to carry up to six astronauts, or fewer astronauts and an increased payload or fuel load. This lunar lander was designed to be the future transportation system for our planned permanent presence on the lunar surface.And in 1979, it was ready to be tested…Testing it was a function of the M7 crew, which was the last crew to visit the Lunar Skylab. This crew was in space from February 1, 1980, until October 25, 1980, which was 267 days — almost 9 months. One of the major tasks for this crew was to work out the kinks in this new lander.The lunar lander went on test cycles between the Lunar Skylab and Tycho base, and eventually between the Lunar Skylab and the BLA base. The M7 crew of the Lunar Skylab made many trips to the lunar surface testing this vehicle. Using the Lunar Skylab created a perfect testing arrangement. It was a great home base for the lunar lander to use for its testing.

Not long after the end of the Apollo lunar landings, it was time for the next step in lunar exploration. There was belief, and some evidence from the experiments that were performed on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions, that there were minerals...water...and other scientifically useful resources on the lunar surface.There was also a concern that the Soviet Union would eventually land on the lunar surface, and attempt to claim all or part of it as their territory.So, the space race continued. On this front, the race was to the first long duration habitation of the lunar surface, and eventual lunar colonization. The United States created a habitat, a base, designed for the long term exploration and habitation of the lunar surface. In fact, they created two such bases. This allowed the Americans to explore the scientific wealth that awaited them on the lunar surface, as well as make a long term claim of the lunar surface before the Russians. While this is not what happened in real life, it is what happened in the fictional world we have created.This is…the Apollo Moon Bases — part 2. Welcome to Belitopia.Links and More InformationBelitopia WebsiteApollo Lunar Base - BelitopiaApollo Moon Bases p2 EpisodeApollo Moon Bases p1 EpisodeTycho Crater - Wikipedia)Tsiolkovskiy Crater - WikipediaLagrangian PointPlease support our showIntroductionNot long after the end of the Apollo lunar landings, it was time for the next step in lunar exploration. There was belief, and some evidence from the experiments that were performed on the lunar surface, that there were minerals, water, and other scientifically useful resources on the lunar surface. There was also a concern that the Soviet Union would eventually land on the lunar surface. As it turns out, the Soviet Union had given up on the quest for the lunar surface, and instead had focused on exploring and conquering near earth orbit. This was something we talked about in a previous episode, episode number 5, on Skylab. However, the United States was not aware of this fact, and they continued to work under the assumption that the Soviet Union was still trying to land on the moon, so they could claim as much of the lunar surface as possible.So, given this information, the United States turned away from spot landings of single Apollo LMs for relatively short stays on the lunar surface, towards developing and building their first long duration base on the lunar surface. The purpose of the base was to provide a long term habitation of the lunar surface by Americans. In fact, two bases were built.This is the story of those bases. In part 1, we discussed the design and layout of the Tycho base, which was located near Tycho crater, the same location of the famous 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.We discussed how the base was delivered to the lunar surface in four separate pods, and how those pods were assembled on the lunar surface.In Part 2 we will continue our documentary “Our World In Space”, which takes place in the world of Belitopia in the year 2040, 65 years after the bases were created.We will continue this documentary to discuss the complex lunar transport system put in place to shuttle crews back and forth not only to the Tycho base, but the second base that was also created. We’ll discuss one of the side effects of this transportation system was the formation of an LM graveyard.We’ll also talk about the emergency procedures in place to save the base occupants in case of a problem, and how those procedures were put to test during a real base emergency. Finally, we’ll talk about the creation of the second base, BLA Base, and it’s unique position and unique communications requirements that this base required.This documentary is about the creation of the Tycho and BLA lunar bases, in the world of Belitopia.Documentary — Out World in Space, 2040ADHello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Apollo Moon Bases”.Part 2.Once Tycho Base was properly setup by the two assembly missions, it was ready for occupancy by the research missions. The first research mission, Tycho 3, arrived on December 1st, 1975, and stayed for nearly seven weeks.In total, nine research missions were sent to Tycho Base. These missions were named Tycho 3 through Tycho 12.Each research mission consisted of a two person crew. The crew was delivered to lunar orbit via an Apollo-era Command and Service Module, or CSM for short. The crew then entered an attached Apollo-era Lunar Lander, or LM for short. The LM descended to the lunar surface and landed near the base. The crew then performed an EVA, or extra vehicular activity — in other words, a moon walk — to arrive at and enter the base, where they lived for the duration of their mission. When their mission was complete and they were ready to depart the lunar surface, they performed an EVA back to their waiting LM, and launched from the same LM that delivered them. They rendezvoused in lunar orbit with another waiting CSM that returned them to earth.Each of the nine research missions stayed for longer durations and lived completely within the base. The shortest duration stay was Tycho 3, which stayed a mere 48 days. The longest duration mission was Tycho 10, which stayed on the lunar surface for 242 days, around 8 months.The research missions occurred from December, 1975, until October of 1980. The base was occupied almost continuously by one of the research crews for that entire nearly five years period. The final mission to Tycho Base, Tycho 12, left the base for the last time on Oct 5, 1980, after spending three months on the lunar surface.Crew DeliveryThe two assembly crews were each standalone missions. Three astronauts went to the moon abort a Saturn V rocket, which delivered them to lunar orbit in their CSM — command and service module. Then, two of the three astronauts entered their Apollo-era LM lunar lander, which took them to the lunar surface. After their shift in assembling the base was complete, they launched in the LM to the waiting CSM — and their waiting partner astronaut, and the three astronauts returned to earth in the same CSM that brought them to the moon.This model worked great for the assembly crew, but what about the long duration research crews? How were these crews delivered to the lunar base? The traditional model used to delivery crews to the lunar surface used during Apollo 11-20 wasn’t going to work. That model required an astronaut to remain in the CSM in lunar orbit for the duration of the landing crews mission on the surface. For a few days, or a couple weeks, this was acceptable. For an eight month mission? That was no longer possible.Instead, a series of delivery missions were used. The delivery missions, named Lunar Transport missions, or LT missions for short, were used to transport crews to and from the lunar station.Each LT mission launched with a three person crew, a CSM pilot and the two astronauts that were going to the lunar surface. The mission included a lunar lander, LM. Once the lunar transport mission arrived in lunar orbit, the two crew that were to occupy the Tycho Base went down to the lunar surface in the Apollo-era LM. The LM remained on the lunar surface until they used it to leave the lunar surface at the end of their mission.Meanwhile the CSM pilot orbiting the moon in the lunar transport vehicle waited for the departing Tycho Base crew to go to their waiting LM, take off, and dock with the lunar transport mission command-service module. The lunar transport CSM then took that departing crew, along with the CSM pilot, home to earth. So, the lunar transport mission, with the CSM pilot, brought one crew to the base, but returned home immediately with the previous departing crew.These lunar transport missions, named “LT” missions for short, occurred whenever there needed to be a crew rotation on the Tycho base. So, for example, LT 5, the fifth LT mission, brought the crew that would inhabit the station as the Tycho 5 crew, and it picked up the end-of-mission Tycho 4 crew and brought them home. The next LT mission, LT 6, brought the new Tycho 6 crew to the base and picked up the departing Tycho 5 crew. Each Tycho crew had their own LM on the lunar surface that was used to bring them from lunar orbit to the lunar surface, and would be used to return them from the lunar surface to lunar orbit when they departed. But each Tycho crew arrived in one CSM as part of one LT mission, and departed in a different CSM as part of a different LT mission. This ship-hopping approach continued for the entire five years of the Apollo Lunar Base program.The LM GraveyardStandard Apollo LMs were used to bring crews to the surface and return them back to lunar orbit after their mission was complete. These are the same LM designs that were used in the Apollo 11 to Apollo 20 lunar landing missions. The LMs were designed to contain two stages, a descent stage used during landing, and an ascent stage used during takeoff. During takeoff, the descent stage remained on the lunar surface and acted as a launch pad for the ascent stage.Given that each of the Tycho crews had a LM that was used to bring them to the surface and return them to orbit, and each LM left behind their descent stage after it left for again for lunar orbit. That meant near the Tycho Base there was a build up of abandoned descent stages. Twelve in all, for each of the twelve Tycho missions. These twelve lunar descent stages were all in a relatively small area — less than a quarter mile from each other — and all within a short lunar hike of the Tycho Base. This formed what was called the “LM Graveyard”...an unfortunate side effect of the landing approach used. This lunar graveyard become a lasting legacy for humankind’s first long duration stay on the lunar surface.The long term solution to this problem is LMs that ca

Links and More InformationBelitopia WebsiteApollo Lunar Base - BelitopiaApollo Moon Bases p1 EpisodeTycho Crater (Wikipedia)Please support our showNot long after the end of the Apollo lunar landings, it was time for the next step in lunar exploration. There was belief, and some evidence from the experiments that were performed on the lunar surface during the Apollo missions, that there were minerals...water...and other scientifically useful resources on the lunar surface. There was also a concern that the Soviet Union would eventually land on the lunar surface, and attempt to claim all or part of it as their territory.So, the space race continued. On this front, the race was to the first long duration habitation of the lunar surface, and eventual lunar colonization. The United States created a habitat, a base, designed for the long term exploration and habitation of the lunar surface. In fact, they created two such bases. This allowed the Americans to explore the scientific wealth that awaited them on the lunar surface, as well as make a long term claim of the lunar surface before the Russians. While this is not what happened in real life, it is what happened in the fictional world we have created.This is...the Apollo Moon Bases. Welcome to Belitopia.IntroductionProject Tycho was the name of the program to create the first long term habitat on the lunar surface. The United States worked hard and fast in order to create this habitat, so that we could continue our exploration of the lunar surface after the end of Apollo 20. After all, the Russians couldn’t be far behind. For the first time since it began, the United States was finally leading in the space race against the Soviet Union. They intended to stay in the lead.As it turns out, the Soviet Union had given up on the quest for the lunar surface, and instead had focused on exploring and conquering near earth orbit. This was something we talked about in the past episode, episode number 5, on Skylab. However, the United States was not aware of this fact, and they continued to work under the assumption that the Soviet Union was still trying to land on the moon, so they could claim as much of the lunar surface as possible.So, given this information, the United States turned away from the relatively short duration spot landings of single Apollo landing missions, which could only provide them with relatively short stays on the lunar surface. Instead, they turned their sight towards developing and building their first long duration base on the lunar surface. The purpose of the base was to provide a long term habitation of the lunar surface by Americans. The habitation would be by regular astronauts, but also by astronaut scientists that could study the lunar surface in greater detail over an extended period of time.How long of a period of time? The goal was to enable stays on the lunar surface of upwards of eight months by any single crew, and provide a total lunar habitation of five years at a single site on the lunar surface by multiple crews. Between the two planned sites, it would create the opportunity for nearly seven years of continuous lunar habitation and exploration.This would give astronauts and scientists plenty of time to study long term effects of living on the lunar surface, and time to study the surface of the moon in substantially greater detail. The desire was to prove feasibility for a permanent presence on the lunar surface and provide evidence that such a presence can be financially viable long term.A side benefit — but not an insignificant additional benefit — was to establish a near permanent presence to fend off the Russians from claiming ownership of extensive parts of the lunar surface. Thus, lengthening the American’s lead in the space race.This episode is about the creation and habitation of two long duration lunar bases, the Tycho Base and the BLA Base, on the surface of the moon. These bases are not intended to be permanent presence, but provide a long term presence in order to make a permanent presence in the future possible. In this manner, they are very similar to the role that Skylab played in earth orbit before the creation of the first permanent crewed space station was possible.This is what happened in the world of Belitopia.What follows is a fictional documentary about these lunar bases. The documentary takes place in the world of Belitopia in the year 2040, 65 years after these bases were first developed. This documentary, titled “Our World in Space”, describes the construction, deployment, assembly, and operation of these lunar bases in greater detail. This documentary is presented as a historical record of past events.While fiction, it’s based on much thought and consideration on what it would take to make these bases possible. This documentary is about humankind’s first attempt to live for long durations of time, on the surface of another astronomical body. It’s about humankind’s early start at colonization of the moon. This documentary is about the creation of the Tycho and BLA lunar bases, in the world of Belitopia.Documentary — Out World in Space, 2040ADHello, and welcome to “Our World in Space — The Apollo Moon Bases”.Shortly after the end of the Apollo lunar landing missions, America was looking for the next step in lunar exploration. After all, they had beat the Soviet Union to the moon, but now they needed to keep their dominant leadership position on lunar exploration, or risk losing everything. In the early 1970’s, it was still believed that the Soviet Union was attempting to land on the moon, and the United States must continue to increase their lunar presence in order to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. Little did the Americans know, but the Soviet Union was no longer focused on the moon. But, that little fact eluded the Americans, and they trudged on anyways.The next step on the way toward lunar dominance was to leverage the same Apollo technology that brought the first Americans to the moon, to build a larger lunar presence. To that end, the Apollo Lunar Base program was created.Founded as part of the Apollo Applications Program, the Apollo Lunar Base program, or ALB for short, strove to create the first long term presence for humans on the lunar surface. The goal was great. Humans…namely Americans…were to spend nearly five years on the lunar surface, spread between several distinct crewed missions to the base. Given that the longest amount of time on the lunar surface up until this point was the 21 day stay of Apollo 20, extending this to a five year habitation would be quite a feat.But that was the goal of the Apollo Lunar Base program. In all, two bases were planned. The first base. Which was also the primary one was to be Tycho base. Tycho base was to be located near Tycho crater in order to explore the geological environment of that area.Tycho crater, as you remember, was the landing site of Apollo 20. It was also the crater made famous as the location of the famous 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.Besides being a location filled with geological wealth, it was the perfect location for the first lunar base, as it would create incredible interest and buzz on earth. 2001 A Space Odyssey, which came out in 1968, was extremely popular in the modern culture of the time. This movie is what gave hope to America for what a realistic future in space could be like, and it certainly looked like that future was starting to come true. Building a base at Tycho crater was part of that odyssey, and would bring huge PR benefit to the program.But, in addition to the PR benefit, it was believed that Tycho crater provided the easiest access to the resources we thought were available on the lunar surface. After all, it was Apollo 20 that provided the initial research into locations for the future base, and Tycho crater was seen as providing a veritable goldmine of research opportunities.Structure of the BaseThe lunar base itself was a series of four “pods”. These four pods were connected via short tunnels between them in a straight line format with two pods acting as the end caps of the line. Each pod was approximately rectangular in surface area, and had a flat underbelly with a curved top. They looked very similar to a Hostess Ho Ho.Each module was 45 feet long and 15 feet wide. They stood 12 feet tall. Each had a single floor where humans could walk inside in a shirt sleeve environment. The habitation area in most of the modules had an inside height of 9 feet. The extra room above the ceiling was used for storage.The tunnels were simple connecting tubes large enough for a human to walk upright inside them, and wide enough to pass another person going the opposite direction, but they contained no room to store equipment nor material.Each pod was loosely similar in technology to the module used in Skylab as well as the habitation module used during the Venus Flyby. However similar, the actual construction and physical structure of the module was very different from the Skylab and Venus Flyby modules.First, the Skylab and Venus modules were designed to work in zero-G, while the lunar pods worked in the standard 1/6th G gravity environment of the lunar surface. This meant a complete redesign of the interior and a completely new and unique set of living challenges for the crew in the pod. Equipment didn’t float, it had weight and fell to the floor. But heavy equipment could still be easily moved around inside with little effort. Humans inside the pod would walk upright and normal, unlike in the space based modules where they could simply float from one location to another. Yet while they could walk upright, they had to get use to the 1/6G so that they did not put too much spring into their step, and bang into the ceiling every time they moved suddenly. Humans would live and work in a

What is Belitopia all about? This is a bonus episode where I answer questions about Belitopia and my plans for the future of the world of Belitopia, including future podcast episodes and other content. Plus, have you seen the Apple TV+ show “For All Mankind”? If not, you should! Hear my thoughts on this new show and how it is similar, yet different, from Belitopia.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyPodtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

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 InformationEpisode DetailsBelitopia Skylab InformationSkylab (Wikipedia)Salyut (Wikipedia)Apollo Applications Program (Wikipedia)Space Station FreedomPlease support our show.IntroductionThe 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, 2040ADHello, 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 IShortly 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 quickl

Links and More InformationEpisode DetailsBelitopia Venus Flyby InformationWikipedia - Venus FlybyWikipedia - Apollo Applications ProgramOriginal 1967 NASA Venus Flyby Feasibility StudyPlease support our show.IntroductionIn 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, 2040ADHello, 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 CrisisThat 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 FlybyThe 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 SlowdownThe 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

 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 InformationBelitopia Venus Flyby InformationEpisode DetailsWikipedia - Venus FlybyWikipedia - Apollo Applications ProgramOriginal 1967 NASA Venus Flyby Feasibility StudyPlease support our show.IntroductionIn 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.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyPodtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

 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 the real world… This is the “Apollo Applications Program”.Please support our show.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyPodtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

 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 belitopia.com/apollo.TranscriptWhat 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 EpisodeHello 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.DocumentaryEntering 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 e

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.TranscriptWhat 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 disasterthe zombie apocalypsedisease, sufferingThe 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…      This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacyPodtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp