Race For Mars - VERY ROUGH plan for novel

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

So I had this idea for a novel the other day. Here's what I'm thinking

The Apollo Program goes up to Apollo 31, in June of 1978. In February 1972, the Soviet N1 launches the first Soviet landing.

The novel opens in October of 1978, after the 7th and final Soviet lunar landing.

October 1978 - Last soviet moon mission lands

January 1979 - NASA secretly begins looking into a NTR powered manned Mars mission using Apollo hardware, called Apollo-Ares

February 1979 - Soviets begin looking into a similar mission

April 1979 - President Carter announces Apollo-Ares to the public

June 79 - American spy plane captures photos of the Russian nuclear thermal rocket being transported.

July 79 - First unmanned test of the Apollo-Ares capsule and inflatable habitat is launched atop a Saturn IB to High Earth Orbit. The mission fails to reach its intended orbit, but is deemed a success as it still reached 1700km with an original goal of 5000km

Sept. 79 - Soviets begin assembling their spacecraft's components

Nov. 79 - Americans launch an NTR similar to the one on the Mars craft into orbit. They have a successful test firing in a 300km orbit.

Dec. 79 - The Soviets test-fire their NTR rocket.

Jan 80 - Soviets launch the first test NTR to orbit and have a successful firing in a low orbit (130km)

Anyone know if there was a Mars window in 1986?

Edited June 8, 2016 by OrbitalBuzzsaw

[Spaceception]

Ooooh, alternate space history, this I'm following

 

Also, Dres is best

Edited June 8, 2016 by Spaceception

[Bill Phil]

I wouldn't make this into a full blown novel in the state it's in. Maybe something like a history book from the alternate reality would be cool. Actually.... Holy crap! That would be awesome! Something like World War Z (the book) but about an alternate history space program. World War Z was about a guy interviewing people who did stuff during the "zombie war." It's a really good book, and the format was cool. Applying it to alternate history as opposed to future history would be something pretty awesome.

Novels, in the usual sense, are about people moreso than events. So you need characters, with story arcs and personalities and the whole 9 yards.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

15 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

I wouldn't make this into a full blown novel in the state it's in. Maybe something like a history book from the alternate reality would be cool. Actually.... Holy crap! That would be awesome! Something like World War Z (the book) but about an alternate history space program. World War Z was about a guy interviewing people who did stuff during the "zombie war." It's a really good book, and the format was cool. Applying it to alternate history as opposed to future history would be something pretty awesome.

Novels, in the usual sense, are about people moreso than events. So you need characters, with story arcs and personalities and the whole 9 yards.

I know this is just a rough timeline.