Apollo-Mars: Redux

[Kerbalsaurus]

April 7^th, 1974

They'd done it. The Soviets had landed a man on the Moon, and returned him safely to the Earth. His name: Alexei Leonov. After Apollo 17 returned to Earth in 1972, the world thought the space race was over. America had been to the Moon nine times, and landed 12 men there, and the Soviets weren't even close to orbiting it. Yet, on that fateful morning, the Soviets put themselves back into the space race. Any doubts that congress had about NASA immediately vanished, and president Richard Nixon immediately ordered a renewal of the American space program. The Apollo Applications program (AAP) was re-opened, and a new program was created for the revived space race: Apollo-Mars. There were three goals for Apollo-Mars: Establish a long term presence and begin the expansion of Skylab, create a long-term lunar presence with a space station and surface base with a re-usable lander, and as the most ambitious goal of the program, land a man on Mars in the early 1980s. Just as President Kennedy had set the goal for the U.S. to land on the Moon 13 years ago, America had set another ambitous goal. And so, the new race was on.

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To celebrate one year of foruming, I have decided to redo my very first mission report, Apollo-Mars! This time it will have a more in depth story to it, as well show what the Soviets are up too. Did anybody ask for this? No. But I'm doing this anyways. With the knowledge I've gained from other mission reports, this will be 10,000 times better than the old thread. So enjoy!

[Kerbalsaurus]

May 9^th, 1974 - Skylab 5

Quickly, the backup Saturn IB and CSM are scrambled to the launchpad. Just over a month after the Soviet Moon Landing, Skylab 5 is ready for it's flight back to Skylab. The mission will only be 20 days, but new crews are preparing for much longer stays aboard the station. The crew are commander Vance Brand, science pilot William "Bill" Lenoir, and pilot Don Lind. The goal of this flight will be to start a long term presence aboard Skylab, with the goal of making Skylab a constantly crewed space station.

The Saturn IB lifts off the pad, marking the beginning of the Apollo-Mars program!

Stage 2 ignition and insertion in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Stage 2 separation

Skylab 5 begins its  journey to Skylab.

Hard dock with Skylab!

Brand and Lenoir go for their EVA.

[TwoCalories]

Nice stock Skylab! It'd be cool if the Skylab of this alternate timeline had the second solar array on the side.

[Kerbalsaurus]

8 hours ago, TwoCalories said:

Nice stock Skylab! It'd be cool if the Skylab of this alternate timeline had the second solar array on the side.

Thanks! Hmm... maybe I could do that. Maybe it could be the "butterfly" that let the soviets land on the Moon.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Kerbalsaurus

[TwoCalories]

Anything?

[Kerbalsaurus]

1 hour ago, TwoCalories said:

Anything?

Yeah, I was just having frequent Kracken attacks to Skylab. It took a little fixing (and procrastinating), but there should be a new update soon.

[Kerbalsaurus]

JULY 8^TH, 1974 - ANNEX 1

America will launch its first robotic Moon lander program since the days of Surveyor back in the mid 60s. The mission of the program will be to scope out a flat area suitable for making a surface base. On it are 6 cameras, which will take panoramic photos of the Moon's surface for investigation. Annex 1 is only a test flight, but future missions will be much more ambitious.

As for the name, well, the U.S. wants to use these landers as a warning to the Soviet Union. Maybe a simple unmanned lander against a cosmonaut on the surface isn't exactly 1:1, but America will do what it must.

As for the rocket, the mission will be launched atop a Titan IIIC rocket. NASA hopes that the Titan rocket can be used for many more applications in the Apollo-Mars program, as the Titan has many untapped potentials. It can lift a wide variety of payloads to LEO, so it shouldn't be so overlooked.

Liftoff!

SRB separation

Go for orbit!

Yes, the lander's quite dinky, but that's rush building for you. Also, once again, only a test. Annex 1 enters a parking orbit around the Earth, as the Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) burn is plotted. The brand new Annex Upper Stage will carry it the rest of the way to the Moon.

Go for TLI!

Annex 1 now coasts for three days towards the Moon, now ever so prominent in the sky.

JULY 11^TH, 1974

Annex 1 enters the Moon's sphere of influence, and readies itself to enter Low Lunar Orbit (LLO).

Orbital insertion burn

Separation of transfer stage

After yet another parking orbit, Annex 1 is ready to head down to the Moon's surface.

De-orbit burn

On final approach...

Contact!

Annex 1 now begins its mission. It preforms experiments, takes several photos, and blasts the U.S. national anthem to any eavesdropping Soviet satellites. Meanwhile back on Earth, preparations begin for the first big step in phase 1 of Apollo-Mars. Skylab is about to have a pretty big change to it...

[Kerbalsaurus]

I'm really sorry to say this, but I have to cancel this thread. I thought I'd have the motivation to make it, but I really don't. Maybe the original thread was less spectacular compared to my other threads and the goals of this one, but I feel it doesn't really need to be touched. If you followed this, I'm once again sorry. But what's the point of doing a mission report if you don't enjoy it?