06-15-2019, 05:45 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
In addition, I imagine that the setting uses a lot more espionage and assassinations than OTL, as military force against the USA would seem counterproductive (it and its allies control 80% of space, after all, with China and Russia desperately attempting to keep control of the remaining 20%). The nations that were left out (Brazil, India, Pakistan, etc.) would probably be desperately trying to catch up.
Of course, it is a better world in some ways. Iran is a developed liberal democracy, heavily invested in space, with a 2% share in the orbital solar array, making it equal to Japan or the UK. Taiwan is an independent nation with a 1% share in the orbital solar array, making it equal to France or South Korea. In some ways, it is less advanced. Due to butterflies, there was never a push to shield Internet platforms from liability related to the content that they hosted, meaning that advancements in computers slowed after 1996, meaning that the ATL computers in 2020 are equal to OTL computers in 2008, as it just made more sense to invest in space than computers. The music industry, because it could sue Internet platforms for the activity of pirates, is much the way it was in the early 90s, as is the rest of the media environment. Without advanced computing and with the move during the 90s to national health care under Brown, biotechnology was likewise slowed, with medicine in ATL 2020 being equal to medicine OTL in 2008, as it just made more sense to invest in space than biotech. |
06-15-2019, 06:09 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Then there's the whole "Democrats in favor of the space program" weirdness. The last one in our timeline was LBJ. I suppose the Alien Space Bats might have personal cloaking devices to go with their mind control rays. :)
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Fred Brackin |
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06-15-2019, 06:24 PM | #13 |
Icelandic - Approach With Caution
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Reykjavík, Iceland
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Well, Bill was Governor of Arkansas so that might be one possibility. I admit that I know nothing about the state apart from the fact that I can locate it on a map.
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06-15-2019, 06:56 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Bah. "infiltrating" an off planet research base is no more difficult than infiltrating an on planet research base. Either your credentials as a visiting physicist/auditor/military officer/high school field trip hold up or they don't. Or you don't bother to infiltrate but just honey trap a returning physicist and pump for everything he knows about how the research is going.
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06-16-2019, 03:15 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Just out of curiosity, is William Proxmire dead in this reality? Because I can't imagine a massive space initiative happening while that ... person is alive.
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"When you talk about damage radius, even atomic weapons pale before that of an unfettered idiot in a position of power." - Sam Starfall from the webcomic Freefall |
06-16-2019, 05:21 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Dallas, TX
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Perhaps this also the timeline wherein he went back in time to inoculate Robert Heinlein against TB?
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06-16-2019, 06:58 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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I think the key political hurdle is the one that has to be solved for the 1970s US. I remember the Carter administration actually pushed pretty hard for nuclear energy to deal with the "moral equivalent of war" from OPEC, and it went basically nowhere, despite being both considerably cheaper than orbital solar could ever hope to be, and using proven technology. I don't see a Kennedy administration pulling off allocating huge amounts of funding to something more expensive that might not work. It is after all something there hasn't been a successful prototype of even now, and which the launch costs for the solar panels alone, never mind what you'd need for the rest of the process would still exceed the costs of going full nuclear even with our cheaper panels and more expensive fission plants, so if it does work here it pretty much requires something that would still be technologically revolutionary to be developed in the late 1970s.
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-- MA Lloyd |
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06-16-2019, 08:20 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Nuclear was never 'cheaper' than orbital solar. Even in the late-70s, it was experiencing delays, cost overruns, and safety issues due to scaling that concerned many of the scientists involved in the initial designs. At best, nuclear required a wholesale price of electricity of $100/MW-H (2019) to be profitable while orbital solar was potentially profitable at $25/MW-h (2019). In addition, orbital solar power is exportable while nuclear power is not, requiring only an easily built receiving field that can be assembled quickly and safely without issue.
An orbital solar array also has the advantage of avoiding the NIMBY problems that crippled the spread of nuclear. People can see the cooling towers of nuclear power plants from miles away. The receiving fields of the orbital solar arrays can be hidden by tall hedges. As for the allocation of money, JFK managed to get a lot of money allocated to the Apollo mission, and there was no guarantee that it would work. I imagine that Teddy would have attempted to tap into the same optimism and the same hope that his brother had, and he would have had an accidental ally in George Lucas. With the release of Star Wars triggering the dreams and hopes of the American people in mid-1977, Teddy could have found an unexpected upwelling of support for such an ambitious idea. |
06-16-2019, 08:56 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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As to alien space bats. I used the Cabal in Goddard-7
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
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06-16-2019, 08:57 AM | #20 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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