Re: New Reality Seeds
 

And the gives my only critique of the Rickover timeline; the only reason the USSR and the USA went to the Moon in the first place was measure each others missiles, as it were. If there had been any military or political advantage of actually putting something on the Moon we'd have had missile bases there by 1972. And if there was any reason to whip out our missiles again to measure them against Chinese missiles, we'd have bases there in 5 years, 10 tops.

But we don't. We can't afford to have the Chinese as too big an enemy, and same for them, since we are attached at the economic hip. Without a Big Bad Wolf at the door, we can't drum up the support for a decidedly expensive endeavor, no matter what it is, much less Men on the Moon or Mars.

Interesting to see the NASA budget get a big boost now that the Russians shockingly threatening to withhold access to the ISS.

Timeline Spacestation Freedom

July 1985 Gobachev attempts to replace Andrei Gromyko, "Mr Nyet", with Shevardnadze. Gromyko represented the Old Guard, and here the Old Guard fought back. Shevardnadze is disappeared, followed by a patchwork of assassinations, riots and sealed military bases that culminates in a military coup by December.

The West stays carefully neutral, and the world holds it breath as news leaks out of a sealed USSR. Violence, revolts and counter-revolts, Gorbachev hounded from power, Boris Yeltsin taking the reigns of the now powerless Communist Party, massive troop movements.

In the end the USSR survives, much battered and missing most of its old East Europe holdings. Its grumbly, grouchy, mean and armed with atomic weapons, but internally ruined and still at war with itself.

The rest of the world moves on apace. The instability of the Soviet situation keeps the EU and Japanese space programs separate from, and competitive with, the US space program. Japan launches their automated Kibo Station in 1989. The US pushes forward the Orion-Ares program to supplement the Shuttle, putting up the first parts of space station Freedom in 1993.

Current year is 2002. The Japanese have just moved a small asteroid into lunar orbit, under the strident objections of the the rest of the world. President Gore has secretly authorized the NSA to militarize Freedom and Copernicus, while the Russians (just consolidating under Putin) are rolling out Polyus-II in full glory at Mir-2. The ESA and their Columbus Station are the also-rans but still command the European telcom industry as well as the robotic exploration of Venus and Mercury.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Agreed. Any timeline that has an advanced space program requires a reason the political will exists (as in real life this reason need be neither logical or sane). Once you get beyond a certain level of infrastructure the program becomes more likely to be self sustaining.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Here's a different reality seed. Thoughout much of ancient history right up into Byzantine times there was somekind of canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. If you assume that the abandonment of Rome was inevitable, Italy in the later Empire was an ecconomic backwater, if for no other reason than the rapid spread of malaria after the 2nd century AD, then moving the capital of the empire east makes sense. So, why not make Alexandria the new Rome?

And Alexandrine Roman Empire would be far more dominant in the Mediterranian basin. Egypt is the best source of grain in the ancient world, a great aid to security. If the canals between the Nile and the Red Sea are maintained, Alexandria gains a better trade location than Constantanople ever had. The Islamic conquest of Egypt was more a matter of the entry of a small but disceplened millitary force into a relative power vaccum than anything else. An Alexandrian Roman Empire would be very stable.

This would lead to a TL3 mega-state based in Egypt facing off against a smaller tougher Caliphate. Good for swasher action with an Arabian Night's flare from the Mediterranean to Cathay.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

May I suggest that you read Mary Gentle's Ilario, which uses a rather similar premise to good effect.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Did you miss that Robert E. Lee's horse was named Traveller (complete with two L's)?

That was the reason for having Korolev survive long enough to put a cosmonaut on the Moon: it pushes the goal for the Space Race to Mars.

I also imagine Johnson winning his second term by exposing Nixon's back-room deals with the North Vietnamese; I can't fathom why he didn't in OTL since he apparently had evidence, but that is the fact. A Johnson who successfully negotiated an end to the Vietnam war would be in a much better position to pursue his interest in space.

One clarification from earlier: the reason there's no space shuttle in Rickover is the same that there are no nuclear rockets in OTL. Since this NASA didn't incorporate the NACA, there wasn't as much impetus to include "aviation" along with the "atomic." A winged space plane would have required inter-agency cooperation, always more difficult that projects done purely in house.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

The unnamed virus that infected ancient Africans causing us to produce digestive amylase not merely in our gut but in our saliva never existed. This leads to us never loving pure starches. This would almost certainly stall agriculture by millennia.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Noted. Thanks.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Korolev would be key in keeping them in the race period.

Johnson feared that exposing Nixon would expose him for wiretapping. Handle that issue, or torpedo Nixon's stunt early, and either a Humphrey or a Johnson Presidency would be much more pro-Space.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

An interesting reality seed might come from keeping the Norman Kingdom of Sicily alive. The Scilian state promoted a great deal of cultural exchange, it was to their advantage as it let them understand their competitors.

Outremere might last longer. The Fourth Crusade might have attacked Islamic lands. If nothing else, more Ancient Greek, Ancient Latin, and Medieval Arabic, text and knowledge might have lasted until the printing press in the late 1400s.

It might set up a TL5 Elizabethan England.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

That could be interesting. Straight TL5, or split, with some areas being TL5, and others being still TL4?

Something I've been thinking about:

Suppose Pope Pius XII dies in 1942 or thereabouts, and the Axis powers decide controlling Papal succession is worth the trouble? I could see this resulting in a modern schism, albeit not necessarily a long one, as the cardinals from the Allied nations (who might not even have been allowed in) would probably be pressured to elect a different Pope, and the neutral nations with cardinals might decide that neither 'captive' Pope serve the interests of the Church.

After the war, the Churches might reunite, but then again, they might not, particularly if the neutral and Allied Popes won't agree on who is more legitimate (though I think they'll both agree that the Axis Pope isn't).