beyond earth (short story)

in 1969 neil amstrong first land on the moon

in our universe we would not return to the moon

untilt the 2020s but in this alternate timeline it is much different

in 1970 alexi leonov lands on the moon

on the lk lunar lander

a symbol of soviet national pride

in between 1971 to 1975

multiple lunar missions happened

it all culminated in 1975 when the us

have landed their core module of their lunar base

called columbus

colunbus's core module is an circular habitat

deisgn with 3 docking ports and an airlock

during 1972 to 1973

esa had been working on their own

manned spaceflight program called discovery

the space capsule has a apollo like command module

with a small service module and 2 solar panel wings

in 1976 the ussr started on their

salyut and mir programs one to compete

with the american skylab program and the other

to compete with columbus

the same year america has landed the first

spacecraft on mars called viking 1 with

the rover liberty

in 1977 an american expedition to shakleton crater

has discovered that there ice water

on the lunar surface that same year the mir lunar base

core module had landed in tycho crater

during all of this america had developed the saturn VI

a rocket which was deisgned to assmeble a spacecraft for mars

in 1979 salyut 1 was launched and was a huge success

the program was a bit delayed due to the ussr

putting a lot of focus to mir

in 1981 the assmembly of explorer 1

the american mars spececraft began

the ussr have decided to create the red star program the same year

to compete with the american mars program

in 1979 esa had launched their first space station

called spacelab

and began their own lunar program

in 1981 china had just starte their program

in 1982 a team of 4 went to explorer 1

to a 7 month journey to mars

after getting to mars

the went to the mars excursion module

and landed on the surface howard young

was the first man to step on the red planet

in 1983 the ussr have sent their own

spacecraft to mars however along the way

the crew habitat suddenly depreasurised

killing the crew immeidiatly

meanwhile on earth space tourism had started becoming popular

in the late 70s early 80s

so in 1985 the amstrong space station

was completed

this station is a rotating wheel

space hotel

the same year esa first landed

on the moon

while nasa had sent explorer 2 to mars

and by that same year columbus and mir have grown

into a small colony each housing around 20 people

by 1987 the ussr have sent multiple missions

to near earth asteroids while the us

have greenlight the space station freedom program

the idea is to have a modular space station

to perform expiriments in the station

and will be built by the space shuttle

a still in progress program that was greenlight in 1984

also that same year had explorer 3 which had sent

2 habitat modules to mars

in 1989 the soviet union had joined

the us explorer program becoming an international program

explorer 4 was launched in 1991 with

the greenhouse module developed by the ussr

in 1992 space station freedom had began construction

now called space station unity

with the program now having esa and the ussr in it

the same year the ussr had sent mining

expedition to a near earth asteroid that's worth

around 10 billion dollars

jumping to 1995 space station unity is almost complete

while esa had joined the international mars missions

now called "international mars outpost program" or imo

the last mission going under the explorer mission went in 1994

carrying the soviet habitat module called korolev

in 1994 there was also the launch of the

von braun space telescope

and the starting deisgn of a new

mars spacecraft design called copernicus

copernicus has three parts

a nuclear thermal propulstion stage

a fuel tank and an inflatable hab

that spacecraft would spin to create artificial gravity

by 1997 station unity has finished construction

and imo 1 went to mars with copernicus A

with cargo landers would deliver more equipment

and food the the base

the same time nasa began to plan their mission to callisto

one of the jupiter's moons

also during the late 90s there was multiple

soviet probes to venus

to expiriment with baloons for future manned missions

by 2010 there was multiple important missions

firstly there was a mission to callisto

between 2003 to 2007

using a spacecraft that assembled in orbit

called pioneer the spacecraft

had an inflatable habitat ring

and infltable habitats derived from

the altier lunar lander

between 2000 to 2008 there were multiple

soviet missions to venus using zeplins

and of course many mars missions

in 2003 there was a proposal at nasa

for a multi mission spacecraft called

nautilus x after many years of reaserch and development

the spacecraft began assembly in 2012

the spacecraft itself has a small inflatable habitat ring

3 infltable logistics and habitats modules

and 3 solar arrays

the spacecraft could either go for mars

or the moon

by 2010 the columbus and mir moon base

have not grown significally

because most of the budget goes for the imo

the imo by now became a modest base

it has 3 american habitats modules

2 russian habitat modules

3 labs one american one european and one russian

and a small oxygen and fuel generator

using local water

in 2015 there was another mission to callisto

using pioneer

meanwhile construction on the spacecraft endurence

for a mission to titan in 2019

the endurence spacecraft was very similar to pioneer

with very similar equiment

with minor diffences like using parashoots

for the lander because of the methene atmosphere

in 2019 the spacecraft left earth and arrived at titan

at 2025 with astronaut adam smith first stepping

into titan's surface