Current Space Activities Report
Updated 2-3-2002
Something I've been working on for a while is a "2001 Technical Manual" by another name. This is the "Current Space Activities Report, April 27, 2002," a classified report to the President of the United States by Dr. Heywood Floyd, director of the National Council on Astronautics.
This is intended to be an overview of all major manned space activities in operation or in planning, put in a historical context. An alternate history will also be provided outside of the main text; this will explain how, with a point of departure in 1968, the world produced the Orion 3 and Space Station V rather than the Space Shuttle and ISS. I've come up with an alternate history that involves no alien interventions or divine will or any such nonsense, just a few changes in politics that greatly alter the outcome. The groundrule for this was that the alternate world would have to appear identical to OTL up to the day "2001" premiered.
This is, of course, all highly non-canon. However, every attempt is being made to make this all as realistic and rational as possible. Every spacecraft described will be presented with multiple CAD drawings (and computer rendersing for cutawy views, or good drawings made form same; these drawings will be as accurate to studio models as possible in the case of vehicles that are canon. Other vehicles or components will be based upon pre-production artwork (such as the Titov V... mentioned in the book, it's design is based on an early design for the Orion spaceplane) or real-life equivalents (the booster system for the Orion 3 spaceplane is based on Lockheed STAR Clipper designs from the late 1960's).
The date of the report has been moved forward 2 years. This is due to the timing of when this report would have been released in the "2001" universe... shortly after HAL goes nuts, but before Discovery reaches Jupiter. A careful reading of the available information indicates that the TMA-1 was to have been found in 2001, with Discovery reaching Jupiter 18 months later. Much more precision than that doesn't seem possible (unless I've missed something), so the precise dates are guesswork.
Subjects to be included (not a complete list):
Earth-to-orbit personnel transportation: Orion 3 shuttle (canon) with Orion 1 and Orion 4 boosters (semi-canon); Titov V spaceplane (semi-canon) and Silbervogel spaceplane (non-canon)
Earth-to-orbit cargo transport: Nexus 2 HLLV (non-canon)
Space Stations 1-7 (5 canon, 3-4 semi-canon, 1,2,6,7 non-canon)
Orbital Military assets: weapons satellites, bomb platforms (canon)
Earth orbit to Moon transport: Aries 1A (semi-canon), Aries 1B (canon)
Lunar transport: Moonbus (canon), hopper (semi-canon)
Lunar Bases: Clavius Base (canon), TMA-1 (canon), others (non-canon)
Mars missions/bases: mentioned, but not shown (semi-canon)
Jupiter Missions: Discovery 1 (canon), Discovery 2 (semi-canon)
Historical space launch systems: Mercury/Atlas, Gemini/Titan, Apollo/Saturn I, Apollo/Saturn V, MS-V, Lockheed STAR Clipper, Boeing-Grumman Space Shuttle, Rockwell Shuttle 2, General Dynamics Nexus 1, Nexus 2.
Shown above are drawings like what will be in "CSAR." These are the first drawings produced (for the Orion 3 model kit). The left CAD drawing shows the Orion 3 with Orion 1 drop-tank booster; the Orion 2 cargo shuttle, a side view of the Orion 3 mounted on Orion 4, side view of Titov V. The right drawing shows production art of the Orion3, with technical data.
I've been tinkering with CSAR for a long time now, with little concrete to show for it so far. Much of what I’ve done I’ve pitched as being simply wrong. However, you can see some of my train of logic as I go through the effort of determining the sizes of the various vehicles and structures, here.
This has turned out to be a bigger challenge than initially expected, partly due to the fact that the scope keeps growing, and partially due to the fact that I have to work like a madman to come up with reasonable explanations of designs that were shown on screen that were what they were simply because they looked cool. Hey, at least I'm not trying to scientifically justify "The Phantom Menace..."