Alternate Space. For All Mankind, Part 3

[David Flin]

@AndyC continues his in-depth look at For All Mankind here.

Discuss.

 

[AndyC]

I'm a touch surprised no-one's reacted to my conclusion that Snoopy could have landed and returned - both in the show and (more insanely) in OTL.

 

[Thande]

I'm a touch surprised no-one's reacted to my conclusion that Snoopy could have landed and returned - both in the show and (more insanely) in OTL.

 

[Charles EP M.]

It does look just about doable but rather you do the flight than me...!

 

[M_Kresal]

We learn that Apollo 10 (with its Lunar Module crewed by Ed Baldwin and Gordo Cooper)

We’re talking about the Gordo from the show, surely?

 

[AndyC]

We’re talking about the Gordo from the show, surely?

D’oh!
Not that the two Gordos are at all similar, no sirree.
Oops.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

I'll take your word for it that it was - just - possible. (I understand delta-V as a concept, but actually doing the calculations is beyond me.) But it's the chain of 'if this' and 'if that' and 'if the other' all going just right that makes me think it would not be a good idea. Any plan that relies on everything going exactly right, with no margin of error, is a bad plan (basically, if the only other alternative is death then it's worth a shot, otherwise no). I have a feeling that Nixon's other speech* would have come into play here - but unscripted.

*There's also xkcd's typically off-the-wall take on Nixon's possible other speeches: https://xkcd.com/1484/​

 

[AndyC]

I'll take your word for it that it was - just - possible. (I understand delta-V as a concept, but actually doing the calculations is beyond me.) But it's the chain of 'if this' and 'if that' and 'if the other' all going just right that makes me think it would not be a good idea. Any plan that relies on everything going exactly right, with no margin of error, is a bad plan (basically, if the only other alternative is death then it's worth a shot, otherwise no). I have a feeling that Nixon's other speech* would have come into play here - but unscripted.

*There's also xkcd's typically off-the-wall take on Nixon's possible other speeches: https://xkcd.com/1484/​

Oh, absolutely.
As I say in the article, it would have been downright barking mad to go for it from the OTL situation.
Possible, but insane.

 

[e of pi]

I'm a touch surprised no-one's reacted to my conclusion that Snoopy could have landed and returned - both in the show and (more insanely) in OTL.

I hadn't had a chance to read it yet--I appreciate you poking the math, and I think that the fact that it's kind of a half working muddled mess points to a lot of my issues with FAM where it's like....30-40% thought out? (This gets worse in later episodes and then much worse in later seasons where they stop really even bothering to look at historical studies for real missions or trying to put together a coherent technical and programmatic architecture picture and just start drawing whatever looks cool, as I understand it.)