For All Mankind

[Nibb31]

The Jamestown design is interesting

[spoiler]
In episode 3 they implied that they were working on landing the Skylab wet lab on the Moon. But Jameson seems to be a completely different design.


It looks to be based on a "tuna can" design with four descent stage engines. The airlock was probably launched inline and moved into position after launch like the Skylab ATM. The S-IVB was only 6.6 meters wide and Jamestown looks significantly wider with the engines. Maybe they were also stacked on top and relocated after launch, but that seems like it would require significant EVA work.

The propellant tanks look a bit small. Maybe it has additional tanks on the inside that can be reused to store the harvested water.

Talking about harvesting, there is some sort of conveyor belt or digger device that can be deployed on the side of the can. The other side seemed to have another door, maybe for an inflatable extension or a tunnel to a second module (although given the blast, landing another module too close seems like a bad idea). We don't know what's on the back or on the top (solar panels?)

[/spoiler]

[Catbiscuits]

My whole family and I are watching and it’s our favorite show now. I was afraid that it’d be designed by committee, but by episode 4, it’s got a real arc going. I am really enjoying Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb although some of the other actors don’t seem right to me, maybe because I’ve watched one too many Apollo documentary.

[sanman]

[libra]

Let me have some fun and speculate on For all mankind divergence that allowed the Soviets to shoot first for the Moon.

First the Soviets took Apollo far more seriously and drawn an answer, not in August 1964 (three years late !) but right from 1961 or 1962.
Perhaps JFK bizarre idea of sharing Apollo with the Soviets (June and September and November 1963)  was shot down in flames by his advisors, and in turn Mister K. took Apollo much more seriously.

Secondly, Korolev got "super priority" over everything else and started cutting all the OTL "dead wood".

Despite the OTL dispute with Glushko (unavoidable) Korolev stroke a major victory. He managed to get the N-11 in place of Proton. This was important for two reasons.
1- the N-11 flew in 1965 and... validated all the N-1 upper stages (Block B, V, G...)
2 - thanks to 1- Korolev took control of Zond and all the lunar probes - Luna, Lunokhod, Ye-5-8 scoopers.

With the N-11 flying rather well from 1965-66 Korolev was free to concentrate on the troublesome Block A and its 30 engines. Which were already flying on the N-11. It helped, somewhat.

Meanwhile by 1966 seeing Apollo making serious strides, Korolev took further steps to get the lunar program running more smoothly. He got zond cancelled as unuseful and the OTL money pumped into accelerating the LK lunar lander.
What's more, the entire Soyuz 7K-OK / Soyuz 1 > Salyut LEO program (1966 to 1974) was cancelled and replaced with LEO flight testing of the lunar Soyuz (LOK) with the N-11. Somewhat like Apollo 7 & 9 in place of Skylab.
Korolev move was controversial but ultimately validated when Skylab was canned and repurposed into Jamestown. Korolev also noted that Chelomei Almaz was making good progress so Salyut was not necessary to get a small LEO station.

And yes, Korolev survived some more years. Basically he had a different agenda in 1964-66 and randomly stumbled on his illness some months earlier, the surgeon was less stressed and did not blundered and Korolev lived perhaps until 1970.

By starting two years earlier and screwing Proton, Zond, and LEO Soyuz (Soyuz 1 disaster included); and with the N-11 flight testing greatly helping the N-1, the Soviets achieved the impossible: they (barely) managed to land on the Moon first.

In the first two N-1 flights in February and July 1969  the first stage (barely !) hold because the Kuneztsov engines, already flown many times, did not exploded - luckily enough, because the KORD system was as flawed as per OTL and would have shut down the whole thing, sending the rocket crashing down on the pad as per OTL.
Thanks to N-11 experience and a lot of luck the soviets dodged a huge bullet (a bullet with a yield as large as a tactical nuke).
So the Block A first stage made it through long enough that the... N-11 on top of it could fire and then flew correctly as usual.
It very nearly happened this way in November 1972 in the fourth and last flight of the N-1: the block A gave up only 14 seconds before staging.

[kuldan]

Oh wow. The newest episode is shooting at the congressional model of "spreading the pork"...

[sanman]

Isn't that what Nixon sort of did with the Space Shuttle? And yet it helped to build up the aerospace industry in his home state of California.

[kuldan]

Isn't that what Nixon sort of did with the Space Shuttle? And yet it helped to build up the aerospace industry in his home state of California.

Don't want to go too deep into spoilers as the episode is still fresh, but it is put on the chopping block as a very bad thing in the context of the episode.

Can discuss deeper tomorrow I think

[Orbiter]

!spoilers below!

So we're up to Apollo 23 now in 1973. Ted Kennedy is President of the USA and pulls a Gerald Ford and pardons Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. Soviets have a lunar base named "Zvezda". I didn't catch the whole Apollo 23 crew but the CDR is Michael Collins (tidbit: had Collins not left NASA he probably would have commanded Apollo 17) to resupply the Jamestown base.  Kranz has been promoted to JSC director and in his place has been hired the first female MCC-H flight director. Kranz goes out to visit the Apollo 23 crew as they're loaded into the capsule. The LH2 fuel value on the S-II fails as a result of poor design from a new manufacturer, which results in the Saturn V exploding and killing everyone on the pad. The astronauts are able to abort but are seriously injured when the capsule ends up landing on the beach.

Other than that, this episode isn't very interesting. The rest of it is dedicated to the investigation/FBI drama/political corruption/et cetera.

[illectro]

The astronauts are able to abort but are seriously injured when the capsule ends up landing on the beach.

I'm trying to figure out just how they managed to abort the capsule when the white room hadn't yet been moved away (and therefor the system wasn't armed), if a fire was consuming the rocket, but the access arm hadn't been moved back, were there contingencies that allowed launch control to pull the arm back before automatically aborting?

[Orbiter]

The astronauts are able to abort but are seriously injured when the capsule ends up landing on the beach.

I'm trying to figure out just how they managed to abort the capsule when the white room hadn't yet been moved away (and therefor the system wasn't armed), if a fire was consuming the rocket, but the access arm hadn't been moved back, were there contingencies that allowed launch control to pull the arm back before automatically aborting?

Looks like the swing arm is able to quickly pull back from the CSM. Does anyone know if the swing arms actually had this ability in the event of an anomaly?

[Markstark]

What was it that Gordo saw at the end when he was apartment hunting? I know it was the soviets but what where they doing?

[oxmyx]

I'm a bit bummed that in the new episode, there's Moon gravity outside of the base module, but regular Earth gravity inside of it. I understand that it's quite complicated and expensive to film reduced-gravity scenes in a small set. But even a little bit of effort would have gone a long way, for example having the actors move a little slower, not showing their legs while walking, and using a kind of 'floating' camera setup. But it turns out they didn't even try.

[mme]

I think they want to communicate, unofficially.

[Nibb31]

I'm a bit bummed that in the new episode, there's Moon gravity outside of the base module, but regular Earth gravity inside of it. I understand that it's quite complicated and expensive to film reduced-gravity scenes in a small set. But even a little bit of effort would have gone a long way, for example having the actors move a little slower, not showing their legs while walking, and using a kind of 'floating' camera setup. But it turns out they didn't even try.

Why would they move slower? I thought that the reason EVA astronauts moved slow was because of the stiffness of the space suits, not gravity. They would definitely fall slower, and their hair might act funny, but I don't see why muscular movements or walking inside the base would be any slower.

[TripleSeven]

I'm a bit bummed that in the new episode, there's Moon gravity outside of the base module, but regular Earth gravity inside of it. I understand that it's quite complicated and expensive to film reduced-gravity scenes in a small set. But even a little bit of effort would have gone a long way, for example having the actors move a little slower, not showing their legs while walking, and using a kind of 'floating' camera setup. But it turns out they didn't even try.

Why would they move slower? I thought that the reason EVA astronauts moved slow was because of the stiffness of the space suits, not gravity. They would definitely fall slower, and their hair might act funny, but I don't see why muscular movements or walking inside the base would be any slower.

another reason is that in the suit, the center of gravity is quite different then without it...slow is good

[TripleSeven]

the slip and slide at 0:34.  the Houston of my very very early childhood    I assume you are enjoying the show?  I have not watched it yet.

[sanman]

[spoiler]OMG! I can't believe they killed Gene Kranz! The corruption thing is interesting, though - adds more intrigue to the story. I'm wondering what bearing the revelations about Margo's father have for the future. If those red lights are attempts by the Soviets to communicate, then hopefully it means a chance to see some Russians more directly in the story. I wonder what the purpose of each side is in being at Shackleton crater?

Oh - and Apollo's Crew Director Deke Slayton is going to the Moon! 
I wonder who'd be his replacement on Earth?
[/spoiler]

[hektor]

[spoiler]
Interesting crew for Apollo 24 :
Ellen Waverly (CDR)
Harrison Liu
Deke Slayton

Besides the ASTP parallel it seems to suggest that Ellen has already flown once, between Apollo 16 and Apollo 21.
Also there is an Asian American astronaut. This Universe in the 70s is far more diverse than ours.
[/spoiler]

[libra]

Well if a Saturn V exploded, even with the safety distance there was one major safety issue at play: the large glass windows. They had metallic covers against the blast but... it was a matter of moving them into place very quickly, with a furious shock wave coming to it like some kind of demented hurricane.

Alternatively, I think it was Rocco Petronne who said

"whatever the risk, if a Saturn had exploded, I need to see that, so screw the covers..."

[hektor]

No sign of an Apollo / Saturn replacement yet. Will we go to Apollo 42 or more ?