29:
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The book centres around chronicling the lives of the future Mars mission astronauts, NASA and contractor personnel all involved in making the mission become a reality, and the shifts within NASA's astronaut and management hierarchy throughout the mission's preparations, including female geologist
371:. The Skylab/Moonlab programs lead to improvements in the design of the Apollo Command/Service Module. A Block III CSM is produced using battery power in place of fuel cells, followed by the Block IV and V, which have a degree of reusability (modular construction and resistance to salt water
505:, but she is never mentioned in the book). 'Ares' Mission Specialist. She seemingly acts as the book's protagonist and a characterised incarnation of Baxter's views of NASA and humanity's destiny in space, an all-knowing archetype character used predominantly in Baxter's other novels.
311:
Natalie York's quest to become an astronaut, and her stormy relationships with fellow astronaut Ben Priest and NERVA engineer Mike Conlig. Other astronauts include Ralph
Gershon, a former fighter-bomber pilot involved in illegal bombing missions in Cambodia during the
635:. Male astronaut and geologist-in-training, Moonlab veteran and contender for the position of 'Ares' Mission Specialist along with Natalie York, but taken off flight status due to concerns about cumulative radiation exposure from long duration space missions.
481:– are cancelled so that their funding can be redirected to the crewed Mars mission, although another Mariner orbiter is sent to Mars to help prepare for the crewed landing. As a result, although humans walk on Mars, their knowledge of the
379:' by small aerospace firm Columbia Aviation as it struggles against larger rival contractors of NASA and its engineers working painstakingly against the technical challenges of a working and reliable Mars lander.
398:, and the space program nearly collapses from hostile political and public opinion against the use of nuclear power in space, and the seemingly unnecessary risks and reasons of a Mars mission.
515:
rocket plane and the first pilot to ever recover from a supersonic spin. He becomes an astronaut following the Moon landings to fly the Apollo/Moonlab missions. 'Ares' Mars
Mission Commander.
525:
pilot once involved in illegal CIA operations in
Cambodia during the Vietnam War and joins NASA afterward to help develop the first Mars lander. 'Ares' MEM (Mars Excursion Module) Pilot.
394:
first stage. This damages the NERVA upper stage, which catastrophically fails once fired in orbit; despite returning to Earth safely, the entire crew (including Ben Priest) is killed by
264:
and Joe
Muldoon walk on the Moon, and Nixon's "most historic phone call" is joined by a call from former President Kennedy, committing the United States to send a crewed mission to
663:
The character Joe
Muldoon is featured in Baxter's 2018 short story "The Shadow Over the Moon," where he is explicitly stated as being the Apollo 11 backup for Buzz Aldrin.
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563:. Male NASA director of the Mars project and a big supporter of NERVA, and former Nazi rocket scientist. Gregory Dana despises him for being the man in charge of the
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485:, including Mars itself and especially the outer Solar System planets which never get visited without the Pioneer/Voyager missions, is far less than in reality.
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The allohistorical setting of the novel was further explored in the short story "Prospero One", in which Baxter focuses on alternate developments in the 1960s
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547:. Male Director and Chief Engineer of Columbia Aviation, responsible for building the MEM and very dedicated (if not obsessed) to the task.
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The book tells the story in flashbacks during the actual Mars mission of the chronicalised history until the mission's beginning. The
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missions to both Skylab and
Moonlab. To facilitate the latter, the Soviets finally finish work on their
351:, a lunar orbit space station unofficially named "Moonlab", also a wet workshop based on the S-IVB. The
319:-turned-astronaut who has flown in a long-term stay on a lunar orbital station before the Mars mission.
1467:
584:
732:"Stephen Baxter – Voyage, 1999, BBC Radio 7, An alternative history of the US space programme (rerun)"
654:– namely, its first and only crewed flight. The short story was originally published in issue 112 of
352:
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706:"Voyage, 1999, BBC Radio 4, Written by Stephen Baxter, Produced, adapted and directed by Dirk Maggs"
275:
Preparations for this new goal include slashing the number of Moon landings so funding and leftover
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female geologist training to become the first
American female astronaut (almost parallel to
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program is revived to become the chosen Mars spacecraft development, with larger tests in
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as the
Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center), but was crippled and thus incapacitated, as
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planned in the aftermath of the original Apollo program, but done in this timeline for
434:
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whose dream is to be the first black man in space, and Phil Stone, a veteran Air Force
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also uses on-orbit assembly of a different long duration Mars-ship using wet-workshop
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Animation based in descriptions from the book, using
Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
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components as the propulsion systems as well as a Skylab habitat module and
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However, as a side effect, a number of uncrewed probes – including the
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that might have launched Skylab in our timeline instead launches
307:, but without containment and plagued with engineering problems.
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hardware can go towards the efforts of the crewed Mars mission.
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for this alternate timeline happens on 22 November 1963, where
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615:. Male NASA Administrator from 1969 to 1981, a parallel of
512:
437:
391:
375:). Also chronicled is the development of the experimental '
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186:
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where Dana was used as slave labor. Udet is a parallel of
409:, which has numerous improvements, including the use of
1463:Sidewise Award for Alternate History winning works
1503:Cultural depictions of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
752:Baxter, Stephen; Bradshaw, Simon (October 1996).
401:In the aftermath, a new Mars mission plan dubbed
1414:
326:Space Station is launched, but apparently as a
751:
216:In 1999, it was adapted as a radio serial for
795:
291:is crewed by the astronauts of the cancelled
583:. The second man on the Moon (a parallel of
809:
297:scientific experiments on the lunar surface
802:
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27:
1513:Cultural depictions of Lyndon B. Johnson
557:engine, and York's estranged boyfriend.
185:. The book depicts a crewed mission to
1498:Cultural depictions of John F. Kennedy
1415:
248:was killed, hence the renaming of the
1508:Cultural depictions of Neil Armstrong
783:
355:is instead a series of visits by the
405:is drawn up, utilising the upgraded
256:is still sworn in. On 20 July 1969,
207:Sidewise Award for Alternate History
681:"1997 Award Winners & Nominees"
272:program as he did in our timeline.
13:
1453:British alternative history novels
14:
1529:
768:
287:still suffers its disaster, but
119:Print (hardback & paperback)
227:
1458:British science fiction novels
745:
724:
698:
673:
597:male astronaut (a parallel of
553:. In charge of developing the
1:
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357:Apollo Command/Service Module
382:A test of the NERVA, called
330:design that is based on the
209:, and was nominated for the
201:on him on 22 November 1963.
16:1996 novel by Stephen Baxter
7:
1448:1996 science fiction novels
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521:. An African-American male
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353:Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
295:mission to carry out the
189:as it might have been in
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1518:Alternate history novels
1493:Space exploration novels
1473:Novels by Stephen Baxter
442:gravitational assistance
181:novel by British author
1376:The Massacre of Mankind
1341:The Light of Other Days
652:British space programme
603:Malcolm Scott Carpenter
444:, and finally lands at
413:to double its payload.
1401:The Hunters of Pangaea
211:Arthur C. Clarke Award
1386:Unrelated collections
1369:The Medusa Chronicles
497:. An intelligent but
457:Pioneer Venus project
411:solid rocket boosters
377:Mars Excursion Module
199:assassination attempt
1483:Hard science fiction
425:to hold extra fuel.
363:space stations, and
250:Kennedy Space Center
179:hard science fiction
1488:Voyager Books books
1443:Fiction set in 1986
1438:Fiction set in 1985
1433:Fiction set in 1980
1428:Fiction set in 1969
1423:1996 British novels
660:, in October 1996.
639:Vladimir Viktorenko
585:Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
396:radiation poisoning
337:upper stage called
234:point of divergence
23:
1478:Novels set on Mars
911:Destiny's Children
685:Worlds Without End
448:on 27 March 1986.
435:Manned Venus Flyby
322:In the 1970s, the
246:Jacqueline Kennedy
21:
1468:Novels about NASA
1410:
1409:
1320:The Twelfth Album
904:Xeelee: Endurance
841:Timelike Infinity
760:on 10 March 2005.
388:pogo oscillations
277:Apollo spacecraft
254:Lyndon B. Johnson
242:the assassination
170:
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108:Publication place
49:Cover artist
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1362:The Wheel of Ice
953:Manifold Trilogy
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756:. Archived from
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712:on 24 April 2014
708:. Archived from
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191:another timeline
158:Followed by
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103:21 November 1996
99:Publication date
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1355:The H-Bomb Girl
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1275:The Long Cosmos
1268:The Long Utopia
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1096:Time's Tapestry
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862:Vacuum Diagrams
824:Xeelee Sequence
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1254:The Long War
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1211:Stone Spring
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1139:NASA Trilogy
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869:Reality Dust
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758:the original
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735:. Retrieved
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714:. Retrieved
710:the original
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688:. Retrieved
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633:Adam Bleeker
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518:
508:
495:Natalie York
494:
483:Solar System
472:
466:
460:
450:
426:
414:
402:
400:
383:
381:
346:
338:
328:wet workshop
321:
309:
274:
231:
228:Plot summary
215:
202:
193:, one where
173:
172:
171:
161:
71:NASA Trilogy
18:
1225:Iron Winter
984:Phase Space
939:Resplendent
591:Chuck Jones
581:Joe Muldoon
551:Mike Conlig
468:Pioneers 10
429:performs a
313:Vietnam War
260:astronauts
218:BBC Radio 4
53:Chris Moore
1417:Categories
1041:Time's Eye
1005:Silverhair
918:Coalescent
667:References
575:Bert Seger
565:Mittelwerk
529:Ben Priest
509:Phil Stone
503:Sally Ride
489:Characters
477:, and the
462:Mariner 10
407:Saturn V-B
317:test pilot
222:Dirk Maggs
177:is a 1996
1348:Evolution
1201:Northland
1174:Flood/Ark
1120:Navigator
1113:Conqueror
1055:Firstborn
657:Interzone
561:Hans Udet
373:corrosion
332:Saturn IB
293:Apollo 15
289:Apollo 14
285:Apollo 13
281:Apollo 12
258:Apollo 11
240:survived
213:in 1997.
87:Publisher
1327:Anti-Ice
1163:Moonseed
1084:Webcrash
1048:Sunstorm
1019:Icebones
1012:Longtusk
925:Exultant
890:Starfall
690:3 August
646:Spinoffs
627:Apollo-N
623:Jim Dana
609:mission.
607:Apollo-N
535:mission.
533:Apollo-N
384:Apollo-N
348:Skylab B
343:Saturn V
339:Skylab A
152:54247061
59:Language
1295:Proxima
1286:Proxima
1203:trilogy
1106:Emperor
1067:The Web
997:trilogy
995:Mammoth
499:cynical
390:in the
62:English
22:Voyage
1394:Traces
1312:Others
1302:Ultima
1149:Voyage
1127:Weaver
977:Origin
545:JK Lee
361:Salyut
341:. The
324:Skylab
305:Nevada
205:won a
203:Voyage
174:Voyage
165:
67:Series
39:Author
1183:Flood
1156:Titan
970:Space
811:Works
737:6 May
716:6 May
595:surly
555:NERVA
431:Venus
365:Soyuz
335:S-IVB
301:NERVA
163:Titan
124:Pages
77:Genre
963:Time
855:Ring
848:Flux
834:Raft
739:2013
718:2013
692:2009
601:and
593:. A
513:X-15
471:and
438:NASA
427:Ares
415:Ares
403:Ares
392:S-IC
266:Mars
187:Mars
146:OCLC
133:ISBN
93:(UK)
1190:Ark
813:by
369:N-1
359:to
220:by
127:580
1419::
683:.
474:11
465:,
459:,
455:,
224:.
1322:"
1318:"
803:e
796:t
789:v
741:.
720:.
694:.
629:.
619:.
571:.
244:(
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