Hecatee
Donor
Inspired with the idea, suggester in the thread "Truman's satellite" of Truman being stuck in an elevator with Arthur C. Clarke, I propose something slightly different : what if Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke joined together in a massive campaign to promote space travel research and developpement, doing so from the 50's onward, not yet the world famous figures they became in the 60's and 70's but developping their reputation through their writtings and their lobbying for space travel ?
Would that be able to accellerate US space research ?
Or, even better, would they get in a fight against Von Braun and instead work with the British Space Programm and/or promote an earlier/more developped European Space Agency ? They could be joined in their efforts by other polymath like the great french prehistorian and S-F writer François Bordes, with something like a league of extraordinary gentlemen writters of S-F promoting space research and developement...
The period is also right to get some peoples like De Gaulle, always on the lookout for major national prestige projects, to inject funding in the project. We could for exemple give birth to a stronger ESA 5 to 7 years early, say for exemple in 1965 just after the successful launch of the french Diamant rocket and Asterix satellite prove to the europeans that a credible space program is possible outside of US help, 7 years after the Nassau 6 treaty between the US and the UK that led to the loss of independant space design capacities by the UK.
Thus we'd have a stronger european program with more dedication to space travel thanks to the larger awarness of the topic by the public thanks to the actions of Clarke and Asimov.
We could even see Clarke get the presidency of this earlier ESA, since he was a well regarder engineer as well as a public figure. Thus we'd have a 3 ways space race between the US, the USSR and the ESA.
What do you all think ?
I
Would that be able to accellerate US space research ?
Or, even better, would they get in a fight against Von Braun and instead work with the British Space Programm and/or promote an earlier/more developped European Space Agency ? They could be joined in their efforts by other polymath like the great french prehistorian and S-F writer François Bordes, with something like a league of extraordinary gentlemen writters of S-F promoting space research and developement...
The period is also right to get some peoples like De Gaulle, always on the lookout for major national prestige projects, to inject funding in the project. We could for exemple give birth to a stronger ESA 5 to 7 years early, say for exemple in 1965 just after the successful launch of the french Diamant rocket and Asterix satellite prove to the europeans that a credible space program is possible outside of US help, 7 years after the Nassau 6 treaty between the US and the UK that led to the loss of independant space design capacities by the UK.
Thus we'd have a stronger european program with more dedication to space travel thanks to the larger awarness of the topic by the public thanks to the actions of Clarke and Asimov.
We could even see Clarke get the presidency of this earlier ESA, since he was a well regarder engineer as well as a public figure. Thus we'd have a 3 ways space race between the US, the USSR and the ESA.
What do you all think ?
I
