What If The Cold War Had Not Ended?

[Dayton3]

The Cold War effectively ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin War. The U.S.S.R. itself ended less than two years later.

What if neither of those events had happened or at least not for another 10 years?

The Soviet Union was planning a manned mission to Mars by 2000. They had kept cosmonauts in Earth orbit for more than a year. More than enough time in weightlessness for a trip to Mars.

And they were building a nuclear rocket engine to propel a spacecraft to Mars at a secret facility.

I've heard that the Soviets might've sent as many as 8 people on a manned Mars mission. Possibly inviting a European and an American astronaut along.

Anyone think this might've come about if the Cold War had not ended? How would the U.S. have reacted?

 

[JNG]

If they'd had the resources to pull that off, I rather think the US would have been in notable danger of losing the Cold War...or any hot ones.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

There's an interesting alternate history in Activisions 1997-ish update of the game "Battlezone". Essentially, the cold war was never really cold, but secret and off-planet. The war was waged to aquire more of an alien resource called "bio-metal" for the creation of weapons systems wih incredible capabilities like anti-gravity, morphing, and incredible destruction.

Not a real "what-if" bit when this biometal was discovered in the bering strait in 1957, Ike immediately commanded the NSA to create a force to acquire more (as did the Rooskies!). By the time NASA landed Armstrong on the moon, the National Space Defense Force had 100 men at Tranquility Base!

Fun stuff, fun game, and nice story line.

 

[Dayton3]

If they'd had the resources to pull that off, I rather think the US would have been in notable danger of losing the Cold War...or any hot ones.

Despite what some have claimed, going to Mars and back wouldn't take that much in resources or funding beyond what is spent now if done properly.

See Dr. Robert Zubrin's "The Case For Mars"

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Anyone think this might've come about if the Cold War had not ended? How would the U.S. have reacted?

I just brought it up the other day in the Buran thread. Look for William Barton and Michael Capobianco's novel Fellow Traveler. The Berlin Wall doesn't fall, the Soviets take the lead in space and America never really regains its space footing from the Challenger disaster.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I had a continuing Cold War in the last book I wrote, although the history surrounding it also changed. To make a long story very short, it involved Israel turning the Sinai Peninsula back over to Egypt shortly after the Six-Day War, which significantly raised Israel's stock in the Arab world, reducing the necessity of American involvement. No revolution in Iran, no hostage crisis, no oil shocks, no Reagan Presidency, no "Soviet Vietnam" in Afghanistan, so no end to the USSR, and a much earlier crisis in oil prices (due to demand having never been curbed).

Yeah, it was a bit of a stretch, but it worked for my purposes.

Given the Soviets could direct their infrastructure and resources toward whatever goal they wanted, I don't see how they could have been stopped from going to Mars. While we made it to the Moon first, the USSR certainly showed us up in the space race before that, and their Soyuz craft seem to be more versatile and reliable than our space shuttles.

 

[JustAFriend]

The Soviet Union was planning a manned mission to Mars by 2000. They had kept cosmonauts in Earth orbit for more than a year. More than enough time in weightlessness for a trip to Mars.

And they were building a nuclear rocket engine to propel a spacecraft to Mars at a secret facility.

I've heard that the Soviets might've sent as many as 8 people on a manned Mars mission. Possibly inviting a European and an American astronaut along.

Yeah, good luck with that one.... they couldn't even get a one-man ship to the moon. Still can't after 30 years....

 

[JNG]

If they'd had the resources to pull that off, I rather think the US would have been in notable danger of losing the Cold War...or any hot ones.

Despite what some have claimed, going to Mars and back wouldn't take that much in resources or funding beyond what is spent now if done properly.

See Dr. Robert Zubrin's "The Case For Mars"

Well, I guess I didn't make my meaning clear. If the Soviet Union had been cooking to the point that making that happen wasn't the challenge for them it would have been in the real world, I think it would have constituted bad news for the USA. It may not be as resource-intensive as some think in the context of what has been achieved in modern-day space exploration, but imagining them being able to pull that off instead of scrounging for turnips and toilet paper like they were in reality sure changes the balance of power.

 

[Neopeius]

Anyone think this might've come about if the Cold War had not ended? How would the U.S. have reacted?

The Cold War was going to end whether the Russians wanted it to or not. A better question is what if the Russians had won the race to the moon or at least came in a closer second.

The answer is more lunar development and the possibility of a self-sustaining infrastructure leading to a permanent presence in space.

Ah, if only Korolev had died later... or sooner.