Apollo D-2

[Kalesin]

I know there were plans to send a manned mission to the moon different Direct Ascent and LOR, had also planned to build a mission in Earth Orbit (EOR). I have found articles that talk about it, if you are interested: Apollo D-2



http://www.astronautix.com/craft/apollod2.htm



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_D-2

[OutsiderSubtype]

I was just about to post a thread asking about ahistorical Apollo options now that Gemini EOR is in.

Will we have missions like the old Apollo EOR and two-launch and two-TLI LOR from BARIS? Those were nice to use if you couldn't get the Saturn V working.

[N_Molson]

Hello guys,

Thanks for your interest to the game.

- About the "old Apollo EOR" : we reviewed that one and it turns out that sending the S-IVB (needs to have more than 60 tons of propellant for the TLI burn) and an Apollo CSM + LEM stack fully loaded with propellant (45 tons) would not prove to be very economical in regard to the "all-in-one" Saturn V solution. So we've chosen then Gemini EOR option that offers a reasonable though riskier alternative, with much lighter hardware.
- The "two-TLI" LOR strategy present in BARIS was indeed very cool, but highly unrealistic in terms of payload mass and rocket capacity. Also, we had to make choices at some point
- There were a lot of early Apollo projects, but we've chosen - and that's also for the gameplay's balance sake - to cover the Direct Ascent with Gemini (Apollo DA would require something like the Nova booster), the LOR with "classical Apollo" and the EOR/LOR with Gemini EOR.

You might also find that the UR-700/LK-700 Soviet program has quite a lot of similarities with Apollo DA, as it might have been inspired by it.

Have fun !

[OutsiderSubtype]

Fair enough, the two TLI approach was completely unrealistic I agree.