(Actual) JAXA proposals from the late 2000s to early 2010s: the SELENE (Kaguya) lunar orbiter probe in 2007 was meant to be followed by the SELENE-2 lander and rover in 2015 (but was cancelled by that year).
SELENE-X was a placeholder name for a more advanced mission or missions, such as...
During the 1980s bubble economy (as well as the 90s), Tokyo seemed to be the center of a lot of megaproject/arcology proposals.
I remember seeing Sky City 1000 and the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid in the Discovery Channel documentary series "Extreme Engineering" in the early 2000s.
There was...
2057-12-13 - Leaving the lander behind, the Raijin Jupiter Orbital Vehicle raised its orbit from 500 to 1100 km to reduce exposure to radiation redirected by Ganymede's magnetic field. On December 15, the JOV departed Ganymede to return and dock with the main Jupiter Piloted Vehicle (which was...
2057-12-06 - Leaving the refueling tank behind, the Raijin Jupiter Orbital Vehicle departed Callisto on a Hohmann transfer to Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter and the Solar System as a whole, and the only moon with a significant magnetic field. The transfer took less than a week as the JOV...
Threadmarks: 2057-12 - Raijin Callisto stay and return to orbit
2057-08-10 - After the main interplanetary ship performed its gravity assist and entered a circular orbit between Ganymede and Callisto on August 3, the Raijin crew (Hachirota Hoshino, Ken’ichi Obikawa, and Juri Araki) deployed the Callisto Cruiser rover to explore the surroundings of Jupiter's...
I love the idea of a more gradual space program that eventually surpasses OTL (in fact, that's what HASDA is supposed to be, but some people thought it was boring so it's currently on hiatus).
Could a reusable winged launch vehicle be economically viable, or does it have to be an automated VTVL...
2057-06-21 - The Raijin Jupiter Piloted Vehicle one day before orbital insertion
2057-07-25 - The Jupiter Orbital Vehicle docked to the Jovian Moons Landing Module
Right to left: Hachirota Hoshino, Ken’ichi Obikawa, and Juri Araki landed on Callisto
2057-06-22 - The Raijin Piloted Vehicle entered an elliptical orbit around Jupiter, using the last of the propellant in the Earth Departure Stage before activating the JPV's Jupiter Orbit Stage. 1 month later, the Jupiter Orbital Vehicle, a relatively small craft intended for transportation...
Unfortunately, the anti-nuclear movement in OTL has mostly kept us more dependent on fossil fuels. It has also led to calls to lower living standards to stop climate change.
NASA's budget peaked in the 1960s, but has been 1% or less of the federal budget after the end of Apollo. The question is not "how could NASA have maintained its 1960s spending?" but "how could NASA (or other space programs) have done more with a smaller budget?”
Or, “what is the earliest date...