For All Mankind (AH Tv series at Apple TV)
- Thread starter Michel Van
- Start date
I was very curious to see how they would turn this into a race given that orbital mechanics are a fixed thing and damn son, RDM and his crew are just the best. This episode might have been the best in the series at least for me.
As if the Soviets would help Phoenix or Sojourner in a similar situation. They are huffing copium in very large amounts from the beginning of the Season culminating in the Roskosmos director pitching a fit in front of international media going like "SOLAR SAIL UNFAIR, STAWP" and we know that they'll do anything to win this Race because they absolutely HAVE to be first to remain relevant. If Phoenix had a malfunction it's not a stretch to imagine the Soviet ambassador going like "Helios is an American Company, it's not our problem, see you on Mars". Even disregarding all that and accepting that there was a soul up there like the guy that contacts Kelly that would want to help, they wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their family's well being at home. This is the Soviet Union and a Soviet Union that seems to still be doing the whole Secret Police/Siberian work camp thing. Plus the Soviets have been locking off their Cosmonauts out of the controls for fear of defection for years OTL. They are not above that.
Does that make Ayesha's move OK? Probably not, it only makes Ellen and Margo exceptional because I am sure that no other President Director combo would do what they did
The Russian defector joins the two kids as not belonging on any of the missions.
Welp, I enjoyed episode 4 considering my response to the end was a "wait it's over?", so yes a great episode.
So I definitely did not see the major events like the solar sail happening though the Soviet spaceship having issues didn't surprise me the issues that arose around it did. Honestly a bit curious why Ayesa is so determined to get to Mars first even over NASA, and how far that extends as there is no way if the NASA crew needs help that Ed would not do everything in his power to save his daughter.
So this helps explain why we see shots of the NASA and Soviet crew together on Mars, I'm guessing that is after they land, and if I had to guess they are going to get there on their own by refueling Sojourner 1 from Mars-94 as they started noting that as a possibility. Also, this might be what exposes Margo or leads to an investigation that exposes Margo. I wonder if it also forces Ellen's hand in the negotiations and causes her to agree to allow congress to pull funds from NASA?
So this helps explain why we see shots of the NASA and Soviet crew together on Mars, I'm guessing that is after they land, and if I had to guess they are going to get there on their own by refueling Sojourner 1 from Mars-94 as they started noting that as a possibility. Also, this might be what exposes Margo or leads to an investigation that exposes Margo. I wonder if it also forces Ellen's hand in the negotiations and causes her to agree to allow congress to pull funds from NASA?
Oof, good point. Although isn’t their flight path to slingshot around Venus? Meaning at some point they’d be close to Earth again?
No i think that was the supply ship?
I took the difference in delay to the call being when they were still close to Earth and a while had passed.
No the Venus slingshot is only for the supply ship carrying the modified Jamestown habitation modules to help support the Nasa crew on Mars and it landed 2 months before Sojourner arrives in Mars.
Taking a second look at the episode, there appears to be a time-jump at some point. The first scene is Ed talking to Ayesa with no time delay. After the opening credits we have a few scenes with no real sense of time, with Barinov's conversation included in this package, also the scene with Ellen in the Oval. The first real sense of a time jump comes after the first act package when Ellen is suddenly in Houston. But that's not the last potential time jump we have, either. Considering we'll probably see the Mars landing next week, it's not unreasonable to assume much of the journey occurs over the course of the episode.
Another way we could check would be to look at the kilometer stamps that pop up at least a couple times during the episode. A math-monger could punch those numbers in and find out what the actual communication lag would be. A less-trained person could also simply look at the km readings at the start of the episode and what they are once the lags start showing up and see the difference. I'd do it, but I gotta hit the road!
Bold to think anyone is reaching Mars at this point. It looks like Ed will have a double rescue coming his way.
I sneaked a peak through IMDB and the next episode is named Seven Minutes of Terror, a term associated with Mars landings. Cause of the lag, it takes Seven minutes to known if your mission failed or succeeded after you give it authorization to land. The next episode is the culmination of the race, one way or another.
He's not named in the credits but the Speaker of the House is strongly implied to be Dick Gephardt, meaning despite Ellen's victory in '92 her coattails weren't enough to flip the house. However, the breakthroughs in fusion plants and the initial helium-3 mining contracts came during the Hart Administration, so I think it's more likely that the Dems and GOP are developing futurist/techie wings of their party. Per the shorts Ellen's biggest rival for the GOP nomination in 1992 was Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who (along with Ellen strangely enough) pushed for President Hart to intervene in Kuwait likely at the behest of fossil fuel interests. Now of course President Wilson sparrs with a Speaker from Missouri who chastises her about not listening to the heartland in their oval office meeting. The anti-fusion protestors not being defined by one political party is likely why they're gaining traction in the news segments.
Just finished, and yeah, they are really good at playing it up. The dangers of spaceflight are not underplayed
Absolutely solid point. Of course, my overall point still stands, Margo is very bad at being able to see the bigger picture of non-NASA things and for an incredibly intelligent person, she can also be very dumb but in a way that makes you go "yup, that tracks" and not "why is Margo grabbing the idiot ball today."
Space Flight Awareness - Pathfinder Flag
(I was looking for a top-down view and found it on these patches)
(I was looking for a top-down view and found it on these patches)
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The issue isn’t just that fossil fuel jobs are disappearing. It’s that NASA seems to be sitting on billions of dollars and the Speaker wants to redirect some of that money towards domestic needs.
While it’s not the a bad target to go after in general, trying it with Ellen seems like a blatant setup for failure. I think it likely they’re trying to pull a Gingrich- set up a shutdown and try to pin the blame on the president. It didn’t turn out well at all for Gingrich, of course, but then they wouldn’t know that.
Also, not smart, Ellen, working out one economic package (where apparently new taxes were agreed to with no more quid pro quo than a promise on future cooperation) with budget negotiations in the offing. Really should’ve corralled it all into one process.