If Korolev had lived long enough, would the N1 have been a success?

[willpittenger]

<p>Note: This is really two questions.</p><ul><li>Successful launch</li><li>Success in getting to the moon before the US </li></ul> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[trailrider]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Note: This is really two questions.Successful launchSuccess in getting to the moon before the US <br />Posted by willpittenger</DIV><br /><br />Difficult to say... Krolev had convinced Nikita Khrushev to let&nbsp;him launch Sputnik I because he hadn't solved the re-entry problem to make the R-1 booster a true ICBM.&nbsp; In point of fact, at least one of the explosions of the N-1 was due to some idiotic general trying to fix the problem himself.&nbsp; Whether Korolev could have found a way to talk him out of it is questionable.</p><p>Pretty useless to speculate...he's DEAD, and that's that!</p><p>We've got enough problems right now without worrying about what might have been!</p><p>Ad LEO! Ad Luna! Ad Ares! Ad Astra! (If we can afford any of it!)</p>

 

[JonClarke]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Difficult to say... Krolev had convinced Nikita Khrushev to let&nbsp;him launch Sputnik I because he hadn't solved the re-entry problem to make the R-1 booster a true ICBM.&nbsp; </DIV></p><p>They had already solved the r-entry problem for ICBM warheads.&nbsp; The Sputnik program was triggered by the IGY </p><p>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>In point of fact, at least one of the explosions of the N-1 was due to some idiotic general trying to fix the problem himself.&nbsp; </DIV></p><p>I think you are confusing the N1 was the Nedelin diaster some years earlier.&nbsp; Whcih was an ICBM test, and nothing to do with space flight.</p><p>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Whether Korolev could have found a way to talk him out of it is questionable.Pretty useless to speculate...he's DEAD, and that's that!We've got enough problems right now without worrying about what might have been!</DIV></p><p>We should always learn history to learn from it.</p><p>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Posted by trailrider</DIV></p><p>Jon<br /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Note: This is really two questions.Successful launchSuccess in getting to the moon before the US <br />Posted by willpittenger</DIV>.</p><p>Good questions Will.&nbsp; Several things to consider.&nbsp; </p><p>In a very large program success is very rarely (read almost never) dependent on one person, no matter how gifted.&nbsp; Korolev's main contributon was his political astuteness, his successor Mishin may not have been as good as riding and guiding the political machine</p><p>Why did the N1 fail in the first place?&nbsp; Partly because the program was very rushed and therefore it was not adequately tested before it was flown (test stands large enough to fly the lower stage could not be built in time).</p><p>Why was it rushed?&nbsp; Because the USSR did not serious start funding it's manned lunar program until 1965.&nbsp; Work was done on lunar missions before then, and the N1, but they were low priority</p><p>Had the USSR realised that the US was serious about going to the Moon, or decided to go to the Moon independently, development (and proper funding would have been available a lot sooner.&nbsp; Had work seriously begun in (say) 1961, there is no reason why the complex but magnificent N1 could not have been made to work, and perhaps be the first to put peole on the Moon.</p><p>However, the N1 design was outdated by the time in flew, the reason it was cancelled in 1976 was that it was possible with newer technology to do it much better.&nbsp; Energia was the result, a smaller rocket but much more powerful and reliable.&nbsp; </p><p>Jo</p><p><br /><br />&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>