The Science in the Show: Fact, Fiction or Future?

[xaxat]

One of the things I like about the show is that it not only offers a plausible alternate future of the institution of NASA, the science in the show is also plausible. I thought the Sea Dragon was a pretty stupid concept. Then I found out that it was a serious plan.

In the episode thread there's a discussion on what happened to Gordo and Tracy during their moonwalk. I found this article in Scientific American on what research tells us.

Quote

In reality, however, animal experiments and human accidents have shown that people can likely survive exposure to vacuum conditions for at least a couple of minutes. Not that you would remain conscious long enough to rescue yourself, but if your predicament was accidental, there could be time for fellow crew members to rescue and repressurize you with few ill effects.

It seems like they would have been lucky to get to the controls and almost certainly wouldn't have made it back.

[xaxat]

[Hanahope]

For all the interesting changes FAM made to the timeline with different democratic presidents (Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart, now Al Gore), one has to remember that because the USSR made it to the moon "first", the Soviet Union still existed in 2003.  the show doesn't go into details but one has to wonder how other events were affected because the Soviet Union did not fall.

We know 9/11 did not happen.  Should we assume the SU did not fail in Afghanistan?  what is the situation in the middle east?  Is there a European Union?

Alternate history is fascinating sometimes.