This is the world of “what if”. What if we had continued the space race, what would our space footprint look like? What if we had invested heavily in a transportation infrastructure around the globe, how would that change how we get from point A to point B today? What if we decided as a species that world hunger was not acceptable, how would we have solved it with technology? What if we had solved the autonomous car problem 50 years ago, how would that have changed how we worked and played today? What if sustainable energy was standard practice for a generation, how would that change how we interacted in our world today?

How would our world be better? How would it be worse? How would it be, just different? Belitopia is this world, this world where the what if’s come true, and the world is a better place, a worse place, a different place.

In season one of Belitopia, we look at the space program. What if the space race had continued after Apollo? What if we continued to invest in the space program at the same or greater levels than we did previously? Many experts believe that every dollar we invest in the space program, returns 8-10 dollars in improved technologies to our world. What if we truly recognized that and invested significantly greater amounts of money in the space program? What if we discovered that there are natural resources in space that are worth pursuing. Resources that can solve our energy problems, our food problems. Resources that were economically viable to pursue.

It’s not utopia, it’s not dystopia. It’s believable science fiction. This is Belitopia.

Transcript

What if…things were different…

What if…different decisions were made, important decisions, in our world…

What if…our leaders made different choices?

What if…different political and social climates existed in our world, with different priorities and different expectations?

What would be changed and what would be the same?

Welcome to the world of what if…

Much of science fiction is based either on a utopian view of the world, or, as happens in much of modern science fiction, on a dystopian view of the world:

• a natural disaster
• the zombie apocalypse
• disease, suffering

The world is either unbelievably great…or unbelievably bad.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the middle.

But what if we looked at science fiction with neither a negative nor a positive bias?

What if we instead looked at…a realistic world.

...a believable world.

This is that world…the world of Belitopia.

In season one of Belitopia, we look at the space program.

What if the space race had continued after Apollo?

What if we continued to invest in the space program at the same or greater levels than we did previously?

Many experts believe that every dollar we invest in the space program, returns 8-10 dollars in improved technologies to our world. What if we truly recognized that and invested significantly greater amounts of money in the space program?

What if we discovered that there are natural resources in space that are worth pursuing. Resources that can solve our energy problems, our food problems. Resources that were economically viable to pursue.

Bottom line, what if we believed it was worth our while investing in space and space technology?

We’ll explore what happens to the Apollo space program with continued funding.

What happens to our long term plans for exploring the lunar surface?

What about space stations? Skylab? And what about the space station Freedom?

We’ll talk about the Apollo Applications Program, an ill-fated and under funded program with vast plans for continued space exploration. In this new world, these programs are carried thru, fully funded, enhanced, and expanded.

What is this Venus Flyby mission? How does that change the excitement of space? How did that...