BETEP

I generally considered the American people hard working and capable of potentially accomplishing many great things, and admired their determination. I thought them weak academically and in the sciences, and also overly dependent on foreign sources of research. I feared that the US would grow too powerful and disliked how it influenced the governments of weaker foreign nations. I also thought the Ku Klux Klan was much more prevalent, that racism was much more widespread, and that the public killing of negros was a a very common occurrence.

/Damn, I'll ask him this for sure, but it'll probably take me a few hours to get through. He... well, he was the project. There was no other person more involved in it. According to him, had Korolyov not died, there was a good chance he would have been the one to ultimately go, but that's rather speculative. I'll be sure to ask him for the specifics of why it fell through and everything. Haha, he still intends to go, actually, and I spent a good bit of my childhood learning of mars and listening to his dreams, but at his age it might be a bit difficult. Hopefully immortality comes within the next 20 years and he lives on through commercial spaceflight so that his dreams might become a reality./

/Gah, I had a nice long explanation typed out and was uploading some relevant pictures to imgur when it decided to crash chrome. All that, lost/

We (/ie he/) began the program in 1962. It was titled "Space Shuttle for the Orbit of Mars by One Person by the Hohmann Trajectory". Korolyov was intimately involved, and in the presence of myself and several others (/I remember him mentioning Gagarin and Kamanin, and I think Titov, but I didn't write them down and he's sleeping now so I can't ask/) he told me that in 5 years we would definitely realize my program.

The initial plan was such: A single individual would travel to martian orbit and return by means of gravity assist. Upon approaching the earth, that individual would climb into a 1.20 meter in diameter escape capsule and jettison himself off the main shuttle. The main would then go off to fall into the sun, while the escape capsule, being much lighter and easier to maneuver, would adjust its course to fall to earth. You can see a picture of the escape capsule that would have been used in this mission here. (/I'm pretty sure it's also the one he's standing by in the initial set of pics in the OP/).

A second possibility was arrived upon later on in the program, and this possibility came to be favored by Korolyov over the previous -- instead of returning to earth having only orbited mars, the cosmonaut would jettison himself off the main ship in a different capsule, shown here, upon arrival. The capsule would descend first by means of parachutes and then, shortly before impact, would fire rockets affixed to its base to decelerate itself further. The individual would then exit the capsule and walk upon the surface of mars.

There he would die, the remains of him and his craft preserved for future explorers.

(/man, I'm starting to tear up typing this. My grandpa was the top candidate for this trip. He wanted it so, so much! But had it succeeded he would have likely died via the latter scenario, and I would never have known him. Or been born, for that matter, as it was slated a few years before my mum/).

Upon Korolyov's untimely death, however, the program lost its main support and was canceled. Had Korolyov lived and the program succeeded, it is entirely possible that the history of Russian space travel might have taken a completely different course.

/edit: changed Toman to Hohmann. Thanks to the user below!/

Yes, I am certain that we can regain the strength and majesty we once had, because our people are strong, kind, and smart. I do not believe this can be accomplished without sacrifice -- the people must grow to overcome their baser greeds and unite to overthrow the corruption that has overtaken our government. And after? It is only through such unity and strength that we can join together with other nations and so united visit the stars. (/summarizing here, but he doesn't want Russia to lead the world with all others weak and powerless before it. He wants a common destiny for all mankind, for all nations to be great and wise and powerful, so that we might all, joined in such a brotherhood, pursue peace and happiness for one another and not just for ourselves. And get to visit other planets to boot). If we fail in this, if we do not join together, our only end shall be decay and stagnation.

I am most proud of the work I did on a prototype emergency water reentry capsule used for coming back down to earth from an orbital station. My partner (/some fellow named Dr. Abibov/) died before it could be completed and so the project was ultimately laid to rest, but many of the elements we designed were used in later ventures. I am most proud of this because it is one of the first projects I undertook under my own devising, and because no one else had seriously tried to do such a thing before me.