What If ..... ?

On This Day In History
1873: Levis Strauss and Jacob Davis patent blue jeans

Quote Of The Day
"The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions."
(Levis Strauss)

What if John F. Kennedy had survived the assassination attempt at Dealey Plaza?
What if the disabled John F. Kennedy became a continual thorn-in-the-side to President Nixon?
What if, when the Space Task Group comprising (amongst others) Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and N.A.S.A. Acting Administrator Thomas O. Paine, presented their options for the successor to Apollo in 1970, Kennedy's constant needling caused Nixon to opt not for the cheapest option of the space shuttle programme, but the expensive "heroic" option of a manned mission to Mars?

These are the questions asked and answered in the always reliable Stephen Baxter's alternative history novel, Voyage. It's a great read.

Now, two more questions:
Who left those unattended bags on the floor of the space station?
Why does the sun shine? (The sun is a mass of incandescent gas.)