JCC The Official SpaceX Launch/Disaster Thread

Also NASA's landers and rockets and so forth have ALWAYS been made by private contractors. Acting like using Falcon 9s and Dragons now is so wrong is weird. It's literally the same as Apollo, just a different business model to run it.

 

I get the Duke's point, but why couldn't we do both space exploration and try to save our planet? Why does it have to be one or the other?

 

It doesn't. It's a completely false dichotomy.

 

Ehh, I hate to say it but I do think space exploration is something that should be put on the back burner for a long while. We've got so many problems here on Earth as it is. Not to mention, it just doesn't look to me like the technology is there for something like a manned Mars mission.

 

We went to space and developed and distributed a vaccine for Polio at the same time.

 

We can easily get to the moon again by 2028 and also handle problems on earth. If you tax Bezos more you can raise NASA’s budget. Space exploration isn’t the problem the problem is billionaires who have to much money. Look if Elon wants to put the rest of his money into space X after he’s taxed fairly I am all for it. But that’s just it taxed fairly.

And it’s not like NASA or space exploration in general hasn’t produce real stuff we can use back on earth. No I think space exploration should continue to be a part of humanity.

 

People have been arguing against funding for space exploration since NASA's early days (Whitey on the Moon). Entire subfields of astronomy and planetary science would not exist without the dozens of space telescopes and interstellar missions over the past several decades.

I also want to ask what falls under space exploration? Sending up rockets with people? Or should all space based endeavors be cut back to focus on problems on Earth?Because you can make the same argument about needing to to focus on poverty and climate change for both.

 

Also of note if we were to cut back to focus on earth when would we decide that things were good enough for us to go back up? Seems like we would never go up

 

When you hate someone everything they do is offensive.

Takei quipped, "He's boldly going where other people have gone before."

I generally like Takei but this is just pissy.

Meanwhile Virgin Galactic is pushing back it's commercial flights for late next year.

 

I dunno, maybe at some point in the future there will be a better time for space exploration. Now really does not seem like it.

 

Did he go to space? I know there was some debate about that when Bezos did it

 

Yes he went to space, by international definition.

No he is not an astronaut, also by international definition (the definition recent changed to people who do some experiments in space. The SpaceX team that orbited did, hence they are officially astronauts).

 

While I would still defend spending private and public money on space exploration regardless, if I am going to continue this conversation I should say that I work with a telescope and that job is funded by a federal government grant.

 

Still going to space is amazing. Doesn’t matter if your an astronaut

 

I agree. But I also agree there should be a line for the future's sake. If I were going to space I wouldn't care about the title but the experience.

 

Here's a cool flashback from 2015: Nichelle Nichols Flew in a NASA Mission This Week | The Mary Sue

 

Shatner responds to the Duke of Cambridge

 

I wouldn’t be that shocked if within the next few years we pass the point of having a 100 year old in space

 

Sad moment here that I think is quite revealing of the culture of "Space Tourism" being pushed by the ruling elites. Jeff Bezos has the opportunity to listen to William Shatner - a man with unique insights into the spiritual power of exploration, because as an artist he spent decades pondering the utopian fantasy of space travel - and the billionaire can't hold a conversation. His inclination is to just spray champagne on shrieking women. I still don't see any societal benefit to this latest fad.

 

That's a small part of a much longer video where Bezos stays quite silent as Shatner talks for a very long time and they hug at the end. This is like quote mining. You take one thing and act like it's the whole thing. Bezos has earned criticism but this is not the way to go about it.

 

Nah, I've watcher their entire interaction, and this clip says it all, in terms of demonstrating Bezos' attitude. When confronted with humility and introspection he begins to feel the void inside himself and does an obnoxious rich-person thing to distract himself.

 

Yeah I watched the whole thing live and felt Bezos was being an ass, which is unsurprising.

That doesn't make the whole endeavor wrong though. THAT'S where the fallacy is.

 

Idk, I guess it's good tv, but in the end it seems to just be some self-aggrandizing entertainment for the uber-rich with a bit of celebrity endorsement to make it seem normal. "Find yourself in space, vicariously of course."