7 ms·

Buzz Aldrin Is Not All That Impressed With Walking on the Moon

65 points by jackfoxy 16y ago

breadbox 16y ago
I'm not all that bothered about establishing a presence outside of Earth, myself. That said, I love Buzz Aldrin.
mkramlich 16y ago
Hopefully today's generation learns who the Toy Story character was inspired by: Buzz Aldrin: To Mars and Beyond!
iron_ball 16y ago
First visible comment: "I would love to see it to bad Obama, gutted our awesome space program to give illegal aliens free health care." Can we just burn down the internet yet?
- pyre 16y ago
  We could always create HNOL (HackerNews On-Line) complete with our own walled-garden. A gated community.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  Tranlsation: "We're better than them" Conclusion: polarizing, divisive, conversation discouraging pot-stirring. Downvoted.
  - dRother 16y ago
    Why say 'better'? That's a value judgement. Better informed and more logical is good enough for me, and somewhat hard to dispute.
    - jodrellblank 16y ago
      Because I think the OP is making a value judgment. You don't want to "burn down the internet" if you merely think some people on it are less well informed than you are, only if you think they are lesser people who don't deserve it, or to protect yourself / your group identity from "them".
dennisgorelik 16y ago
Human colony on Mars? No returns? Does he know what average Mars temperature is? Hint: Winter in Antarctica is a hot resort in comparison with Mars.
- gaius 16y ago
  Probably he's read Dr. Robert Zubrin. Check him out.
- nkassis 16y ago
  It's not like they will be walking around in shorts and t-shirts. Frankly, I think there is some good reasons for a mars base. It's a shorter distance to the asteroid belt where mining could become a profitable idea. At the very least, aiming for mars colonization would give us something to strive for and develop technology for. The stuff that came out of the moon program is still incredible today. We need big ideas. Somehow back in the 60s and 70s, big stuff managed to get built. We should return to that style of doing things. In my city, Montreal, they can't even replace a damn interchange built in the 60s which is failing apart. One project, compared to about 5 similar scale projects built back then. Instead we get some odd trash disposal system (read wired this month).
  - Vivtek 16y ago
    It's not so much that it's a shorter <i>distance</i> to the Belt as that the gravity well of Mars is so much shallower than Earth's - making Mars a cheap place to grow food for distribution in the Belt. The surface of Mars is roughly the size of Earth's land area, so there's lots of room for farming. OK, not so many volatiles - but put up some greenhouses and you're good to go.
    - dennisgorelik 16y ago
      It's much-much easier to grow food in Antarctica, than on Mars.
      - Vivtek 16y ago
grasshoper 16y ago
After all these years, he's still trying to make Michael Collins feel better about that whole moon-walking thing.
Jach 16y ago
I don't imagine the eventual Mars settlers will want to pretend and be under the control of the (US|Chinese|British|etc) governments, at least once there's a significant number of them. Wouldn't they want to form their own nation there? It'd be interesting to see how a society progresses when it's virtually under no threat of war or foreign hostilities at all... It'd also be a great way to reduce existential risk. Some political ramblings, feel free to stop reading.. I lost some respect for Obama when he extrapolated numerous things well beyond his possible term limits, the space program specifically. I want to see him try and do more exciting things while in office. Though I believe the limited budget is starting to make NASA be more innovative again.
- avar 16y ago
  If you'd like to read a three-book thought experiment in this direction read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.
  - gaius 16y ago
    He has a couple of interesting ideas, but the books are really badly written. He suffers from "hero inflation". Shortly after arriving on Mars his characters quite literally cure cancer and devise an political-economic system that works and that everyone agrees is completely fair. This is inbetween partying, taking drugs and getting laid non-stop. Which is fine, but it's barely even sci-fi, is there such a thing as the "space'n'shopping" genre? Heinlein does it much better.
    - dmd 16y ago
      I was with you until the last sentence. Talk about hero inflation.
      - gaius 16y ago
        Space'n'shopping, I meant ;-)
    - avar 16y ago
avar 16y ago
As Buzz points out, one of the biggest problem with the current space plans is the "we'll go there, and be back in time for tea" attitude. I.e. the requirement that anyone going to the Moon, Mars etc. be able to return. We should be aiming for colonizing space with one-way trips and subsequent supply drops. The colonies should aim to become as self-sustainable as possible using robotic factories to mine and produce what they need on-location.
tokipin 16y ago
i want to share this all-things-space industry/NASA YouTube channel that i've been enjoying for a while: http://www.youtube.com/spaceflightnow http://www.youtube.com/spaceflightnow
hippich 16y ago
I'd be happy to be mars settler... but where I should start?
- mkramlich 16y ago
  on the summit of Olympus Mons it would be all downhill from there :)
asdflkj 16y ago
He's right about the Moon landing being a stunt. But the Mars settlement will also be a stunt. Curing aging--that'd be historic. Creating a drug that will make us all happy and compassionate would be historic. Creating a "first world" country in the middle of an ocean where everyone in the world is welcome, as long as they obey the law and create wealth. Space travel for our civilization is like a poor person putting gold-planted rims on his shitty car. Evolutionary theory has explanations for this sort of behavior. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle
- dstorrs 16y ago
  > Space travel for our civilization is like a poor person putting gold-planted rims on his shitty car. Well, that's one (wrong) way of putting it. I suspect you may be trolling, but here's some reasons that we might /want/ to pursue space travel: 1) Right now, all of humanity's eggs live in one basket -- literally. One large asteroid strike, sufficiently virulent pandemic, nuclear war, etc, would wipe out our species. Planting a self-sustaining colony on a non-Earth body fixes that. 2) A self-sustaining orbital technology (necessary for a colony) would allow us to build enough solar power satellites to give everyone on Earth enough clean, cheap energy for the next thousand years. 3) Putting a large chunk of our manufacturing on the Moon or in orbit would allow us to reduce the environmental impact of industry. By the way..."a drug that would make us all happy and compassionate"? Huxley called it "soma", and I would not want to live in the Brave New World.
  - asdflkj 16y ago
    Huxley is sci-fi and not reality, and so are your reasons. If you want to avoid a pandemic, invest heavily in biotech. If you want clean energy, invest in nuclear plants and more efficient energy storage and such. If you want to avoid a nuclear war, invest in infrastructure that will allow the world's poor to create wealth and raise their standard of living and not want to kill anybody. By instead dumping all those billions into space exploration, you are actively raising the chance of something terrible happening here on Earth, this "basket" whose destruction you consider so nonchalantly.

65 points by jackfoxy 16y ago

breadbox 16y ago

I'm not all that bothered about establishing a presence outside of Earth, myself. That said, I love Buzz Aldrin.

mkramlich 16y ago

Hopefully today's generation learns who the Toy Story character was inspired by: Buzz Aldrin: To Mars and Beyond!

iron_ball 16y ago

First visible comment: "I would love to see it to bad Obama, gutted our awesome space program to give illegal aliens free health care." Can we just burn down the internet yet?

pyre 16y ago
We could always create HNOL (HackerNews On-Line) complete with our own walled-garden. A gated community.
jodrellblank 16y ago
Tranlsation: "We're better than them" Conclusion: polarizing, divisive, conversation discouraging pot-stirring. Downvoted.
- dRother 16y ago
  Why say 'better'? That's a value judgement. Better informed and more logical is good enough for me, and somewhat hard to dispute.
  - jodrellblank 16y ago
    Because I think the OP is making a value judgment. You don't want to "burn down the internet" if you merely think some people on it are less well informed than you are, only if you think they are lesser people who don't deserve it, or to protect yourself / your group identity from "them".

dennisgorelik 16y ago

Human colony on Mars? No returns? Does he know what average Mars temperature is? Hint: Winter in Antarctica is a hot resort in comparison with Mars.

gaius 16y ago
Probably he's read Dr. Robert Zubrin. Check him out.
nkassis 16y ago
It's not like they will be walking around in shorts and t-shirts. Frankly, I think there is some good reasons for a mars base. It's a shorter distance to the asteroid belt where mining could become a profitable idea. At the very least, aiming for mars colonization would give us something to strive for and develop technology for. The stuff that came out of the moon program is still incredible today. We need big ideas. Somehow back in the 60s and 70s, big stuff managed to get built. We should return to that style of doing things. In my city, Montreal, they can't even replace a damn interchange built in the 60s which is failing apart. One project, compared to about 5 similar scale projects built back then. Instead we get some odd trash disposal system (read wired this month).
- Vivtek 16y ago
  It's not so much that it's a shorter <i>distance</i> to the Belt as that the gravity well of Mars is so much shallower than Earth's - making Mars a cheap place to grow food for distribution in the Belt. The surface of Mars is roughly the size of Earth's land area, so there's lots of room for farming. OK, not so many volatiles - but put up some greenhouses and you're good to go.
  - dennisgorelik 16y ago
    It's much-much easier to grow food in Antarctica, than on Mars.
    - Vivtek 16y ago

grasshoper 16y ago

After all these years, he's still trying to make Michael Collins feel better about that whole moon-walking thing.

Jach 16y ago

I don't imagine the eventual Mars settlers will want to pretend and be under the control of the (US|Chinese|British|etc) governments, at least once there's a significant number of them. Wouldn't they want to form their own nation there? It'd be interesting to see how a society progresses when it's virtually under no threat of war or foreign hostilities at all... It'd also be a great way to reduce existential risk. Some political ramblings, feel free to stop reading.. I lost some respect for Obama when he extrapolated numerous things well beyond his possible term limits, the space program specifically. I want to see him try and do more exciting things while in office. Though I believe the limited budget is starting to make NASA be more innovative again.

avar 16y ago
If you'd like to read a three-book thought experiment in this direction read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.
- gaius 16y ago
  He has a couple of interesting ideas, but the books are really badly written. He suffers from "hero inflation". Shortly after arriving on Mars his characters quite literally cure cancer and devise an political-economic system that works and that everyone agrees is completely fair. This is inbetween partying, taking drugs and getting laid non-stop. Which is fine, but it's barely even sci-fi, is there such a thing as the "space'n'shopping" genre? Heinlein does it much better.
  - dmd 16y ago
    I was with you until the last sentence. Talk about hero inflation.
    - gaius 16y ago
      Space'n'shopping, I meant ;-)
  - avar 16y ago

avar 16y ago

As Buzz points out, one of the biggest problem with the current space plans is the "we'll go there, and be back in time for tea" attitude. I.e. the requirement that anyone going to the Moon, Mars etc. be able to return. We should be aiming for colonizing space with one-way trips and subsequent supply drops. The colonies should aim to become as self-sustainable as possible using robotic factories to mine and produce what they need on-location.

tokipin 16y ago

i want to share this all-things-space industry/NASA YouTube channel that i've been enjoying for a while: http://www.youtube.com/spaceflightnow http://www.youtube.com/spaceflightnow

hippich 16y ago

I'd be happy to be mars settler... but where I should start?

mkramlich 16y ago
on the summit of Olympus Mons it would be all downhill from there :)

asdflkj 16y ago

He's right about the Moon landing being a stunt. But the Mars settlement will also be a stunt. Curing aging--that'd be historic. Creating a drug that will make us all happy and compassionate would be historic. Creating a "first world" country in the middle of an ocean where everyone in the world is welcome, as long as they obey the law and create wealth. Space travel for our civilization is like a poor person putting gold-planted rims on his shitty car. Evolutionary theory has explanations for this sort of behavior. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicap_principle

dstorrs 16y ago
> Space travel for our civilization is like a poor person putting gold-planted rims on his shitty car. Well, that's one (wrong) way of putting it. I suspect you may be trolling, but here's some reasons that we might /want/ to pursue space travel: 1) Right now, all of humanity's eggs live in one basket -- literally. One large asteroid strike, sufficiently virulent pandemic, nuclear war, etc, would wipe out our species. Planting a self-sustaining colony on a non-Earth body fixes that. 2) A self-sustaining orbital technology (necessary for a colony) would allow us to build enough solar power satellites to give everyone on Earth enough clean, cheap energy for the next thousand years. 3) Putting a large chunk of our manufacturing on the Moon or in orbit would allow us to reduce the environmental impact of industry. By the way..."a drug that would make us all happy and compassionate"? Huxley called it "soma", and I would not want to live in the Brave New World.
- asdflkj 16y ago
  Huxley is sci-fi and not reality, and so are your reasons. If you want to avoid a pandemic, invest heavily in biotech. If you want clean energy, invest in nuclear plants and more efficient energy storage and such. If you want to avoid a nuclear war, invest in infrastructure that will allow the world's poor to create wealth and raise their standard of living and not want to kill anybody. By instead dumping all those billions into space exploration, you are actively raising the chance of something terrible happening here on Earth, this "basket" whose destruction you consider so nonchalantly.