17 ms·
Dear Moon
- Shank 8y agoI was pretty skeptical when I heard that private citizens booked a flight on Falcon Heavy. When those plans got shelved and these popped up, I had a similar level of skepticism. I expected it to be some random celebrity that wanted to go on a fancy tour. This is anything but that. I feel more than humbled to be wrong. Bringing a ton of artists on a once in a lifetime trip for inspiration purposes is selfless, compassionate, and warm. It’s awesome. I’m so glad I was wrong.
- avmich 8y ago> on a once in a lifetime trip AFAIR, Burt Rutan said he wasn't that keen to watch Apollo-11 landing because he assumed it's soon going to be routine. So far it wasn't. But why do you think it will not become more routine - perhaps a lot more routine - this time? Surely one can't count on that - but we do can dream and we do can bring some of our dreams to reality, even though we aren't always good with predicting when it'll happen.
- HeadsUpHigh 8y agoWhy not? Whatever price this guy paid is a 1-off for NRE costs. It won't be that expensive in the future anyway.
- otabdeveloper1 8y agoThere's literally (yes, literally literally) nothing there on the Moon, and going there costs more than going to the Mariana Trench. No, it will not become more routine.
- scott_s 8y agoI agree, mostly. As noted on a recent This American Life episode (also referenced elsewhere in this thread, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknown https://www.thisamericanlife.org/655/the-not-so-great-unknow...), the most interesting thing to see on the moon is the Earth.
- teddyh 8y ago> There's literally (yes, literally literally) nothing there on the Moon Not entirely true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_situ_resource_utilization#Moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_situ_resource_utilization#M...
- CydeWeys 8y agoThere's plenty of stuff on the Moon, plus there's much less gravity. You can mine rocket fuel, water, or Helium-3 and then send it into orbit pretty easily, for example. You're simply not being accurate in saying that there's nothing there.
- PopsiclePete 8y agoThe Moon may be just a stepping stone to greater things. Maybe we "mine" on it, maybe we use it to more efficiently send things into orbit, maybe just tourism, who knows? You can't possibly know what possibilities there exist, right now. I think we're lucky that ancient mariners didn't listen to the people who told them "there's literally nothing, nothing, in the Great Water".
- otabdeveloper1 8y ago> I think we're lucky that ancient mariners didn't listen to the people who told them "there's literally nothing, nothing, in the Great Water". You're making a false and dishonest equivalency. Those mariners didn't know what was in the Great Water. We absolutely do know to a huge degree of precision exactly what is on the Moon. (A whole bunch of nothing.) We know more about the Moon than we know about the Mariana Trench. We've explored the Moon to death already.
- JoshCole 8y agoWhen I watched the NASA administrator meeting in which NASA plans were discussed, one of the reasons listed for going to the moon was that we have seen that our understanding of it is not complete. It was not the United States of America that discovered, for example, that there was water ice on the moon, though we later confirmed the discovery. Yet this is a critical insight into its composition which has major implications. When I watched the NASA administrator meeting in which NASA plans for building a base on the moon were discussed, one of the reasons listed was also rooted in discovery. There are many challenges that such a base would face and it is better to solve them when the Earth is close and rescue is more reasonable than to go to Mars with those problems not yet understood and solved, since the time till return from Mars will be measured in months and years rather than days. What makes you so stridently disagree that we have more things to learn while on the moon, when the experts disagree with you? Also, since they do, doesn't this also make his equivalence a very good one, rather than false? Certainly the argument that there is more yet to be discovered about the trench does not refute his claim, only serving to enhance the degree to which claiming there is nothing is not valid.
- ceejayoz 8y ago> There's literally (yes, literally literally) nothing there on the Moon... There's a massive, atmosphere-free, stable, terrestrial EM shielded platform for large, human-maintained telescopes, and gravity for the maintenance staff.
- ryanjmo 8y agoAre you sure the one who is sponsoring the trip doesn’t get to keep the IP to the art that is being created from it?
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- daeken 8y agoThis may go down in history as the most amazing (and maybe most expensive) art project of all time. I am just flabbergasted; this is astounding. I sincerely hope that the BFR comes to fruition in the way SpaceX has been billing it, and reasonably close in terms of timeline.
- robertAngst 8y agoIts an Elon project? 1 in 10 odds it happens?
- ehnto 8y agoThose are good odds in the grander timeline of space travel.
- cloudwalking 8y agoWhich Elon project has failed?
- angersock 8y agoModel 3 still a bit rocky, eh?
- function_seven 8y agoSure. Not a failure, though. I see them on the road almost daily. And I’m in a nondescript suburban town far from the Bay Area.
- ObsoleteNerd 8y agoI'm in a suburb outside a city in Australia and see half a dozen Teslas when I walk to the park with my kids. It's absolutely mind blowing how far and fast they've reached.
- 8y ago
- tlackemann 8y agoThis is truly inspiring and I am so happy to witness something like this happen in my lifetime.
- askafriend 8y agoHonestly, this is beautiful. Let's fucking do it. No seriously...let's do it. We're humans - this is the kind of funny, beautiful, impossible stuff we can uniquely do. Capital allocation? Bleh, don't be so boring and uninspired!
- beamatronic 8y ago#yolo applied to an entire species
- tomcam 8y agoHow much of your capital do you plan to allocate? And do you plan to allocate any of mine (i.e., the taxpayer)?
- askafriend 8y agoI think the technology and learning that will come out of this will be more than worth the cost. It's short sighted to only consider the immediate ROI. A substantial portion of development is also currently being funded by a private citizen (approx $1.5B of the final cost). And honestly, humanity could use a sense of humor sometimes. We spent trillions going to war in just the past 2 decades when we could have spent a couple billion doing seemingly impossible projects like this. Projects like this also provide jobs and have the added benefit of directing our efforts into something far more useful and far less disastrous than something like war.
- basicplus2 8y agoEssentially pretty much most of it.. tax deductions cost you more of your own money to pay for higher profit margins on privatised services and on lost maintenance on public infrastructure, and so you are definitely paying for it..
- basicplus2 8y agoSorry.. that should read tax cuts
- 8y ago
- consz 8y agoWouldn't it be easier to train astronauts to be artists than to train artists to be astronauts?
- abhikshah 8y agoThe point is to end the constraint that only astronauts can go to space, to open it up to everyone.
- wmf 8y agoIf monkeys can go into space I think we can send some artists.
- artursapek 8y agoA genuine Hacker News comment if I've ever seen one
- adtac 8y agoCan you even train artistic talent? Doesn't it require a natural gift that you're born with? Not to belittle astronauts, but space travel training is more teachable than true art.
- honkycat 8y ago>> Can you even train artistic talent? Yes. 100%. It's a muscle you train. >> Doesn't it require a natural gift that you're born with? It helps a lot, but from my experience having parents who can support you with lessons and prop you up well into your 20s is a bigger factor to being a successful artist. >> Not to belittle astronauts, but space travel training is more teachable than true art. In my mind it's much harder to be an astronaut than an artist, excluding extremely elite painters and musicians. And I doubt most artists would disagree with this.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- nickhalfasleep 8y agoThis puts Yusaku Maezawa up there in league with the de Medici's and Borgia's in terms of patron of the arts.
- dragonwriter 8y agoPerhaps in terms of absolute expenditures, but unlikely anything like it in terms of bang for the buck.
- ridgeguy 8y agoYou might reserve that evaluation for a century or two. Arguably, we're still cruising on the de Medicis' and Borgias' investments in the arts.
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- JoshCole 8y agoRight. In the optimistic case, people will still be learning about this art project while living in another galaxy. In terms of scale, there is the potential for MZ to end up as much more important, rather than on the same scale as, other patron of the arts. It is far too soon to tell.
- rezeroed 8y agoI agree. I dread to think who they'll send. The musician will be a popular twerker rather than someone musical, and so on. It's a cute idea, but I expect the result will be cheesy fluff. We'll see.
- daniel-cussen 8y agoAnd patrons of science. Remember the Medici stars? It's the old name Galileo gave the moons of Jupiter.
- reimertz 8y agoI’m just fantasizing how it would be like, composing a song on my guitar in zero gravity while glazing at the stars. Whoever gets the opportunity, I cheer for you.
- toomanybeersies 8y agoChris Hadfield recorded a cover of Bowie's Space Oddity on the ISS [1], including playing the guitar in space. It gives me chills every time I listen to it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo
- Crosseye_Jack 8y agoOriginally they only had permission to have the video on YouTube for a year. When word got out that it would have to be taken down once the license expired they managed to get the license extended. There wasn’t a big “shit show” just Chris’s son saying on Twitter (iirc) that this was the case and they (him and his dad, iirc the son did the editing on the video) were just thankful that so many people enjoyed it during the year it was up. A few days/weeks later it was back up. Don’t think anyone talked about the deal but I want to believe that David stepped in himself to pull the strings needed for it to stay up. I love the original but dam Chris’s cover is a very close second for me...
- thomasfortes 8y agoBowie is a genius,the song is amazing and still the number one version for me too, but in terms of art, context matters a lot, and you can't get more context than space oddity being played in space. Other song played by Chris and the barenaked ladies that I personally enjoy a lot is I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)[0], space related songs being played in space make them much more special to me. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvAnfi8WpVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvAnfi8WpVE
- sparkzilla 8y ago"They should have sent a poet"
- blhack 8y agoThis time they are! First thing I thought of too. Almost brought me to tears when I read what they were doing.
- benjismith 8y agoThis makes me so happy :)
- nerdbaggy 8y agoAre they actually going to the moon if they are only going to orbit it? Sorry my English isn’t the best
- greglindahl 8y agoThey aren't going to actually orbit the moon, they're going around the moon. It's called a "free return trajectory". This is actually less than Apollo 8 did (edit: only talking about the orbit): Apollo 8 actually went into lunar orbit with a burn, and then left lunar orbit with another burn. However, this is using "orbit" in its formal sense. Most people would look at the diagram of the spaceship flying around the moon and call it an "orbit". I'm not going to tell them that they're wrong to say that.
- twtw 8y agothe reusability is the major differentiator versus Apollo missions.
- mikeash 8y agoParabolic and hyperbolic orbits are still orbits.
- garmaine 8y agoIt is an orbit. They're only making one orbit on a free return trajectory, but it's still an orbit.
- avmich 8y agoIt's a (roughly) Zond-7 trajectory.
- dylan604 8y ago> This is actually less than Apollo 8 did But isn't it exactly what Apollo 13 did?
- HeadsUpHigh 8y agoOnly a free return trajectory. If they where to land they would have to refuel it which would further delay the mission.
- empath75 8y agoThe director obviously has to be Jim Cameron if his health holds up.
- zherbert 8y agoThis guy is only worth $3B, he may be spending half of his entire net worth to make this happen. I hope he inspires the richest billionaires of the world to fund such lofty ventures.
- adtac 8y ago$10M-$20M is more than sufficient for a few generations (in a 100-200 years, our current understanding of the concept of money might not even be relevant, so it's pointless to plan for anything more than that). Anything more is just throwaway cash IMO. If you had the opportunity to become the first private citizen to go to the moon, you'd be stupid to not cement your legacy like that.
- zherbert 8y agoI couldn't agree more
- markdown 8y ago> If you had the opportunity to become the first private citizen to go to the moon, you'd be stupid to not cement your legacy like that. He decided to share the trip, so he won't be "the first private citizen", merely "one of the first private citizens".
- cma 8y agoHe hinted during QA it was 5% of BFR development costs, and Elon said a "material" percentage, which for expense reporting usually means >= 5%. Dev costs were said to be $5billion, so that would be $250,000,000.
- apendleton 8y agoThe questioner asked "is it more or less than 5%" -- I don't think they were confirming 5%, just repeating the number back (and Musk refused to say anything about the percentage at all).
- 8y ago
- artursapek 8y agoAs others have said, this is way better than anything I had anticipated this private citizen arrangement to be. What a wonderful way to kick off human space travel round 2!
- austenallred 8y agoAstounding. I don’t care what you have to say about Elon Musk’s flaws; he’s the most inspirational human to have lived in the past fifty years. I am unabashedly a SpaceX fanboy.
- wilsonnb3 8y agoNelson Mandela? Barack Obama? Martin Luther King Jr? Neil Armstrong? Bill Gates? Stephen Hawking? Steve Jobs? Rosa Parks? Elon would be lucky to make the top ten.
- brian-armstrong 8y agoNone of those people created the Model 3. QED.
- rubicon33 8y agoSeriously, Barack Obama? I'm neither republican, not democrat, but you've got to be kidding me with that recommendation. He was a politician, through and through. Yes, the first black one, but aside from that he presented very little that was materially difference from previous politicians. Just being first at something, given the random nature of the universe, isn't enough to wow me. Your ability to make things happen, and change the world - of which he did basically neither - is what wins you respect.
- wilsonnb3 8y ago> isn't enough to wow me I wasn't creating a list of people that wow you, or even a list of people that wow me. The metric was "how many people did this person inspire in a positive way?" and Barack Obama undeniably did that by being the first black POTUS.
- rubicon33 8y agoOh, okay, sorry I didn't realize that the bar was so low to make your list! If that's the case, why stop at Obama? http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/8/justin-bieber-has-smashes-two-twitter-records-for-his-massive-fan-base-492686 http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/8/justin-biebe...
- brian-armstrong 8y agoThis looks pretty cool. Hopefully this project turns out to be less vaporware than taking Tesla private was.
- viburnum 8y agoThis is an expensive, pointless stunt, and all you nerds have you're priorities screwed up if you think it's a good idea.
- darawk 8y agoLife is an expensive, pointless stunt. What is your point?
- viburnum 8y agohttps://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/03/its-basically-just-immoral-to-be-rich https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/03/its-basically-just-im...
- inawarminister 8y agoI'm a lower middle class from a 3rd world country and I approve of this billionaire using his own money to help advance humanity's knowledge. When civilians can go to space and return back without issues, we would progress as a species. As a civilisation.
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- darawk 8y agoAnd yet, you're here, commenting on Hackernews, when you could be donating your computer and time to the poor. Note how the authors stops at 'even millions' presumably, just shy of the order of magnitude of his own net worth. Funny how that tends to shake out: "Everyone richer than me is immoral for keeping their money".
- oliveshell 8y agoData point: I make $24,000 a year and I think this is a great use of money.
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- mabbo 8y agoIt's worth keeping in mind "Elon Time". 2023 is a "no earlier than" date. It's if everything goes to plan, no new problems arise. I'd love to see it happen on schedule but I have doubts.
- rsj_hn 8y agoDoes it matter if it's 2026? Or even 2030?
- greglindahl 8y agoYou might want to listen to the livestream -- Elon answers a question from the press about how certain the date is, and basically says the same thing you just did.
- reanimated 8y agoThere shouldn't be any doubts, it's definetly will not be 2023 and its not the point. Everytime Elon mentions date, media just takes it for granted and repeats itself everytime the deadline is missed. In reality, if you have only broad understanding what is needed to be done and you can only make assumptions about how long it will take, you still need to target some specific dates and try to stick to them even if more often then not, you will miss these deadlines. In this case its the date if everything would go to the plan perfectly. But we are not living in the perfect world and who knows that difficulties could accur or how long they could take. How you can incorporate these in your predictions? Its very difficult to properly predict big projects and this type of projects are in scale which is even more insanely difficult.
- 8y ago
- abledon 8y agoI hope the musician they choose isn't a pop artist like Justin Bieber or Cardi B. that would just be such a waste lol.
- jdoliner 8y agoReminds me a little bit of this: http://www.povray.org/posters/ http://www.povray.org/posters/
- abledon 8y agoHeres the show Elon mentions as inspiring when he was young: "Moon Base Alpha" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNkKCFaqib8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNkKCFaqib8
- cyberferret 8y ago"Space 1999" was one of my favourite TV series when growing up. I looked up at the moon for a long while on September 13th 1999 and wondered what the earth would be like if it was missing on the 14th... Adddendum: I enjoyed the fact that the props used were not traditionally sleek and glossy like most other sci-fi series. The Eagle Transporters were utilitarian and multi purpose. The moon buggies they used similarly so. The space suits seemed to be more modern, yet, true representations of those used by the first moon walkers. etc.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
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- feniv 8y agoLivestream link of the SpaceX announcement with a lot more details on the BFR - https://youtu.be/zu7WJD8vpAQ?t=1712 https://youtu.be/zu7WJD8vpAQ?t=1712
- beilabs 8y agoI love this project. it's truly amazing. The cynic in me wonders about the timing of this to coincide with a certain lawsuit by the diver...
- rsj_hn 8y agoThis is lunacy on a grand scale! :P
- Chris_Chambers 8y agoWhy would you design a site like this? There’s no reason for the content to be hidden when you scroll to it. Why should the visitor have to wait and see if anything fades in? Either make it a video presentation or make it a proper website. Don’t do this weird mixture that’s the worst of both worlds.
- tern 8y agoWhat a shame that such a unique opportunity is wasted on such a mediocre curator. This nouveau-rich collector could have sent a curator of renown in his place rather than making the project all about himself. Aside from the fact that he obviously lacks experience or any actual taste, it's widely considered unacceptable for any curator to highlight themselves in their work in this way. The exhibition is and should be about the artists and the art, not the wealth, connections, and boldness of the curator. This will read as overwhelmingly narcissistic in the art context, which means it will only ever be seen as a kind of publicity stunt in the same vein as high altitude sky diving (what if Red Bull repeated the event, but this time the aeronaut jumped from the balloon with a canvas and oils?) For instance it's laughable that he mentions Picasso in the first sentence, as if to insinuate that it is preordained that this project will produce historic works of art. What's worse, the framing is absurd. What will they make when they return? Something quite similar to what they made when they left! An artist's practice is something built over years, not some kind of instantaneous response to a single experience. Perhaps it will affect the trajectory of their careers – probably unpredictably for having been associated with this bizarre, self-aggrandizing project – and perhaps it won't. To prescribe this outcome in advance of even seeing what happens is boring and totally closes the possibility of unexpected and interesting outcomes. I think going to the moon for entirely impractical reasons is itself a conceptually beautiful act, but it's too bad it's been spoiled in this way. The story is thus: "rich man pays for himself and a handful of famous people to be flown around the moon and back." Cool story. To me, the most interesting part of this is the incredible risk that all of these people who presumably have much to lose will take together. The true climax will be when they return safely, or not.
- FighterMafia 8y agoI bet you are a lot of fun at parties.
- dang 8y agoNo personal attacks, please, regardless of how annoying a comment is.
- po 8y ago
- occamschainsaw 8y ago"Some kind of celestial event. No — no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should have sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea."[0] What a beautiful sentiment. This humanizes space travel. I really hope the team succeeds on this mission, even with delays. As a kid, I always felt a sense of awe reading about space and space travel. Now I am in grad school and lost that feeling of awe along the way. The only times that feeling has come back were during the Rocketman livestream and now looking at this project. I am looking forward to the day that we go back on the moon, maybe even build a base there (Kurzgesagt released a video today about a moon base[1], coincidence?). Again, what a noble endeavor, a billionaire taking artists to the moon! [0] http://scifiquotes.net/quotes/139_They-Should-Have-Sent-a-Poet http://scifiquotes.net/quotes/139_They-Should-Have-Sent-a-Po... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQkz0aRDe8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQkz0aRDe8
- dylan604 8y agoI keep hoping that we get some sort of SR Hadden "visionary" type. "The first rule of government spending, why build one, when you can have two at twice the price?" Maybe Musk is the closest we've got right now? SpaceX, Boring Company, Hyperloop are pretty visionary for civilian projects. Even Mr. Hadden wasn't very well liked by those with "lesser" visions.
- abdullahkhalids 8y agoWe began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars. Carl Sagan, Cosmos
- Balgair 8y agoWhat is even more poetic is that the "most used" spaceport in the future is likely to be on the Somali coast, just north of the Great Rift Valley where Homo sapiens saipens first evolved and looked out at the sea for the first time. [0] History, though it does not repeat exactly, certainly does rhyme. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_moder... (ok, well, maybe that was the Atlantic, not the Indian, but still, Africa)
- maxander 8y agoImpressive- it's a sample-return mission. Sending up cameras to capture photons or sample enclosures to capture bits of dirt is too pedestrian for SpaceX. Instead they'll send up artists to capture samples of space-ness, to be studied by humanity back on Earth.
- cpsempek 8y agoThis is amazing and as a moon lover, I cannot wait to see the output. Odd that Picasso is mentioned in their hypothetical, it seems he didn't care much for the moon (at least humans landing on it anyhow). See lesson 8. https://www.complex.com/style/2012/10/10-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-picasso/ https://www.complex.com/style/2012/10/10-life-lessons-we-can...
- js2 8y agoAlan Bean would probably approve: “But I'm the only one who can paint the moon, because I'm the only one who knows whether that's right or not.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bean#Painting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bean#Painting
- partycoder 8y agoYou can follow him on Twitter: @yousuck2020
- vatueil 8y agoThat really is his Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/yousuck2020 https://twitter.com/yousuck2020
- CephalopodMD 8y agoI almost cried
- sidcool 8y agoSimply awe inspiring. A moon shot in true sense.
- mongol 8y agoA more fun art project would be if he sent two animals of many species around the moon.
- isoskeles 8y agoHonestly, I don't see how this is any bigger of a deal than going to the moon in the first place. There is a level of forced sentimentality here, as if a painter or a musician is going to see something different from a regular astronaut, because they're just special. Any time I see something like the level of response somewhere, I can't help but assume everyone thinks they're saying what they're supposed to say. "This is so beautiful, etc." It means I like art. I'm not an artist (I didn't take that risk with my way of life), but I like and can appreciate art which may as well be the next best thing, so I will post the comment saying I almost cried and everyone can know what a spiritual/sentimental/artistic person I am! Sorry, don't mean to be cynical. I just don't understand how this is a big big big deal to cry over. I hope they succeed and make something great out of it afterward, just some of the comments here seem way, dare I say, over the top.
- ryanjmo 8y agoThese will be artists who are already famous and have fans and distribution channels and will be able to sell there art for lots of money, probably helping pay for the trip. Also their art will be viewed by many people, so it will impact many people that way. So it is significant in that way.
- aaron695 8y agoKim Stanley Robinson's fictional "Antarctica" was heavily influenced by Robinson's 1995 stay in Antarctica as part of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. Reading his book made me see Antarctica in a way I'd never considered it. Ever time I see it on a map now I fundamentally see it differently to before I read his book. There is an argument "conservative" people biologically see the world differently to "liberals". These words aren't great because they are political but I hope you get the idea. I guess it's important for people to understand it's not something you and many others find value in and for you to understand it's very valuable to others perhaps. Meh? But I certainly fully agree space is mostly for scientists at this stage if that's your point, but watching a car in orbit live was much more memorable and inspiring to me than a lot of stuff NASA has done.
- colordrops 8y ago
- ciconia 8y agoIf only humanity has spent the same energy, vision and resources on what's happening on f-ing planet earth, things could have looked very different...
- girvo 8y agoI believe we can, and should, do both.
- clarkmoody 8y agoTake a deep breath, go outside, get off of social media. Things are not as bad as you think.
- nazri1 8y agoIf they allow people to vote on which artist to be chosen then my vote would go to Andy Weir[1] (author of The Martian[2])... but then in his talks he stated quite clearly of his fear of flying, so ... :D [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Weir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Weir [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)
- sobani 8y agoBut isn't exposure therapy a good way to get rid of your fears? ;)
- iamgopal 8y agoFuck yeah!! We need more mad men like them!!
- stesch 8y agoI have the feeling this should be bigger. This was 03:00 localtime for me and I expected to wake up to headlines about the moon everywhere. But even here it vanished from the front page. No trends (Germany) on Twitter or YouTube. No top news on news sites. My "friends" on Facebook aren't talking about it. My twitter timeline only has tweets from the obvious accounts (SpaceX, Elon Musk, …) about it. What happened?
- stepik777 8y agoTime has changed. There is just too many information now - news, memes, TV shows, music, etc. And this is just another news in an ocean of other news. People are going to the Moon, cool, now lets check out what that Instagram celebrity that I'm subscribed to has just posted.
- tomhoward 8y agoWe've already seen several announcements of civilian space voyages planned for just far enough into the future that nobody's reputation will be harmed too much when the timeline quietly expands indefinitely. The "boy who cried wolf" effect is very much at work here, and quite rightly IMO.
- TremendousJudge 8y agoI mean, the project is cool and all, but it's a guarantee that a rocket that does not really exist yet will not send people to the moon's orbit in 5 years time. Anybody arguing differently is mad. This news is like a Molyneux announcement
- rrcaptain 8y agoElon Musk has evaporated the public's trust in him.
- whamlastxmas 8y agoShill reporters and publications have their fair share of the blame, too.
- poisonarena 8y agowhy did this story disappear? only to re appear and then the other story is gone.. weird stuff
- shroom 8y agoI also think this amazing! On the discussion as to what dollars should be spent on (tax dollars or private) I recommend listening to Neil deGrasse Tyson who explains in simple and very well [0]. It's mind blowing when you think about it really. Such a small fraction of all money in the world and it often leads to great solutions which we take for granted every day now. I'm really excited about seeing this succeed and what might come out of it. How will our world look 10 years from now. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYs8TpFzIPI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYs8TpFzIPI (Here on Joe Rogan podcast)
- singuerinc 8y agoSet the alarm Yusaku Maezawa: https://moon-countdown.netlify.com https://moon-countdown.netlify.com
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- bovermyer 8y agoIf I could donate money to this, I would. Going to look into it.
- nikolay 8y agoI honestly thought they are landing on the Moon and got excited... I was a bit put off when Musk chose a possibly worse design over aesthetics. Unrelated to him smoking cannabis on the radio show, he always looks a bit high to me. He was definitely unprepared for this event as well.
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- vinayms 8y agoAlso take a refugee and a homeless person from third world who starves regularly to balance things out. Would they, as they look out of the window, find their struggles irrelevant after looking at the beauty of the bright blue blob as it rotates gracefully about itself while also majestically traversing around the source of life as if paying obeisance to it, as seen against a stark black background filled with infinite bright dots that don't twinkle anymore, or would they be heartbroken that rich people around the world are splurging on such self congratulatory endeavors while millions of people like them could have had a sliver of dignity added to their existence had these patrons of futuristic science and tech expanded their horizons by getting real and looked inwards instead and brought some twinkle in their eyes, or would they feel something else completely unexpected? Lets find out. No really, lets find out that as well.
- octygen 8y agoAm a big fan of Michener and was reading his book Space recently. The paragraph below came up as two main characters were debating sending people to the Moon for a price VS sending machines to the Moon AND Mars AND Saturn for the same price. Felt it was relevant to showcase this initiative by SpaceX as meaningful for it is the beginning of something bigger. "Man was the measure of all things, and although it was correct that machines could perform miracles, they could not enlist the emotional support of the public. Astronauts could, and he left this confrontation committed to the role of human beings in space, for without them as a measure, a criterion for meaning, the program had no viability."
- jasondebo 8y agoI think they should send a couple great sports commentators along with the artists to give a live play-by-play of the whole thing