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18 people have died in space exploration since the 1950's. Over a million people die in car wrecks each year on earth[1]. Yes, we want to make space travel safe

18 people have died in space exploration since the 1950's. Over a million people die in car wrecks each year on earth[1]. Yes, we want to make space travel safer, but letting people who want to take bigger risks to do great things is something to encourage. It is not like the people going on these rockets are forced to do so. They work hard all their lives just to have a small chance to go. Some risk is needed to make technological progress in space travel at some reasonable rate. [1]https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/ https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/

yellowapple 7y ago
> 18 people have died in space exploration since the 1950's. Over a million people die in car wrecks each year on earth I was curious about the statistical risk here, so I crunched some numbers. There are approximately 230 million licensed drivers in the United States alone¹, versus approximately 560 astronauts². So let's do the math here: 18 space deaths / 560 astronauts¹ = 3.214% 1,850,000 US automotive deaths² / 230,000,000 US licensed drivers³ = 0.804% 50,000,000 worldwide automotive deaths⁴ / 1,200,000,000 worldwide drivers⁵ = 4.167% So by US automotive safety standards, space travel has a long ways to go in terms of fatality reduction, whereas by global safety standards space travel is approximately on par. ---- ¹: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronauts_by_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronauts_by_name ²: https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/ https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/ (your link), assuming the 37,000 per year is constant ³: https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2018/10/number-of-licensed-drivers-usa/ https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2018/10/number-of-licensed-dr... ⁴: Assuming - again - a constant 1 million deaths per year over 50 years ⁵: https://www.quora.com/What-percent-of-the-world-population-knows-how-to-drive-a-car https://www.quora.com/What-percent-of-the-world-population-k..., which assumes that there is at least one person capable of driving per registered vehicle in the world; this is almost certainly a drastic underestimation, since it doesn't factor in passengers at all.
- ClumsyPilot 7y ago
  This is an interesting comparison, but I think it unfairly favours rockets because you seem to be calculating chance of fatality of each passenger/driver. Typically astronauts will have less than 10 flights, whereas a driver could have 10,000 trips in a car.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    Typically you won't be driving (or riding in) a car for up to a year non-stop (without so much as a fuel stop), either; I feel like that offsets the quantity of trips to at least some extent.

yellowapple 7y ago

> 18 people have died in space exploration since the 1950's. Over a million people die in car wrecks each year on earth I was curious about the statistical risk here, so I crunched some numbers. There are approximately 230 million licensed drivers in the United States alone¹, versus approximately 560 astronauts². So let's do the math here: 18 space deaths / 560 astronauts¹ = 3.214% 1,850,000 US automotive deaths² / 230,000,000 US licensed drivers³ = 0.804% 50,000,000 worldwide automotive deaths⁴ / 1,200,000,000 worldwide drivers⁵ = 4.167% So by US automotive safety standards, space travel has a long ways to go in terms of fatality reduction, whereas by global safety standards space travel is approximately on par. ---- ¹: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronauts_by_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronauts_by_name ²: https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/ https://www.asirt.org/safe-travel/road-safety-facts/ (your link), assuming the 37,000 per year is constant ³: https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2018/10/number-of-licensed-drivers-usa/ https://hedgescompany.com/blog/2018/10/number-of-licensed-dr... ⁴: Assuming - again - a constant 1 million deaths per year over 50 years ⁵: https://www.quora.com/What-percent-of-the-world-population-knows-how-to-drive-a-car https://www.quora.com/What-percent-of-the-world-population-k..., which assumes that there is at least one person capable of driving per registered vehicle in the world; this is almost certainly a drastic underestimation, since it doesn't factor in passengers at all.

ClumsyPilot 7y ago
This is an interesting comparison, but I think it unfairly favours rockets because you seem to be calculating chance of fatality of each passenger/driver. Typically astronauts will have less than 10 flights, whereas a driver could have 10,000 trips in a car.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  Typically you won't be driving (or riding in) a car for up to a year non-stop (without so much as a fuel stop), either; I feel like that offsets the quantity of trips to at least some extent.