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They shot a probe out into space, had it land on an asteroid, slam a slug into it to get below the surface, land on it again, and pick up rocks. In an era where

They shot a probe out into space, had it land on an asteroid, slam a slug into it to get below the surface, land on it again, and pick up rocks. In an era where the headliners are delivery and ride sharing apps, it's worth stepping back and considering this achievement for what it is. Maybe the rocks themselves aren't special, but where they came from and how we got them is a massive achievement.

poma88 6y ago
Nope. Not a massive achievement. Just a waste of money that could go to stop climate change.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  It's a stepping stone to enable the future. There's no non-catastrophic future for humanity that doesn't involve expanding past Earth orbit. In fact, it may be entirely possible to eliminate the root cause behind climate change - economic growth - in a humane way. So the best bet is to channel it in ways that aren't destructive to Earth's biosphere. Asteroid mining is a part of that, and this achievement is a stepping stone in that direction.
- Ma8ee 6y ago
  There are neither economical or technological hurdles that stop us from ending the release of greenhouse gases within a few years. It is only political will. Stopping climate change is too late since it is already happening and it won’t be easy to get rid of the CO2 that we already released.
- crubier 6y ago
  That’s an argument I can accept when talking about not spending trillions in wars and defense, but no when spending 1/10000th of that amount into the future of our species and something all our ancestors could only dream of: seeing alien worlds.
- t-writescode 6y ago
  Today has been a day of hatred on Hacker News. First it was a person naysaying in the sex toy automation thread and now it’s here. The sphere of knowledge and the sphere of usefulness expand in all directions. Sometimes usefulness expands in entertainment and pleasure (no one complains about Blizzard employees or Valve employees making games), sometimes they expand into cancer research, global warming research or, yes, in this case, space travel and extraterrestrial discovery. There are billions of people on this planet and billions of them have the potential to be scientists or engineers in some area of the multi-dimensional spheres of all human knowledge and use. If humanity must be seen as a hive mind, then it still can parallel process with, again, billions of people and hundreds of millions of scientists.
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    I've noticed a decline in comment quality the last months Not sure if I'm correct though.
    - t-writescode 6y ago
      My operating theory is that isolation from the pandemic has made a lot of people on HN incredibly irritable in the last month or so. I see it at work. I see it on Reddit. I see it here on Hacker News. I’m taking some huge steps back from social media this week, myself, and also taking a week-long vacation. Edit: I’ve also seen it in myself.
    - dfxm12 6y ago
      How many? 4? 24? 42? I noticed a decline almost Internet-wide since around the 2014 UK elections. I wish an opinion calling space exploration a waste of money was the worst of it.
      - howlgarnish 6y ago
        People have been moaning about the decline of discussion on the internet since 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
- lostdog 6y ago
  Which do you think is more likely: A) There was a bunch of money allocated to climate change. We then took the money away and used it to bring an asteroid rock sample back to Earth. B) There was no money allocated to climate change, because there is huge resistance to allocating resources to solving climate change. Unrelatedly, we took some money from a variety of trivial purposes and used it to better understand our solar system.
- elorant 6y ago
  Fuck climate change. If an asteroid hits Earth we will move back to the stone age, if we don't go extinct. What kind of technology do you think could prevent something like that from happening other than having the ability to divert it with a probe that can land on it?
  - poma88 6y ago
    Spending money on scraping asteroids won't help that problem, sorry. Asteroids fall on Earth and can be sufficiently studied.
- ehnto 6y ago
  Even if you don't believe in the end goal, the technical achievements can't be ignored. I hate to constantly say this but we can also work on two problems at once. Japan's space agency spending money on scientific research is not stopping climate research and mitigation from occurring. The US on the other hand truly has hamstrung their ability to react to climate requirements with outsized military spending. It's lucky the universities all benefit from the economic perversions of their massive endowments else I would be surprised the US would have any Universities left to do climate research. Not to leave myself out and rag on the US alone, Australia is just lucky the economic incentives are changing in favour of renewables else we would keep rocking coal like it's 1800 until we all lived in Cooper Pedy style holes in the ground.

poma88 6y ago

Nope. Not a massive achievement. Just a waste of money that could go to stop climate change.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
It's a stepping stone to enable the future. There's no non-catastrophic future for humanity that doesn't involve expanding past Earth orbit. In fact, it may be entirely possible to eliminate the root cause behind climate change - economic growth - in a humane way. So the best bet is to channel it in ways that aren't destructive to Earth's biosphere. Asteroid mining is a part of that, and this achievement is a stepping stone in that direction.
Ma8ee 6y ago
There are neither economical or technological hurdles that stop us from ending the release of greenhouse gases within a few years. It is only political will. Stopping climate change is too late since it is already happening and it won’t be easy to get rid of the CO2 that we already released.
crubier 6y ago
That’s an argument I can accept when talking about not spending trillions in wars and defense, but no when spending 1/10000th of that amount into the future of our species and something all our ancestors could only dream of: seeing alien worlds.
t-writescode 6y ago
Today has been a day of hatred on Hacker News. First it was a person naysaying in the sex toy automation thread and now it’s here. The sphere of knowledge and the sphere of usefulness expand in all directions. Sometimes usefulness expands in entertainment and pleasure (no one complains about Blizzard employees or Valve employees making games), sometimes they expand into cancer research, global warming research or, yes, in this case, space travel and extraterrestrial discovery. There are billions of people on this planet and billions of them have the potential to be scientists or engineers in some area of the multi-dimensional spheres of all human knowledge and use. If humanity must be seen as a hive mind, then it still can parallel process with, again, billions of people and hundreds of millions of scientists.
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  I've noticed a decline in comment quality the last months Not sure if I'm correct though.
  - t-writescode 6y ago
    My operating theory is that isolation from the pandemic has made a lot of people on HN incredibly irritable in the last month or so. I see it at work. I see it on Reddit. I see it here on Hacker News. I’m taking some huge steps back from social media this week, myself, and also taking a week-long vacation. Edit: I’ve also seen it in myself.
  - dfxm12 6y ago
    How many? 4? 24? 42? I noticed a decline almost Internet-wide since around the 2014 UK elections. I wish an opinion calling space exploration a waste of money was the worst of it.
    - howlgarnish 6y ago
      People have been moaning about the decline of discussion on the internet since 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
lostdog 6y ago
Which do you think is more likely: A) There was a bunch of money allocated to climate change. We then took the money away and used it to bring an asteroid rock sample back to Earth. B) There was no money allocated to climate change, because there is huge resistance to allocating resources to solving climate change. Unrelatedly, we took some money from a variety of trivial purposes and used it to better understand our solar system.
elorant 6y ago
Fuck climate change. If an asteroid hits Earth we will move back to the stone age, if we don't go extinct. What kind of technology do you think could prevent something like that from happening other than having the ability to divert it with a probe that can land on it?
- poma88 6y ago
  Spending money on scraping asteroids won't help that problem, sorry. Asteroids fall on Earth and can be sufficiently studied.
ehnto 6y ago
Even if you don't believe in the end goal, the technical achievements can't be ignored. I hate to constantly say this but we can also work on two problems at once. Japan's space agency spending money on scientific research is not stopping climate research and mitigation from occurring. The US on the other hand truly has hamstrung their ability to react to climate requirements with outsized military spending. It's lucky the universities all benefit from the economic perversions of their massive endowments else I would be surprised the US would have any Universities left to do climate research. Not to leave myself out and rag on the US alone, Australia is just lucky the economic incentives are changing in favour of renewables else we would keep rocking coal like it's 1800 until we all lived in Cooper Pedy style holes in the ground.