3 ms·

I don't think that's a great metric. I believe by miles traveled, space travel is safer than cars and airplanes. I'm guessing small planes wouldn't fare so wel

• SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  "deaths per passenger-mile" is a standard metric though (1), and a fully packed long-haul Airbus scores extremely well on it. I expect it works best as a comparison between modes that travel on the same medium - e.g. Bus beats motorcycle, and they both are found on the same roads. A380 beats Cessna (2) Space travel is an outlier of course, very dangerous in general, and orbiting isn't traveling to anywhere any meaningful sense. It's just floating in space. As a mode of transport, it's also not really a major mover of people around the world. 1) "Other comparisons are possible based on passenger trips, vehicle miles, or vehicle trips, but passenger miles is the most commonly used basis for comparing the safety of various modes of travel." https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/deaths-by-transportation-mode/ https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics... "Passenger Fatalities per Billion Passenger Miles 2000-2009" https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~ipsavage/436-appendix.pdf https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~ipsavage/436-appendix... 2) https://www.livescience.com/49701-private-planes-safety.html https://www.livescience.com/49701-private-planes-safety.html