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If a rocket explodes, the astronauts die. If a pair of goggles fails, the soldier takes them off. These are the same people who equipped soldiers in Vietnam w
by jjk166 5y ago
If a rocket explodes, the astronauts die.
If a pair of goggles fails, the soldier takes them off.
These are the same people who equipped soldiers in Vietnam with a rifle that jams due to mud. The idea that military hardware has to be many times more reliable than space hardware is absurd.
- darkerside 5y agoSometimes the rocket fails but the astronaut makes it back (Apollo 13). Sometimes the goggles fail, and the soldier misjudges a drop and breaks his leg, or walks into a known blast radius and dies, or misidentifies and kills a civilian. Either way, if this is worth doing -- and I agree with you that it's a big, big if -- it is worth doing right.
- jjk166 5y agoAstronauts surviving a failure is a once in a generation event that gets memorialized forever in movies and literature. Soldiers' equipment failing is a Tuesday. Increased situational awareness has value, but it is a clear case of diminishing returns. Exactly what the cutoff ought to be is debatable, but that the cutoff exists is certain.
- darkerside 5y agoAnd this is an argument for investing less? Just because you are personally normalized to something doesn't make it acceptable.