5 ms·

Tell me about this new era while I am sitting homeless in my minivan…

DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
There were people suffering when Sputnik launched, or when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It doesn't reduce the magnitude of the event. Sorry for whatever you are going through, though. Hope you get through it.
- Podgajski 3y ago
  That was my point, you talk about new eras, but nothing changes. Who is this new for? You, me, or the billionaires who make lives like mine horrible? It’s all spectacle, and where will it all lead? We landed men on the moon, and haven’t been back. What is SpaceX going to use for going to Mars? Are you gonna be the one that’s going or are they gonna leave you behind to rot here on this burning planet?
  - chpatrick 3y ago
    Mars is a horrible place to live so I'll take Earth any day. But it would be nice if humanity doesn't get wiped out if we get unlucky with an asteroid.
    - KennyBlanken 3y ago
      In the meantime, we're already well into ecological collapse (I think we've lost something like 3/4s of the earth's species?) and existential-threat-level climate change which in fifty years or so will be so bad we'll be dealing with near constant humanitarian crises...with no sign of improvement on either front. Decarbonization isn't happening nearly fast enough and industrial pollution is chugging along. Frankly, I don't see human society surviving long enough - or perhaps better put, maintaining a necessary level of societal development - for us to develop the tech to establish a self-sufficient colony capable of independent growth and to get us to a planet with the resources to make such a thing possible. It's hard to make rocket parts when everyone is living in shacks made of sticks and mud and leaves.
      - chpatrick 3y ago
        I don't think it has to be either-or. We can work on saving Earth while also trying to travel to other planets.
      - scarygliders 3y ago
        Hang on. You said you were living in a minivan - a vehicle which took a few technological leaps to be able to develop and build, so you could live in it. You also appear to have an internet connection and a means to use it. Again, technological leaps were required for you to be able to whine on HN. Perhaps - if you're so utterly sincere and serious about saving the planet as you appear to be - you should be living in the nearest available cave? After all, that minivan is likely to use an internal combustion engine and runs on dead dinosaurs; let alone the plastics and metals and silicon used in said minivan's assembly. See, this is what I don't get about eco-heros like you appear to be - even if you are homeless, you're still, right now, utilising every single technological leap that it took to get you to the stage of even just living in your minivan and complaining about rocket development on the internet. This, to me, reeks of hypocrisy.
    - microtherion 3y ago
      The prospect for building a self sustaining colony on Mars in the foreseeable future is essentially zero. And even the largest disasters on earth are unlikely to kill quite everyone. So the most likely outcome of a metaphorical or literal asteroid hit on Earth is that it would still leave thousands, millions, or billions of survivors on Earth, while leaving it unable and/or unwilling to sustain maintenance missions to Mars, so the Mars colonists would starve or otherwise die slowly, despite being technically unaffected by the original disaster.
  - DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
    You would have said the same thing about airplanes at the turn of the 20th century and dismissed them as fads for rich people. Or about computers. Or the internet. And yet here you are. > you talk about new eras, but nothing changes. And yes, it does affect my life. I have dreamed my whole life of this stuff happening. After growing up in a "third world" country, I navigated the byzantine US immigration system, went through a decade+ of training, to finally be here and working at a new-space company right at the beginning of this new space age. The industry that I am working at right now would be in a completely different place (and a lot smaller) without SpaceX. It also wouldn't exist without the advances made for Apollo and the Space Shuttle program. > What is SpaceX going to use for going to Mars? Starship probably. > Are you gonna be the one that’s going Maybe. There is a non-zero chance now that the system that will achieve it is that much closer to being operational. You are missing the step change in cost that this will enable. > or are they gonna leave you behind to rot here on this burning planet It does not have to be one or the other. The "burning planet" will be solved just like we solved every other challenge facing our species. You are obviously going through some stuff and seem to be in place where you cannot appreciate the good things that are happening in this world. But that does not change the fact that they are.
    - Podgajski 3y ago
      What you’re telling me here is that you’re just being selfish. This is good for you so it should be good for all of humanity. I’m sorry, but it’s not. I appreciate a lot of good things when they happen. I’m saying this this is not a good thing. Do you think it’s a good thing because it made your life better. But you’re only seeing it from your perspective. You don’t have a holistic view of the world.
      - DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
        > This is good for you so it should be good for all of humanity. I’m sorry, but it’s not. You asked me how it impacts me and I answered. > But you’re only seeing it from your perspective. You don’t have a holistic view of the world. You are failing to see the holistic view yourself because you seem to be having a bad time. Lowering the cost of mass-to-orbit by a couple of orders of magnitude significantly changes what can be done in space. This includes truly massive satellites (e.g. https://www.k2space.com/ https://www.k2space.com/) that can provide services for Earth that were not possible before. In-space manufacturing of materials that cannot be made easily on Earth. Moving polluting industries off the surface, mining of resources from space (for use in space or on the surface if it is valuable enough) and much more. It is a feed-back loop that will compound into massive changes. All of that and more will impact the whole of humanity in a very positive way.
  - kcb 3y ago
    Yea it's not about new eras. Hold on a sec "Hey Siri, navigate to the nearest Costco". Yea nothing has changed for the average person as a result of first space launch
  - imetatroll 3y ago
    The kind of scientific advancements needed to sustain on the moon or mars will tremendously improve our abilities to be sustainable here on Earth. You are willfully ignorant or naive.
    - Podgajski 3y ago
      Ha! I’m naïve? What are you saying that we’re going to turn the Earth into a Mars or moonlight planet? And we’re all gonna have to live in bubbles? Do you think that’s the answer? Talk about pessimistic and negative…
      - imetatroll 3y ago
        Not what I am saying. Let me roll my eyes at your willful strawmanning.
    - microtherion 3y ago
      But right now there seems to be virtually zero activity in the life support side of things (Biosphere 2 was more than 30 years ago, and was not exactly a rousing success), and the rocket motor side is not particularly helpful to sustaining life on earth. But there's still more than a month to go until 2024. I'm sure everything will come together in time. </s>
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  The moon landings are historically seen through an almost exclusively middle class, white eye. The "magnitude" was definitely reduced if you were poor and/or black. The "magnitude" of the US Space Shuttle program was definitely reduced for me even as a white kid; I got to watch the shuttle launch on a TV rolled into the classroom, and then go right back to reading my mangled, outdated science textbook, watching my teacher write on a chalkboard with chalk he had to purchase himself because our school district apparently couldn't afford to buy enough, because it was more important that we have more, and better, nuclear bombs and missiles to transport them than Russia. We went to the moon. The rest of the world did things like set up universal healthcare for its citizens, build housing, non-punitive criminal justice systems, public transit, etc.
  - drstewart 3y ago
    > The rest of the world Can you define that a bit more before I ask further questions?
  - erupt7893 3y ago
    So you believe if there was no moon program then we would magically have universal healthcare, housing, non-punitive criminal justice systems. Very ignorant take
    - Podgajski 3y ago
      If people had more humanity, they would be focusing on getting universal healthcare housing, and a non-punitive justice system before we focus things like putting a few humans on a rock in space. Why is it that the most difficult things to do are the most caring things?
      - DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
        https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/why-explore-space https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/why-explore-space
        3y ago
networkchad 3y ago
[dead]
T-A 3y ago
It could be the era when you strike it big with your new T-shirt business, propelled to fame by an instantly classic design featuring the words "One giant leap for mankind" over a soaring Starship, followed by the inevitable "One small step for me" below.

There were people suffering when Sputnik launched, or when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It doesn't reduce the magnitude of the event. Sorry for whatever you are going through, though. Hope you get through it.

Podgajski 3y ago
That was my point, you talk about new eras, but nothing changes. Who is this new for? You, me, or the billionaires who make lives like mine horrible? It’s all spectacle, and where will it all lead? We landed men on the moon, and haven’t been back. What is SpaceX going to use for going to Mars? Are you gonna be the one that’s going or are they gonna leave you behind to rot here on this burning planet?
- chpatrick 3y ago
  Mars is a horrible place to live so I'll take Earth any day. But it would be nice if humanity doesn't get wiped out if we get unlucky with an asteroid.
  - KennyBlanken 3y ago
    In the meantime, we're already well into ecological collapse (I think we've lost something like 3/4s of the earth's species?) and existential-threat-level climate change which in fifty years or so will be so bad we'll be dealing with near constant humanitarian crises...with no sign of improvement on either front. Decarbonization isn't happening nearly fast enough and industrial pollution is chugging along. Frankly, I don't see human society surviving long enough - or perhaps better put, maintaining a necessary level of societal development - for us to develop the tech to establish a self-sufficient colony capable of independent growth and to get us to a planet with the resources to make such a thing possible. It's hard to make rocket parts when everyone is living in shacks made of sticks and mud and leaves.
    - chpatrick 3y ago
      I don't think it has to be either-or. We can work on saving Earth while also trying to travel to other planets.
    - scarygliders 3y ago
      Hang on. You said you were living in a minivan - a vehicle which took a few technological leaps to be able to develop and build, so you could live in it. You also appear to have an internet connection and a means to use it. Again, technological leaps were required for you to be able to whine on HN. Perhaps - if you're so utterly sincere and serious about saving the planet as you appear to be - you should be living in the nearest available cave? After all, that minivan is likely to use an internal combustion engine and runs on dead dinosaurs; let alone the plastics and metals and silicon used in said minivan's assembly. See, this is what I don't get about eco-heros like you appear to be - even if you are homeless, you're still, right now, utilising every single technological leap that it took to get you to the stage of even just living in your minivan and complaining about rocket development on the internet. This, to me, reeks of hypocrisy.
  - microtherion 3y ago
    The prospect for building a self sustaining colony on Mars in the foreseeable future is essentially zero. And even the largest disasters on earth are unlikely to kill quite everyone. So the most likely outcome of a metaphorical or literal asteroid hit on Earth is that it would still leave thousands, millions, or billions of survivors on Earth, while leaving it unable and/or unwilling to sustain maintenance missions to Mars, so the Mars colonists would starve or otherwise die slowly, despite being technically unaffected by the original disaster.
- DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
  You would have said the same thing about airplanes at the turn of the 20th century and dismissed them as fads for rich people. Or about computers. Or the internet. And yet here you are. > you talk about new eras, but nothing changes. And yes, it does affect my life. I have dreamed my whole life of this stuff happening. After growing up in a "third world" country, I navigated the byzantine US immigration system, went through a decade+ of training, to finally be here and working at a new-space company right at the beginning of this new space age. The industry that I am working at right now would be in a completely different place (and a lot smaller) without SpaceX. It also wouldn't exist without the advances made for Apollo and the Space Shuttle program. > What is SpaceX going to use for going to Mars? Starship probably. > Are you gonna be the one that’s going Maybe. There is a non-zero chance now that the system that will achieve it is that much closer to being operational. You are missing the step change in cost that this will enable. > or are they gonna leave you behind to rot here on this burning planet It does not have to be one or the other. The "burning planet" will be solved just like we solved every other challenge facing our species. You are obviously going through some stuff and seem to be in place where you cannot appreciate the good things that are happening in this world. But that does not change the fact that they are.
  - Podgajski 3y ago
    What you’re telling me here is that you’re just being selfish. This is good for you so it should be good for all of humanity. I’m sorry, but it’s not. I appreciate a lot of good things when they happen. I’m saying this this is not a good thing. Do you think it’s a good thing because it made your life better. But you’re only seeing it from your perspective. You don’t have a holistic view of the world.
    - DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
      > This is good for you so it should be good for all of humanity. I’m sorry, but it’s not. You asked me how it impacts me and I answered. > But you’re only seeing it from your perspective. You don’t have a holistic view of the world. You are failing to see the holistic view yourself because you seem to be having a bad time. Lowering the cost of mass-to-orbit by a couple of orders of magnitude significantly changes what can be done in space. This includes truly massive satellites (e.g. https://www.k2space.com/ https://www.k2space.com/) that can provide services for Earth that were not possible before. In-space manufacturing of materials that cannot be made easily on Earth. Moving polluting industries off the surface, mining of resources from space (for use in space or on the surface if it is valuable enough) and much more. It is a feed-back loop that will compound into massive changes. All of that and more will impact the whole of humanity in a very positive way.
- kcb 3y ago
  Yea it's not about new eras. Hold on a sec "Hey Siri, navigate to the nearest Costco". Yea nothing has changed for the average person as a result of first space launch
- imetatroll 3y ago
  The kind of scientific advancements needed to sustain on the moon or mars will tremendously improve our abilities to be sustainable here on Earth. You are willfully ignorant or naive.
  - Podgajski 3y ago
    Ha! I’m naïve? What are you saying that we’re going to turn the Earth into a Mars or moonlight planet? And we’re all gonna have to live in bubbles? Do you think that’s the answer? Talk about pessimistic and negative…
    - imetatroll 3y ago
      Not what I am saying. Let me roll my eyes at your willful strawmanning.
  - microtherion 3y ago
    But right now there seems to be virtually zero activity in the life support side of things (Biosphere 2 was more than 30 years ago, and was not exactly a rousing success), and the rocket motor side is not particularly helpful to sustaining life on earth. But there's still more than a month to go until 2024. I'm sure everything will come together in time. </s>
KennyBlanken 3y ago
The moon landings are historically seen through an almost exclusively middle class, white eye. The "magnitude" was definitely reduced if you were poor and/or black. The "magnitude" of the US Space Shuttle program was definitely reduced for me even as a white kid; I got to watch the shuttle launch on a TV rolled into the classroom, and then go right back to reading my mangled, outdated science textbook, watching my teacher write on a chalkboard with chalk he had to purchase himself because our school district apparently couldn't afford to buy enough, because it was more important that we have more, and better, nuclear bombs and missiles to transport them than Russia. We went to the moon. The rest of the world did things like set up universal healthcare for its citizens, build housing, non-punitive criminal justice systems, public transit, etc.
- drstewart 3y ago
  > The rest of the world Can you define that a bit more before I ask further questions?
- erupt7893 3y ago
  So you believe if there was no moon program then we would magically have universal healthcare, housing, non-punitive criminal justice systems. Very ignorant take
  - Podgajski 3y ago
    If people had more humanity, they would be focusing on getting universal healthcare housing, and a non-punitive justice system before we focus things like putting a few humans on a rock in space. Why is it that the most difficult things to do are the most caring things?
    - DarmokJalad1701 3y ago
      https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/why-explore-space https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/why-explore-space
      - 3y ago

networkchad 3y ago

[dead]

T-A 3y ago

It could be the era when you strike it big with your new T-shirt business, propelled to fame by an instantly classic design featuring the words "One giant leap for mankind" over a soaring Starship, followed by the inevitable "One small step for me" below.