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Probably goes without saying. People should be allowed to be safe in their home without being possibly killed by space debris. If not, humanity is doing somethi

Probably goes without saying. People should be allowed to be safe in their home without being possibly killed by space debris. If not, humanity is doing something wrong.

anonylizard 3y ago
Meteors exist, and there's nothing you can do to stop it, aside from clearly uneconomical shielding of every roof of every home. Its arrogance to think we are immune from unexpected and sudden death because we are humans. Also, cars and trucks occasionally do drive through homes, if the homes are next to large roads. Its rare, but far more common than space debris. Also, keep in mind these space debris, even if they hit homes, are unlikely to kill, a 10cm diameter ball (Aka 80cm^2 = 0.008m area) is unlikely to hit someone in a 100m^2 home.
- foobar1962 3y ago
  > Also, cars and trucks occasionally do drive through homes, if the homes are next to large roads There is a Tesla in space. No homes are safe. Anywhere. In. The. Universe.
  - datascienced 3y ago
    That Tesla is in a sun orbit.
    - cseleborg 3y ago
      Should we send them a warning? Maybe they haven't spotted it yet? It's our junk after all...
    - pjerem 3y ago
      Every time I remember we have a Tesla orbiting in our solar system, I remember how stupid we are as a species.
      - datascienced 3y ago
        At least it should have some scientific instruments and fold out solar panels.
      - pfdietz 3y ago
        > Every time I remember we have a Tesla orbiting in our solar system, I remember how awesome we are as a species. Fixed that for you.
        pjerem 3y ago
        I wasn’t thinking we are not. We can be - and are - both.
- iJohnDoe 3y ago
  You have good points, but I specifically stated space debris.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > I specifically stated space debris Why is getting killed by space debris is less pleasant than getting killed by a meteorite? The point is there is a background risk of sky-born peril. There is tremendous opportunity in putting things in orbit. Given the frequencies of any damage or injury from extra-atmospheric debris, of our or nature's making, it would be surprising if the marginal benefits gained from optimising for more safety would outweigh the opportunity cost. We should look for cheap optimisiations that reduce the risk of peril. But eliminating the possibility is impossible; pursuing massive reductions in risk absurd.
    - jjav 3y ago
      > Why is getting killed by space debris is less pleasant than getting killed by a meteorite? In terms of liability, we (society) usually make a distinction between nature and events produced by humans. If a hurricane falls a tree and it collapses your house, that's just nature. If someone is cutting that tree and they do it wrong and it collapses your house, you'd hope they are liable.
hiddencost 3y ago
That's, uh, not how it works actually. Everything is cost benefit trade-offs. We can't guarantee total safety. NASA, for instance, estimates the risk of a civilian being killed by reentry , and has a formula that says how much money they can spend to eliminate how much risk.
lupusreal 3y ago
You're vastly more likely to be killed by a plane crashing into your house, and even that is very unlikely. Get over it.
- 0bama 3y ago
  [flagged]

Probably goes without saying. People should be allowed to be safe in their home without being possibly killed by space debris. If not, humanity is doing something wrong.

anonylizard 3y ago

Meteors exist, and there's nothing you can do to stop it, aside from clearly uneconomical shielding of every roof of every home. Its arrogance to think we are immune from unexpected and sudden death because we are humans. Also, cars and trucks occasionally do drive through homes, if the homes are next to large roads. Its rare, but far more common than space debris. Also, keep in mind these space debris, even if they hit homes, are unlikely to kill, a 10cm diameter ball (Aka 80cm^2 = 0.008m area) is unlikely to hit someone in a 100m^2 home.

foobar1962 3y ago
> Also, cars and trucks occasionally do drive through homes, if the homes are next to large roads There is a Tesla in space. No homes are safe. Anywhere. In. The. Universe.
- datascienced 3y ago
  That Tesla is in a sun orbit.
  - cseleborg 3y ago
    Should we send them a warning? Maybe they haven't spotted it yet? It's our junk after all...
  - pjerem 3y ago
    Every time I remember we have a Tesla orbiting in our solar system, I remember how stupid we are as a species.
    - datascienced 3y ago
      At least it should have some scientific instruments and fold out solar panels.
    - pfdietz 3y ago
      > Every time I remember we have a Tesla orbiting in our solar system, I remember how awesome we are as a species. Fixed that for you.
      - pjerem 3y ago
        I wasn’t thinking we are not. We can be - and are - both.
iJohnDoe 3y ago
You have good points, but I specifically stated space debris.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > I specifically stated space debris Why is getting killed by space debris is less pleasant than getting killed by a meteorite? The point is there is a background risk of sky-born peril. There is tremendous opportunity in putting things in orbit. Given the frequencies of any damage or injury from extra-atmospheric debris, of our or nature's making, it would be surprising if the marginal benefits gained from optimising for more safety would outweigh the opportunity cost. We should look for cheap optimisiations that reduce the risk of peril. But eliminating the possibility is impossible; pursuing massive reductions in risk absurd.
  - jjav 3y ago
    > Why is getting killed by space debris is less pleasant than getting killed by a meteorite? In terms of liability, we (society) usually make a distinction between nature and events produced by humans. If a hurricane falls a tree and it collapses your house, that's just nature. If someone is cutting that tree and they do it wrong and it collapses your house, you'd hope they are liable.

hiddencost 3y ago

That's, uh, not how it works actually. Everything is cost benefit trade-offs. We can't guarantee total safety. NASA, for instance, estimates the risk of a civilian being killed by reentry , and has a formula that says how much money they can spend to eliminate how much risk.

lupusreal 3y ago

You're vastly more likely to be killed by a plane crashing into your house, and even that is very unlikely. Get over it.

0bama 3y ago
[flagged]