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Respectfully, I think it's reasonable that the privilege of being an astronaut — there are a thousand times more applicants than astronauts — comes with the tra
by bpodgursky 2y ago
Respectfully, I think it's reasonable that the privilege of being an astronaut — there are a thousand times more applicants than astronauts — comes with the tradeoff losing some of the privacy afforded to private citizens.
It costs NASA (and to be blunt about it, taxpayers) an extraordinary amount of money to put each astronaut in space. The fact is, there have been fewer than a thousand people in space in all of history. Each illness, sickness, even basic health vitals is in a sense invaluable taxpayer-funded science, and if you don't want your health to be in the public domain, there are a lot of other jobs available (or, now that we have SpaceX, you could take a private rather than government flight)
I'm not saying NASA should be publishing a livestream at the hospital, but I do think there's a reasonable expectation that NASA will release the health issues in a respectful but informative way to the public.
- andrewjf 2y agoNASAs entire budget is 0.47% of the national budget in 2020. Spare me. Space travel is worth it.
- bpodgursky 2y agoI don't think you really read what I wrote.
- sim7c00 2y agothere are lots of places taxoayer pay for which never see the light of day. i thimk ultimately though, this is not atall about that. they have very lenghty projects to get to root causes of issues. before such a project is fully completed and signed off on, they will not sah a word. before they have all the answers, you will get none. places of science -generally- work like this. no poitin bringing out incomplete information or uncertainties especially in siluch a place which faces a lot of public scruitiny.
- peutetre 2y ago> now that we have SpaceX You don't have SpaceX. It's a private company. Soon you might not have NASA either. As part of his payment for supporting Trump, more and more of NASA and the Department of Defense will be handed to Musk for his profit. Oligarchs always expect to be paid.
- trimethylpurine 2y agoSomeone posted a scrollable web page depiction of Musk's worth a while back. The entire NASA budget is insanely small by comparison. To imagine it, I would guess he cares more about what's in his omelet than getting more money from that budget.
- TimTheTinker 2y agoMusk is frustrated with government inefficiency, especially with regulatory processes. He has complained multiple times about the approval process for launches and returns. One government agency, he said, at one point required them to do a study that estimated the chances of a re-entering rocket body impacting a gray whale in the event that it splashed down hard -- personally I agree, that is kind of ridiculous.
- peutetre 2y ago> Musk is frustrated with government inefficiency No, primarily Musk is frustrated with any requirement that he be accountable. Across the next four years his goals will be to reduce any accountability or transparency that applies to him and to maximize his profit. Oligarchs always follow the same pattern.
- try_the_bass 2y agoThis is assuming intent that has never been reflected in action. Are you sure you're not just projecting your own assumptions about him? The ones you need to have to justify your apparent hatred of him?