5 ms·
About the last point: At this point in time, manned space exploration should come out of our entertainment budget. The same budget we use for football or olym
by eru 7mo ago
About the last point:
At this point in time, manned space exploration should come out of our entertainment budget. The same budget we use for football or olympic games.
- DoctorOetker 7mo agocould the government rent out monopoly grants for televised football on the moon in exchange for sponsoring manned space exploration?
- eru 7mo agoWhich government? The moon doesn't belong to any one government. Though the US could just do it. Who's to stop them from selling these pieces of paper?
- trhway 7mo agojust wait until influencers start flying there. Not on SLS of course. Flyby on Starship cattle class - say 100 people (500 for LEO and "SFO to Shanghai" while for Moon - several days would require better accommodations, thus 100) - at $5M/launch, 10 launches (9 of them - tankers) - thus $50M 3 day roundtrip for 100 people. Half a mil per person.
- xp84 7mo agoIf the NFL were to somehow become involved, you can bet that they'd somehow manage to turn the financials around and get some of that sweet government money flowing in their direction, just like the dozens of taxpayer-funded or otherwise tax-advantaged stadium deals in the past 25 years that allow us to thank Big Football financially for gracing us with the presence of football teams. It is astounding to me how such a successful, rich group of companies manage to get subsidies in quantities that groups you'd think deserve or need it more, from valuable science endeavours to orphans dying of cancer, can only dream of.
- gorgoiler 7mo agoIs there any research on the effect of apparent gravitational field strength on sports? I’d be willing to bet that rocketry and artillery takes account of 50mm/s2 difference at the equator. While the difference is obviously tiny, the margins in modern sports are also miniscule. Do Fijian rugby games see a 0.5% increase in longest drop goal distance?
- red369 7mo agoI have no idea about the 0.5% increase in drop goal distance, but tongue-in-cheek, I would say only 0.5% as many attempted drop goals - given the Fijian team's emphasis on a ball-in-hand style of play instead of kicking the ball away. On a slightly related note, I always found the games played in Pretoria in South Africa fascinating. It's 1350 m above sea level, so kicks all go 10% to 15% further (my estimate) which makes quite a difference when there are players kicking penalties from over halfway even at sea level.
- kitd 7mo agoI've often thought world leaders, upon election/selection, should get a free few orbits of the earth, to give them some perspective on the job they're about to undertake. Maybe offer the first one on Artemis II, a deferred one for the current US administration?
- kakacik 7mo agoDo you think sociopaths like current 'leader' would change significantly upon such experience? I unfortunately don't share such optimism.
- bayindirh 7mo agoYou don't have to be an optimist. You have to try. Trying and seeing what happens is also science, after all.
- discreteevent 7mo agoScientists don't try everything. First they run it through expert critical review. This candidate wouldn't make it past the theory stage.
- InsideOutSanta 7mo agoI mean, we can probably predict what will happen based on existing data. "I've seen things up there that are huge, absolutely huge. And let me tell you, astronauts, they came up to me, they were crying, big men crying. Earth, it's a good name, but it's not big enough, not grand enough. So, I'm thinking we rename it. How about 'The Trump Sphere'? It's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it? And let me tell you, nobody would argue with that name!"
- sheiyei 7mo agoThe point with the last bit was that they should be put in an unsafe craft.
- bregma 7mo ago"Houston, this is Golden One. I'm looking down on the big, beautiful, blue world. They love me down there. They all love me. I'm the greatest astronaut ever in the history of mankind. No one has ever orbited like this before." Yeah, you may be right.
- cultofmetatron 7mo agoHard disagree. some of our best technologies came about to solve problems related to space travel which we later found useful for mundane problems at home. gps, digital cameras immediately come to mind. The only other phenomena I can think of with similar effects on human progress is war... I'll take a space race thanks
- eru 7mo agoHave you heard of opportunity costs? About war: in our universe we got the first digital computers because of military efforts during the second world war. However, without a war IBM and Konrad Zuse and others would have gotten there, too. With much less human suffering.
- necovek 7mo agoI believe you are making the same argument: the GP prefers space race over war for large technological development at less or no human suffering.
- tikhonj 7mo agoBased on some rough numbers, NASA's budget (around $24B) would be <4% of the US's total spending on entertainment, with a pretty great return in research, engineering and education to boot. I also looked up the NSF's 2024 budget, which, at $9B, was much lower than I expected.
- eru 7mo agoNASA does both manned and unmanned stuff. Don't conflate those when you are looking at returns. Look at this joke of a list https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/20-breakthroughs-from-20-years-of-science-aboard-the-international-space-station/ https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/20-breakthroughs-from-... for an illustration. And those were the 20 best things they could come up with.
- goodcanadian 7mo agoThere are actually a lot of really interesting discoveries on that list. I haven't thought deeply about whether it represents value for money, but I would say that that is anything but "a joke of a list."
- eru 7mo agoAnd 'Stimulating the low-Earth orbit economy' is a joke. Spending money not as a means to an end, but as the end in itself? Apart from the research into the effects of microgravity on humans, pretty much everything else could have been done cheaper and better without humans. Or take this example: > Deployment of CubeSats from station: CubeSats are one of the smallest types of satellites and provide a cheaper way to perform science and technology demonstrations in space. More than 250 CubeSats have now been deployed from the space station, jumpstarting research and satellite companies. Cubesats are great! But you don't exactly need a manned space station to deploy them. Similar with many other 'achievements' like the 'Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer'. See also how they don't mention any actual impact. Only stuff like "This achievement may provide insight into fundamental laws of quantum mechanics." And this is supposed to be the list of highlights. The best they have to offer.
- anon291 7mo agoNo no no. Space will be colonized. At least our local solar system will see sustained human exploration and inhabitation. This requires physical presence. This is one of those black swans which seem silly when looking forward, but obvious in retrospective. The future belongs to those who do seemingly silly things today. The first industrialists often faced ridicule because they spent time designing machines instead of doing the task and making the immediate money. Set aside your need for immediate gratification. Hard things lead to good outcomes.