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That's amazing. The photo of Charon might be the most straight-up gorgeous of the lot so far: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/charon-s-surprising-youthful-

by chasing 11y ago

That's amazing. The photo of Charon might be the most straight-up gorgeous of the lot so far: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/charon-s-surprising-youthful-and-varied-terrain https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/charon-s-surprising-youth... At least to my eye. It's just such a classic shot of a world. Anyway: USA! USA! (I kid!) Go humanity!

jgrahamc 11y ago
USA! USA! I've seem comments on here that it's not OK to say that, but if you are a US citizen then I think you damn well should be proud of this and I'll applaud anyone who makes space work. It's frikkin' hard. When I see a Soyuz launch I think "Go, Russia" and I felt similar things when India, China or Japan launch rockets. Just today Ariane put a satellite in space. Go, Europe! Hell, as a Brit I'm proud of Prospero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero_(satellite)
- jsmthrowaway 11y ago
  > I've seem comments on here that it's not OK to say that, Oh man. My kingdom for this thread not starting again.
- noonespecial 11y ago
  Absolutely. We're proud of our football teams, why not be proud of our space teams? I only wish we could stir the general public to equal levels of excitement for space as we can for sport.
  - stefantalpalaru 11y ago
    > We're proud of our football teams, why not be proud of our space teams? Because at some point we realized that we can only be proud of our own achievements.
    - sdoering 11y ago
      Sadly most people never realize that and so they root for nations, sport teams and so on as a supplement. Mostly to identify with and also (in this process) to put others down. We (or most of us) need an identity and most of us never develop one for ourselves, that does not need an outside entity to feel strong/good/important/validated enough.
- arrrg 11y ago
  Nations should die and not exist. Shouting nations names with pride is shameful and dumb. Nationalism kills. It’s an awful, toxic ideology. Death to all nations. May no nations exist in the future. (If you get to spew your ideological bullshit I get to spew my own deeply held and utterly impractical ideological bullshit believes. No, seriously, I want nations to not exist eventually. I think the world would be vastly better without them.)
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - noarchy 11y ago
    I'm curious if, as an alternative, you'd rather see decentralization (smaller population units), some kind of global superstate, or something else entirely? We've all seen the poisons of nationalism, but I wonder if what one might call "tribalist" tendencies are so easy to vanquish - assuming one even wants to.
- IndianAstronaut 11y ago
  Better than shouting would be to actually push legislators to fund space programs better. Most of these programs are run on less than 1% of overall government budgets.
  - awolf 11y ago
    Or.. Both?
  - simonh 11y ago
    Because realy, it is an exclusive either-or choice between shouting or pushing for better funding?
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Shouting seems like a good way to do that. Political machine in western countries is focused on pandering to the public, so if public (shows that it) wants space, space they'll get.
- Confusion 11y ago
  Minor correction: Ariane -> ESA (European Space Agency). Ariane is the name of the rocket (and 'Arianespace' the name of the company that does the actual launching for ESA, but that's just part of ESA with a different name). BTW, I saw they have a Soyuz manual on their website: http://www.arianespace.com/launch-services-soyuz/Soyuz-Users-Manual-March-2012.pdf http://www.arianespace.com/launch-services-soyuz/Soyuz-Users... [pdf]
throwaway999666 11y ago
> Anyway: USA! USA! (I kid!) Go humanity! Well it was a grand old dick-waving contest in the 60s. Why not now as well.
- douche 11y ago
  But think of how it drove progress! Seriously, would we have expended even a tenth of as much energy into building the rocket technology to go to space, without the nationalistic prestige race in the 60s? Or the idea that we could use them to lob nuclear holocaust at each other if shit hit the fan?
  - meatysnapper 11y ago
    I'll take Nationalism + Badass space exploration over Kim Kardashian + Autotune any day of the millennium. I just wish we'd have dropped a US flag onto Pluto. Nothing like envy to make someone else achieve something great!
    - hackuser 11y ago
      > I'll take Nationalism + Badass space exploration over Kim Kardashian + Autotune any day Kim doesn't have a long track record of leading to war and genocide. Nor do autotune and badass space exploration (yet).
      - TeMPOraL 11y ago
        Maybe humanity needs to live under a threat of annihilation in order to get its collective shit together? It's a thought that comes to my mind every time I open a news site.
        throwaway999666 11y ago
        Not visiting websites that you don't like has the effect of making you less cynical IME.
    - 11y ago

by chasing 11y ago

jgrahamc 11y ago

USA! USA! I've seem comments on here that it's not OK to say that, but if you are a US citizen then I think you damn well should be proud of this and I'll applaud anyone who makes space work. It's frikkin' hard. When I see a Soyuz launch I think "Go, Russia" and I felt similar things when India, China or Japan launch rockets. Just today Ariane put a satellite in space. Go, Europe! Hell, as a Brit I'm proud of Prospero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero_(satellite)

jsmthrowaway 11y ago
> I've seem comments on here that it's not OK to say that, Oh man. My kingdom for this thread not starting again.
noonespecial 11y ago
Absolutely. We're proud of our football teams, why not be proud of our space teams? I only wish we could stir the general public to equal levels of excitement for space as we can for sport.
- stefantalpalaru 11y ago
  > We're proud of our football teams, why not be proud of our space teams? Because at some point we realized that we can only be proud of our own achievements.
  - sdoering 11y ago
    Sadly most people never realize that and so they root for nations, sport teams and so on as a supplement. Mostly to identify with and also (in this process) to put others down. We (or most of us) need an identity and most of us never develop one for ourselves, that does not need an outside entity to feel strong/good/important/validated enough.
arrrg 11y ago
Nations should die and not exist. Shouting nations names with pride is shameful and dumb. Nationalism kills. It’s an awful, toxic ideology. Death to all nations. May no nations exist in the future. (If you get to spew your ideological bullshit I get to spew my own deeply held and utterly impractical ideological bullshit believes. No, seriously, I want nations to not exist eventually. I think the world would be vastly better without them.)
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- noarchy 11y ago
  I'm curious if, as an alternative, you'd rather see decentralization (smaller population units), some kind of global superstate, or something else entirely? We've all seen the poisons of nationalism, but I wonder if what one might call "tribalist" tendencies are so easy to vanquish - assuming one even wants to.
IndianAstronaut 11y ago
Better than shouting would be to actually push legislators to fund space programs better. Most of these programs are run on less than 1% of overall government budgets.
- awolf 11y ago
  Or.. Both?
- simonh 11y ago
  Because realy, it is an exclusive either-or choice between shouting or pushing for better funding?
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Shouting seems like a good way to do that. Political machine in western countries is focused on pandering to the public, so if public (shows that it) wants space, space they'll get.
Confusion 11y ago
Minor correction: Ariane -> ESA (European Space Agency). Ariane is the name of the rocket (and 'Arianespace' the name of the company that does the actual launching for ESA, but that's just part of ESA with a different name). BTW, I saw they have a Soyuz manual on their website: http://www.arianespace.com/launch-services-soyuz/Soyuz-Users-Manual-March-2012.pdf http://www.arianespace.com/launch-services-soyuz/Soyuz-Users... [pdf]

throwaway999666 11y ago

> Anyway: USA! USA! (I kid!) Go humanity! Well it was a grand old dick-waving contest in the 60s. Why not now as well.

douche 11y ago
But think of how it drove progress! Seriously, would we have expended even a tenth of as much energy into building the rocket technology to go to space, without the nationalistic prestige race in the 60s? Or the idea that we could use them to lob nuclear holocaust at each other if shit hit the fan?
- meatysnapper 11y ago
  I'll take Nationalism + Badass space exploration over Kim Kardashian + Autotune any day of the millennium. I just wish we'd have dropped a US flag onto Pluto. Nothing like envy to make someone else achieve something great!
  - hackuser 11y ago
    > I'll take Nationalism + Badass space exploration over Kim Kardashian + Autotune any day Kim doesn't have a long track record of leading to war and genocide. Nor do autotune and badass space exploration (yet).
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      Maybe humanity needs to live under a threat of annihilation in order to get its collective shit together? It's a thought that comes to my mind every time I open a news site.
      - throwaway999666 11y ago
        Not visiting websites that you don't like has the effect of making you less cynical IME.
  - 11y ago