6 ms·

Some people will always see the glass half empty. They are no fun to be around.

melling 11y ago
Half empty? We put a drop of water in the glass! :-) Don't worry someone is working on making space flight cheap. In 20 years, the drone craze will go interplanetary. Gonna fund my Kickstarter?
- happyscrappy 11y ago
  It takes a certain personality flaw to belittle such an engineering accomplishment.
  - CamperBob2 11y ago
    Either he's editing his posts, or people are going a little nuts with the downvote button. He's not belittling anything, just expressing the same impatience that many of us feel when we regard how little progress has been made in space exploration during our lifetime.
    - melling 11y ago
      No editing. At least one person got it. Cost me a lot of karma. If you're 20 something, everything seems great. Guess we're not getting NASA's budget doubled.
      - CamperBob2 11y ago
        (shrug) Moderation abuse is a fact of life on HN, so we might as well own it. I've got more hacker karma than the Dalai Fuckin' Lama, so I'll try to distract some of the assholes for you.
      - Roboprog 11y ago
        Too bad "NERVA" never was developed for unmanned missions like this. Forget the little thermocouple can for electricity - give me an ENGINE, "Heinlein" style! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA
      - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
        I was in my teens when Voyager was a thing, and I am really impressed with the volume, variety, and quality of the modern space probe fleet. (Of course I want more, like Uranus and Neptune orbiters, but between Pluto and comets and asteroids and all those things on and around Mars, 2015 is a really incredible time for space)
        CamperBob2 11y ago
        I think the really unfortunate aspect of the question is highlighted by the proverbial "problems here on Earth." Namely, there are still only three DSN sites, and mission planners are said to have to fight with each other for receiver time. The fact that planetary science still has to contend with Voyager-era terrestrial resources is a crying shame.
    - Roboprog 11y ago
      Thanks for the turn-of-phrase, below, that made my day :-)
  - melling 11y ago
    No, it takes a certain personality to want great engineering accomplishments to be routine. Because if they're not, we'll probably be trapped on this rock for several more centuries. [UPDATE to answer without burning karma] Someone says "We live in some exciting times." and I try to explain how exciting it could be. Unless we actually have the "glass is only half full" discussion there's little chance of improving the situation. We have this political correctness problem where you need to always be positive.
    - mburns 11y ago
      Everyone wants more great engineering to happen. You're not a snowflake in that regard. You're complaining because you can imagine it happening faster than it is, which is unhelpful and unpleasant. Thus, downvotes.
      - CamperBob2 11y ago
        Everyone wants more great engineering to happen. No, they do not. Otherwise we'd have three dozen New Horizons-class spacecraft flying throughout the solar system and Kuiper Belt by now. Right now, there's a sizable contingent of people who are looking at the Pluto imagery and muttering to themselves, "So what? How does this affect the Kardashians?" Some of those people -- not all of them, but enough of them -- vote. All of this self-congratulatory stroking on our part just empowers them.
        mburns 11y ago
        I should have said "(nearly) everyone reading on Hacker News wants..." He's complaining to the choir (of sorts) while disparaging the very real progress we are making because it isn't as good as it could have possibly been if reality were different.
        baudehlo 11y ago
        Absolutely true. When a co-worker saw the picture I posted on hipchat of Charon, he said "so what, looks just like our moon." Thankfully he was chewed out by another science fan in the channel, but a sad number of people care less about this achievement than about the latest sports team win.
- istorical 11y ago
  There's some real haters who are downvoting your realism. Sorry about that, I think you are simply being truthful.

Half empty? We put a drop of water in the glass! :-) Don't worry someone is working on making space flight cheap. In 20 years, the drone craze will go interplanetary. Gonna fund my Kickstarter?

happyscrappy 11y ago
It takes a certain personality flaw to belittle such an engineering accomplishment.
- CamperBob2 11y ago
  Either he's editing his posts, or people are going a little nuts with the downvote button. He's not belittling anything, just expressing the same impatience that many of us feel when we regard how little progress has been made in space exploration during our lifetime.
  - melling 11y ago
    No editing. At least one person got it. Cost me a lot of karma. If you're 20 something, everything seems great. Guess we're not getting NASA's budget doubled.
    - CamperBob2 11y ago
      (shrug) Moderation abuse is a fact of life on HN, so we might as well own it. I've got more hacker karma than the Dalai Fuckin' Lama, so I'll try to distract some of the assholes for you.
    - Roboprog 11y ago
      Too bad "NERVA" never was developed for unmanned missions like this. Forget the little thermocouple can for electricity - give me an ENGINE, "Heinlein" style! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA
    - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
      I was in my teens when Voyager was a thing, and I am really impressed with the volume, variety, and quality of the modern space probe fleet. (Of course I want more, like Uranus and Neptune orbiters, but between Pluto and comets and asteroids and all those things on and around Mars, 2015 is a really incredible time for space)
      - CamperBob2 11y ago
        I think the really unfortunate aspect of the question is highlighted by the proverbial "problems here on Earth." Namely, there are still only three DSN sites, and mission planners are said to have to fight with each other for receiver time. The fact that planetary science still has to contend with Voyager-era terrestrial resources is a crying shame.
  - Roboprog 11y ago
    Thanks for the turn-of-phrase, below, that made my day :-)
- melling 11y ago
  No, it takes a certain personality to want great engineering accomplishments to be routine. Because if they're not, we'll probably be trapped on this rock for several more centuries. [UPDATE to answer without burning karma] Someone says "We live in some exciting times." and I try to explain how exciting it could be. Unless we actually have the "glass is only half full" discussion there's little chance of improving the situation. We have this political correctness problem where you need to always be positive.
  - mburns 11y ago
    Everyone wants more great engineering to happen. You're not a snowflake in that regard. You're complaining because you can imagine it happening faster than it is, which is unhelpful and unpleasant. Thus, downvotes.
    - CamperBob2 11y ago
      Everyone wants more great engineering to happen. No, they do not. Otherwise we'd have three dozen New Horizons-class spacecraft flying throughout the solar system and Kuiper Belt by now. Right now, there's a sizable contingent of people who are looking at the Pluto imagery and muttering to themselves, "So what? How does this affect the Kardashians?" Some of those people -- not all of them, but enough of them -- vote. All of this self-congratulatory stroking on our part just empowers them.
      - mburns 11y ago
        I should have said "(nearly) everyone reading on Hacker News wants..." He's complaining to the choir (of sorts) while disparaging the very real progress we are making because it isn't as good as it could have possibly been if reality were different.
      - baudehlo 11y ago
        Absolutely true. When a co-worker saw the picture I posted on hipchat of Charon, he said "so what, looks just like our moon." Thankfully he was chewed out by another science fan in the channel, but a sad number of people care less about this achievement than about the latest sports team win.
istorical 11y ago
There's some real haters who are downvoting your realism. Sorry about that, I think you are simply being truthful.