this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see a bunch of people saying we should spend our limited money elsewhere. But these missions cost money similar to our Movies for fuck's sake. Spending money on these missions (the money goes to people on the earth, making technical stuff, it doesn't vanish) is better than spending on bread and circus, or even military.

The money amounts are FUCKING TINY. Stop whining so much about a good thing. We are talking about nations, not a single broke household.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah I mean really, if the US can spend 1.8 trillion on pandemic relief, a few billion on space exploration is a drop in a bucket. And we'll probably get better returns on the investment.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crewmates—pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen—were named to the Artemis II crew on April 3.

"Hello, crewmate! What are you doing on this mission?"

"I'm the pilot. You?"

"I'm the Canadian."

[–] LaunchesKayaks 9 points 1 year ago

I would love it if they landed on the moon on the anniversary of the original landing. Then I'd share my bday with both anniversaries of the landings.

[–] Jackcooper 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This makes me so happy

It happened decades before I was born and we haven't bothered to land on a single celestial option since. It's ridiculous. I can't believe no other country even did it since then.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why is it ridiculous? What incentive did they have?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

What incentive did they have?

Being cool.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

News about the moon always gives me a big what-if sense. Like the series "For All Mankind". It is always with a big regret that I think of what could have been. But excitement about what will be in terms of space exploration. Is there any other explanation besides money and public support for why the moon and space stopped being interesting for governments?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's nothing on it we can use. That's the gist of it. If it has resources we could exploit we'd have been making bases up there since day one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are so many asteroids with exotic materials that justify throwing nonsensical amounts of money into furthering space exploration and travel. The problem is being unable to take advantage of those resources in our lifetime. Makes us unwilling to try.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Agreed. You said it well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Sooo... the US is, once again, feeling threatened and is planning to send people to the moon to make itself feel better about it - just like last time.