Mastodawn

Flock of Nazguls 14h ago

I know the discourse about the rest of the context around NASA and the Artemis program - people will trot out the classic old "we should spend the money on the poor" or "we should just send robots" or "it's USA propaganda".

Fact is, crewed space flight is just Cool. I've heard more about Artemis than I have any specific space related thing since some of the first Mars rovers. And I think it's worth doing things like sending humans to space, or remote parts of the Earth, or the ocean, or whatever, even IF a drone could do it. Because humans like seeing humans doing things and being able to sit there and think "I/someone I love could be there doing that thing".

Jess👾15h ago

I'm looking forward to the day where a person who stood on the moon can be on a stage where I can listen to them talk. Maybe get a chance to shake their hand. See an Actual Human Who Went To The Moon.

Jess👾15h ago

Plus, much as I'm sure it pisses Bezos and Elon off, fuck you, NASA can build a big fuck you rocket WITHOUT your companies too.

Jess👾15h ago

Muting this thread because the haters have already found it. Whee.

Fishercat 15h ago

@JessTheUnstill *sigh* Fuck people, sometimes.

Thank you for sharing about a thing that makes you happy.

Ariadne Conill 🐰

@JessTheUnstill yeah instead they hire northrup grumman, wooooooooooo

Emma needs ☕️ and paying work 15h ago

@JessTheUnstill space exploration, healthcare, and housing are cheap, war and billionaires are expensive.

Ariadne Conill 🐰

@JessTheUnstill also humans are experiential creatures, so there is something to the *experience* of going to these places that a drone just can't match

Jess👾15h ago

@ariadne "I was one of a team of people who worked on this robot and got to send a list of commands for it to do on this day and take some pictures and run a rock through the mass spec" just doesn't get the same reaction to "I picked up moon rocks".

@JessTheUnstill yeah... no. reading it again makes your "argument" just worse to be honest.

Jess👾15h ago

ChloChloaca 15h ago

@JessTheUnstill The head of the mission went to the same college as me. That was immediately something exciting to talk to all my friends about.

Not to mention, NASA has been responsible for creating an incredible amount of the actual, real technology we use on earth today. And it was created to solve problems in space travel.

(If you're not familiar, check out For All Mankind. It's an alternate history show that asks "what would have happened if we spent more on space travel?" and it's SO fun.)

@JessTheUnstill lol, but let's not talk about the billions already wasted and lost in buddy's testosterone fueled middle east bender. Nah, let's not learn anything, let's waste it on fireworks and pissing people off. 😑

AstraLuma 14h ago

@JessTheUnstill NASA is one of the few government agencies that produces dreams

Passenger 14h ago

@JessTheUnstill

It's also not that expensive in government terms. Like, $4bn is a lot more money than I will ever have, but let's put it in perspective.

The first week of Trump's attack on Iran cost the American government six times that. The high-speed rail connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles costs that much on average for every 23km of track. The UK government, a state with considerably less population and money, threw away seven times that much on a covid track and trace system that didn't work.

If the US government doesn't have $4bn to spend on poverty or other good causes, it isn't because they spent it all on rockets, it's because they didn't think poverty was worth spending on.

Jess👾14h ago

@passenger Yeah that's the other part of it. There was never an either/or discussion being had. This isn't a family budget when we're down to our last $1000, "do we go on vacation or do we make sure our kid has lunch money?".

baconandcoconut 14h ago

@JessTheUnstill @passenger I wish we did more to teach how different government budgets are when compared to personal budgets or business budgets. You'd stop seeing so much discourse around ROI or people thinking that because their household doesn't use some service, amenity or accommodation that it's a "waste."

The Great Llama

@JessTheUnstill
I absolutely refuse to take budgetary concerns about something like this seriously until rich fucks start paying their share. Money is bullshit, change my mind (don't bother, you can't).

@JessTheUnstill

So you're not in favor of AI?

Humans should do cool stuff, AI can never understand 'cool'?

tranarchy_a_genderqueer

@JessTheUnstill I would go so far as to send some people to the sun. Very special, very deserving people.