artifex2d ago

Why don't I care about the Artemis mission/program?

By all rights, this should be something I am deeply passionate about. I’ve been in tech/engineering my entire adult life and was obsessed with NASA as a kid. I even live on the east coast of Florida and can sometimes see the launches/landings over the ocean. But I just… don’t care at all. I’m not suffering from depression or any other malaise, and generally things are fine. But I haven’t clicked on a single link or looked at a single image. I know this has not been the case for many, many people, so I’m wondering what might be different about this launch (or really the whole program in general), and curious if anyone else has found themselves feeling the same.

Show threadOnomatopoeia2d ago

It boils down to this: Going to the moon in the 60’s was political, though a massive technical feat.

Since then we’ve figured out how to send robots to fucking Mars to do the science we want to do, for a fraction of the cost (and none of the risk) of sending humans.

Artemis just isn’t where we should be spending money, never mind the political bullshit surrounding it, and the typical government vendors getting their hands in the cookie jar like they did for Apollo (looking at you, Boeing).

And I say all this as someone fascinated by Apollo, and as excited as anyone else by the prospect of humans on the moon. I just no longer see the cost/benefit of humans vs automation there.

We have remote rovers in the sea and on Mars. For the moon surely we could send all sorts of devices to do science there. It’s faster to reach, we have near real-time comms, it has a greater solar exposure so power is less of a problem. So where are those rovers?

We don’t have them because they would expose the pointlessness of sending humans.

Show threadnull2d ago

Artemis just isn’t where we should be spending money

The warcry of a capitalist. It’s the justification for ending park services, museums, or anything that isn’t specifically generating a porfit.

Show threadOnomatopoeia2d ago
What are you blathering about?
Show threadnull
You are too focused on the dollar amount.
Apr 11 at 3:52amWeb