Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

821–830 of 1001 posts

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#821

Post by mlrtime »

nicoburns wrote: post #805
Waterluvian wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: 1. I think the America of Theseus mindset is a bit troubling. A lot of people like to identify with achievements that they played no role in. Based on zero expertise whatsoever, I have a sense that this is a bit self defeating. To be born a winner, to be taught you’re a winner… how can that be healthy? Today’s America scores zero points for its accomplishments of the past. But I think one way it can be a good thi…

> To be born a winner, to be taught you’re a winner… how can that be healthy? The entire mindset of separating the world into "winners" and "losers" in the first place seems unhealthy to me.

On a specific topic where the entire point is a race? The point of a race is to win.

Have you worked for a company where they never win at anything? Been in meetings where people want to hear about 'wins'?

Maybe you don't, but I do. I like to work for a winning team.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#822

Post by m_fayer »

oytis wrote: post #308
bahmboo wrote: post #227

"The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term" - Sean Duffy NASA administrator. A scary way to set a schedule on a complex project with lives at stake. They don't care though.

America is becoming a silly place. Lumberjack appointed as a head of NASA for his loyalty.

Maybe they’ll send Taylor Swift to the moon.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#823

Post by mlrtime »

safety1st wrote: post #777
Waterluvian wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: 1. I think the America of Theseus mindset is a bit troubling. A lot of people like to identify with achievements that they played no role in. Based on zero expertise whatsoever, I have a sense that this is a bit self defeating. To be born a winner, to be taught you’re a winner… how can that be healthy? Today’s America scores zero points for its accomplishments of the past. But I think one way it can be a good thi…

This gets back to why there is a "we need to start making things in America again" sentiment. We made a national policy decision and underwent an economic transformation based on financialization and globalization. Kept the design and services aspects of our greatest companies in the US but the nuts and bolts of manufacturing and assembly went overseas, relying on patents and IP law to control production from afar. T…

100% Agree and it would never happen if not for some major changes. People want their cheap stuff made somewhere else.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#824

Post by bregma »

cratermoon wrote: post #704
Yeul wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also ignores the fact that empires can decline. (Although I think the moon landing is ridiculous there is no scientific reason for it).

What do you mean "there is no scientific reason for it"?

What they mean is all the spinoffs of getting there do not count. Microelectronics, computers, leaps in materials science, massive advances in medical and health sciences, and techniques and processes for very-large-scale project planning and implementation hardly count as benefits, especially if you don't count them as benefits.

After all, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Not one dollar was spent in space during the first space race.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#825

Post by mlrtime »

konart wrote: post #817
zdragnar wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America cannot possibly win the space race again, because it has already been won. The first to get there has already happened. The idea that we need to land on the moon once a generation just to say that we are as good at landing on the moon as our parents is absurd.

>America cannot possibly win the space race again, because it has already been won. How so? Because you decided that reaching the Moon equals winning? Why not Mars? Same way we can say that USSR won the race because they were the first ones to put man into space and bring him back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy_H2BeE_Nk Neil deGrasse Tyson on topic.

>Why not Mars?

Isn't that what the next goal is, but we're so far away from it now?

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#826

Post by fooker »

asadotzler wrote: post #276
teekert wrote: post #266

Why does this sounds so... Entitled? NASA regresses so far that they are now unable to do anything by themselves... Now suddenly there is a new moon race and they start pointing to a public company that is not sticking to a schedule. A company that does some impressive things, and has helped them out (probably not out of the goodness of their hearts, but hey), and is doing things they could not. I would be an adult a…

Duffy wants to fold NASA into the Department of Transportation and make it a Moon transport focused organization. He cares nothing of science or discovery and if he can show that SpaceX is behind in its transport contract, that helps his argument that NASA should be in the transport business which helps his argument that NASA should be a part of the DOT.

I don't understand the modern US trend of putting unqualified people in charge. It's not just the republicans though, seems like a deeper cultural issue. There has been close to zero scientists in charge of policy in the last several decades.

This sort of thing is why China keeps pulling ahead. While we have this dude figuring out how NASA can be gutted further, China has ~2.5 space agencies, and without Spacex doing our heavylifting, they would have been already ahead. They expect to have something like Falcon 9 pretty soon, which implies a starlink competitor in a matter of years.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#827

Post by konart »

mlrtime wrote: post #825
konart wrote: post #817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>America cannot possibly win the space race again, because it has already been won. How so? Because you decided that reaching the Moon equals winning? Why not Mars? Same way we can say that USSR won the race because they were the first ones to put man into space and bring him back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy_H2BeE_Nk Neil deGrasse Tyson on topic.

>Why not Mars? Isn't that what the next goal is, but we're so far away from it now?

My point is that you can say that there is no race here. Milestones? Maybe. But that's it.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#828

Post by kranke155 »

rayiner wrote: post #587
Waterluvian wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: 1. I think the America of Theseus mindset is a bit troubling. A lot of people like to identify with achievements that they played no role in. Based on zero expertise whatsoever, I have a sense that this is a bit self defeating. To be born a winner, to be taught you’re a winner… how can that be healthy? Today’s America scores zero points for its accomplishments of the past. But I think one way it can be a good thi…

My first job out of law school was at a 176 year old law firm. New lawyers were socialized to identify with the past achievements of the firm, like helping J.P. Morgan build the railroads. There was a good reason for that: it socializes people to adhere to a culture and practices that have proven to be effective. You’re right that, if overdone, it can lead to complacency. But if you treat every generation as a blank…

The first thing Steve Jobs did when he arrived back at Apple is he got rid of the little “Apple museum” they had in the building. A bunch of old machines. I believe he thought Apple shouldn’t live off its past.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#829

Post by dev1ycan »

Starship was the big scam, Elon sold a lot and in the end it became clear over time that really the entire point of Starship was never Mars, or even the Moon... or Space Tourism, a different type of vehicle would have probably been better for that, it's about reducing the cost of launch missions to maximize profit and take out the primary source of income of competing players so they can have a monopoly of space.

Are they ahead of everyone else? yes, sadly, but Starship is a questionable design for a lunar mission, starting with the fact that it'll require an elevator to go up and down... 50 meters down.

And for Mars it's even worse, no real way of refueling and even if there was, it's also hard enough for them to get off Earth imagine winging it from Mars with all the potential hazards such as dust.

Well at least Musk will make good money from space launches, hopefully Starlink is declared illegal for the potential future atmospheric catastrophy the massive launches of LEO satellites might cause.

https://csl.noaa.gov/news/2025/427_0428.html

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#830

Post by f1shy »

kranke155 wrote: post #828
rayiner wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first job out of law school was at a 176 year old law firm. New lawyers were socialized to identify with the past achievements of the firm, like helping J.P. Morgan build the railroads. There was a good reason for that: it socializes people to adhere to a culture and practices that have proven to be effective. You’re right that, if overdone, it can lead to complacency. But if you treat every generation as a blank…

The first thing Steve Jobs did when he arrived back at Apple is he got rid of the little “Apple museum” they had in the building. A bunch of old machines. I believe he thought Apple shouldn’t live off its past.

Do you have a source for that. Would be nice to have that in my list :)
Post reply on HN