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Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

bbc.com

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Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#441

Post by Eisenstein »

remarkEon wrote: post #336
Eisenstein wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Do you think that it is the mission that is misguided, or the methods, in "solving" inequality and poverty? 2. What would you rather the money be spent on?

1. Both. 2. I don't understand the question. What money?

1. Why would eradicating poverty not be something to strive for?

2. The money you mentioned as basis of the comment I replied to. But if you have a cognitive disability which precludes the ability to follow a conversation's thread, I can summarize the previous state at the start of each response.

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#442

Post by throwaway132448 »

fsckboy wrote: post #272
throwaway132448 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Choosing one (deliberately ambiguous) line to label the comment “entirely political” is the kind of thinking that explains why tribalism has been so effective.

"Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division and distraction" is a political statement. It says: "don't talk about the actual issue, instead let's go after the enemies, we know who they are." It doesn't say "let's find them", it assumes we know who they are.

Division and distraction are the actual issue though. And I didn’t say you have to go after anyone, only be mindful of them (see my reply to another comment). I left plenty of room in my words to project your own approach, because I care about the outcome, not how people should achieve it in their own particular world. If in your world that means “politics” you do you.

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#443

Post by stronglikedan »

throwaway132448 wrote: post #216
thegrim33 wrote: post #172

It's pretty depressing that on a corner of the internet that's supposed to be a gathering of tech/geeks/nerds/stem people, discussing topics that "good hackers would find interesting", it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering.

It’s unfortunate, but if you’re blaming the people in the thread for this, I think you’re directing your energy in the wrong direction. Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division and distraction instead. If you want people to appreciate the bigger picture, you can’t keep forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook. The HN that you’re presumably nostalgic for existed in a time when th…

or just don't bring politics to HN. it's not hard

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#444

Post by stronglikedan »

GolfPopper wrote: post #45
nasretdinov wrote: post #9

I like how most people's reactions at this point are "yeah, whatever", as if it's every day that humans observe the far side of the moon with a naked eye through a window :). We do know what it looks like and we have photos from the surface, yes, but seeing the reaction from real people who're actually there does hit different, at least for me

Speaking for myself (who has been fascinated with the space program since I was a small child), any joy I might feel around Artemis II feels tainted, by the immense amount of pork involved (SLS is called "Senate Launch System" for good reason) to the point where Artemis is more corporate welfare that happens to involve the Moon than a real space program, and by my belief that it is intended to be little more than a q…

Dude, we went to the moon again. Who the fuck cares how. If we waited for the no-pork solution, we'd still be planning the first test. I'm over the moon right now!

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#445

Post by stronglikedan »

ryanSrich wrote: post #353
_moof wrote: post #252

I just need to say it's an extremely huge bummer how much cynicism and negativity there is about this mission. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Neither was Apollo. We are all painfully aware of the things that make it imperfect. It's still joyous and exciting. Try to let it be.

The cynicism or even lack of interest is because it's extremely underwhelming. If you ask 100 people in 1969 what humans would be doing in space in 57 years I can guarantee not a single person would guess that we've done nothing of substance. And that the most exciting thing we have done that involved human space travel is simply flying around the moon, people wouldn't believe it

> The cynicism or even lack of interest is because it's extremely underwhelming.

Only to the naive yet vocal minority, fortunately!

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#446

Post by WalterBright »

ericjmorey wrote: post #412
WalterBright wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX did not receive government subsidies. Government contracts, yes, but those are payments for services delivered, not subsidies or handouts.

Those contracts are direct subsidies. They would not exist in the private market. Government spending subsidizes whatever it spends on.

> Those contracts are direct subsidies.

They are not. You are imputing your own meanings into the word "subsidy". If you buy a Coke from a Coke machine, you are not "subsidizing" the machine's vendor.

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#447

Post by WalterBright »

juleiie wrote: post #430
WalterBright wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs rejected his daughter. George Washington declined being crowned king and set the tone for a modest and limited Executive branch. Yet he also owned slaves. Saint Thomas More burned people at the stake. You'll have a hard time finding any faultless people.

It's pretty annoying to be a fan of space in 2026. On the one hand you have NASA, a shadow of its former self. Clearly there is something deeply dysfunctional with it. On the other you have an old drug addict, still functional, thankfully, dead set on antagonizing every possible person alive. (I guess dems will probably shut his space program down after they win? Can he even get on good standing with them at all afte…

Good luck finding a saint. You won't find any.

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#448

Post by guax »

whimsicalism wrote: post #225
guax wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be more depressed if, looking at the current political landscape this corner decided to be entirely alienated or oblivious to the environment in which this massive achievement is made.

do you think the current environment is more or less just than it was during the 1969 moon landing?

I don't think is a fair question because the expectations are wildly different. The 80s and 90s transition gave us expectations of policy, peace and progress that were very different than the 60s.

69 had two things going on for it, the war was not news and on its first signs of being scalled back, Nixon had announced a retraction of force for September (but ended up extending the whole thing to 75) and this would be the first moon landing, there was nothing like it.

From 1969 to today, we're waaaaay better. But from 6 months ago there is clearly an elephant in the room taking a lot of attention.

Re: Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]

#450

Post by esseph »

brightball wrote: post #433
esseph wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's directly responsible for the deaths of several hundred thousand people via DOGE and their abrupt withdrawal and support of food aid. https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund...

Those estimates are highly disputed because they all come from modeled projections, not anything attributed on the ground. If a death toll like that was real and attributable it would be the only thing in the news, 24/7, until the next election. The fact is, it’s not. Aid was relocated to other departments and continued. Significant insider pork was cut leading to a lot of very loud people complaining with hyperbole…

> The fact is, it’s not. Aid was relocated to other departments and continued.

Source?

All the recent data I can find shows a more than 80% decline in global food aid, education, and vaccinations, as of February 2026.

Education aid for 23 million children, 95 million lost access to basic healthcare, and from March 2025 to Feb 2026, an estimated ~3 million preventable deaths caused by this.

Sources: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/issues/making-foreign-a...

https://firstfocus.org/resource/fact-sheet-usaid-cuts-total-...

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/chikungunya/quick-takes-death-tol...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/04/africa-trump...

https://www.rescue.org/article/innovation-vs-cuts-humanitari...

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