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Philae has landed

bbc.com

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Re: Philae has landed

#211

Post by TomGullen »

innguest wrote: post #153
cmc31 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(stolen money should not be spent in more or less important things, it should be returned to their rightful owner so they can choose what to do with what they've earned) Just to be clear.. Your issue is not that money from taxes is spent on scientific research and space exploration, but really that you have to pay taxes?

My issue is, whoever wants to accomplish something that takes a lot of money to make happen, should do like ARKYD and make a kickstarter or any other peaceful alternative, that allows for every individual to choose whether they'd like to participate. My issue is that running to the government, just because it already has guns in place pointing to every individual's head in case they don't pay, and saying "we'll steal…

Serious question, why don't you move to a country that has a tax system that you agree more with? No one is stopping you, it would be a free market victory.

I do actually think you have a bit of a point. It would probably be more ethical to spend the space exploration money in other areas. However, there is much lower hanging fruit for things to cut out before we reach space exploration (warmongering and defence budgets for example)

Re: Philae has landed

#213

Post by lmm »

tedks wrote: post #123
rybosome wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nations have a long history of funding exploratory ventures. It is generally understood that the process is useful for a variety of reasons: it creates jobs, there is a small chance that something practical could be discovered, and most importantly it satisfies a basic human need to know more. With this mission in particular, we may be able to answer some very fundamental questions about the arrival of organic compou…

Hijacking the top comment in this subthread to make a meta-complaint: The comment-parents viewpoint is perfectly valid, but has been censored because of disagreement within the broader HN community. For all the talk about "free speech" that HN does when the topic is, say, not objectifying women, or making racial minorities feel included in tech, it certainly seems to perform an about-face when confronted with... obje…

1. Space scientists are in many ways the pinnacle of our civilization. Of course we place a high value on them. 2. Because it's not a positive contribution to the discussion.

Re: Philae has landed

#214

Post by TomGullen »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #198

ITT downvoting to invisibility because you disagree with someone honestly held and cogently expressed opinions. Silencing diverse opinions is quite possibly the worst facet of HN.

Libertarian world philosophy is totally bunk (if that's what you were referring to). I down vote most of that because it's generally ridiculous.

Re: Philae has landed

#215

Post by joeevans1000 »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #12

Amazing job! This might be a silly question but are their any ideas as to the actual real world benefits we could see from this? The director-general of the ESA said "This is a big step for human civilisation" so I presume there is some idea of what they expect to gain from this mission? Edit: Thanks for all the replies! I'm at work now but will take a look at them this evening.

Survival of our species.

Re: Philae has landed

#216

Post by prawn »

jafaku wrote: post #195
ajuc wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roseta mission is 1 400 000 000 euro. London summer olympics costed almost 10 000 000 000 euro. Consider the benefits. Landing on comets and knowing what materials are there (and how to detect that from distance) will eventually let humanity explore solar system. In next 10000 years it's almost sure there will be at least one global cataclysm (huge asteroid impact, ice age, global warming, methane-producing bacteria…

How can one care about what will happen within the next 10,000 years?

How can you not?

We are not talking about throwing away everything to insure ourselves against future catastrophe, we're putting a small portion towards a bit of futureproofing. Seems smart to me.

Re: Philae has landed

#217

Post by kaeluka »

kartikkumar wrote: post #53

Absolutely stunning feat of engineering. My bosses are on the drill team for Philae and were amongst the nervy faces being beamed all over the world. Great example of what European nations can do when politics don't get in the way. ExoMars [1] and Bepi-Colombo [2] are perfect examples of the inverse. Look forward to the first pictures from the surface. I'm at the Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting [3] in Tu…

I have been following this mission for months now. I was completely obsessed. Didn't get much work done today, that's how excited I was. That must be how groupies feel like :)

Amazing landing, whether or not the screws are in: hitting the comet is already amazing!

Re: Philae has landed

#218

Post by acqq »

nathan_long wrote: post #206
bane wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, stunning stunning bit of science and engineering. Everybody involved in this should be beaming with joy. Once again the light of reason continues to chase away humanity's ancestral boogiemen.

> Once again the light of reason continues to chase away humanity's ancestral boogiemen. Boogiemen like the belief that humans are more than collections of atoms and random emergent behaviors? Because if those are your boogiemen, there's no particular reason to rejoice in reason, or anything else for that matter - it's all ashes in the end, and nobody will be left to care, whether we colonize Andromeda or blow oursel…

"Ancestral boogiemen" - see: religions. You know, those that teach that some deity actually exists "on heavens" and from time to time actively selects some groups of humans to give them some "truths" in order to make them fight with some other groups of humans (which that group will call "unbelievers" and vice versa). Some people try not to use that "religion" word in a fear to be named "intolerant" even if they don't name particular deity, naming which some particular religious group can be offended this or any time.

Re: Philae has landed

#219

Post by diyorgasms »

eastbayjake wrote: post #134
ISL wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point is not unfounded, and it's our duty as research scientists to justify the value you receive for your money. There's a famous example where a US Senator asked a similar question of a research physicist prior to the establishment of Fermilab, specifically tailored toward defense application [1]. SENATOR PASTORE. Is there anything here that projects us in a position of being competitive with the Russians, wit…

Fun Fact: Sen. Pastore was the grumpy committee chairman when Mr. Rogers gave that famous speech about the value of public television for children. I don't know if Dr. Wilson swayed Pastore to support more funding, but after listening to Mr. Rogers for six minutes Pastore switched from wanting to cut PBS funding in half to cheerleading for increased funding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

That was amazing to watch. Thank you for sharing. It was really something to see Senator Pastore, who began the session as an adversary to Mr. Rogers, come around slowly to Mr. Rogers' way of thinking in just under seven short minutes.

Re: Philae has landed

#220

Post by Luc »

nathan_long wrote: post #206
bane wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, stunning stunning bit of science and engineering. Everybody involved in this should be beaming with joy. Once again the light of reason continues to chase away humanity's ancestral boogiemen.

> Once again the light of reason continues to chase away humanity's ancestral boogiemen. Boogiemen like the belief that humans are more than collections of atoms and random emergent behaviors? Because if those are your boogiemen, there's no particular reason to rejoice in reason, or anything else for that matter - it's all ashes in the end, and nobody will be left to care, whether we colonize Andromeda or blow oursel…

> humanity's ancestral boogiemen.

Comets used to have a bit of a bad reputation, as harbingers of doom. I think there's one in the bible, one appeared before the Great Plague of London, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London

"During the winter of 1664, a bright comet was to be seen in the sky[7] and the people of London were fearful, wondering what evil event it portended."

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