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New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

bbc.co.uk

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Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#11

Post by bullsbarry »

sabertoothed wrote: post #8
smackay wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This necessitated aiming New Horizons at a "keyhole" in space just 100km by 150km (60miles by 90 miles), and arriving at that location within a set margin of 100 seconds." That's pretty damned impressive by any standard you care to mention so go ahead, "U-S-A" yourselves a few more times. I think it was earned.

You do not seem to have understood his / her remark. He / she was not trying to diminish the remarkable achievement nor questioning the celebration of this success. But the jingoistic way it was celebrated. EDIT: Why do I get downvoted? I was merely explaining OP's point of view.

Yes. We must make sure to reserve such celebrations for truly important things. Like the World Cup and Olympics.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#12

Post by struct »

I remember reading about Pluto in dozens of space books when I was a child, all filled with beautiful images sent from Voyager I and II, I'm so excited that we can finally add Pluto to that roster

Also, it's so incredible that the New Horizon's team has managed to get to something so small and far away!

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#13

Post by pi-rat »

dingaling wrote: post #4

That flag-waving and chanting of U-S-A U-S-A at the point of closest approach was one of the most appalling, jingoistic, alienating spectacles I've ever seen. You'd think they had just planted the flag in the soil ( ice? ) and claimed Pluto for God and America. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Space Race is over. Grow up. You're doing this for all humanity.

I agree, though I get that they're very proud. I think it's a major achievement for humanity.

Humanity has now sent probes to every of our original 9 planets (poor pluto..), we've sent probes into interstellar space. We've landed on comets. We've a permanent international presence in orbit onboard ISS. We're talking manned missions to Mars. We're commercialising space flight.

At this point it's about humanity, not countries.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#14

Post by adventured »

sabertoothed wrote: post #8
smackay wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This necessitated aiming New Horizons at a "keyhole" in space just 100km by 150km (60miles by 90 miles), and arriving at that location within a set margin of 100 seconds." That's pretty damned impressive by any standard you care to mention so go ahead, "U-S-A" yourselves a few more times. I think it was earned.

You do not seem to have understood his / her remark. He / she was not trying to diminish the remarkable achievement nor questioning the celebration of this success. But the jingoistic way it was celebrated. EDIT: Why do I get downvoted? I was merely explaining OP's point of view.

Because every other country on earth isn't known to take deep pride in their culture and national accomplishments.

What's the disagreement exactly? That they cheered for their country? It's ok at a FIFA match, but not for something drastically more important? Subjective bias at its worse. When I see that attitude about something like this from non-Americans, it reeks of other countries feeling intimidated and jealous because they're not even on the same playing field with the US when it comes to space. It's nothing more than ugly envy.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#16

Post by smackfu »

adventured wrote: post #3

A larger image was just posted to the New Horizons Twitter account. Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJ32XAEVAAAp_8T.png:large Tweet: https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons/status/62092320062141235...

I bet the scientists just hate that this stuff is shared on Twitter. They made a big deal that this was transmitted from New Horizons as a compressed image (to transmit it quickly) and then it gets mauled by Twitter's recompression too.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#17

Post by nothrabannosir »

bullsbarry wrote: post #11
sabertoothed wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not seem to have understood his / her remark. He / she was not trying to diminish the remarkable achievement nor questioning the celebration of this success. But the jingoistic way it was celebrated. EDIT: Why do I get downvoted? I was merely explaining OP's point of view.

Yes. We must make sure to reserve such celebrations for truly important things. Like the World Cup and Olympics.

Assuming you're being sarcastic; those are actual competitions between nations, by design. His entire point was that this is not a competition. Obviously, if it were, America would be winning. That's not being contested; the problem is not that the US won, the problem is that by continuing to beat the rest of the world over the head with it they are alienating a large chunk of the world.

The Art Of War, and all that.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#18

Post by whatshisface »

dingaling wrote: post #4

That flag-waving and chanting of U-S-A U-S-A at the point of closest approach was one of the most appalling, jingoistic, alienating spectacles I've ever seen. You'd think they had just planted the flag in the soil ( ice? ) and claimed Pluto for God and America. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Space Race is over. Grow up. You're doing this for all humanity.

It's true that all of humanity will benefit, but it's also true that a very specific subset of humanity payed for it.

Look at it from a purely practical perspective - it is absolutely unnecessary for anyone outside of America to like this program!

The American voting public took on all of the downsides of this program (the expense, mainly). They hold complete control over its existence, and the existence of many missions like it. Patriotism motivates people, and until we start frequently sending international space probes it seems pretty useful to me.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#19

Post by pavlov »

whatshisface wrote: post #18
dingaling wrote: post #4

That flag-waving and chanting of U-S-A U-S-A at the point of closest approach was one of the most appalling, jingoistic, alienating spectacles I've ever seen. You'd think they had just planted the flag in the soil ( ice? ) and claimed Pluto for God and America. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Space Race is over. Grow up. You're doing this for all humanity.

It's true that all of humanity will benefit, but it's also true that a very specific subset of humanity payed for it. Look at it from a purely practical perspective - it is absolutely unnecessary for anyone outside of America to like this program! The American voting public took on all of the downsides of this program (the expense, mainly). They hold complete control over its existence, and the existence of many miss…

Rosetta/Philae was a European achievement paid by the EU public, yet that barely gets mentioned. It's really a shame that the endless churn of downbeat economic news has overshadowed everything good that European countries are able to do together...

Maybe Europe would benefit from having a bit more American-style "rah-rah" patriotism around the good old "12 stars on deep blue" EU flag.

Nowadays it seems that we European citizens are constantly looking for reasons to argue rather than reasons to stick together, and that's a huge change from the positive European atmosphere of the '90s.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#20

Post by happyscrappy »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #17
bullsbarry wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. We must make sure to reserve such celebrations for truly important things. Like the World Cup and Olympics.

Assuming you're being sarcastic; those are actual competitions between nations, by design. His entire point was that this is not a competition. Obviously, if it were, America would be winning. That's not being contested; the problem is not that the US won, the problem is that by continuing to beat the rest of the world over the head with it they are alienating a large chunk of the world. The Art Of War, and all that.

Are Europeans so hypersensitive that the we should ban celebrations at NASA?
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