New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto • Hacker News Board

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#21

Post by snowwrestler » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:52 PM UTC

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.

Can someone express pride in their country without being jingoistic? I think so. Jingoism usually connotes aggressive foreign policy, militarism, and extreme bias on top of pride in nation.

I don't see the bias here--New Horizons is legitimately a project to be proud of.

On the other hand, it's arguably pretty aggressive to accelerate a machine to over 13 km/s and send it inside the orbit of a planet's closest satellite.

On the gripping hand, Pluto's government hasn't complained, so why should you?

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#22

Post by aaron-lebo » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:56 PM UTC

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'd guess most of the posters here hate jingoism. I'd also venture to say that most of us find the typical USA chant really boorish.

But if this (exploring space) is the result of jingoism? Give us more of it. Seems like a really minor thing to get worked up about.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#23

Post by namuol » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:56 PM UTC

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.

When the public (read: the political body) needs to be convinced that this kind of exploration and research is worth the money, then a little nationalism is bound to creep in.

It's brown-nosing, at worst.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#24

Post by 7952 » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 12:57 PM UTC

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.

These kind of missions need public support top hopefully maintain funding, and a little patriotism could help that along. If flag waving helps planetry science then I am happy to play along.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#25

Post by xyclos » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 1:02 PM UTC

lmm wrote: post #15

> Nix is estimated to be about 35km across, and Hydra about 45km in diameter. Kerberos and Hydra are a lot smaller Is one of those Hydras supposed to be something else?

Probably. Styx is the other one.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#26

Post by burkek » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 1:03 PM UTC

This is incredible. Note that this is also a true representation of Pluto's colours by merging a high resolution greyscale picture taken by the #1 camera "Lorri" and a second (lower resolution) colour picture from the #2 camera "Ralph".

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#27

Post by mseebach » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 1:05 PM UTC

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.

Welcome to the Internet. Where even the greatest scientific achievements are eclipsed by the politically incorrect slights of those responsible. (See also: The Rosetta-shirt).

Also, jingoism: "the feelings and beliefs of people who think that their country is always right and who are in favor of aggressive acts against other countries".

Get. Over. Yourself.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#28

Post by happyscrappy » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 1:05 PM UTC

pavlov wrote: post #19

whatshisface wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Europ…

Europeans should be appalled by their governance not some Americans celebrating a space mission.

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#29

Post by Zirro » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 1:05 PM UTC

happyscrappy wrote: post #20

nothrabannosir wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why, out of all parts of the world, do you bring up Europe specifically?

Re: New Horizons: Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

#30

Post by acheron » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 1:06 PM UTC

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.

Your xenophobia is unwelcome here.