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

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

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 480 posts

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

#251

Post by _moof »

dust42 wrote: post #28
nkrisc wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moon is tidally locked with the Earth, which means the same side always faces the Earth. So, for example, when the moon is between the Earth and the sun, the far side (from the perspective of Earth) would be fully illuminated by the sun. The “far side” of the moon refers to the hemisphere that can’t be seen from Earth.

Yes, and right now is full moon, thus the far side is only illuminated by stars.

It isn't full right now. It's a waning gibbous, so the far side is a waxing crescent.

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

#252

Post by _moof »

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.

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

#253

Post by influx »

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…

You know the whole point of the space race was to prove that we could send ICBMs to the USSR right?

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

#254

Post by JumpCrisscross »

dotancohen wrote: post #155
jedberg wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it was arguably the Christian value system which forged the government and institutions that made these achievements possible. Many of the founders were specifically anti-Christian. They were deists, and believed in a higher power, but specifically rejected the idea of a divine intervention of God or Jesus. Christians do not own the idea of being nice to others and trusting others.

I stated that the United States is based on Christian values. Not that the United States is a Christian state. Do you value separation of state and religious authority? Women's rights? Minority rights? Human dignity? Equality before the law? Sanctity of life? Individual moral responsibility? Monogamous marriage? The objective study of history? Fair trial? Witnesses at trial? Tolerance of alternative viewpoints? Those…

> stated that the United States is based on Christian values. Not that the United States is a Christian state

I believe most of the founders expressed disdain at the notion that the United States was built on Christian values. They were privately Christian. But publicly American. They were trying to break the cycle of history that building countries on religious values brings.

Saying we were built on Christian values is arguing for a continuing role for Christian values. Which, in turn, leads to a Christian state. And then we’re back to popes and mullahs in charge, and the SecDef and Speaker of the House giving sermons.

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

#255

Post by verzali »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #198
rantingdemon wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 to 3 years is wildly optimistic. Of the 5 launches last year 3 were failures and it's not even close to be ready for humans yet.

Some people don’t understand the difference between testing and use. You can afford to test when your launches cost 1/100 of SLS launches instead of risking human lives. Artemis II was human rated with zero launches of its life support equipment, modeling failures of its heat shield, multiple power issues in its only predecessor flight in space. Starship will carry humans after hundreds of launches and landings.

I don't believe that to be true. Starship may host humans next year if it can get to a stable orbit and manage to demonstrate sufficient control for docking. It is extremely unlikely to demonstrate any environmental control before that.

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

#256

Post by hackable_sand »

foxglacier wrote: post #181
xoac wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can either hold ourselves back an an endless and futile journey on solving the human condition of poverty and inequality, or we can explore the stars. It's an easy choice. Wait... Are you suggesting that "exploring the stars" is less of an endless and futile journey than dealing with poverty and inequality?

Solving poverty and inequality is for the short term - they'll come back and need solving again no matter how many times you already solved them. But once the stars are explored, they stay explored forever. So yea, that's moving forwards and the other isn't.

[flagged]

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

#257

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway132448 wrote: post #231
fsckboy wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division and distraction your comment is entirely politcal, i.e. contributing more to the problem. qui bono? we for sure don't bono.

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

[deleted]

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

#258

Post by EA-3167 »

_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.

Most of us feel that way, but that comes with a desire to avoid engaging with unhappy internet denizens finding company in their misery.

Remember that social media is a distortion of reality driven by whoever is willing to dedicate the most time and effort to dominating it.

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

#259

Post by _moof »

EA-3167 wrote: post #258
_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.

Most of us feel that way, but that comes with a desire to avoid engaging with unhappy internet denizens finding company in their misery. Remember that social media is a distortion of reality driven by whoever is willing to dedicate the most time and effort to dominating it.

Thanks for the reminder - genuinely. It's hard to keep in mind sometimes.

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

#260

Post by verzali »

izzydata wrote: post #11
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

People are struggling to afford every day life and we are surrounding by crazy things every day like cellphones talking to satellites in space. On any objective measure it is definitely amazing to send humans to the moon, but there are more pressing issues for most people right now. If we as a species had more of our ducks in a row we may be able to better celebrate this as the achievement for humankind that it is.

America has spent more than the equivalent of Artemis blowing up yet another middle eastern country for no good reason. I know which I'd rather get the money.
Post reply on HN