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What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

arstechnica.com

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Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#41

Post by ethbr1 »

GeoAtreides wrote: post #28
wantsanagent wrote: post #17

If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…

> If you hate the format of these kinds of article You mean long-form articles? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism I don't think the problem is with the format, but with your expectations. Somehow you were expecting a straight answer to the question in the title; instead, it's a detailed look into the incident and the context around it.

Indeed, I'm curious what specific portions parent would recommend excluding from the article.

I found everything fairly relevant to the topic.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#42

Post by blinding-streak »

daft_pink wrote: post #35

I don’t get why they emphasize that he’s Chinese. Seems totally irrelevant

If you read the full article, Wang himself discusses the differences with his Asian culture and expectations of success vs failure. And the perception of bringing shame on himself would bring shame to his entire family. It is relevant.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#43

Post by danielbarla »

GeoAtreides wrote: post #28
wantsanagent wrote: post #17

If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…

> If you hate the format of these kinds of article You mean long-form articles? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism I don't think the problem is with the format, but with your expectations. Somehow you were expecting a straight answer to the question in the title; instead, it's a detailed look into the incident and the context around it.

I think this article is actually a pretty good example of long-form journalism; the jump it makes to reveal the context is fairly small, and relevant from the first few words.

In many other articles, however, the context switch is almost nonsensical, making the reader wonder if the writer will ever actually get to the point.

While I agree that in the past few decades our attention spans have gotten very short, I also think there's a slight disconnect between the clickbaity titles and many articles. For that matter, this happens with videos as well; things that can be answered in 2-3 minutes get turned into a 10 minute video with a large amount of fluff.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#44

Post by aquova »

daft_pink wrote: post #35

I don’t get why they emphasize that he’s Chinese. Seems totally irrelevant

His big claim to fame, aside from this incident which was hush hush, was that he was the first astronaut born in China to go to space, which is a pretty noteworthy thing.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#45

Post by arcanemachiner »

prewett wrote: post #26

The article was interesting, but wow, reading that page used up 20% of my battery and required a reboot stop whatever it was causing excessive lag throughout the OS. I’ve noticed news sites are basically unusable on mobile. Sure I’m using an iPhone 7, but it’s fine for every other use except news site. If even Ars is this user hostile, I think I have to consider news sites as fundamentally user-antogonistic, and not…

I think your battery might need to be replaced.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#46

Post by genman »

GeoAtreides wrote: post #28
wantsanagent wrote: post #17

If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…

> If you hate the format of these kinds of article You mean long-form articles? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism I don't think the problem is with the format, but with your expectations. Somehow you were expecting a straight answer to the question in the title; instead, it's a detailed look into the incident and the context around it.

I think hating something is kind of personal matter.

But very often these "long-form" articles can be tiring. They just circle around something, never getting to the point, adding just unimportant details that should create some form of "connection".

It very often feels that it is not long because the author has something to say but it is long because it is meant to appear that "long-form" article.

It's like reading novels from Victor Hugo, where he takes good part of the volume to describe rooms in detail. Now it is certainly interesting for a movie director who would like to build an authentic interior but the fact is that he just got paid by the length, so this was his tool go accomplish his goal - getting paid more.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#47

Post by furyofantares »

sebzim4500 wrote: post #2

I wonder how much time the duct tape would have actually bought if he tried to open it anyway.

I was thinking of it as a psychological tool. If the guy is obsessing about it, keeps looking over at it and thinking about how you just turn a handle and everybody's dead, duct tape could help him stop ruminating even if it wouldn't at all be effective if someone is determined.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#48

Post by redcobra762 »

prewett wrote: post #26

The article was interesting, but wow, reading that page used up 20% of my battery and required a reboot stop whatever it was causing excessive lag throughout the OS. I’ve noticed news sites are basically unusable on mobile. Sure I’m using an iPhone 7, but it’s fine for every other use except news site. If even Ars is this user hostile, I think I have to consider news sites as fundamentally user-antogonistic, and not…

Started and ended on 100%, just for some additional data. iPhone 15 Pro, Google Chrome.

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#49

Post by samcat116 »

prewett wrote: post #26

The article was interesting, but wow, reading that page used up 20% of my battery and required a reboot stop whatever it was causing excessive lag throughout the OS. I’ve noticed news sites are basically unusable on mobile. Sure I’m using an iPhone 7, but it’s fine for every other use except news site. If even Ars is this user hostile, I think I have to consider news sites as fundamentally user-antogonistic, and not…

> sure I’m using an iPhone 7 Get a new battery at the very least

Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?

#50

Post by AnimalMuppet »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #45
prewett wrote: post #26

The article was interesting, but wow, reading that page used up 20% of my battery and required a reboot stop whatever it was causing excessive lag throughout the OS. I’ve noticed news sites are basically unusable on mobile. Sure I’m using an iPhone 7, but it’s fine for every other use except news site. If even Ars is this user hostile, I think I have to consider news sites as fundamentally user-antogonistic, and not…

I think your battery might need to be replaced.

So I saw this comment in the most recent comments list (where you don't see the parent). Out of context, it read like a rather creative personal insult.

In context, of course, that isn't what you were saying at all. But as a put-down... I'm keeping it.

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