81–90 of 91 posts
America needs more schools and better basic education, not a moon mission. So much absurd brainwash simply works because people are basically very uneducated, mostly on a level you might expect in Africa or in the middle age. The results are obvious.
America needs and can afford to do both - better education and a space program.
This comment shows what enormous damage belief in manned, extra-orbital space visits does to us (us = humans, life on Earth). Of course I'm going to take downvotes for saying this, so I'll ask gullible readers one question: what ^ ^evidence^ ^ have you seen that proved such extraordinary events took place anywhere other than on your screens?
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It's a testament to the magnitude of the achievement of landing on the moon that it is still a deniable event, so many years later No one claims we've never climbed Everest, or been to the South Pole.
So the evidence that proved it to you was the magnitude of the achievement?
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As a non-american I still think that climate change is the wrong problem for the US to focus on, and space exploration and colonization goals are better targets. The US has a huge concentration of wealth and brainpower. Neither of those are what's need to solve climate change. You'd need an army of Mahatma Gandhis and the new breed of "social entrepreneurs", not of Einsteins and Oppenheimers. And you know, that conce…
I couldn't disagree with you more. New Einsteins and Oppenheimers are precisely what's needed to fight climate change. "Social enterpreneurs" will do jack squat, other than make people feel better. The only way to actually beat climate change is to improve the relevant technology to the point where the route to high standard of living is cheaper to do with clean tech. Constantly reducing the cost of solar power, and…
While I try to avoid politics on HN - I'm one data point in disagreement with you.
The only thing to realistically fight climate change is de-population. At least if you want everyone to have a similar standard of living as the "West".
Cleaner energy is something we need - but simple math can tell you that at our current population growth and developmental growth of incredibly poor but populous nations - it only extends the inevitable.
Any environmental program that doesn't make population growth it's first concern is simply a feel-better program in my opinion. It's ignoring the mountain to focus on the molehills.
Anything a future environmental Einstein comes up with will be instantly used to slam the world population right up the the new limit (e.g. the invention of nitrogen fixation).
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I'd think space would be, relatively, filthy for lithography. Maybe depends where.
More filthy than earth, though?
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> Long-exposure photos were taken with a special far ultraviolet camera, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph, by Apollo 16 astronauts from the surface of the Moon, and operated in the shadow of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) One such picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_16_UV_photo_of_Ear... and here with stars labelled: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo16EarthID.png It took literally one goog…
> It took literally one google search Is this observation addressed to me or to you? Because it that's the kind of photo you wanted, it would have literally took one google search to find it when you asked for one. If anything, it seems like you cheer for finding evidence that speaks the contrary of your argument yourself. I was referring to having the crew to take several long exposure captures so that you can see b…
Neither, my comment replies to EarthIsReal's. You seem to also have confused me for him.
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Just from the look of it, without having read the book nor Degroot's critics, looks like a pretty unbalanced viewpoint: "In the things the we seemed to be behind, we actually were ahead but it was a secret. In the things we irrefutably were behind, it's because we were just waiting for them to set the precedent". When an argument has such an onanistic appeal to patriots, it's suspect.
That book is fairly critical and a far cry from a patriotic tome. If anything, its anti-patriotic and is overly critical of NASA and US space policy while being fairly mum on the Soviet program and not having too much criticism of the costs of the Soviet programs. That book is the anti-Apollo and dismissive of US accomplishments. Sadly, we live in an age where ahistoric claptrap gets popular because internet forum bu…
Do we have access to the USSR's declassified materials regarding Sputnik? Can't really assume they launched as soon as they could, given that there existed arguments to hold it.
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"Earth always has been, and in all likelihood will forever be, screwed up." Agreed. Not only screwed up, but screwed up in multiple ways. Throwing more money at the dozens of money sinks here does nothing to significantly help ensure our long-term survival. It might be the right thing to do, and over time continuing to do things like this may mean that mankind enters into some new wondrous universe free from pain and…
To be accurate, we did go to the moon and do the other things. The other things at the time happened to be ensuring people weren't lynched for the color of their skin and ensuring Vietnam didn't fall to communism on the current administration's watch.
Care to go back to that porch in the Appalachians that LBJ sat on when he declared his war on poverty -- a war that has cost trillions -- and take a look at the results?
Or heed Bono, when he states the obvious that dumping money on things because they are politically important is a counter-indicative factor of success of the effort. In fact, just look at the evidence.
Political systems exist for political reasons.
The danger, as I have outlined it, is that instead of spending money in some kind of mathematical way, we behave as humans always have, and spend money based on immediate pain or rewards.
That's fucked. We need to leave. Now.
Agree completely that our space program needs a new significant mission to stay relevant. However, I don't think going to space matters as much as it did last century. During JFK's reign catching up in space with the soviets was more than about going to space, it was about being able to defend the country. Today I think our new Moon Mission should be about solving climate change. That's an issue the country and world…
You're going to need to look beyond NASA for earth sciences for the time being - there's about to be a certain change in the US that has already said earth science research is to be scrapped. The new moon mission will likely literally be a moon mission, as the incoming change has alluded to. Honestly, not sure what the future is for NASA, other than perhaps the past, and a return to primarily propaganda rather than s…
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> It took literally one google search Is this observation addressed to me or to you? Because it that's the kind of photo you wanted, it would have literally took one google search to find it when you asked for one. If anything, it seems like you cheer for finding evidence that speaks the contrary of your argument yourself. I was referring to having the crew to take several long exposure captures so that you can see b…
> Is this observation addressed to me or to you? Neither, my comment replies to EarthIsReal's. You seem to also have confused me for him.