Space stuff
-
I don't see these as mutually exclusive as written; they each beget and enable the others in their own way. Survival, and perhaps more than just "survival", is continued growth and development of our species is what I would say is the ultimate goal, but this will be enabled by the other two at first, and are therefore all imperatives.
I also don't see an either/or choice between sending privileged people or otherwise chosen individuals to space to generate support/interest or to develop this interest with the population. Both need to be done in parallel to be successful. In some cases, the former may help generate the latter (just read or listen to what Shatner has said after his flight and tell me that isn't inspiring). It does seem like this is actually happening right now in industry and culture which is very exciting.
-
That’s the second time you’ve read mutual exclusivity that wasn’t intended in what I’ve written, so perhaps I’m not expressing myself clearly.
The point isn’t to pick one of these benefits, or to abandon commercial space flight, so much as to tell a story that resonates with the broadest possible audience and generates political will in a highly Balkanized / polarized political climate that frankly is vulnerable to cynical class-based populist attacks. You hear this a lot, where people again take a mutual exclusivity that isn’t legitimate: “why are we investing in space exploration instead of addresssing problems here?” (we can do both) or decry exploration, now that so much of it is privatized, as an elitist activity: “these wealthy people just want to escape environmental devastation off-world and leave the rest of us to suffer” (you have to start somewhere).
The reason I think this is important is that I think we need more public investment in these areas. Organizations like NASA and ESA matter. People being interested in space is one thing. People being interested enough in space to be happy to see their tax dollars supporting exploration is another. That kind of investment requires public will as opposed / in addition to relying on the whims of a Musk or a Bezos to do this stuff.
-
Here is another video on Black Holes by one of my favorite content creators on YouTube. This one is about Gargantua from the film Interstellar
-
thanks for sharing @mclaincausey !
We had Suni and Butch around during our design reviews. It really drove home that our work was to keep them safe. I still have their photo hanging up on my bookshelf as a reminder.
While they may not have been able to "capture the flag" everyone should be pretty proud about one quote from the article; "Once Starliner is up, the United States will have two independent orbital-class crew spacecraft in service at the same time."
-
Aurora Borealis touched down….in St Louis!
X33 seemed the appropriate timepiece
-
holy cow!
super cool @Anesthetist that it's visible that far south!fingers crossed for good viewing tonight for everyone else
-
St Louis! Thats crazy!
-
Quite the show tonight in the PNW!
-
Hampshire UK. Hue kept changing and it was beautiful.
-
I’ve been a space nerd my entire life. It crosses over into many hobbies.
-
I’m so upset, couldn’t see shit in Denver.
-
I saw some photos of it from friends of ours in Golden that looked pretty great. Maybe you were outside at the wrong time? I think there's another good chance tonight too?
-
Potential big week ahead for human spaceflight! Fingers crossed for a safe flight tomorrow for everyone and a few more so that boeing can finally figure out its leaky He valve.
-
well that was pretty cool. got to see and hear the landing from what seemed to be almost front row seats