Comment by 🚀 stack
Re: "speaking of space, we just had a launch"
Those are weak arguments for blowing trillions of dollars and bringing us closer to the end of the dollar and likely a new stone age.
Inspiring young people? That is just foolishness.
All this is about is putting military crap up there.
We are learning nothing usable.
Asteroid defense sounds reasonable, but the probability of an asteroid we can deflect in the next 50 years or so is negligible. 50 years is optimistic if we keep blowing money at this rate.
Apr 09 · 4 weeks ago
5 Later Comments ↓
👻 darkghost · Apr 09 at 21:06:
I think the inspiration of young people is undervalued. I've had a scientific mind for as long as I can remember, but my intensity for it can be owed to Shuttle work and the intensity for which those folks work. It's hard to say how I might have personally turned out without that influence but I *think* I can credit it as an influence. But I'm a special case. I am one of those hideous mutants of a human being that actually READS the scientific papers that come out of work in space. My name might even be on a few proposals out there, though I never got anything off the ground.
I am being a bit harsh, but if you were to put a price tag on inspiration, for every scientist inspired by the space program, it's millions per head...
There must be a better way.
👻 darkghost · Apr 10 at 00:03:
Fair point. For all the documentaries with a French horn accompaniment I am not blind to the militaristic applications of the endeavor. Look how big my missiles are. I can put nukes on the moon and launch em anytime. Oh boy will you be in trouble 4 days from now when they finally arrive. Look at my space plane, I can pluck your satellites right out of orbit.
🚀 lars_the_bear · Apr 10 at 13:56:
@stack : doing good things for unworthy motives still amounts, in the end, to doing good things.
Sometimes, in their rush to do evil, our political leaders inadvertently do something noble.
@lars_the_bear: yes, sometimes it happens. Would probably be cheaper to decide policy with a coin toss. Come to think of it, current leadership seems very much a random walk.
I have a hard time coming up with anyithing actually useful that came out of the space program. Everything I can think of could have been reached with at least an order of magnitude less spending, often many orders of magnitude.
Again, I am a great fan of space science fiction, and I was definitely inspired by the Soyuz missions as a kid. But I was even more inspired by Stanislaw Lem and the Strugatsky brothers. And now I am a grown-up, and can see how wasteful and damaging the space program was.
Original Post
speaking of space, we just had a launch