Ask Lemmy

I mean it's cool and I love space exploration, but at the same time, it's something that has been done a while ago already, so it's not that impressive. Now if they went around Mars or did something nobody did before, that would be something else. As it is it seems a bit superfluous to the phillistine that I am. I actually don't know what the point of the mission was, I don't think major media mentioned it (or I missed it).

I think you’re asking a question only you can answer

OP is Neo at dinner wondering why his steak isn't fulfilling.

I don't think it's all that hot what's being done in contrast to what has already been achieved decades ago.

So, once around the moon, Hm.

On the other hand, stuff others already said. There's so much stuff going in, imo the effort could be used in other places.

Same. Part of it for me, I think, is that is an enormous expenditure that goes mostly to Elmo. The Apollo missions were more in-house, with lots of cool innovations, and it feels like the privatization of a great and inspiring heritage.

Do you feel science and tech is becoming tainted? Its no longer exciting. Its becoming a bane of existence. I don't think its a direct link, but its a tenuous link.

A step forward for ma...whilst back here they are killing many many man. It leaves a sour taste.

this song describes perfectly why I couldn't give a fuck about space colonization anymore.

after covid, Ukraine, Palestine, Iran, Sudan, etc. and the sheer number of genocides the governments around the globe managed to squeeze in in just a short 6 year period, I stopped caring about the progress and democracy fetish they're trying to force feed us.

if we wanna make the world a better place, we gotta stop relying on them. i know now they're gonna use those space launches to perfect their genocidal weapons, that's why I could enjoy NASA before I knew the military industrial complex

This system of things, all over the world, is falling apart. Going to space might be likened to a desperate cry for sanity. But a single cry of a baby in an ocean of crying individuals all over the world is not something given much attention.

It's eclipsed (no pun intended) by the horrors of war, disease, and conservatism. It's hard to be excited about the moon when there's measles outbreaks and at least one genocide.

For me it's the pace. I know it's not that simple, but we've been to the moon already. The first unmanned Artemis mission was almost 4 years ago, and now this one, and the next one - which will include landing on the moon...again...won't be for another 2 years at least. We won't even begin to build a base until the 2030s.

Even the moon base is just a "stepping stone" to Mars, and we already know that long-term colonization on Mars is unrealistic, given current tech. We don't yet know how to even survive on Mars (or the moon, for that matter) for more than a few days.

And even if we solve these problems...then what? We also know that even if we figure out how to keep a few people alive for just a few years on Mars, there's just no reason to try to keep a large number of people on Mars. It's just too damn hostile.

I don't know. I agree that this doesn't have the same romantic feeling of awe and discovery and exploration that I feel like I'm "supposed to" have.

I don’t like it way Elon Musk fans gush over everything Space X does… but I am excited that even with an administration and voter base that are clearly hostile to science, we can still DO science. So even though it’s not what I’d rather them do, they’re still doing science.

It's because it's not a sexy mission. The astronauts never leave the ship, they're not landing anywhere, they're not doing anything that hasn't been done before, and the trip is only precursor for the cool stuff that's yet to come. Nobody remembers the space missions before the first moon landing, and nobody will remember this either.

The explicit goal of this mission is to not just to send people back to the moon, but to actually set up a base there, and that's exciting stuff. When there is an actual moon base and scientists can travel back and forth from earth to it, the entire world will focus on it because that's never been done before.

Personally, for me, I've paid attention to it some, but not followed it closely. I think a lot of it is just that I understand it so well and have seen it all before. I love KSP (and KSA is looking great!), and have played it with the real solar system mods. The launch looks better than the game, but everything after the game does better. It can look better (their renders are surprisingly shit still), and I can actually control it.

I love space information and technology, but this is just one more step in it. I can't follow everything. It's great that it's happening, but there's also a ton more research being done that I don't even know about. This, while impressive and good, isn't something new.

I watched the launch after it happened at 2x speed and saw some parts of the descent. My phone wallpaper has been set t9 pictures they took. I'm just not that interested in following it live. I know what to expect, and I'll hear about it if anything unexpected happens.

I kinda felt the same way tbh, I love space stuff so usually I would be super exited about it, and maybe following it in real time, specially taking into account the budget cuts that NASA has been getting over the previous decades, I should be hopeful for the start of a new age of (manned) space exploration, but given the current political climate I can't ignore that the whole thing ends up being a demonstration of power by the USA first and a scientific mission second.

Thing is, this has always been the case since the very first space missions, it's nothing new that governments only finance space programs for ulterior motives. Maybe I've become too cynical to be able to separate stuff from their political context.

It boils down to this: Going to the moon in the 60's was political, though a massive technical feat.

Since then we've figured out how to send robots to fucking Mars to do the science we want to do, for a fraction of the cost (and none of the risk) of sending humans.

Artemis just isn't where we should be spending money, never mind the political bullshit surrounding it, and the typical government vendors getting their hands in the cookie jar like they did for Apollo (looking at you, Boeing).

And I say all this as someone fascinated by Apollo, and as excited as anyone else by the prospect of humans on the moon. I just no longer see the cost/benefit of humans vs automation there.

We have remote rovers in the sea and on Mars. For the moon surely we could send all sorts of devices to do science there. It's faster to reach, we have near real-time comms, it has a greater solar exposure so power is less of a problem. So where are those rovers?

We don't have them because they would expose the pointlessness of sending humans.

feeling the same. there's so much shit in the world that the Artemis mission is barely noticeable.

If you do go looking at stuff, don't check the comments.

This mission has convinced me that half of America has a room temperature IQ

I literally don’t even want to watch Project Hail Mary.

I think of all those space movies where the Earth has to do something together. Where it cuts to listeners in Paris, Beijing, Zimbabwe, New York, and Moscow before going back to some Mission Control center saying “We’re counting on you.”

Then I realize, in reality, there would be American cultists actively fighting any kind of effort to save the world, or run a giant “DEI WILL DOOM US” campaign because one of the astronaut crew is part Asian.

I want these stupid fanciful astronauts to see that we actively don’t have the circumstances to create these wonderful worldwide moments of joy anymore because of the overwhelming levels of sick hatred they’ve created in bankrupting our world of empathy and flooding it with religious propaganda.

The people personally funding rockets could have cured cancer everywhere with their savings. I honestly think if a lethal meteor was headed for the Earth, they’d want to live, but they’d invest everything into trying to save themselves rather than trying to save everyone.