It's true, it became mundane to people after the first couple of Apollo launches from what I've read. While I am genuinely interested in space exploration and colonization in the long term, I also think we have to focus on building a resilient existence on our home world, before we destroy it for ourselves.
Plenty of people were interested in Spacex flights. People did sour after he stopped looking like iron man and started being lex luthor by opening his mouth more
Artemis is still not as impressive/envelope pushing to joe sixpack, since it's "just" flying around the moon again. By this time, we are expecting moon bases or other advances of technology, since you know, actually LANDING on the moon started in the late 60s. It's been 60 years.
since you know, actually LANDING on the moon started in the late 60s. It's been 60 years.
Yeah, but that was just to beat the soviets. After that, everyone forgot about space travel.
Also, before building bases on the moon, it would make sense to build Lunar Gateway on a LaGrange point. It could provide a transport hub to/from the surface and orbit, and to/from lunar orbit to Earth's orbit. That way there wouldn't be need for one vehicle that can take off and land on the moon, and travel between the Earth and moon.
There could be one class of vehicle for each phase. Another class of vehicle would handle transport from Earth's surface to orbit. So three classes of vehicle for three total stages. It would be more efficient this way.
Ok I’m going to be that guy who sounds like a musk fanboy but rest assured I fucking hate that Nazi. That said, people don’t care about spacex launches because they have become so routine as to be boring.in a historical context there came a point where people stopped caring about airplanes because they stopped crashing. This is good. Rockets becoming reliable enough to become boring and routine is a net gain for humanity. I just wish spacex weren’t owned by that goose stepping fascist
Youngsters don't realize that people became fucking bored with the Apollo missions after 11. Apollo 13 generated some buzz because the crew was probably going to die, but that's it. Same thing happened with the space shuttle.
I think NASA and SpaceX might fit different personality types. Cool new tech in a bit more of a "startup" type of environment/culture/pace vs. slow-moving government work with lots of beaurocracy. Some people thrive in one and hate working in the other.
(Just a guess based on experience in "tech". I don't actually know what it's like to work for either)
Well also personally I lost interest because I got sick of Elon time. I'm pretty sure by his estimate we were supposed to have megastructures by now.
It's also worth noting that reusable rockets are interesting but if they just go up deploy satellite and then come back down that's not very interesting compared to going to the moon.
I know SpaceX are supposed to be building a lunar lander but we've heard nothing about that for years now. Where is it, Artemis III is going to need it in less than a year. Have they even started construction?
The re-useability is also mainly a marketing point. It sounds cool on paper but SpaceX only reduces the cost by 10% discount when utilizing old boosters. The usefulness of cost savings is overblown.
Ain't that the truth for everything E Musk produces.
And it could be so great, done properly.
He's giving electric cars and reusable rockets a bad rep actually.
I'll preface this by saying I hate musk as much as the rest of us.
But reusable rockets have better uses than deploying satellites. If a large space station/docking station/transport hub is built in higher orbit, reusable rockets could carry cargo to/from Earth's surface.
::: spoiler Slight tangent:
They can be designed better to reduce chemical fuel consumption. Like a 5-phased operation: takeoff->ramjet->scramjet to get reach hypersonic speeds in the upper atmosphere -> then only using enough rocket fuel for orbital insertion -> finally changing to ion thrusters to reach the higher levels of orbit.
Instead of just straight burning rocket fuel from surface to upper orbit, let alone to the moon and back.
:::
Stage two could involve using solar sails to travel from the Earth's upper-orbit transport hub to a similar hub located at a Lagrange point in lunar orbit. (This is optimized around the full moon; return voyages would be optimized around the new moon, when the earth is "downwind" from the sun and moon).
Stage three would be from lunar orbit station to lunar surface; a simple lander can handle this pretty efficiently. This eliminates the need to carry lunar landers to/from earth on every voyage.
::: spoiler Expansion:
Similar systems could apply for interplanetary transit (eventually), but the solar sails might only work one-way for those (returning from venus/mercury, or going out to mars/jupiter/saturn); so another solution would need to be engineered for the other leg of those journeys.
:::
We stopped the space exploration shit on our own and I suspect the lack of interest in Artemis has less to do with Elon blowing rockets up, sending a car into space, and using it as another portal for him to be the biggest fucking government welfare grifter of all time... and more to do with the fact that a lot of us are stressed, starving, and/or worried about the near future.
The fuck does slingshotting around the moon do right now to help us? Does it bring pedophiles to justice? Does it give us hope? Nope. I was jealous that they got to leave this God forsaken burning bullshit planet for a few days.
Nothing good is happening at the moment.
The bread is stale.
We've all seen the circus shows.
I'm tired. I'm angry. I don't give a fuck about space.
I wouldn't be into SpaceX if it were owned by the nicest capitalist on Earth. I just want one thing to be free from capitalist exploitation. Swiftly followed by everything else.
not gonna crop out that username? isn't that an ad for Betty Bowers?
You’re literally the one calling names adverts, were the first to bring it up, and the other person didn’t say anything on the topic except in response to you.
beep has become notorious over in !comicstrips@lemmy.world for sleazily cropping out artist attributions, stating that they consider them to be “ads”. It led to so much uproar that a new mod came in and the community rules were overhauled.
beep even uses AI to substantially alter artists’ comics, including dialogue and artistic details. It’s as if he’s sitting there saying “hey slopbot, remove the artist details” and posting whatever he gets back.
People have been really hyped for space x, when they first landed a booster and now when they do test launches of Starship and when they caught the super heavy booster it was incredible.
People care about Artemis II because it's crewed spaceflight to the moon. Artemis I didn't get nearly as much attention.
And the dual Falcon Heavy booster landing way back.
Back then the SLS programme seemed like the worst kind of wasteful mismanaged project that'll never fly and would be made obsolete by Starship before complete, these days I'm glad there's something left to cheer for since the only moral choice is to hope that everything SpaceX makes explodes on the pad.
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Falcon 9 has the best launch record of any rocket ever. Its also vastly reduced the cost of rocket launches enabling space science to become accessible to way more people.
The booster recovery is still unmatched by anyone else and starship is a work of engineering magic and is still due to be the first ever fully reusable launch system.
I love science, and space, put in 1000s hours in Kerbal Space Program. followed space news though all my life. but now? with all that's going on. A genocide perpetrated by a country claiming it's for me, the US has become a fascist hell hole, rights are eroding so fast... I genuinely don't care about this anymore.
if it was a few years ago I would me following with exhalted breath. I would have taken time off work, and taken the kids off school to follow it, and play KSP emulating the mission. and watch space movies. and YouTube videos about the mission and spaceship... I was a massive space nerd.
Can't care about one rocket on the moon when we are sending thousands of rollers to kill civilians
I feel this so much. I followed every NASA mission starting around 1965, with Gemini. I got a subscription to National Geographic because they had the best space pictures. I was an Apollo 11 fanboy, and cut articles out of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook. I had models of the Saturn V and the Lunar Module. I was a hard core space kid.
But now it feels so empty. The entire world is a mess, and it's probably going to get a LOT worse before it gets better, and I just don't feel like cheering for my country anymore. I love the Olympics, but I couldn't get into it this year. This was basically Apollo 8, with more complex computers (that didn't work), and 1000x the budget. It's hard to get excited about re-inventing the wheel, especially when everything else is so bad.
The wealthy (and the MAGA government is just an extension of the wealthy) would rather throw their money away on rockets, than spend an extra dime on taxes or higher wages. If not rockets, than AI, or some other cockamamie expensive solution in search of a non-existent problem. I just can't stop thinking about what a waste of money all of this is, when America is such a shithole country.
It also helps that this one didn't explode immediately due to lazy fast-fail engineering, scattering billions of tax dollars across the landscape while a bunch of drunken tech dude-bros cheer.
NASA funding is dependent on public opinion (well it was until recently). Blowing up rockets gets people really upset when they think it's their tax dollars.
Somehow SpaceX has convinced people it's a private company and not funded by government contracts and taxes.
Blowing up rockets gets people really upset when they think it’s their tax dollars.
I love spaceflight and what the Artemis II accomplished, but it came with an absolutely staggering price tag. It cost a bit more than $50 Billion to design including both the rocket and the Orion capsule. It costs $1Billion each time it launches too. We only bought enough parts for 4 flights of the rocket, and we've now used 2 of those.
I'm not commenting on the cost, just that people get cranky when rockets blow up that they think are funded by their tax dollars.
SpaceX gets away with it and I honestly don't know why bcz their contracts have been all government until pretty recently. But Elon Musk managed to convince people it was privately funded.
SpaceX gets away with it and I honestly don’t know why
For the same reason all private spaceflight companies (like Firefly, Rocketlab, and Blue Origin) "get away with it". Blown up rockets aren't paid for by tax dollars. Private spaceflight customers, and yes, the government, only pays for successful launches.
bcz their contracts have been all government until pretty recently.
The contracts are for successful flights. If a SpaceX rocket blows up that was paid for by the government, the government (taxpayers) don't pay for that launch.
Commercial spaceflight launches are much MUCH better finanical deal for taxpayers than the traditional NASA "cost-plus" contracts, SLS being the most recent example.
Yeah they were saved early on by NASA’s private commercial development programs. Are you saying NASA should not have implemented these programs? Do you prefer cost plus contracts?
I was simply commenting on the fact that people think SpaceX is a private company. It may be a private company on paper, but it's first contract was an ISS contract funded by tax payer dollars. To me, that's not a private company, that's all.
Are you saying that any company that takes government contracts initially should not be considered a private company? Wouldn’t this apply to all launch providers? Why is SpaceX singled out?
Again you clearly are just completely ignorant on this entire topic, because Space X has the Dragon capsule, and sends regular crewed missions to the ISS.
Honestly, I didn't know Artimus was happening. That's how busy the news is. I saw memes about astronauts and Outlook, assumed it was the ISS, and only when I saw the pictures of the Earth from the moon was I like "Wait, what? We have humans going to the moon right now? And they're already there? When did that happen?"
They're living out their dreams, and doing something very rare for our species, and I wouldn't recognize them if they were in line in front of me at the grocery store. Huh.
I think it's *Artemis. And II, specifically. This mission was the farthest any known human has been from Earth. They’re doing several more in the Artemis line, including putting boots on the moon (2029, I think)
I mean one (if I'm remembering correctly) went further into space than any human has been thus far, the other is an interesting technical step to normalising space flight.
It'd be very weird if people were equally excited about both.
Does it? People used to get excited for SpaceX's achievements and milestones too, back when rockets weren't reusable yet. I think it has just become so routine now.
Also, there were humans on board. Also, moon.
Also, SpaceX and NASA both have teams of engineers (and some of them have worked for both).
To be clear: I'm not defending Elon here. I'm just pointing out the ridiculousness of posts like these.
SpaceX IS Artemis. At least a part of it. They were the first selected to provide the Human Landing System (the lunar lander). When the time comes for one of those to land humans on the moon, people will be excited. We just aren’t there yet.
I was at a restaurant and they had the splash down in the Pacific and everyone cheered. The kids had the launch earlier on in the house. This was the first mission in decades I've seen this much support for.
Yeah, similar for me. A big party we were all going to was starting around the same time the splashdown was happening and a majority were stopped, watching on their phones. Groups huddled in the parking lot, buzzing conversations. I was pretty surprised by it.
Practically soaking I think it's not exactly a worthwhile goal, we don't have any particularly concrete expectations about what we are going to get out of boots on the moon that we didn't already do. However the general public is still moved by the idea for now.
Probably because they went around the moon which is perceived as not for profit endeavour to further humanity, unlike SpaceX polluting space with its outrageous satellites. I'm aware that SLS is just a jobs programme, but despite that the whole premise of Artemis is a little more visionary.
SpaceX as Henry Ford is to the modern Ford motor corporation
A nazi with political connections who keeps dropping completely unworkable tasks onto competent engineers and administrators, and also lost the company a shitton of money because he couldn't stop disseminating nazi propaganda?
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. I assume it’s just because you aren’t saying “Elon bad”. What you said is accurate with the exception of the last part, because Blue Origin is also in the HLS (lunar lander) business now and there’s a decent chance theirs is ready first.
Despite the stink of Elon on SpaceX, I bet many of these same people will closely follow a Starship HLS lunar landing. It’ll still be cool.
Right. The physics, material, and chemical discoveries, and engineering solutions just disappears afterwards, and all the salaries paid out just zap out of existence after feeding and housing the people involved.
Scientific discovery is something that costs resources, once.
And as long as you don't delete the results, they pay themselves back for the literal rest of human history. Which we can at least hope, will be a very long time.
93 Comments
FederatedFreedom1981@lemmy.ca · 123 pts · 114d
People would be more excited for SpaceX missions, if it wasn't owned by a Nazi pedophile lover.
kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 31 pts · 113d
After the 100th launch to put more junk in orbit, it not only gets boring but it's also annoying knowing how much crap is being put into the sky.
I'd guess after the 50th or so launch to the moon that people would be less interested as well.
qfe0@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 113d
50? We didn't get past 6 crewed landings the first time.
FederatedFreedom1981@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 113d
It's true, it became mundane to people after the first couple of Apollo launches from what I've read. While I am genuinely interested in space exploration and colonization in the long term, I also think we have to focus on building a resilient existence on our home world, before we destroy it for ourselves.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 74 pts · 114d
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 114d
Even to the space crowd, SLS doesn’t really introduce anything new.
But when the Falcon 9 landed, and then the heavy’s dual landing. That was hype.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 114d
I forgot that yeah, part of the hype was the re-useable rockets and their landing, which wasn't going new places, but was doing something new.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 113d
Yeah, but that was just to beat the soviets. After that, everyone forgot about space travel.
Also, before building bases on the moon, it would make sense to build Lunar Gateway on a LaGrange point. It could provide a transport hub to/from the surface and orbit, and to/from lunar orbit to Earth's orbit. That way there wouldn't be need for one vehicle that can take off and land on the moon, and travel between the Earth and moon.
There could be one class of vehicle for each phase. Another class of vehicle would handle transport from Earth's surface to orbit. So three classes of vehicle for three total stages. It would be more efficient this way.
Yankee_Self_Loader@lemmy.world · 50 pts · 114d
Ok I’m going to be that guy who sounds like a musk fanboy but rest assured I fucking hate that Nazi. That said, people don’t care about spacex launches because they have become so routine as to be boring.in a historical context there came a point where people stopped caring about airplanes because they stopped crashing. This is good. Rockets becoming reliable enough to become boring and routine is a net gain for humanity. I just wish spacex weren’t owned by that goose stepping fascist
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 113d
Youngsters don't realize that people became fucking bored with the Apollo missions after 11. Apollo 13 generated some buzz because the crew was probably going to die, but that's it. Same thing happened with the space shuttle.
gurty@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 113d
Agreed. I think people need to understand that Musk isn’t a scientist, he’s just the money. The actual people working at SpaceX are doing great stuff.
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 113d
Maybe they should go work for NASA and not a fucking Nazi.
percent@infosec.pub · 2 pts · 113d
I think NASA and SpaceX might fit different personality types. Cool new tech in a bit more of a "startup" type of environment/culture/pace vs. slow-moving government work with lots of beaurocracy. Some people thrive in one and hate working in the other.
(Just a guess based on experience in "tech". I don't actually know what it's like to work for either)
echodot@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 114d
Well also personally I lost interest because I got sick of Elon time. I'm pretty sure by his estimate we were supposed to have megastructures by now.
It's also worth noting that reusable rockets are interesting but if they just go up deploy satellite and then come back down that's not very interesting compared to going to the moon.
I know SpaceX are supposed to be building a lunar lander but we've heard nothing about that for years now. Where is it, Artemis III is going to need it in less than a year. Have they even started construction?
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 8 pts · 114d
This exactly. Musk has been talking ginormic shit for decades, and delivered peanuts. Destroying the USA in the process.
How good is the re-usability even going? That's the only plus I see wrt SpaceX.
Ydna@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 113d
The re-useability is also mainly a marketing point. It sounds cool on paper but SpaceX only reduces the cost by 10% discount when utilizing old boosters. The usefulness of cost savings is overblown.
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 113d
Ain't that the truth for everything E Musk produces.
And it could be so great, done properly.
He's giving electric cars and reusable rockets a bad rep actually.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 113d
I'll preface this by saying I hate musk as much as the rest of us.
But reusable rockets have better uses than deploying satellites. If a large space station/docking station/transport hub is built in higher orbit, reusable rockets could carry cargo to/from Earth's surface.
::: spoiler Slight tangent: They can be designed better to reduce chemical fuel consumption. Like a 5-phased operation: takeoff->ramjet->scramjet to get reach hypersonic speeds in the upper atmosphere -> then only using enough rocket fuel for orbital insertion -> finally changing to ion thrusters to reach the higher levels of orbit.
Instead of just straight burning rocket fuel from surface to upper orbit, let alone to the moon and back. :::
Stage two could involve using solar sails to travel from the Earth's upper-orbit transport hub to a similar hub located at a Lagrange point in lunar orbit. (This is optimized around the full moon; return voyages would be optimized around the new moon, when the earth is "downwind" from the sun and moon).
Stage three would be from lunar orbit station to lunar surface; a simple lander can handle this pretty efficiently. This eliminates the need to carry lunar landers to/from earth on every voyage.
::: spoiler Expansion: Similar systems could apply for interplanetary transit (eventually), but the solar sails might only work one-way for those (returning from venus/mercury, or going out to mars/jupiter/saturn); so another solution would need to be engineered for the other leg of those journeys. :::
Poppa_Mo@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 114d
We stopped the space exploration shit on our own and I suspect the lack of interest in Artemis has less to do with Elon blowing rockets up, sending a car into space, and using it as another portal for him to be the biggest fucking government welfare grifter of all time... and more to do with the fact that a lot of us are stressed, starving, and/or worried about the near future.
The fuck does slingshotting around the moon do right now to help us? Does it bring pedophiles to justice? Does it give us hope? Nope. I was jealous that they got to leave this God forsaken burning bullshit planet for a few days.
Nothing good is happening at the moment. The bread is stale. We've all seen the circus shows.
I'm tired. I'm angry. I don't give a fuck about space.
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 114d
Another E Musk company. (sorry, couldn't resist)
But isn't "going further than ever before (humaned)" a bit different from "launching another dozen or so satellites into orbit"?
DaGreenGobbo@feddit.uk · 0 pts · 113d
I wouldn't be into SpaceX if it were owned by the nicest capitalist on Earth. I just want one thing to be free from capitalist exploitation. Swiftly followed by everything else.
arctanthrope@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 114d
not gonna crop out that username? isn't that an ad for Betty Bowers?
aeronmelon@lemmy.world MOD · 4 pts · 114d
No, that’s kinda c/microblogmemes’ whole thing.
beep@piefed.world · -40 pts · 114d
Do you like that ad?
arctanthrope@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 114d
no, I'm pointing it that it's not one, it's just the name of the person who said the thing
beep@piefed.world · -43 pts · 114d
Then that make your original comment pointless, as you are calling on me to crop something that you said it's an ad, while you know it isn't.
arctanthrope@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 114d
fartsparkles@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 114d
Huh?!
You’re literally the one calling names adverts, were the first to bring it up, and the other person didn’t say anything on the topic except in response to you.
Are you confusing OP with someone else?
lividweasel@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 114d
beep has become notorious over in !comicstrips@lemmy.world for sleazily cropping out artist attributions, stating that they consider them to be “ads”. It led to so much uproar that a new mod came in and the community rules were overhauled.
fartsparkles@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 114d
Oooooh. Drama.
Credit artists.
Cite references.
It’s the internet. Hyperlinking is foundational.
tanisnikana@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 114d
beep even uses AI to substantially alter artists’ comics, including dialogue and artistic details. It’s as if he’s sitting there saying “hey slopbot, remove the artist details” and posting whatever he gets back.
beep@piefed.world · -38 pts · 114d
gmtom@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 114d
????
People have been really hyped for space x, when they first landed a booster and now when they do test launches of Starship and when they caught the super heavy booster it was incredible.
People care about Artemis II because it's crewed spaceflight to the moon. Artemis I didn't get nearly as much attention.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 11 pts · 113d
By “people” you mean space nerds. But Artemis crossed over into the mainstream.
gmtom@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 113d
So did the starship launch, it was all over the news and randoms at my work were talking about it.
MoffKalast@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 113d
And the dual Falcon Heavy booster landing way back.
Back then the SLS programme seemed like the worst kind of wasteful mismanaged project that'll never fly and would be made obsolete by Starship before complete, these days I'm glad there's something left to cheer for since the only moral choice is to hope that everything SpaceX makes explodes on the pad.
skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 113d
gmtom@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Falcon 9 has the best launch record of any rocket ever. Its also vastly reduced the cost of rocket launches enabling space science to become accessible to way more people.
The booster recovery is still unmatched by anyone else and starship is a work of engineering magic and is still due to be the first ever fully reusable launch system.
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
I'd ask you what Musk's asshole tastes like, but I don't want to smell your breath.
gmtom@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 113d
Lmao, so because Im not blindly against Space X because Musk owns it that means I'm a Musk fanboy?
Does that mean anyone that means people that like the Artemis program like you are Trump fanboys since it was his administration that created it?
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 113d
Trump's administration created NASA? That's news to me.
gmtom@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 112d
If you were literate you would be able to read that I said his administration created the Artemis program.
Stop being a wetwipe
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 113d
Near the moon anyway
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 114d
somehow, I'm completely indifferent.
I love science, and space, put in 1000s hours in Kerbal Space Program. followed space news though all my life. but now? with all that's going on. A genocide perpetrated by a country claiming it's for me, the US has become a fascist hell hole, rights are eroding so fast... I genuinely don't care about this anymore.
if it was a few years ago I would me following with exhalted breath. I would have taken time off work, and taken the kids off school to follow it, and play KSP emulating the mission. and watch space movies. and YouTube videos about the mission and spaceship... I was a massive space nerd.
Can't care about one rocket on the moon when we are sending thousands of rollers to kill civilians
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 114d
I feel this so much. I followed every NASA mission starting around 1965, with Gemini. I got a subscription to National Geographic because they had the best space pictures. I was an Apollo 11 fanboy, and cut articles out of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook. I had models of the Saturn V and the Lunar Module. I was a hard core space kid.
But now it feels so empty. The entire world is a mess, and it's probably going to get a LOT worse before it gets better, and I just don't feel like cheering for my country anymore. I love the Olympics, but I couldn't get into it this year. This was basically Apollo 8, with more complex computers (that didn't work), and 1000x the budget. It's hard to get excited about re-inventing the wheel, especially when everything else is so bad.
The wealthy (and the MAGA government is just an extension of the wealthy) would rather throw their money away on rockets, than spend an extra dime on taxes or higher wages. If not rockets, than AI, or some other cockamamie expensive solution in search of a non-existent problem. I just can't stop thinking about what a waste of money all of this is, when America is such a shithole country.
eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 114d
Epstein's on the Moon, whee.
mycodesucks@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 114d
It also helps that this one didn't explode immediately due to lazy fast-fail engineering, scattering billions of tax dollars across the landscape while a bunch of drunken tech dude-bros cheer.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 114d
Probably would’ve been cheaper, faster, and better engineered if they did though. The reason NASA doesn’t do it is PR.
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 114d
NASA funding is dependent on public opinion (well it was until recently). Blowing up rockets gets people really upset when they think it's their tax dollars.
Somehow SpaceX has convinced people it's a private company and not funded by government contracts and taxes.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 114d
I love spaceflight and what the Artemis II accomplished, but it came with an absolutely staggering price tag. It cost a bit more than $50 Billion to design including both the rocket and the Orion capsule. It costs $1Billion each time it launches too. We only bought enough parts for 4 flights of the rocket, and we've now used 2 of those.
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
I'm not commenting on the cost, just that people get cranky when rockets blow up that they think are funded by their tax dollars.
SpaceX gets away with it and I honestly don't know why bcz their contracts have been all government until pretty recently. But Elon Musk managed to convince people it was privately funded.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 113d
For the same reason all private spaceflight companies (like Firefly, Rocketlab, and Blue Origin) "get away with it". Blown up rockets aren't paid for by tax dollars. Private spaceflight customers, and yes, the government, only pays for successful launches.
The contracts are for successful flights. If a SpaceX rocket blows up that was paid for by the government, the government (taxpayers) don't pay for that launch.
Commercial spaceflight launches are much MUCH better finanical deal for taxpayers than the traditional NASA "cost-plus" contracts, SLS being the most recent example.
percent@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 113d
SpaceX is by far the cheapest way to launch a satellite. As a taxpayer, that seems like a good choice, IMO.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 114d
Because it’s not…? They get the contracts because they’re the cheapest option, and these days they make more money through Starlink anyways.
And who else should CRS have gone to? Lockheed Martin and Boeing?
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
When SpaceX was founded literally all of their contracts were government contracts.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
Yeah they were saved early on by NASA’s private commercial development programs. Are you saying NASA should not have implemented these programs? Do you prefer cost plus contracts?
NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
I was simply commenting on the fact that people think SpaceX is a private company. It may be a private company on paper, but it's first contract was an ISS contract funded by tax payer dollars. To me, that's not a private company, that's all.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 113d
Are you saying that any company that takes government contracts initially should not be considered a private company? Wouldn’t this apply to all launch providers? Why is SpaceX singled out?
1dalm@lemmy.today · 21 pts · 113d
I mean... If SoaceX had sent people around the moon, then I think the general public would have been interested in that.
I think it was more about the mission, not the org that made the craft.
PhoenixDog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
SpaceX doesn't even send people into space itself. They mostly just send exploding debris into the ocean.
wewbull@feddit.uk · 11 pts · 113d
They're the main way of taking astronauts to the ISS.
gmtom@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 113d
Again you clearly are just completely ignorant on this entire topic, because Space X has the Dragon capsule, and sends regular crewed missions to the ISS.
psycotica0@lemmy.ca · 18 pts · 114d
Honestly, I didn't know Artimus was happening. That's how busy the news is. I saw memes about astronauts and Outlook, assumed it was the ISS, and only when I saw the pictures of the Earth from the moon was I like "Wait, what? We have humans going to the moon right now? And they're already there? When did that happen?"
They're living out their dreams, and doing something very rare for our species, and I wouldn't recognize them if they were in line in front of me at the grocery store. Huh.
tacosanonymous@mander.xyz · 13 pts · 114d
I think it's *Artemis. And II, specifically. This mission was the farthest any known human has been from Earth. They’re doing several more in the Artemis line, including putting boots on the moon (2029, I think)
The space race is back.
mlc894@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 114d
I love the qualifier “known human” hahahaha!
Stormy@thelemmy.club · -11 pts · 114d
echodot@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 114d
I think that's just you.
MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca · 13 pts · 114d
I mean one (if I'm remembering correctly) went further into space than any human has been thus far, the other is an interesting technical step to normalising space flight.
It'd be very weird if people were equally excited about both.
Avicenna@programming.dev · 10 pts · 113d
Elon maybe a huge turd but I think the plan is to use spacex's propulsion systems when the mission will involve landing on the moon in future.
justaman123@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 114d
We should nationalize space x
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 114d
And Starlink. We paid for it, it's ours.
justaman123@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 103d
Honestly it's more of a national security threat
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 113d
Very cute.
percent@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 113d
Does it? People used to get excited for SpaceX's achievements and milestones too, back when rockets weren't reusable yet. I think it has just become so routine now.
Also, there were humans on board. Also, moon.
Also, SpaceX and NASA both have teams of engineers (and some of them have worked for both).
To be clear: I'm not defending Elon here. I'm just pointing out the ridiculousness of posts like these.
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 6 pts · 113d
Yeah, I think if Space X sent a crew to the moon then the reaction would've mostly been the same.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 113d
space x was always about space tourism, and to make money from starlink.
remon@ani.social · 3 pts · 114d
I feel there was less excitement about the Artemis launch than early Space X launches. And it's hard to stay excited when things become routine.
ISolox@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
I mean I would've been excited for a mission like this from whoever tbh.
lividweasel@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 114d
SpaceX IS Artemis. At least a part of it. They were the first selected to provide the Human Landing System (the lunar lander). When the time comes for one of those to land humans on the moon, people will be excited. We just aren’t there yet.
renzev@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 113d
...shared excitement..? I've not heard a single mention of this artemis mission outside of lemmy and reddit, literally nobody cares about it
CptOblivius@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 113d
I was at a restaurant and they had the splash down in the Pacific and everyone cheered. The kids had the launch earlier on in the house. This was the first mission in decades I've seen this much support for.
treesapx@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
Yeah, similar for me. A big party we were all going to was starting around the same time the splashdown was happening and a majority were stopped, watching on their phones. Groups huddled in the parking lot, buzzing conversations. I was pretty surprised by it.
jj4211@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 113d
I've heard a bit of news coverage about it.
Practically soaking I think it's not exactly a worthwhile goal, we don't have any particularly concrete expectations about what we are going to get out of boots on the moon that we didn't already do. However the general public is still moved by the idea for now.
OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 113d
Every major US network was showing the return splashdown. Just cause you're not looking where others are looking doesn't mean it's not there.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 113d
In Spain they did talk a while about it.
Jumi@lemmy.world · -7 pts · 113d
I don't care about neither. Once they start clearing space debris or do something else that actually benefits us I may start cheering.
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · -9 pts · 114d
Mitchie151@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 114d
Probably because they went around the moon which is perceived as not for profit endeavour to further humanity, unlike SpaceX polluting space with its outrageous satellites. I'm aware that SLS is just a jobs programme, but despite that the whole premise of Artemis is a little more visionary.
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · -14 pts · 114d
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 11 pts · 114d
A nazi with political connections who keeps dropping completely unworkable tasks onto competent engineers and administrators, and also lost the company a shitton of money because he couldn't stop disseminating nazi propaganda?
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · -2 pts · 114d
lividweasel@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 114d
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. I assume it’s just because you aren’t saying “Elon bad”. What you said is accurate with the exception of the last part, because Blue Origin is also in the HLS (lunar lander) business now and there’s a decent chance theirs is ready first.
Despite the stink of Elon on SpaceX, I bet many of these same people will closely follow a Starship HLS lunar landing. It’ll still be cool.
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 114d
partial_accumen@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 114d
Just for the clarity of the record:
So you've got four giant American defense contractors, and two European defense contractors owned by French, German, Spain, and Italy.
Maybe the communal part is the community of western defense contractors.
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 114d
The question is why do you think spacex is an equal or greater communal effort.
Comparing accomplishments is the outcome, not the effort, therefore not the communal effort.
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · -1 pts · 114d
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · -16 pts · 113d
Just another few billion we won't be getting back. The pictures are nice I guess.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz · 18 pts · 113d
Right. The physics, material, and chemical discoveries, and engineering solutions just disappears afterwards, and all the salaries paid out just zap out of existence after feeding and housing the people involved.
Scientific discovery is something that costs resources, once.
And as long as you don't delete the results, they pay themselves back for the literal rest of human history. Which we can at least hope, will be a very long time.