ultramegachurch

This is a shockingly cynical and reductive take on Mars exploration. The enthusiasm for human exploration of the solar system is earnest and valid, and I assure you, not a cog in an international conspiracy. One doesn't have to choose between space exploration and addressing resource depletion/inequality. You can care about both.

Yeah, this hits home. I'm only 28 but can feel my life becoming more and more predictable and stagnate. At the same time, I'm too afraid and money-conscious to make any bold changes (e.g., quit my job, start a business, go back to school, live in a van for a year, do something weird with my life). This is an incredible source of anxiety and depression.

I've started therapy and have made some progress. If I can become less anxious about money, I think I'll be able to find sustainable happiness. But I know this will be a lifetime struggle.

> what's worth consuming?

Nothing.

I'm a firm believer that even checking the news daily is a waste of time and energy. I'm a former news junky but had a change of heart when I realized it was worsening my anxiety and depression with actually zero return on investment.

Everyone is different, of course. But if you haven't tried it before, quit the news for two weeks. It might change your life.

I work at a clean energy startup, which is an industry that desperately needs the talent that aerospace often grabs. I wholeheartedly agree that space is a useful endeavor.

I'm looking forward to ~5 years from now when hopefully a lot of these small launch companies have gone under. They suck up insane amounts of venture capital and engineering talent. A few companies will certainly rise to the top, Rocket Lab likely being one of them.

My company (non-aerospace) just had a couple engineers leave for a different small launcher. I wish them success, but also wish their talent could be applied elsewhere. I say this as someone who just left the space industry.

Agreed. Introductory paragraphs like the one below always bug me. I know what news is, I wouldn't have clicked if I didn't.

"So what is the news anyway? In its simplest and most universal definition news is information about recent events or happenings. That’s it. And so the news has always existed in some form since the advent of language and civilisations. It was transported by messengers whether it be by Hermes, the herald of the gods in Greek mythology or by some mortal messenger who was quite often murdered due to the contents of the message in spite of the saying warning the recipient against such actions. We know we shouldn’t shoot the messenger, but alas."

Tangentially related - there’s a certain sublimity to watching cable tv commercials in 2022. I’m completely converted to streaming, so the only time I see tv commercials is at my parents house. And in that context, I find myself enjoying them? Perhaps it’s nostalgia - they remind me of media when I was growing up. There’s also an element of escapism. Everybody in commercials is beautiful and happy. And then there’s the hyper capitalism Alice-in-wonderland spectacle of it all. Commercials are strange and ridiculous. I enjoy the absurdity of it.

I don’t miss cable television commercials. But they provide a unique lens into how strange it is to be a person at all.

I had the same reaction. I’m an endlessly skeptical and often cynical person. Whenever I see someone confidently believe they are “right”, I instinctively trust them less. This article made me realize this is just my own flavor of righteousness.

That’s not to say righteousness is inherently bad. The only reason people make decisions is because they believe they’re right. I enjoyed this article but perhaps it’s overly reductive. I don’t know what we can do to cure righteousness, and maybe that premise itself is nonsensical.

Great article that hits home with a fear of mine. I'm not afraid of aging or dying per se, but I fear a day when I'm no longer physically or mentally capable of working towards ambitious goals. I'm an extremely goal oriented person. I need to always be working towards something "big", whether it be a personal project, releasing an album, learning an instrument, landing a cool job, etc. I fail more often than not, but just the fact that I'm working towards ambitious gets me out of bed in the morning. If I am no longer capable of mentally and physically draining tasks like this... what will motivate me to get out of bed?

I'm deeply sorry for the loss of your father. Do you mind expanding on the story of watching the two men drown? I'm curious how you found yourself in that situation.

Incredibly unlikely. First, it would have to fail in a way that’s possible to fix. We don’t have robots that can replace screws, solder joints, and polish mirrors in space. Then we’d have to design a brand new spacecraft and mission. That would take years, lots of money, and political will. NASA would likely cut its losses, document the lessons learned, and try again.

“Maybe Jeff Bezos could fund this” is not a good parameter to design a mission around.

It’s still not that simple, unfortunately. Ironically, there are too many single pint failures. Maybe JWST broke in a way that can’t be repaired. Maybe congress doesn’t approve the repair mission. Maybe the repair mission would actually cost $1 billion. Maybe the repair mission fails. Now imagine you’re the mission designer. You could trade increased complexity for some small chance of a repair mission maybe being possible. Or you you could decrease complexity and just accept that repair won’t be possible. The answer becomes pretty clear.

That may be true, but designing a mission based off that hypothetical is a bad idea. The reality is we currently don’t have the capability for humans to service satellites, and developing that capability would probably take years and cost >$100 million. And NASA can’t just decide to take on that endeavor, it would require congress and months of political bickering. JWST was designed for what is currently feasible and practical.

I suspect the deployed structure cannot handle the acceleration required for escape velocity. That also may require much more propellant. Then on top of that, we don’t have the capability for humans to service satellites other than the ISS. So this is all a moot point.