That’s pretty cool

        • skeletorsass [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          The technical developments of a space program go beyond just look to space for science. They create a novel problem which can create other technical development. We are speaking because of such developments. Communications, rescue equipment, medical technologies have been revolutionized by the new perspectives of the space problems. Modern digital image sensor used in camera, etc is a product of such as well. Solar energy cell as well.

          A novel problem can be very helpful and revealing. In my work even adapting a smaller version of an existing bus design revealed many flaws and helped us improve.

          • trans [they/them,she/her]
            ·
            4 years ago

            i can understand that if we're talking like, 2019 or earlier, but there's a global pandemic happening rn. even if chinas got it more under control than most, i still think that the money going to the space programs should be put on hold and put towards global emergency aid.

              • trans [they/them,she/her]
                ·
                4 years ago

                china put lots of money into this project. i think that money couldve been spent better elsewhere. i dont know what that has to do with the labor of the people working on the project.

                • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  The point is you're looking at it as purely a monetary thing, which is misleading. At the end of the day monetary allocation is an abstraction for the allocation of resources and labour. If the resources and labour (which were probably mostly spent before covid started as the majority of the project takes place in the 18 months before launch) couldn't be spent more effectively on fighting covid then it likely isn't affecting the fight against covid. Also it's really tough to argue that China's rocket launch is affecting their covid fight considering they have covid largely under control.

            • furryanarchy [comrade/them,they/them]
              ·
              4 years ago

              That's extremely shortsighted thinking. You can't just temporarily halt funding and expect it to pick back up when you refund it. A year of funding stopped does a lot more than a year of damage.

            • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              The ship probably launched like 8 months ago and launch windows for mars only come once every two years. This isn't something you really shut down in the last minute.

        • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I've said it before, but humans being unable to leave earth is incredibly unfair to everything else that lives here.

          HUMIES GTFO

          • radicalhomo [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            the chance of finding life on a planet is incredibly low tho, especially sentient life. terraforming would be good

            • Awoo [she/her]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Terraforming is fine but has anyone thought about the logistics of populating other planets with animals? I'm not so sure animals zero gravity spaceships will go so well.

            • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              4 years ago

              My idea of a good future at this point is we all live in earth's orbit and you can go back down but like explicitly to heal the earth, to do careful ecological studies/projects, and MAYBE some heavily moderated sustainable agriculture as a treat if it isn't deathly radioactive down there.

        • kimilsungist [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          do u think aliens are pro self determination therefore know their place on they own planet?

          • trans [they/them,she/her]
            ·
            4 years ago

            or, this is a thread about a space program, so i made a comment about how spending on space seems wasteful right about now. i never argued there werent worse ways to spend money, just that there are better ways. i think thats a fair take

    • happybadger [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I like Murray Bookchin. A Marxist with credentials who saw beyond scarcity politics. Something has to happen to get us there and that's either fusion, space, or resource exploitation of the global south as has fueled every other age since colonialism developed. If we can exploit resources in space, that's less of a burden of resources on Earth. The living space you could create in orbital habitats with orbital factories is so vast that there wouldn't need to be such a focus on development here. It opens new scales for exploitation but we're already damned if we continue to do what we're doing and renewable energy will only get us so far into decarbonised industry. At least it's something that reduces the damage we do in the human-nature dialectic even if we're stuck with the same struggle that would probably evolve anyway as it always has.