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NASA’s Artemis II Crew Launches to the Moon (Official Broadcast) (plus.nasa.gov)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] 14 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (10 children)

Unfortunately with Trump being there, this shall not be the greatest launch, for he may plan to use this for his own propaganda campaign.

What then, in my view were the greatest launches? Indeed, when the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched and Apollo 11 went up, that was a monumentous achievement for mankind.

Unlike the Apollo and space shuttle missions and all who have went before, there is little scientific reason for this launch. It is space politics; all that money could have been used to build homes instead, to improve the general wellbeing of Americans, instead of enriching and entertaining the billionnaire oligarchs' interests. But that is my own view, I s'pose.

Had Americans' wellbeing been improved greatly, the FPTP system abolished for proportional representation, and there been no billionnaires and media oligopolies, no conflict of interests, no wars the US was waging... the US might have faced a much more golden age of spacefaring.

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  • [–] 14 points 7 months ago* (6 children)

    This reads as someone who isn't really that familiar with the aims/goals of Artemis. This about a stepping stone to a lunar base and then ofc to Mars and beyond. There's a TON we still need to learn about and obstacles to overcome if we're ever going to make it any further than the moon. Affects of deep space travel on the human body including radiation (check out AVATAR), immune systems, activity/sleep patterns are just a few of the experiments that will be performed. All of these have the potential to have huge impacts on healthcare on Earth as well, just as spaceflight science has in the past. So many technologies we use today came from NASA or spaceflight research. Here is a just a small list. I could go on, theres a large portion of NASA that does Earth-based science (weather/climate change research), but the point is NASA research has long had a positive impact on both our daily lives and economic output.

    This is not even to mention, it's been 50 years of technological change and growth since the last moon trip. This means thousands of new systems and technology that are yet to be tested by humans in deep space. The bigger the goal (Mars etc), the more incremental the testing steps need to be in order to proceed safely.

    As for the politics, this isn't some Blue Origin Jeff Bezos dick rocket going up on a very low suborbital flight just so he could say "i'M aN aStRoNaUt'. This is a program for entirely scientific purposes. You can definitely argue that it is still political, and I don't disagree. Exploration and especially space exploration has always been inextricably linked with politics. But hell, I'd argue the original moon landing was WAY more political than Artemis; the whole reason the Apollo program had the timeline it did was because we wanted to beat the Soviets to the punch. And compared to the Apollo days, NASA now operates on a shoestring budget if you account for inflation.

    I agree there's a lot the US spends money on that should be going to better the lives of it's citizens, but NASA funding isn't one of them imo. As of 2018, NASA funding accounted for only 0.5% of the federal budget. That's not a lot to take from in comparison to the many other areas where there is bloated federal spending.

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    Arguably both things can be true at the same time. Whilst I enjoyed watching the launch, not only from a scientific and human endeavour, there was an advert about 20 mins before launch which was unnecessary propaganda talking about US exceptionalism, "best and longest democracy", manifest destiny themes and lots of other political bullshit that not only is untrue, was totally unnecessary for this next stage of space exploration - and unfortunately, was more similar to that of the 60s propaganda than anything we've had in a long time.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    I don't disagree with the grossness of the American exceptionalism propaganda that they always include, but you have to remember they have to get all of their funding from congress and also to a certain extent have to keep the approval of the American people. So honestly a certain amount of patriotism circle jerk is unfortunately to be expected/necessary.

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    I dunno. Most countries have decent education systems to help prevent the need for self-glorification. Its just weird that your population needs to hear that about themselves. They shouldn't need to be told, as pride in your country is a feeling. It just shocks me that they still ignore the genocide of the native population, slavery and all the shitty things. It's a refusal to acknowledge their foundings and white-washing their history. The vision portrayed is a fiction.

    If you look at your country and think "meh. It's okay, could be worse but could a whole heap better" and without resorting to bigoted reasons, you're doing okay. Anyone who requires blind praise about the country they were fated to be born into seems odd. Maybe it's just me. But this isn't really in keeping with the nature of this community so I'll stop now (though it is psychology so.....😃. No, I'll stop.}

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  • [–] -3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    But this isn't really in keeping with the nature of this community

    I just want to jump in here to say that you're clearly the one being aggressive and arguing in bad faith.

    You've had your ramble about how disgusting US exceptionalism is. Congratulations, everybody in this thread has literally already said this. Nobody disagrees with you. We already know.

    OP only made two points:

    1. This flight isn't "been there done that" science, like quite a few ignorant posters above have already said

    2. He explained why NASA, an organization that is made up mostly of people who are probably disgusted with the US administration, are required to say something patriotic on their broadcasts.

    So ultimately the question is, who are you actually talking to?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    Hmm, didn't think I was being aggressive or arguing in bad faith as I wasn't arguing at all. I was agreeing, and just find it odd that there's a need for the propaganda and pandering. It's not something that should need to happen and doesn't happen elsewhere, and is ridiculed when it does. I find it somewhat fascinating that a country like the US has to spend time self-propagandising to its citizens rather than letting its actions do the talking for it.

    Who am I talking to? Anyone who finds that juxtaposition interesting too.

    Ultimately, this is a science community. I admitted that I pondering politics and psychology which wasn't the main topic of the thread so I said I was stopping. But if you decide to read it in another way, I won't stop you.

    Edit: there's only 14 comments in this thread, and 1 or 2 mentioned propaganda so no, not everyone has mentioned it. Maybe many don't see it like that being that it's just normality to them (like those who don't think reciting the pledge of allegiance daily is strange)

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    I mean, let's not pretend that the Space Race of the cold war was not primarily motivated by political reasons. USA and USSR only wanted to go there to prove they had the biggest and the best rockets to blow each other up with.

    The scientific advancements that came as a result of that heated competition for supremacy was just a happy little bonus.

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