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Someone's cutting onions (reddthat.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] [S] 25 points 7 months ago (10 children)

I don't think it's that likely surely it's less risky than driving?

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  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago (8 children)

    It is massively dangerous.

    As of April 2026, a total of 791 people have flown into space and 19 of them have died in related incidents. This sets the current statistical fatality rate at 2.4 percent.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents

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  • [–] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

    Or to look at it from a different angle, 5 out of the 413 total manned space flights have ended in fatalities, or 1.21%.

    Auto travel in the US has a fatality rate around 1 death per 100 million driven miles. Assuming an average trip of 20 miles, that's 1 death per 5 million car trips, or 0.00002%.

    So, roughly 10,000 (EDIT: actually 100,000, missed a zero!) times more dangerous than driving.

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

    What do the numbers look like if we assume the average trip is from the earth to the moon and back?

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

    Are you asking to change the definition of a car trip to the ~500,000 miles it takes to get to the moon and back?

    In that case, rate of fatality is around 1 in 200 "driving to the moon and back" trips. 0.5% chance. So taking the rocketship is still significantly more dangerous.

    More realistically, 500,000 miles is roughly a lifetime of driving. So these astronauts are being exposed in a single trip to a fatality risk equivalent of 2+ lifetimes of driving.

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