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In this Discussion
- Dr_William_Hayward October 2012
- kdawg October 2012
- Leland July 2011
- Loose_Thread July 2011
- ManInTheIvoryTower July 2011
- Matthew July 2011
- MirandaJuly July 2011
- YoursTruly July 2011
Comments
the other day I was thinking about how they shot dogs into space without even the intention of ever getting them back and how almost unbelievably emo that is. I mean, animal testing, etc., it is a normal thing, for better or for worse, but there is something so conceptually enormously tragic about SHOOTING A DOG INTO OUTER SPACE ALL ALONE.
Anyway, maybe one day aliens will come and kill us all and then it will all be taken care of.
I know Mikey is going to have a big shuttle company or whatever and maybe I'll win a trip to weightless Reno or whatever someday, but still.
Getting over it.
Sorry to be a bummer. Was just a little surprised at how I felt when I saw the news.
Laika the space dog.
Ultimate Loneliness
it is a bummer! The shuttle dying I mean. Not your fault for being a bummer.
No question that robot space missions are cheaper. But what replaces the heartbeat of getting off the planet to explore? And weightlessness? What is the Chinese version of http://www.history.com/videos/jfk-sets-goal-for-man-on-moon#jfk-sets-goal-for-man-on-moon ?
There was a cool PICA performance of spiritual writings by astronauts. That is heartbeat. I dig the elegance of the shuttle, but equally cool in its own way, is the Russian really big and really cheap approach that launches stuff now.
A guy from Wired thinks this is great.
I liked that ol' seventies contraption.
Spacevan.
I am really cynical when it comes to space stuff. I turn to conspiracies.
I truly think it would be faster to learn how to astral project than to settle another planet.
WE DID NOT DO A GOOD JOB WITH OUR CURRENT PLANET.
Why is it such a great idea to spread our crappy race all over the world? All the sci-fi epics where the great noble quest is to "spread humanity so far and so wide it could never die out"????? I'm like I CAN NOT THINK OF A WORSE NIGHTMARE
> together. Or if, I guess. I guess that's a pretty big IF.
I think the idea is that we can't build for the next step (moon, mars, beyond) while still running the shuttle, which is 60-70s era tech built by congressional committee. Was supposed to be fully reusable but costs as much/more than launching standard rockets.
Whether the funding will be there or not for this next step, I dunno. So there is a real possibility that we've seen the last US-based human space flight.
> the other day I was thinking about how they shot dogs into space without even the
> intention of ever getting them back
Not really refuting, just some good trivia: They took strays off the streets of Moscow b/c they were assumed to be good at dealing with stress/hunger/cold. They were taught to eat this weird gel/paste and were confined in smaller and smaller crates to acclimate them to being in cramped conditions. Laika was actually brought home by one of the engineers to play with his daughter(s) for a few days before launch. Also keep in mind we didn't really know if we would turn to jelly or our lungs would explode when we hit zero-G in those days.
> oh so which countries still have space programs
Via http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/16-06/st_spacerace
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_agencies.
FaceTweet what you say about the dogs makes that program 100 times more emo than I already thought it was!!!!!!! "Oh, someone is feeding me! Someone is bringing me home to their children!! A home! A home!!!!" OH WAIT
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-space-shuttle-endeavour-move-pictures,0,3972976.photogallery
Sure there is more about on the interwebs.