Space race

[Crispy]

The launch business is completely dominated by spacex, by any metrics.

The earth orbit junk problem is worth worrying about but I don't get concerns about littering space in general. Earth is a precious haven of life and we destroy it daily. The moon and mars and all the other places we might go are lifeless rocks. What is harmed by a piece of bent metal sitting on the moon?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

now it’s dominated by two billionaire tossers there’s no good team to cheer for in the space race.

Was there a good team to cheer for when it was when it was nation-states?

 

[farmerbarleymow]

who will be first person on the moon?

I don’t really believe they landed there. certainly not in 1969.

I think Mation has been to the moon.

 

[T & P]

Was there a good team to cheer for when it was when it was nation-states?

For civilian/ scientific or space exploration missions of no military value, any team of the golden age of space exploration would have been a good one to cheer. I know that both superpowers were benefiting from the space race for propaganda purposes, and applying advances in technology to their military missile programs, but such landmarks as the first human in space or the first humans to land on another celestial body should forever be cherished as fantastic achievements of the human race regardless of which power achieved it.

Admittedly, the gloss has long gone, and more so when we now have nation states who have achieved the technological know-how to launch successful probe missions other planets whilst still executing their own citizens for adultery or homosexuality

 

[Mation]

Have y'all seen For All Mankind? I'm on season 3 of 4. It's brilliant.

For All Mankind (TV series) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[SpookyFrank]

.What is harmed by a piece of bent metal sitting on the moon?

 

[Lord Camomile]

How big are each of these 'bits'? I'm not saying it's not a problem, but if it's mostly 20,000 bolts or paint flakes, then... well, I guess it's almost quite literally a different size of problem.

The launch business is completely dominated by spacex, by any metrics.

The earth orbit junk problem is worth worrying about but I don't get concerns about littering space in general. Earth is a precious haven of life and we destroy it daily. The moon and mars and all the other places we might go are lifeless rocks. What is harmed by a piece of bent metal sitting on the moon?

I guess there's maybe something around our general attitude to how we do things, what we take into consideration, what we don't, etc. The kind of attitude we foster that would likely continue to grow as our space exploration continues.

Better to bake in best practices early on, kinda thing.

 

[PTK]

The launch business is completely dominated by spacex, by any metrics.

The earth orbit junk problem is worth worrying about but I don't get concerns about littering space in general. Earth is a precious haven of life and we destroy it daily. The moon and mars and all the other places we might go are lifeless rocks. What is harmed by a piece of bent metal sitting on the moon?

Do we not have to distinguish between Musk's vanity projects, and SpaceX launches under contract to space agencies?

 

[Chz]

Do we not have to distinguish between Musk's vanity projects, and SpaceX launches under contract to space agencies?

Quite a lot of SX's launches are for Starlink, after all...

 

[hash tag]

By coincidence.....

Keeping space tidy should become a global UN goal, say researchers

The United Nations has 17 sustainable development goals that all member states have signed up to in an effort to balance economics and the environment - and now researchers say we need a new one to ensure we keep space junk under control

www.newscientist.com

The number of active satellites in orbit has rocketed in recent years, from fewer than 3000 in 2020 to more than 10,000 today. The bulk of that increase is down to around 7000 satellites that make up SpaceX’s Starlink space internet mega constellation. Many thousands more are planned by other companies and countries, including Amazon and China, as they create their own large constellations. On top of this, there are thousands of empty rockets orbiting Earth and millions of pieces of space junk