this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Why is this awesome news?
Humanity successfully landed another object safety on a celestial object hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Earth. Of course that's impressive.
Plus, they succeeded where Russia failed, which is at least mildly amusing.
Being fair, they did land some things on the Moon before while part of the USSR. Though it is nice to see a new nation get a first for something relating to the Moon.
Yes, this says more about India than about Russia.
Why isn't it awesome news? Humanity landed another thing on the moon.
It seems like it shouldn't be that hard in 2023 compared to 1969.
Landing in the moon's polar region is much harder than landing in the equatorial region. This is the first successful landing on the moon's South Pole.
Luna-25 was also aiming for the poles; the Russians already know how to do a normal lunsr landing.
While I understand your headspace. Space isn't easy even with modern tech for any nation (or company in the case of the private launch sector). They didn't have the benefit of the Space Race injecting mad money and manpower like the US and the USSR did (shit is hard to justify spending money on while still being on the newer side of certain industrial development as a nation). They also had to make their own systems to get there. Even SpaceX still has failures to land their first stage boosters after getting it pretty well figured out. Just a crazy amount of variables means it will fail majorly if any random one is wrong. Even if they had failed to land, it would still be worth some respect for even getting on target. I think that once AI is much more mature (and not just a large language model that tends to just make shit up that sounds correct but isn't), then I think your stance would be more correct. As the ship itself would be able to deal with all of it with or without input from earth. Would also be better at making the tough calls to abort or proceed without any emotions/stress causing bad decisions.
What di you mean. There was no real time control. Landing instructions were provided well ahead of time and onboard systems too control through out from 30kms to touch down including the precise spot which was done from 800meters off.
I dont know how many would classify that as AI but it was an autonomous system landing.
For India, a nation which is still working on getting flush toilets everywhere?
So if i land a shoe there it would be awesome?
Yes.
Good luck doing that though.
It would.
I think you guys should pay attention to more important things than someone landing his shoes somewhere
You know what is implied in the ability to land a shoe on the moon, right?
Whoever threw it up there has an amazing pitching arm?
Or leg. It's a shoe, maybe they just unlaced it and kicked very hard?
If a person without a nation state's budget behind him can land an object even one the size of a shoe on the moon that would be a major scientific breakthrough and an incredible engineering achievement.
Simply the economics of the feat would basically instantly revolutionise a whole host of industries. Even spaceX who's whole thing is making the economics of space reasonable is nowhere close .
We put humans there 50 years ago, landing a shoe won't achieve anything other than boost someone ego
What's your business dictating what others do?
You don't get to dictate what's important and what's not
I don't, logic does. If india were to take care of the poverty plaguing the country and shit like the caste system in a bunch of years the space program and all sort of research would benefit for the universal wealth produced by a fair society
Well you're not being logical, you're being irrational.
Without the space program, there is no motivation to fix the poverty problem. Or the technology, resources or education. Your priorities are just all out of whack.
dafuq?
The fact india has a space program while a good chunk of the population still live in huts sounds like a joke to me
That's because it's only now starting to industrialize, and that's due in no small part to them forming a space program.
Space is so vitally important not just for access to resources and clean energy but for the most important assets we have: our psyches. Space inspires, it bolsters education, it gives people reason to have faith in their country and keep going, it brings peace and love and joy. It's the lifeblood that drives the engines of science and progress in a peaceful way.
It gives people something to strive for, something to actually live for instead of only focusing on survival, like you have. It unifies while your mindset divides. It fosters cooperation while you foster conflict.
It's the most important thing we are doing as a species, and India will benefit far more from having a Moon program than trying to convince people to give up thousands of years' worth of traditional living for no reason.
You're drawing a false dichotomy anyway; without the resources in space, India won't be able to industrialize cleanly nor will any country. We simply don't have enough resources on the Earth to provide an average American lifestyle for everyone on the planet which India especially is going to strive for regardless of the cost, so it's either expand into space or collapse into climate hell.
Grow or die. You can stay down here and die if you want; I choose to grow and so does India apparently
Nothing cleaner than rocket fuel, you should drink some.
Such as eating burgers for breakfast and being overweight? I have bad news for you, there's no cheese on the moon
Nothing cleaner than 24/7 solar energy beamed down to the Earth and sold so cheaply every coal and nuclear plant is put out of business, ending most of the CO2 burning. And so cheap it's used to power carbon sequestration. And indoor agriculture.
The things the global south wants, yes. The things China uses coal to strive for, yes. The things you disparage and take for granted that billions of people only dream of, yes.
There are, however, metals in the regolith and enough O2 to power an inner solar system economy that will allow us to mine for and go wherever the fuck we wanted without having to really launch materials up from the Earth like that. Lunar regolith is 40% oxygen by weight. You know, the rocket fuel you want me to choke on while your brethren condemn me for saying the same things when I oppose rape apologia
So do go and do some research on it. Space didn't just go away because Nixon canned the Moon program back in the 70's.
You should stop drink coffee
Go do the research and expand your mind, you need it
It's a fucking shame you don't realize how many of the things you use on a daily basis derived from space explorations. https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/27-innovations-we-use-constantly-but-that-you-probably-didnt-know-were-from-nasa-space-program.html
The fact that you are even replying on this platform from your computer or phone makes you hypocritical for criticising the space programs, as well as shows how out of touch you are with how social problems need to be resolved.
Go touch grass.
What's with the misery?