One small step for the 1%, nothing for mankind. n/t

[Raven]

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

1. Astronaut Bezos? Please...

This is an insult to all of the astronauts and engineers who work so hard to put us into space. My father, may he rest in peace, worked on the Apollo mission, space shuttles and other endeavors.

[a kennedy]

3. Yah, almost threw up over that, astronaut Bezos my ass.

[NCDem47]

2. Ain't that the truth.

Yes, Bezos built something from nothing. But, he now reeks of arrogance and entitlement. Can’t stand looking at him.

[Javaman]

4. maybe he will stay

let's hope.

[krispos42]

5. Yeah, because eventually being able to mine asteroids for minerals instead of Earth is nothing.

If we want to live on this rock we have to get our hands on the resources in space. Raw materials and energy abound there, and no ecosystems to pollute. All this space flight stuff pushes the technology to make science fiction into science fact.

I remember reading in a car magazine about a decade ago people fussing about how hybrid car tax credits would be abused to make high-performance luxury cars at taxpayer expense. Now, electric cars and hybrids are everywhere, and the end of the IC engine as the powerplant for private automobiles is within sight of being discontinued.

NASA figured out how to do it, now rich private fuckers are figuring out how to do it cheaply.

[MineralMan]

7. That's just silly. What Bezos did has nothing

to do with the pipe dream of mining asteroids - something that will always be completely uneconomical.

This was just a really expensive carnival ride for some obscenely rich people. Nothing more than that.

[ansible]

11. I'd be more scared of asteroids being used as weapons instead

[Sympthsical]

54. That video always cracks me up.

A 500km asteroid. That's not an asteroid. That's a minor moon. It'd be like Encedalus, Saturn's sixth largest moon, smacking into us.

Even the dinosaur killer would do for us, and it was "only" about 10km.

It's a cool video, but I'd hope future humans wouldn't be towing moons around.

Although, knowing us, probably if there were money in it.

[Dial H For Hero]

55. That's no moon, that's a space station.

(Actually, the Death Star is canonically 120 km in diameter)

As for the video, being hit by something that size would sterilize all life on Earth down to the thermophilic bacteria living miles underground.

It's a cool video, but I'd hope future humans wouldn't be towing moons around.

Luddite.

[Sympthsical]

56. I am not paying $500 to spring a moon out of the yard! n/t

[DFW]

16. With high enough concentrations of Rhodium and iridium in asteroids

It might some day well be economical. It all depends on the space travel technology that gets developed in future centuries.

[MineralMan]

28. What makes you think there are such concentrations of

those precious metals? They're rare on this planet, rare in meteorites, and most likely just as rare on asteroids, as well.

The "Mines of Space" are common fodder in sci-fi novels from the 1950s. The reality is that mining in space will be of use only to those who are building things on other planets, assuming we ever travel to other planets that can support life. That is questionable, at least as far from now as I can imagine.

Now, if it becomes possible to divert a large asteroid that is on a collision course with the Earth, that would be useful. So far, though, nobody has any plan for that at all.

Most people have a romantic idea of what the future of space travel might be. Such ideas are extremely likely to occur, at best, and not for a very long time in the future. A very long time. We are pretty much stuck in our solar system, unless something amazing and unrecognized gets discovered. We aren't leaving it with people on board - not for a very, very long time.

[48656c6c6f20]

32. A very long time?

Fuck let's just stop exploring then. Who can wait a very long time? You've shown me now how all this was a big waste. Cancel NASA, and all space programs. I mean shit if we can't have results tomorrow at the latest what's the point?

[MineralMan]

34. You continue to misunderstand me.

I won't participate any further in this particular subthread.

[48656c6c6f20]

46. Yeah I would too

A loss is a loss.

[DFW]

35. Several studies, articles, discussions, e.g.

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=14388.0

Plus the fact that Russians I have talked to that have business interests in rare earths say that most deposits in Siberia are found at what are generally accepted to be sites where meteorites have impacted. While rare on the surface of our old earth, these would be fresh on asteroids.

I once took a flyer about ten years ago, when a Russian colleague brought two kilograms of raw iridium from Siberia with him to a meeting in Brussels. I had it tested, and it was about 98.5% pure. No one cared at the time, and he wanted $7000 a kilo. If I can ever find someone who knows how to refine it, I'll be able to afford my next vacation and then some.

[Sympthsical]

57. Iridium is how we know what happened to the dinosaurs

There was a whole layer of iridium in our crust at the same geologic time. Shouldn't have been there. We must've been hit. Boom. Figured out the asteroid/dinosaur thing.

It's rare in earth's crust, but has much, much higher concentrations in asteroids.

No, the technology isn't there now. In a few centuries? Could be. Look how far we've gotten in the last 100 or so years.

People are so grumpy about all this. Is everyone's inner child dead around here? Eesh.

[krispos42]

27. Those goals use the same technology

If millionaires competing to give piles of money to whoever can give them the coolest space ride pushes the technology for faster and cheaper space travel, then let them go for it. The same "fast and cheap" technology that we're seeing now for suborbital hops will eventually (and fairly quickly) grow into orbital hops, competing with SpaceX.

The faster and cheaper we can get stuff into orbit, the more we can DO in orbit. Like build a nuclear-powered ship to make intra-system travel fast and cheap.

Jeez! What was the economic case for Spain financing Columbus try to get to India? "It makes no sense to waste the capital investment in three fully-equipped ocean-going ships and crews on trip of many months, taking a very unknown and uncertain path to India, with no logistical, communications, or emergency support available, to get silks and spices. The failure chance is very high and the rewards are at best very modest. Let us instead use the ships to support local inter-port Spanish commerce instead".

And unlike Columbus' travels, there are no indigenous cultures to enslave or destroy.

Either we're going to survive long enough to be able to use extraterrestrial resources like asteroids, or we're going to choke on our own pollution while fighting wars over territory. It may already be to late, but we have to try.

[Happy Hoosier]

31. Do you have some expertise here?

I'll be honest, it kinda pisses me off when I see "experts" with no background in aerospace issuing such "authoritative" opinions without any actual background in the tech.

Sure,. we'll probably never mine iron from asteroids, but there may be a time when other rare metals ARE mined that way.

Just a few short decades ago, I doubt many people ever thought getting 90% of our good imported into the USA would ever be economical.

[MineralMan]

33. Expertise? No more than anyone else who has followed

space programs closely since Sputnik was launched and who is still following them closely. I have an opinion about such activities, and that opinion is based on reality, not fantasy.

The Hubble telescope and other scientific research spacecraft are where things that are interesting are happening. Sub-orbital space tourism is not where such things are happening. Even the International Space Station isn't that interesting, really. Aside from proving that people can live in a metal structure in orbit for longish periods of time, it has not contributed much else to our knowledge.

It is the unmanned exploration vehicles that are giving us answers that have value looking forward. They are helping us understand the universe, both within our own solar system and far beyond. That's the stuff that interests me these days. Manned missions do not.

[Happy Hoosier]

36. WEll as someone who works in aerospace R&D

... and has done for 40 years, you have no idea what you are talking about.

There is WAY more at work here than joy rides for rich people.

Yes, unmanned space exploration is very powerful, but human achievement is more than that. We can make robots that paint, but is it art?

People like me were inspired to become scientists and engineers not by unmanned space probes (as interesting as it is), but the inspiration of the human element.

So you are free to poo poo this. Go right ahead. I'll stick to being inspired.

[MineralMan]

38. We all have opinions. Please feel free to share yours.

[Happy Hoosier]

42. I just did.

But frankly, it's frustrating to see people who normally have their heads screwed on straight loosing sight of the forest for the trees.

There is more at stake than the ego of one billionaire.... there really is.

[Marrah_Goodman]

50. yeah, mining asteroids Will totally help...

...make rich assholes even richer.

[Dial H For Hero]

51. If it does, good for them.

[Marrah_Goodman]

52. You and I have very different values.

[Dial H For Hero]

53. Apparently so. I heartily approve of economic growth, especially when it comes from previously

untapped resources that up until now benefit no one. The potential resources in the asteroid belt are staggering, although it will likely be a century or more before we begin to utilize them to any great degree.

[Marrah_Goodman]

63. Noted

[Sympthsical]

58. And we may need those rare elements to advance our future technologies

No one's saying we don't have our problems or that wealth inequality is great.

But progress - any progress - is a good thing.

Being poor and working class in 1900 wasn't so great. It's far better now. Not easy, but better. Being poor and working class in 2100 will be better. Not easy, but better.

And so on and so forth.

[NickB79]

60. Orbital mining will be unmanned

You don't really think we're going to send squishy, fragile humans into deep space for mundane tasks like mining, do you?

In fact, the vast majority of space exploration will be unmanned. Bezos flying into space serves no purpose in that.

[Marrah_Goodman]

65. I call BS

If he was all about advancing space technology he would have sent experts instead of himself.

[dalton99a]

6. "You too can be an astronaut"

[brooklynite]

9. ...and that's a very exciting prospect.

[MineralMan]

10. What nonsense! Space tourists, taking a 15-minute carnival ride.

1961 called. It wants its word back.

[Clash City Rocker]

12. "All you need is $200 billion and a dream!"

[FakeNoose]

30. "Passenger" Bezos

That is all!

[AllaN01Bear]

8. none of m browsers would reproduce this pic, im glad i didnt look at it.

yes just a private venture . a toy . tax write off. subsidesed whilst the poor are being called wealfare cheats and frauds and the real wealfare cheats and frauds as besos get away with murder .

[USALiberal]

13. Lol, the whiners here crack me up! Nt

[brooklynite]

14. Slacktivism is easy...

You can still shop at Amazon and read the Washington Post exposes on Trump. but feel virtuous by beating up on Bezos' space project.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

15. +100. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

20. It's the same stuff that was said about the Apollo project

And just as blind.

[Jon King]

17. Kids are inspired by big flashy things....

This stuff inspires kids to be interested in science and technology. Not everything is a zero sum game. Perhaps 10000 kids will go on to go to college for science and some will greatly help mankind.

[yaesu]

18. This is a very historic day!

showing what one can accomplish with a monopoly, shitty working conditions and not paying taxes

[ashredux]

19. You may not like him, but this was a good thing in the long run

You may not like him, but this was a good thing in the long run

History will show these first steps by guys who have a ton of money, and they didn’t steal it, and they do it by the tax laws, even though they don’t pay shit. If you have a problem with that let’s change the laws. But this was an achievement and it will be a good steppingstone for the future. Just my opinion

[Rustyeye77]

21. I understand what people here are saying.

But its his money and he can spend it the way he wants.

Quite frankly there may be some good to come out of this years from now.

I just dont have a problem.

Flame away.

[Skittles]

62. maybe he could pay his fucking taxes

fuck him

[Brother Mythos]

22. One does not earn aviator wings for paying to ride in a commercial airliner. There's ...

a reason for that.

[NotHardly]

23. Yup... that is exactly the size of this unless you count Bezos rocket penis

[Dave says]

24. That's one small step for the 0.001%, not the 1%

Someone just breaking in to the 99th-percentile is only making around $750,000 per year. Just a couple of hours income for Bezos, et alia. Enough to fly first class to Paris, but not to the upper layers of the atmosphere.

[AZ8theist]

25. Mocking what Neil Armstrong did is DISGUSTING.

I was alive and watched REAL TIME what Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins accomplished in July 1969.

To even QUOTE, miss quote, or even sarcastically equate what they did with todays news is FUCKING VILE.

Neil, Buzz, Michael and ALL OF THE MERCURY, GEMINI, and APPOLO astronauts had more courage and bravery than ANYTHING exhibited by any human in the past 50 years.

I'm sure the OP wanted to mock a billionaire asswipe, but DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT.....paraphrase what Neil Armstrong accomplished in 1969 as a way to denigrate millionaire douchbags.

The achievements of the Apollo program are without equal in human history. And I will not stand idly by when they are laughed at.

Flatards, "flat Earthers", who think space is fake, and we didn't go to the moon, are simply IMBECILES.
I expect much, much better from our side. We are the scientists who are trying to save humanity.

I'm sorry for the seriousness of this post, but I have a vested interest, a passion, a life-long commitment to educating the future about the achievements of that era. And mocking and denigrating them makes my blood boil.

[anotherOKIE]

26. You can't know

"nothing for mankind" ? That remains to be seen. It may so far into the future that we will not be here to see it but somethings will occur because of Blue Origin that we can't we imagine now.

[Happy Hoosier]

29. WRONG.

This isn't just about joy rides.

It's about the development of technology that can extend human reach.

Buncha freaking buzzkills around here.

[Raven]

37. Let's clean up our own house first and while we're at it,

providing food, clothing, decent housing and education to kids who need it doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

[Dial H For Hero]

39. That criticism has been leveled at virtually every space program, manned and unmanned.

"Why are we sending a probe to study Pluto when children are hungry?"

[Raven]

40. True, but It hasn't sunk in yet, I guess.

[Dial H For Hero]

41. I hope it never does. It's not as if we spend that much on space.

At the height of the Apollo program, NASA was something on the order of 3% of the federal budget. Now it's around 1%.

Money well spent.

[Happy Hoosier]

43. Because if we wait for there to be no suffering before doing great things...

Great things will never be done.

Should we refrain from making art while our fellow humans suffer? After all, how can we justify art, or literature, or anything like that while even one child starves. Right?

It's not like what's keeping us from addressing poverty or hunger is space exploration.

[Raven]

44. I count relieving suffering to be a "great thing".

[Dial H For Hero]

45. Would you cancel the construction of all astronomical observatoiries as well?

If not, why not? Some of them are projected to cost over a billion dollars to build, money that could instead be spent to relieve suffering.

[Happy Hoosier]

59. You didn't answer the question.

Should everything else stop?

[Politicub]

48. If you're going to wait for a billionaire to solve society's problems, then you're

going to be forever disappointed.

The people should leverage the profits of business and tax income progressively, where it would be virtually impossible for another billionaire to exist. Our government, run by and for the people, is the only entity that has the potential to redistribute wealth and resources in an equitable way. Notice that I said potential.

No one should be able to accumulate as much wealth as Bezos, but it isn't the private sector's place to solve society's problems. It would be peachy-keen if it did, but the rich turn everything into a business -- and much of its philanthropy -- into enterprises that benefit themselves.

I don't understand your line of thinking, honestly. IMHO, it feeds into the idea that somewhere, somehow there will be a benevolent rich class that will save us all. Right now the tax code is tilted in the favor of the rich, enabling them to have ego-stroking things like personal rocket ships. That's what needs to change.

[NickB79]

61. If we'd properly taxed the rich, they'd be unable to afford to shoot themselves into space

And we'd have the NASA funds to build our lunar bases, orbital stations and Mars colonies by now.

This is all so fucking backwards, it's not even funny.

[Marrah_Goodman]

64. I call BS on that

If this was about advancement in science, he would have sent scientists instead of himself. This was just the world's most expensive amusement ride.

[sarcasmo]

47. Schlong Rocket

[moondust]

49. 11 minutes of ecstasy

can be had for maybe $20 worth of Ecstasy, no?