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0 pointspavlov2mo ago0 comments

The Artemis program has cost over $100 billion so far.

It doesn’t make any sense to spend that much money on something that’s still Russian roulette for the astronauts.

If the purpose of the human risk is to let the agency accomplish more, then it needs to be reflected in the cost as a drastic reduction (so you can actually spend the money on doing more). Now Artemis is the worst of both worlds.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

themusicgod12mo ago· 4 in thread

>It doesn’t make any sense to spend that much money on something that’s still Russian roulette for the astronauts.

Sure it does.

We've got billions of humans to spend on getting humanity out of its gravity well. We can and will spare a few more.

Getting humanity out of our gravity well is the most important task this species faces, along with stabilizing our use of the resources in this one. https://nickbostrom.com/papers/astronomical-waste/

If you're not willing to spend a few lives on this problem you're not serious about the problem.

pavlovOP2mo ago

If you’re willing to spend a few lives, you can do that much cheaper than Artemis which aims to be perfectly safe but doesn’t actually succeed.

themusicgod12mo ago

> aims to be perfectly safe

obviously that isn't true -- it aims to be relatively safe

...but in any case - it aims to bring humanity to the moon. That's the aim. Keep your eye on the prize.

themusicgod12mo ago

from one of the artemis astronauts on livestream:

"It is very risky, and we are intimately [aware] of that risk"

ie It's not perfectly safe, and the astronauts are well aware of this fact.

themusicgod12mo ago

astronaut #2

"do what scares you...that's why I'm [on artemis]"

clearly very risk-aware.

rustyhancock2mo ago

If you need expect perfection then we will never have a space mission.

Let the astronauts give informed consent. If they mission is to dangerous for NASA then we can only hope, ISRO, CNSA or ROSCOSMOS will go.

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