When my kids were growing up I suggested to them that sometimes, when something quite surprising is asserted, it's a good idea to pause & say ... do we believe this?
I know it's awfully unfestive to be so skeptical: but when I see multi-media coverage of Rhiannon Adam's story that she's going to the moon next year, courtesy of Elon Musk and, errr, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa who'd like her to have a ticket ... well, I feel we may be deep into do-we-believe-this? territory.
Mission chiefs said Ms Adam, from Ireland, will be the first openly queer woman to go to space ... She added: “I spend a lot of my life working with a lot of remote communities and it felt like a natural thing to do, to apply to go to space and explore the most remote community ever, which would be us in space.”
I'd so like to be proven wrong on this. Call me a cynic, but I can't help feeling the lady will get another call in a few months. Hi Rhiannon? It's Yusaka! No no, it's not about your space-flight training, that'll be a bit nearer the day. No, not the medical check-up either - you don't need one! No, what I wanted to do was help you get started on your crowdfunding. What's that? Yes, you know, crowdfunding! It's easy! Listen, you're bound to know any number of suckers. Well, I mean, surely you have a lot of, errr, like-minded friends ..?
Perhaps in our 2023 Predictions compo we should include a binary yes/no item on this one.
ND
8 comments:
I think B Ark would be a better name than Starship.
I can think of a number of people who could usefully be sent to the Moon on a long term basis, and prevented from posting to the social media.
Don
It may be the only safe place, if our war on Russia continues to escalate. Earth touchdown near a deep bunker.
@Sackerson Continued Western escalation is indeed the danger. Right now, Russia is fighting a WW1/WW2 industrial war against opponents that are gradually de-industrialising. That can only end one way.
Furthermore, everybody loses - even the US, seeing as their actions have clearly dealt a fatal blow to the continued dominance of the US petro-dollar.
Future historians (assuming there are any) will be aghast. "What were they thinking?"
Oh look. Just what I have been saying for months...
https://unherd.com/2022/12/is-america-still-europes-ally/
Real story here is how much the cost of sending payload into orbit is reducing. More than 90% reduction in the last 5 years. Largely thanks to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Fuel is just methane, nothing fancy.
Cost of this mission is circa $200million. Not chump change but not beyond the means of genuine billionaires either.
Musk is a modern Barnum, and this manages to deflect a little from NASA's Orion (which Musk would dearly love the dollars from) and keep him in the public eye for something other than Twitter.
So, no, not expecting it. Maybe a Tesla will orbit the moon, but if the risk was low enough for a human being, I'm fairly sure someone else would be front and centre.
As @Mucklemon has said though, Musk is to be lauded for bringing down $/kg payload costs
I'm saying nothing... I'll just drop this link in here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cadets_(TV_series)
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