Katy Perry ‘regrets public spectacle’ of Blue Origin space mission

Katy Perry ‘regrets public spectacle’ of Blue Origin space mission

Katy Perry is really getting beat up over this stunt.

Watching the space capsule door open from the inside then hurriedly shut so Jeff Bezos could be filmed using a special tool to open the door (just to have it pop open again) was awesome. They sure have hired the film crew from Fly Me to the Moon.

Having to walk back "First all-female space mission" probably didn't help the PR stunt.

 

[brihard]

It’s too bad. I love space exploration, I think it’s great seeing more players in the mix, and even if a flight itself is more of a stunt, the rocket nerds learn a ton every time they fire one. Stuff like this becomes a dumb distraction.

I love that one day in not many years I’ll get to sit in front of the TV with my kid and watch humanity step onto the moon again. Hopefully I’m still around when we eventually do it on Mars.

 

[daftandbarmy]

It's still a dangerous endeavour, so hats off to anyone who gives it a shot IMHO. At 4%, space travel has a similar death rate to attempting an Everest climb...

Weighing the risks of human spaceflight​

One former astronaut’s perspective​

There are few people better qualified to judge the risks of human spaceflight than Rick Hauck. The former astronaut flew on three shuttle missions in the 1980s, including serving as commander of STS-26, the first space shuttle mission after the Challenger accident. Since leaving the astronaut corps he became president and chief executive officer of AXA Space, a leading space insurance company, and also serves on the advisory committee for the X Prize.

Hauck addressed the issue of the risks of spaceflight in a talk at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, in late May. He started by laying out the raw statistics of human spaceflight: 18 of the 430 humans who have flown in space have died, 14 on two shuttle missions and four on two Soyuz flights. That works out to a fatality rate of just over four percent, a rate that holds roughly true if one considers only US or only Russian citizens, Hauck noted. (One can argue that this metric inflates the fatality rate, since it counts includes people who have flown multiple times; over 600 seats have been filled on the 113 shuttle flights to date, reducing the shuttle’s fatality rate to closer to two percent.)

Nevertheless, that number is uncomfortably high for Hauck. “Would I have flown if I had known there was a four percent chance of death?” he asked. “No, I don’t think I would have flown.”

However, he cautions, it’s unwise to assume that all manned space flights will have similar odds of death. “This is not an actuarial business, we don’t have thousands of events,” he said. “I do not believe that we can extrapolate from this experience that you have a four or five percent chance of dying if you go on a space mission.”

What Hauck didn’t point out, though, is that other ventures exist with similar fatality rates. In recent years about four percent of the people climbing Mt. Everest have died.

The Space Review: Weighing the risks of human spaceflight (page 2)

 

[FJAG]

Honestly, this criticism is a prime example of people getting offended and dumping all over something that really is of little significance to them.

IMHO anyone who willingly, for whatever price, is willing to sit on top of tons of volatile propellants and get blasted into space for 11 minutes is deserving of respect, regardless of how wealthy or famous they may be.

"Public relations stunt?" Well duh. Of course it is. Hell, they sent up William Shatner. But so what? This is cheap journalism - by which I mean the lowest paid reporter gathered a few comments from the rabble - and there are always comments from the rabble online - in order to cobble together a narrative with a certain direction. It would have been just as easy to select a few comments from others which praised the flight but that wouldn't have been negative and negative reporting rules.

I love that one day in not many years I’ll get to sit in front of the TV with my kid and watch humanity step onto the moon again. Hopefully I’m still around when we eventually do it on Mars.

I sat in the Cdn Guards junior ranks the night of July 20/21, 1969 and watched the first moon walk. Katy's trip wasn't that but . . . well let me just say that Gayle King's obvious discomfort was nothing compared to the fact that they would have to drag me into that capsule. But it shows how far we've come and points the way to how far we might one day go. More power to all those who take these trips. And as much as I dislike Bezos, more power to the private industry that goes where governments only tiptoe.

 

[Jarnhamar]

It’s too bad. I love space exploration, I think it’s great seeing more players in the mix, and even if a flight itself is more of a stunt, the rocket nerds learn a ton every time they fire one. Stuff like this becomes a dumb distraction.

Yeah sarcasm aside it was disappointing. I expected more thought from Jeff Bezos.

 

[Remius]

They just discovered evidence of possible life on an exoplanet 124 Light years away.

It barely made the news cycle for 24hours. Something that could be the most important discovery in human history.

Humans take so much for granted…

 

[FJAG]

They just discovered evidence of possible life on an exoplanet 124 Light years away.

It barely made the news cycle for 24hours. Something that could be the most important discovery in human history.

Humans take so much for granted…

Honestly, I took it for granted myself, a bit, because to me it was inevitable; just a matter of time. With the countless billions of stars and planets out there, and the prevalence of water in the universe, it would be pure arrogance to think that only Earth would sustain life. Just take a look at what the diversity of life is that lives in our own seas.

It never ceases to amaze me that we can analyze the atmosphere or chemical compositions of starts and planets that are hundreds of light years away from us.

 

[Remius]

Honestly, I took it for granted myself, a bit, because to me it was inevitable; just a matter of time. With the countless billions of stars and planets out there, and the prevalence of water in the universe, it would be pure arrogance to think that only Earth would sustain life. Just take a look at what the diversity of life is that lives in our own seas.

It never ceases to amaze me that we can analyze the atmosphere or chemical compositions of starts and planets that are hundreds of light years away from us.

I guess we are in a good place as a species if most are not surprised that life could actually exist beyond our planet.

Microbes and plants might not be sexy enough though for some. Sci-fi and movies may have tempered our excitement at these things I think.

I was absolutely gobsmacked when they were able to actually land a rocket anccurately after a trip to space a couple of years ago. Doesn’t seem like a big deal after watching start trek or Star Wars when that sort of thing looks like parking a car lol.

This latest thing with Bezos just highlights how far we’ve come that we can now send normal people with little to no training into space.

 

[brihard]

Honestly, I took it for granted myself, a bit, because to me it was inevitable; just a matter of time. With the countless billions of stars and planets out there, and the prevalence of water in the universe, it would be pure arrogance to think that only Earth would sustain life. Just take a look at what the diversity of life is that lives in our own seas.

It never ceases to amaze me that we can analyze the atmosphere or chemical compositions of starts and planets that are hundreds of light years away from us.

James Webb Space Telescope is incredible. The fact that we can spectrally image a planet 127 light years away and try to pick out compounds indicative of microbe farts from its sun passing through its atmosphere is mind blowing.

 

[GR66]

James Webb Space Telescope is incredible. The fact that we can spectrally image a planet 127 light years away and try to pick out compounds indicative of microbe farts from its sun passing through its atmosphere is mind blowing.

Why then can't I get half decent cell phone reception in my back yard???

 

[KevinB]

James Webb Space Telescope is incredible. The fact that we can spectrally image a planet 127 light years away and try to pick out compounds indicative of microbe farts from its sun passing through its atmosphere is mind blowing.

Imagine if some of NRO's assets where tasked skyward...

 

[Remius]

Why then can't I get half decent cell phone reception in my back yard???

Good thing Rogers is not in the space business…

 

[lenaitch]

And as much as I dislike Bezos, more power to the private industry that goes where governments only tiptoe.

I think it is natural that the government (NASA) did the initial heavy lifting. Industry is not going to do applied science without a motive for financial return. Those initial launches were real 'missions'; months of preparation, calculations done with slide rulers, onboard computing power less than a digital watch. What industry would do that? What industry would fund the Hubble or James Webb telescopes? I think it is a natural progression that industry has picked up the ball.

 

[Remius]

I think it is natural that the government (NASA) did the initial heavy lifting. Industry is not going to do applied science without a motive for financial return. Those initial launches were real 'missions'; months of preparation, calculations done with slide rulers, onboard computing power less than a digital watch. What industry would do that? What industry would fund the Hubble or James Webb telescopes? I think it is a natural progression that industry has picked up the ball.

Yep. Not that different from the past.

Discovery of the New world was based on finding gold and better trade routes to India.

Hudson’s Bay, East India Company etc all industry that opened up a lot of the unknown world in the hopes of making profit.

 

[GR66]

Good thing Rogers is not in the space business…

Heck, their barely in the Telecom business any more. MLSE, the Jays and their content are definitely more of a priority for them

 

[Haggis]

Honestly, I took it for granted myself, a bit, because to me it was inevitable; just a matter of time. With the countless billions of stars and planets out there, and the prevalence of water in the universe, it would be pure arrogance to think that only Earth would sustain life. Just take a look at what the diversity of life is that lives in our own seas.

I'm not a religious sort, but for those that are can they really believe that in the millions possibly life sustaining planets in the universe that we, humankind, are the best that the Almighty God could come up with?

I believe that any alien beings out there are aware of our existence and have been for a long time. I also believe that they probably lock their doors while flying near Earth.

 

[brihard]

I'm not a religious sort, but for those that are can they really believe that in the millions possibly life sustaining planets in the universe that we, humankind, are the best that the Almighty God could come up with?

I believe that any alien beings out there are aware of our existence and have been for a long time. I also believe that they probably lock their doors while flying near Earth.

Another species, examining our planet from afar the way we do others, could certainly have detected what we would recognize as chemical signs of life for hundreds of millions of years. That assumes that other forms of intelligent life would be chemically similar enough to recognize the significance.

As for signs of intelligence, earth has only been ‘emitting’ definite electromagnetic signs of intelligent life for about 130 years, and most of that far too weak to travel far and get picked up. Someone else would have to be paying close attention from no more than a few dozens of light years away to detect radio waves that could only be created by an intelligent and technological species.

I imagine there are millions of other intelligent species in this universe, but probably spread vastly far apart in time and space. Two species would have to be close enough, technological enough, and around the same time period to notice each other. If another nearby intelligent species wiped itself out in a nuclear holocaust 150 years ago, neither of us would be any the wiser that the other was there unless one day we found the wreckage. The same fate could befall us.

We went from inventing radio communications to inventing thermonuclear weapons in less than a century. A species that harnesses technology might only be ‘detectable’ for a few hundred years if they don’t have their shit together.

 

[Remius]

Maybe those species advanced enough to make contact have had devastating experiences doing so. Similar to contact with Neolithic tribes here. Maybe some of them have decided to do what nations here have done to keep un contacted tribes from being contacted. Look at the sentinel islanders and some South American tribes.

Occasionally some morons make it in to contact them. They either get killed or arrested. Not unlike some UFO stuff? But maybe they just decided it’s best to leave us alone for now.

My sci fi nerding happening here…

 

[Jarnhamar]

They just discovered evidence of possible life on an exoplanet 124 Light years away.

They best hope they're made in God's image

 

[GR66]

It's pretty presumptuous of you guys to claim that there's intelligent life on Earth.