Those astronauts must be slightly insane.

[thinktoomuchtoooften]

I mean obviously they’re highly intelligent individuals and must know what they’re doing… but the risks are so huge and they have families. To me it’s just madness.

You need to do some thorough research into the last 250 years in comparison to all
over time since earths existence. We are doing horrific damage. Yes, just humans. And it’s our children and grandchildren who will suffer from our current actions. We have nanoplastic in our brains and species going extinct at a fast rate (100 times faster than pre-humans). Read Silent Spring. Seriously, pull your head out of the ground and do the research. It’s shocking and depressing. I think it’s your ignorance and arrogance to assume humans are not doing horrific damage.

Yeah I thought this was a horrible thing to do to his kids tbh

Absolutely. And just imagine the massive problems on earth that amount of money could solve. Clean water systems for instance for developing countries

We are having a significant impact yes. Damage is subjective and temporary. The Earth is currently half way through its lifespan - it’s been here 4.6 billion years and,
barring obliteration from an asteroid or some such, will be here for another 6 billion+. Humans will likely become extinct in that timeframe - maybe in a few hundred years, maybe in a million. Either way we will just be a foot note in history. All trace of us will be erased. Even the microplastics will be gone in a million years. Your entire stance on the subject is based on your human emotions and human timescales. It’s all utterly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

But not to the species and people living right now. Not to our children and grandchildren. Not to the animals going extinct and struggling with habitat loss. Your big world view is very nice but not very useful in the grand scheme of things. We are doing damage, just because that won’t matter in a million years is not relevant to right now.

Yes, and the only way to solve those issue facing us today is via technological innovation driven by pushing the envelope with ventures like going to the moon.

Going to space isn’t going to fix many of the issues that our ecosystem faces. I work in ecology. Trotting around the moon and adding more trash to the 9000 cubic tonnes already in the earths orbit is not the answer to habitat loss, soil degradation, climate change, marine pollution and so on.

I couldn’t even watch the take off, too many memories of Challenger. Not for me, but I am pleased and grateful for the sake of human endeavour and achievement there are braver men and women than me who are willing to do it!

If everyone were so risk-averse, or simply chicken, nothing would have been explored, discovered etc., I can't imagine Edmund Hillary standing at base camp and whining Oh, I can't do this, it's a bit risky and there's the family to think of!

Wow I’ve found my page here. I absolutely love space. I watched interviews of the crew and the lady said that as a child she loved anything that made her feel small, like the ocean and mountains. I totally get this feeling, I find space absolutely fascinating. I would love to go but I think my anxiety would take over, plus I’d be claustrophobic in that small ship they’re living in for 10 days. I think it’s amazing though that as humans we have this relenting need to explore as much as we can. I understand they want to try and create a base to see if we can do the same to Mars in the 2030s, but surely we need to come out of our solar system because the whole point is we’re buggared if our sun dies? Or would mars be safer than earth for a long while longer if our sun slowly expands and dies? I wonder what the thinking behind Mars in the 2030’s is?

@Notmyreality That's a pretty high bar you're setting for 'is something significant': will it be perceptible in a million years! I think human-caused climate change meets it though.
a. humans are causing mass extinction
b. the last time the earth's CO2 levels were as high as they are today, sea levels were 12-32m higher
c. the likelihood of triggering positive feedback loops where warming causes further warming
Sending people to space isn't going to help avoid worst case scenarios. What we need is political willingness to use the technology we already have and move away from fossil fuel dependence. It's a political problem not a technology problem - just look how much damage the election of Trump has caused (in so many ways!).

sounds like a movie

Why hasn't Trump mentioned them and the NASA mission? Doesn't he like not being centre of attention?

The whole of the moon is barren not just the original landing site!

The deeper craters in the Moon's high polar regions will never have been subjected to direct sunlight or solar heating so the theory/? evidence is there may be water ice still present, possibly just sub-service, in those regions...and that's where the Artemis landings are meant to be headed.

The Apollo landings (six) were all at relatively equatorial sites, where the surface would have been baked and stripped of any volatiles/water ice by solar radiation billions of years ago.

I'd love to go into space, we are all going to die. If you die and get to look at earth from space thats a much better death than getting dementia and rotting away. It must make you feel so in touch with the universe, it would be amazing. Plus I believe in an afterlife so if you die it's just the start of something new. Good luck to them. What an exciting journey.

Exactly but these brainrots think that climate change wouldn't happen without humans. Nevermind the climate has constantly changed throughout the billions of years before humans and will do so after humans. The trouble is the climate change propaganda makes billions of pounds so it will continually be pushed and people just swallow it hook line and sinker.

You and me both

BTW if you visited the command capsule while at NASA, did you realise the gantry you used to access it was the very one used by the crew of Apollo 11 before they left for the moon?

I'm writing the script!😊

If people stayed their comfort zone, the human race would still be living in caves and hunting sabre toothed tigers with flint axes.

I think it’s truly remarkable what the human race can achieve when it puts its mind to it.

As John Glenn allegedly said, "exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts -- all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract". They've already had to reboot the toilet. I'm not sure what is being gained by sending people rather than machines, seems like a lot of willy waving.

I agree. I admire them, what an amazing experience, and it pushes the boundaries in every sense.

"Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of," he added.

Thats what one of the astronauts said. Humanity would be spending the billions on improving the life of people on earth, using the money to provide food, shelter and healthcare. The whole thing makes me sick. We will never live in space, concentrate on improving where we do live.

I would never have the guts to do it, however, I think this mission is incredible and important. We’ve learnt so much from people who are willing to explore and push boundaries. Scientific endeavour is important.

No one doesn’t have food, shelter or healthcare because money is being spent on space exploration.

There is no shortage of resources. The issue is the allocation of those resources.