Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

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It's a feedback loop. There's a reason why you'd hear Star Trek credited as the reason why many people would go on to become engineers. A reason why people in STEM like to read science fiction books.

Hell, the field of rocketry was itself started by dreamers. Tsiolkovsky and von Braun weren't inspired by ambitious things, they dreamed of ambitious things, and helped made them happen. Goddard reportedly credited Wells[0] as the initial source of inspiration; Tsiolkovsky was apparently moved by the works of Verne[1].

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What we need, really, is more dreamers in positions of money and influence. People with enough money and political clout to move the needle. Because at this point, what's stopping us is no longer science, just the bank account, and some engineering work of the kind which gets solved when you throw money at it.

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[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard#Cherry_tree_...

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky#Early_l...

100% agree with the feedback loop, but do want to add the following.

Money magically “becomes” available when there is a profit to be made. Part of what we need to do as a community is finding ways to “monetize” the activities we want to see. Part of this is having the visionaries, but part of this is about “closing” business cases. Things are better now, but the old joke of “How do you make a million in space? Start with 10 million” still applies.

We should not have to wait for / rely on billionaires to figure out how to make “activities we want to see” profitable. If “we” is the general public and “want” is strong enough, then taxation and democracy should be suitable tools to make it happen.

While I agree spiritually, I find that it is more effective to follow the “rules” of the universe on these things.

Specific example: law of gravity. If you don’t understand it, you still are impacted by it. So you can either learn it and use it (to make airplanes) or you can just try to jump into the sky and be upset why you can’t fly.

How this applies here: Why is there a lack of political will to “do” space? Well it comes down to kitchen table politics and budgeting. If push comes to shove, “we” as a country think that NASA is something “nice to have” and will budget it at the level of say a “nicer car” then is absolutely necessary to get from a to b safely. But if it will come in the way of safety/food on the table/etc, it will be the first to be cut.

Until there is a true “need”, space exploration will always be a “nice to have” rather than a core necessity.

Would you send me an email (see profile) please?

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