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Comment by CydeWeys | Hacker News Reader

The public has no appetite for dead astronauts. It's simply not workable to be so cavalier with astronaut lives, even if the astronauts themselves are willing.

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I think you are right, but there is something wrong if we can't handle an astronaut or two for scientific progress yet are more than happy to throw bodies into the middle-east.

So I question whether or not it matters what the public thinks in this area. Maybe they can just do the work without making it a spectacle. Then an astronaut dies, it makes news for a bit, and the distracted populace moves on in a week.

Manned space flight (especially to the moon) is a stunt. Much easier and less risky to sent robots.

Used to be the goal of the stunt was to stand up to the Soviets. Now it would be for... what? Even less. Definitely not worth lives.

This is a common recurring argument I see regarding human flight.

You say it's worthless for humans to leave Earth. I believe, in the long term, it is critical. And I agree it is a bit of a "stunt" in that exploration has been a human endeavor for thousands of years. It inspires new generations of scientists, and ideally provides a sense of shared national/global pride.

> You say it's worthless for humans to leave Earth

Woah, I didn't say that. But I agree with the rest of your comment.

Robots are vastly less effective than humans. Sending robots to mars to build a habitat for example would be several orders of magnitude slower than just sending humans.

...then you should be thankful that you finally have people in charge that don't give a f about "what the public has appetite for"! And you can count on new-media's collaboration to change their tastes! There's clear advantages to US's current political tendencies, at least play those advantages to the max while you still can, and use this to force & catalyze science and technology progress that will benefit the entire human race ...before political tides change again and progress on this becomes harder again.

We all know that in human history "two wrongs CAN make a right" if the cards are well played.

Why does the public get an opinion on an individual’s life when they know the risks? To me that’s the height of hubris and is something that needs to get corrected if we’re to move forward.

The public is horrified at astronauts' death, politicians listen to public opinion, politicians cut budgets to "dangerous missions".

PR for space is a very tricky affair.

The public is horrified at whatever the news tells them to be horrified about.

Government employees getting killed in Iraq happens often enough that it doesn't get clicks.

Government employees getting killed in Space happens so infrequently that it will get tons of clicks.

Simple journalism economics.

the self-referential irony here is astounding, my fellow member of the public showing your opinion.

Because the public is paying for it.

That's why a private company can, should, and probably will be so cavalier to launch the willing astronauts.

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