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Comment by eternityforest | Hacker News Reader

I would not want to ho to space without full redundancy for getting back.

Then again, I don't want to go to space at all with current tech and my opinion is probably different from those who do.

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if they knocked on my door today with an offer to, i'd leave without packing a bag first.

Same, even if the offer was "we need to send a live human to Mars to see how he'll die, to improve the next one". My kids would all get kisses and I'm off to die en route to Mars, no regrets.

Fool, do not throw your life away. There is no nobility in doing what can be accomplished without risk to human life. Robotics vs Human exploration: Robotics win. Full stop. Anything a human can do in space or on another planet, a robot can do, only cheaper and without the risk of losing a life.

Why do you assume that this is about "nobility"? I would guess it's just to satisfy a personal curiosity. A feeling I totally share.

There's a difference between watching a livestream and actually being there, just as there's a difference between seeing a picture of $COUNTRY vs. actually visiting

Okay, sure, curiosity. You want to sacrifice your life (a life) for curiosity, when robotics can fulfill the need without loss of life. Oh, a personal experience, that will justify the loss of life?

Every life is lost eventually, all we have along the way is personal experiences.

There's also a huge difference from just seeing a shuttle take off on TV vs in real life from relatively close... Can't even imagine being in it.

This is why no one has scaled the peak of Everest or stood on the South Pole. It's also why we still do bloodletting and watch our friends and relatives die from common diseases and infections.

I for one want to soar to the heavens and experience it first hand, not vicariously through staring at a screen full of numbers. Exploration is a human experience, not just a way to get grant money to invest for retirement.

Nobody scaled Everest until they were confident they could get back down. The same for the south pole (although that didn't turn out as well as Everest).

Nothing noble really, just a personal dream. Lots of people have faced certain death for less. Going out on one's own terms, to fulfill a dream, is probably the best way to go.

Actually do someone here know the odds of survival for the crew during apolo 11? more than 70% or less?

I've heard interviews with engineers looking back where some say it was 2/3 and some say 1/2.

Then again, there are plenty of quotes from NASA engineers describing the 1/10,000 per flight expected fatalities of shuttle as being ridiculously pessimistic, so clearly this is hard to estimate.

These types of calculations tend to suffer from the "unknown unknowns" side of things. The number only includes "known unknowns".

Anyone's guess I suppose, but Neil Armstrong is quoted as saying that he thought they had a 90% chance of returning to the earth safely and a 50% chance of a successful landing.

Quote is at around 19.00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzOIh2eHqQ

This is the most depressing thing I've read on this website. There's no nobility in pointlessly dying on a rock in space.

Nobility is not my goal.

> rock in space.

What do you think Earth is?

It is even less than a rock: looking from some distance, it is just a pale blue dot https://youtu.be/wupToqz1e2g

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