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Comment by CartyBoston | Hacker News Reader

The spacecraft has an ad prominently displayed on itself, it's depressing.

We will never reproduce the experience of 10 year old me watching the moon landing with my dad. It's all just egos and entertainment now.

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This feels unnecessary cynical. I could understand if the spacecraft said "Drink Ovaltine" or something else just advertising with paid placement, but the brand marks on it are just highlighting the organizations the actually built the thing. I was originally confused/skeptical about Columbia, but they did actually contribute to the design and construction of the lander, even if this press release is a little puffed up: https://investor.columbia.com/news-events/press-releases/det....

Also, you say "It's all just egos and entertainment now." What do you think it was in 1969? Is "beat the Russians" somehow a more noble goal than "sell a product"?

Eventually, spacecraft will look like a NASCAR paint job.

Back when I used to help organized and run a technology-specific usergroup, where we were constantly working corporate sponsors for donations to pay for food/beverages, I joked that on meeting nights I would gladly wear a NASCAR style jumpsuit, emblazoned with every sponsor brand logo/slogan. At least we would be honest shills. Sigh... no one took me up on the offer.

I still think that politicians should wear a jumpsuit with all of their corporate sponsors

Perhaps briefly. Eventually they will look like cargo ships.

What makes you think a cargo ship can't have a NASCAR paint job?

It's not that they can't, it's that they don't.

The US flag on the early moon landings, was absolutely an advertisement; the whole thing was done as a propaganda riposte to the Soviet Union's Sputnik. Doesn't mean it's not awesome.

There is a meaningful difference between national pride and 2 for 1 at Dominos.

True, for instance no wars have yet been fought over 2 for 1 at Dominos.

Not yet

This is the first step.

2 for 1 at Dominos has also, strangely enough, never protected anyone.

Odd that.

Diseased worldview

In 2001 Pizza Hut actually had its logo on a Russian rocket, and delivered pizza to cosmonauts on ISS as part of a robotic resupply mission.

Did they tip?

That's because you were a child at the time. A child now will most likely have the same sense of awe and wonder you had, not the cynical point of view you've developed over time.

A child now will be totally unaware about that because he will be occupied doomscrolling whatever trends is current now on TikTok.

I get where you're coming from with the AD on the spacecraft. It's gross to see an ad for a clothing company on the moon.

But, NASA is predominately displayed on all of the original moonshot crafts. That's an advertisement for that organization. . .

And, I'm 100% sure ego had nearly everything to do with the original space race. Beating the Russians and what-not. That seems, in hindsight, to be very ego driven?

I think saying "this organization built this craft that went to space" is a bit different than "buy shit from this other company"

The Columbia logo on this craft is both. They're advertising the brand in a very cool and unique way AND they contributed significant heat shield technology to the craft itself.

It's about self-identification not advertisement. And NASA isn't a privately-owned for-profit corporation. It's like putting "US NAVY" on a battleship, except instead it's a vehicle furthering mankind's technological development.

NASA is an organization that represents the collective efforts of Americans (and others!). Columbia clothing is a private business that maximizes profit.

Experience is irreproducible. It depends on too many factors, we even don't know the full list of them, and some of them change irreversibly with time passing. You will not be 10 years old anymore. It is not a good reason for a depression, you can experience world now like you couldn't being a 10 year old boy.

Actually one of the absolute best things about having kids, that is not reproducible for no-child lifestyles, is seeing everything for the first time through their eyes.

All the other stuff people say about parenting can be reproduced via service or volunteering or something else. But that experience absolutely is unique.

Magic is real. The world is wild and exciting, and it's all there for that kid. It's amazing to watch and be a part of.

So, while you can never go back to being at 10 year old boy, you absolutely can get a taste of what that's like via adoption or having your own. In my opinion, that is.

Ahh yes, empathy can give us experiences we are unable to get ourselves.

> not reproducible for no-child lifestyles

I see what you did there, heh!

Just here to both support and counter this a bit. Kids are absolutely a great way to see joy in the world again!

... but they don't have to be yours. I've supervised those for my peers, played temporary dad, all of it.

Sure, it's time-boxed, but that may be the goal. Trading seeing "everything" new, for "plenty"

It's carrying a payload for Columbia, among other things, which makes this type of marking generally called a “sponsor logo” rather than an “advertisement”:

“Besides NASA’s tech and navigation experiments, Intuitive Machines sold space on the lander to Columbia Sportswear to fly its newest insulating jacket fabric; sculptor Jeff Koons for 125 mini moon figurines; and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for a set of cameras to capture pictures of the descending lander.”

https://apnews.com/article/moon-landing-private-company-intu...

the moon landing rocket said "usa" on the side and had flags. that's the same thing, just a bigger corporation

I wonder what kind of analytics the adtech will bring them, and how invasive to their privacy it will be

I’m just glad it’s not something “too on the nose” comedically, like for Coca-Cola or something that makes me think of Wall-E. At least it’s a hiking/adventurey brand and not KFC.

The first Mars colonizers will stick a coca-cola flag in and everyone but few PR people will sigh collectively

We planted an American flag on the moon. An advertisement for the Coca-Cola of American imperialism versus the Pepsi of Soviet communism. The entire space race was literally nothing but ego and propaganda.

We also hit a few golf balls. Give us some credit.

How dare they attempt to defray their costs.

How dare they put an ad on the moon.

We are truly spreading the worst of humanity into the cosmos. Good job it's only us that appear able to witness it.

Defraying costs by using ads is a strawman. If you can't afford to do something, maybe don't do it. If you really, really want to do it, maybe ask yourself if the world genuinely needs what you're doing. If it does, find a way. If the only way you can do it is by selling advertising, you've taken as mis-step.

That's an extreme position to take that rests on the claim that sponsorship/advertising is objectively bad.

Media & journalism have been underpinned by advertising for over a century. Tons of educational and informative services are available to the public for free because of advertising. Sponsorship has built art galleries, hospital wings, research centers, etc.

In this case, there's a relatively innocuous logo on a robotic lander that is 230k miles away on a desolate rock. It's not like this is a billboard in a nature preserve.

Whether advertising is objectively bad isn't necessarily the debate, but at some point it can cross a line. That line might be different for everyone, but most people will have it. You yourself give an example of something you suggest might be unaccaptable to some:

> billboard in a nature preserve

Where's the line? Why shouldn't we put billboards in nature preserves?

> If you can't afford to do something, maybe don't do it.

Clearly they can afford to do what they just did.

Oh, you don't like how they raised money? Good, pay attention to something else, they aren't doing things for your approval.

I would dearly love to "pay attention" somewhere that isn't plastered in advertising.

They didn't do it for approval, but they sure as shit didn't ask for approval either.

And I'd like to see a breakdown of exactly how much the ad revenue contributed to payload delivery.

It's almost as bad as when they put the Castile flag on the Santa Maria!

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