Gregory's ServerI felt like sounding off in the YouTube comments section.
 56 comments
@hisham_hm Eu falava aqui sobre como eu perdi o tesão com exploração espacial depois que virou hobby de bilionário ainda esses dias. Eu jovem estaria vidrado no lançamento do James Webb. O da fase adulta cagou pro assunto. Tua resposta captura muito desse sentimento.  @hisham_hm heh. good effort, but don't expect the comment to last long on youtube. our Benevolent Corporate Overlords don't like anti-billionaire talk.  In this light it makes a lot of sense they don't want to make a museum out of it. Relevant, maybe: https://social.treehouse.systems/@angelastella/112706137873651579  @hisham_hm Yes! We need more publicity of the international, co-operative, facets of the ISS - and the effects on the astro/cosmonauts of their planet-watching. Will this continue? @hisham_hm I remember having to explain, as a bairn, why I wasn't a big fan of WBush's Mars plans, when I'm such a big space fanboy - was it just that I didn't like WBush? And I eventually came around to "I want a Mars base, but I want a human Mars base, not an American Mars base". And so I DEFINITELY don't want a privatised Mars base, or a privatised space station.  @hisham_hm well said. And it is still a delight to me and my wife whenever we see it passing over and to know about the people on board, possibly looking down on us. @hisham_hm the "eventually you have to replace the old with the new" of modern software and devices — and also nobody expected things to go that south when setting that date
 @hisham_hm @marick Yes. The Expanse (without any alien tech) makes for good storytelling but I don’t want my descendants to have to live it.  @hisham_hm Damn right. I was sad about the last space shuttle flight too, and for the same reason: the old isn't being replaced with the new. It's fading away with the inadequate replacement of vague promises of private innovation.  @bright_helpings @hisham_hm yes, absolutely this. I do sometimes get frustrated with people (oh god especially during my brief stint at NASA) who get overly attached to nostalgia for no good reason. But sometimes there is VERY good reason and the next phase of the plan is really bad. And then it's like nostalgia for when your grandparents could buy an appliance and it would last the rest of their life.  @platypus @bright_helpings @hisham_hm but this last part is precisely the kind of nostalgia you describe as having a good reason - appliances last less because of planned obsolescence and globalization, precisely those processes that are endangering the future of our planet and making our world worse. nostalgia always serves a function, as the late great Svetlana Boym taught us. 🤓🙂 @loshmi that—is literally what I said? There is no “but” from my sentences to yours? Some space “nerd” nostalgia I could really take a miss on (eg Pluto does not care exactly how it’s classified, people claim to love science and then hate that science refines and revises itself). I then gave an example of—exactly what you said? How sometime it’s quite good? 🤨 I don’t know what your reply means @platypus I’m sorry, I misunderstood! I understood your “And then..” as being “but”, as this is how some people use that phrasing. You’re absolutely right!  @chfour @hisham_hm "[NASA] is also enabling private industry development of commercially owned and operated space stations, which are planned prior to the deorbit of the International Space Station to prevent a gap in services.” My impassioned rant really resonated with a lot of people here. I took the boosts and favorites like hundreds of hugs. We're all emotional about the future we lost and have to rebuild. A few people replied saying that my YT comment would be shadowbanned. I went back to the video and, even logged in, it disappeared. Honestly, I don't mind. It's up to YouTube to run whatever policies they want; it's their "instance". I don't expect justice from private companies. And that's precisely my point.  @hisham_hm Well, shit. I hadn't heard that they're scrapping it. My 11yo daughter is going to be devastated. Just last month, we visited a space museum that had an ISS exhibit, and she was fascinated. It was her favorite thing in the museum, and she said she wants to go there someday. One of the reasons I despise billionaires is that they are why my kid can't have nice things.  @hisham_hm > A few people replied saying that my YT comment would be shadowbanned. I went back to the video and, even logged in, it disappeared.
Typical corposcum moment.  @hisham_hm I just saw that Russia is building a station. Maybe, once Putin is gone, we can make that a joint venture like the ISS.  @hisham_hm me every time some news comes up about the ISS I get really sad like recently I read that fucking SpaceX is gonna supply the deorbiting vehicle depressing really @hisham_hm I mean it is getting old, I'm assuming it's gonna start failing at some point and it's not something you're gonna leave be. But yeah all this and adding more scrap to the orbit... It all sucks. @nosville22 Someone in the comments mentioned there was a rejected option of moving it to a higher orbit and keeping it there as a historical relic. If that was feasible, imagine being able to inspect the ruins of the ISS a thousand years from now. We lament the loss of things like the Library of Alexandria and whatnot, and yet we're scrapping our own history that is happening today.  I was bummed, too, but, from what I read, "feasible" is doing a lot of work in this case P.s., I'm right there with you about the significance of the ISS. I'm gutted thinking about it.  @hisham_hm 100% spot on. It represents something beautiful and it's been wrecked by privatization, funding cuts, and the retirement of the shuttle programs with no reliable replacement. It really is a reflection of our times. ☹️ @hisham_hm So instead of Star Trek... it'll be Elysium. 😭 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film)  @hisham_hm That's alot. However NASA has an AI powered rover on Mars. The ISS is still a dockable station to help catapult additional tech and provide an environment which is vital to learning how humans can not only live but thrive in space and (with all do respect) get the fuck off this planet. 😂  @hisham_hm The elephant in the room is that as an enclosed ecosystem, a spacecraft eventually becomes uninhabitable. The same was found in the Biosphere 2 experiment on Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2  I'm still not convinced they couldn't just park it in a La Grange point somewhere, and don't give me the money argument – a lot of it is wasted of bullshit. Maybe use it as a way station for asteroid mining? @hisham_hm same thing with the space shuttle. It was only ever, at best a working proof of concept. Yet its retirement garnered an open coffin cavalcade across the USA.  @hisham_hm And there's a spider up there now! De-orbit and burn it NOW! /jk, I'm not actually arachnophobic.  Yeah, it represents a different time. A better time in many ways. I don't blame anyone for wanting to keep this last symbol of peace and cooperation between east and west alive.  @hisham_hm@mastodon.social THE ISS IS LITTERALLY THE COOLEST THING HUMANS EVER BUILT :neocat_cry_loud: @hisham_hm Perhaps of interest, given the subject: ———————————-In Space, Someone *Can* Hear You Sing   |
@hisham_hm absolutely spot on.