By all rights, this should be something I am deeply passionate about. I’ve been in tech/engineering my entire adult life and was obsessed with NASA as a kid. I even live on the east coast of Florida and can sometimes see the launches/landings over the ocean. But I just… don’t care at all. I’m not suffering from depression or any other malaise, and generally things are fine. But I haven’t clicked on a single link or looked at a single image. I know this has not been the case for many, many people, so I’m wondering what might be different about this launch (or really the whole program in general), and curious if anyone else has found themselves feeling the same.
I’m just glad the thing didn’t explode on launch or come flying apart on reentry.
NASA’s problem is that their goals get derailed every time the executive changes hands, so they serve no strategic purpose. The moonbase idea is idiotic. Getting bots out to explore asteroids for potential mining is not. NASA should be building the infrastructure for that.
Isn’t one of this missions main goals testing new tech and theories to move us towards exactly what you are asking for?
They could have done this forty years ago. And a moonbase is a waste of money and time. And it’s all moot because Trump just nuked another $14B off NASA’s budget anyway.
The second-best time is now though
I wouldn’t say a moon base is idiotic on its own. It seems the next logical step in space exploration after a space station like the ISS to me. But as someone who also didn’t really follow the mission: I think this is because at the same time our home (i.e. earth) has such massive problems that take up all the attention. I’m sure at boring times I would have followed that mission very closely…