A professor says to stop doing it, because it’s “imperialist.”
I do sort of agree with this, though: “Mandel said the space industry is ‘highly bureaucratic, highly politicized, and highly technical,’ and the more she learned the more she began to question the utility of continued manned space operations.”
She’s not wrong about that; I question its utility, the way NASA continues to go about it. It certainly doesn’t seem worth the money to me. But that’s a separate issue from SpaceX’s methods and goals which, unlike the government human-spaceflight program, which is run primarily as a jobs program, are focused on actually moving humanity into space in a serious way. But she seems to be damning all of human spaceflight with the bad example set by NASA. And I’m sure that she thinks that Elon is even more “imperialist” than NASA.
[Late-morning update]
Don’t be a puddlefish:
The first entity to establish a Mars colony will be the universe's first trillionaire.
— Devon Eriksen (@Devon_Eriksen_) October 2, 2024
Lately, we've had a lot of puddlefish whining about how "we" shouldn't go to Mars.
Some of them actually think they get a vote, based on economic illiteracy and the delusion that SpaceX is… https://t.co/7dCy04qecV
She’s a PhD candidate and “outer space anthropologist”. And arguing against sending people to space. Which would mean there would be no anthropes to logy.
That sounds like a made up degree on the order of cryptozoology and exobiology. They have nothing to actually study so they just make up things to sound academic.
It seems if NASA wanted to send people in space, they should have done some work related to artificial gravity. And it should start with lunar and Mars level artificial gravity.
Or find the lowest threshold of how much artificial gravity is needed.
But in terms lunar crew exploration, one does not need artificial gravity to “work”, but the plan is explore the Moon and then explore Mars. And Mars exploration, probably needs some understanding of making artificial gravity, work.
There’s a centrifuge that was supposed to be launched to the ISS 20 years ago, moldering in a Japanese warehouse.
That PhD candidate should find a job now, before her PhD…
Repeat after me: “Want fries with that?”