14 thoughts on “Astronaut Suicide Versus Astronaut Wonder”

  1. What appears extreme on Earth must become ordinary to some extent for those who leave it

    Imagining an ordinary life BEO is so difficult for some that they simply can’t do it. We’ve all been told how life will be a daily struggle to survive when it could be nothing of the sort.

    Life on earth could be a daily struggle (and is for some) but it’s not what we’ve come to expect. What’s the difference? No, it is not the environment. Humans adjust the environment here on earth as they will every where else.

    The difference is expectation. I focus on mars because of its abundance of resources which means it doesn’t have to be any sort of struggle. It has to be started right (not as a top down plan… freedom works every where.)

    People that equate mars with the arctic are idiots. The martian colonists will one day tell them so… slowly, using small words.

    A struggle happens when you have to do every single thing for yourself. That isn’t how we do things on earth and it isn’t how we should do things on mars. We have people on earth that specialize on keeping our propane tanks filled (city folk may not understand how this works.) The same on mars where some will specialize on filling tanks of various consumables for their customers.

    We don’t walk around in space suits on earth… neither will they usually do so on mars. They have a whole world of space for initially few colonists. Making abundant shirtsleeve environments on mars will be something they do because there’s nothing preventing them.

    1. We’ve all been told how life will be a daily struggle to survive when it could be nothing of the sort.

      We’re told how life on earth is a daily struggle to survive when it is noting of the sort. And the tellers of these false tells are awarded. We’re not going anywhere until such nonsense changes.

      1. That’s typical, but you’ve got it backwards Leland. We should colonize mars as an example to all the idiots they leave behind. Martians are going to require the kind of practical/pragmatic thinking these spoiled stars never have to suffer. It will be a new branch of humanity that will put a lie to the nanny state.

        I swear they will give us new reasons to laugh at the idiocy of our ‘betters.’ They will even put a lie to those we consider well reasoned. Not because the martians will be some kind of superior humans, but because their environment will lead to faster progress via Darwin awards. Harsh reality is the best training.

        Life used to weed out the stupid. Now we give them awards.

        1. By “we’re not going”, I meant NASA. If you can get there on your own or via SpaceX, more power to you. You are correct about the mentality that will leave the planet. It’s the same that took off across the Atlantic to what was then the New World.

  2. There’s a whole different concept struggle in the 21st century that really is far far far from what a “struggle” on Mars would be like.

    We “struggle” with our commute to work and traffic, picking up the kids after school, we “struggle” with balancing work and vacation. We “struggle” with saving enough for a comfortable retirement. What we typically don’t “struggle” with is running out of air in the next 10 minutes. Losing electrical power and worrying about freezing to death in the next hour, ya’ know little things like that….

    I had this wonderful conversation with a co-worker this past week on life in New England prior to the 1830s. Particularly prior to the year 1650. A little bit of a different definition of the word “struggle”. One perhaps more apropos to Martian settlement vs our 21st Century concept of “struggle” today. Minus the hostile native human inhabitants that could kill you and carry off your wife and kids.

    1. What we typically don’t “struggle” with is running out of air in the next 10 minutes. Losing electrical power and worrying about freezing to death in the next hour, ya’ know little things like that….

      Done right you would have days to rectify the situation, but you make a good point. My point is the environment shapes people in ways that can improve their perspective on reality. In this case very much for the better. We are losing the daily struggle today because it allows the sloppy thinking of various groups like SJWs, Jihadis, apologists, etc.

      Justice tends to be very swift when fools can get you killed.

    2. That may be true for some people but not all. There are many people who live modern lives who don’t have bad things happen all the time, but are able to react when they do. The do it yourself type people.

      There is also a popular niche of people who choose to live off grid and practice subsistence lifestyles. The struggle to survive isn’t quite the same as it would be on Mars for the reasons you mentioned but in some ways it is. These people have to be creative problem solvers because the store is too far away and things are too expensive.

      This is something all humans posses, even if they don’t know it, and will be taken to Mars. The Mars environment does require that inhabitants be knowledgeable but this isn’t new to humans, its just a different set of things to be knowledgeable about.

      1. Agreed. But there is a difference. Living on Earth “off the grid” at a “subsistence level” is still very very different from “living on Mars”. For example what does it mean to be at a “subsistence level” in an environment that you didn’t evolve in? There is a false assumption and an oxymoron there I think. You must terra-form to at least some degree to survive. To get back to my New England history example, there were plenty of Europeans whose lives we here in the 21st century would not have considered “easy” and yet was survivable in their Old World homes, yet some chose, for various reasons, to cast their lot in the New World. Survival rates of those early settlers were not good nor were the success rates of the early colonies, esp. in what would later become Virginia. Early settlements in the defensible regions around Cape Cod had to be abandoned for more survivable yet far more dangerous lands on the shores around Plymouth. Successful colonies on Mars will happen, barring a species ending catastrophe on Earth happening first. I’m not sure of the timetable. In a perfect universe, Martian colonies deemed non-viable would be abandoned, just as some were in the New World prior to 1620, but hopefully with 21st century technology not with the accompanying loss of life. But of course that is just my hope.

        1. You must terra-form to at least some degree to survive.

          Terraforming will happen one habitat at a time. There is no need to terraform the planet itself. They are not going to lack for space. When I talk about mansions and malls I’m not talking about the trivial examples we have here on earth. I’m talking about malls the eventual size of a city which they can begin working on the moment they land.

          The whole point of mars is it doesn’t require any massive changes. Venus, before colonization, is the place to practice terraforming. By then millions will already be living comfortably on an unterraformed mars.

          1. “Incremental Terraforming” would be a very important industry on Mars, or most other places we would want to settle off Earth. I can see whole businesses whose primary activity is tunneling out great halls to be sealed and fitted with lighting and atmosphere processing by other businesses. These halls then being used for homes, agriculture, business parks, etc. as needed.

  3. At fist, I was shocked that there was an unreported epidemic of astronaut suicides. How wasn’t this bigger news? And it came off as too serendipitous that astronaut’s childhoods were chronicled so well. But they both turned out to be fake.

    Except the kid one might have captured actual excitement, or was it all stagecraft?

    The suicide one, is more a reflection of national mood and ignorance.

    1. The suicide one was disturbing in its desire to get the look just right or make it clear the results. Yeah, I have an idea what would happen next when the Astronaut was climbing the side of the bridge; I’ve seen it in real life. I don’t need art to express it.

  4. “What’s missing, again, is the ordinariness of daily life for the astronaut, the connection, the community, but also the humdrumness of life in space once a routine is established ”

    Sort of reminds me of the old quote from Kirk. Someone asks him if he “came from outer space” or something like that.
    “Oh No, I’m from Ohio, I just work in space” – Cpt. James T Kirk

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