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inspired to find a man to take you for a ride to space (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I understand a trip into orbit is hard to pass up, but how could you not know what riding on Bezos' rocket would look like to the rest of us. It's just so gross.

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  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    It wasn't even a trip into orbit. Their rather short voyage was a sub-orbital hop. A low orbit of Earth requires a speed on the order of 8 km per second - Blue Origin can make about Mach 3, from what I read, which is circa 1 km per second. You go up, you go down. That's it. They don't even go particularly high (~100 km), and the apogee doesn't keep you "above the atmosphere" (LOL) for long. Given the risks, I'm not sure it's worth it, personally.

    If we really want to inspire people by pointing out women's accomplishments in spaceflight and space exploration, maybe we should be talking about people like Eileen Collins (astronaut on key shuttle/station missions), Lindy Elkin-Stanton (science lead for Psyche, the first to a metallic asteroid), Maria Zuber (lead the GRAIL mission to the Moon, co-discovered the rifts in the Ocean of Storms), or Mimi Aung (lead engineer for the Ingenuity 'copter on Mars 2020). And I've only mentioned a few Americans with recent work here; the rest of the world has plenty of enterprising female space scientists and aerospace engineers.

    I share the general distaste in this thread and on Lemmy generally for this sort of celebrity stunt, and I'm glad to see the criticism. I do sometimes think, however, that for a certain kind of person, Bezos and Musk are becoming associated or even synonymous with spaceflight/exploration generally, which is a dangerous association to make. People have many, diverse and very legitimate reasons for going to space - there's a lot more going on than joyrides and ego trips.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    The funny thing is news sites are barely, if not at all, talking about the only two female scientists on board. If you don't know their names, you will not even be able to find it in most articles because all they care about are Katy Perry and Laurent Sanchez. lol truly a historic victory for the common female

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    I do sometimes think, however, that for a certain kind of person, Bezos and Musk are becoming associated or even synonymous with spaceflight/exploration generally, which is a dangerous association to make. People have many, diverse and very legitimate reasons for going to space - there’s a lot more going on than joyrides and ego trips.

    I do want to elaborate on that, if you don't mind.

    I'm all for spaceflight and mars settlement because it has many advantages. One of the most relevant ones is that it can stimulate the economy. Think about what the 1960s Moon mission did to the US: It inspired people and created jobs. Now think mars settlement could do something similar, but bigger. That in itself is a big win for the US, though there are more reasons to go, such as technological breakthrough and getting rid of the billionaires from Earth. There are more reasons to go, ofc, such as distracting Trump from wreaking havoc on the environment and minorities (remember: trump bashes against minorities because he needs to keep his voters voting for him by demonstrating power. If he can do something less destructive to demonstrate power, such as helping make settlements on mars, that hopefully is enough to satisfy his voters and makes it easier to shift his focus away from minorities).

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago

    “Look girls, IM REALLY RICH! Bezos might have destroyed thousands of women’s lives, but he sent ME to space! Idolize me for being so rich I get everything for free! Bow down peasants!”

    I wish it would have exploded and so people could dance in the rain of her blood.

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