Comment on Made in space? Start-up brings factory in orbit one step closer to reality

AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Hell yeah! Actual useful industrial endeavors are the way we finally get humans off the planet, this is the way to the future. Once there’s a reason for industry in space, there’s a reason for support industries, construction, material supply, fuel supply, maintenance, etc. With those support services comes reasons for people to start to actually live in space, where they work. And from there, we can start to spread our legs and really “move in” to solar system, and the story of the human race truly begins.

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  • Obi@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Can’t wait for variable mortgage rates, but on mars.

    I’m mostly joking, I think it’s great if we can become space farers, just can’t help but think about what we did the last time we were out colonizing…

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    • kazerniel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Otoh according to Iain Banks’s speculation, space colonisation might be the thing that finally lets humanity toss off the chains of capitalism:

      The thought processes of a tribe, a clan, a country or a nation-state are essentially two-dimensional, and the nature of their power depends on the same flatness. Territory is all-important; resources, living-space, lines of communication; all are determined by the nature of the plane (that the plane is in fact a sphere is irrelevant here); that surface, and the fact the species concerned are bound to it during their evolution, determines the mind-set of a ground-living species. The mind-set of an aquatic or avian species is, of course, rather different.

      Essentially, the contention is that our currently dominant power systems cannot long survive in space; beyond a certain technological level a degree of anarchy is arguably inevitable and anyway preferable.

      To survive in space, ships/habitats must be self-sufficient, or very nearly so; the hold of the state (or the corporation) over them therefore becomes tenuous if the desires of the inhabitants conflict significantly with the requirements of the controlling body. On a planet, enclaves can be surrounded, besieged, attacked; the superior forces of a state or corporation - hereafter referred to as hegemonies - will tend to prevail. In space, a break-away movement will be far more difficult to control, especially if significant parts of it are based on ships or mobile habitats. The hostile nature of the vacuum and the technological complexity of life support mechanisms will make such systems vulnerable to outright attack, but that, of course, would risk the total destruction of the ship/habitat, so denying its future economic contribution to whatever entity was attempting to control it.

      Outright destruction of rebellious ships or habitats - pour encouragez les autres - of course remains an option for the controlling power, but all the usual rules of uprising realpolitik still apply, especially that concerning the peculiar dialectic of dissent which - simply stated - dictates that in all but the most dedicatedly repressive hegemonies, if in a sizable population there are one hundred rebels, all of whom are then rounded up and killed, the number of rebels present at the end of the day is not zero, and not even one hundred, but two hundred or three hundred or more; an equation based on human nature which seems often to baffle the military and political mind. Rebellion, then (once space-going and space-living become commonplace), becomes easier than it might be on the surface of a planet.

      Even so, this is certainly the most vulnerable point in the time-line of the Culture’s existence, the point at which it is easiest to argue for things turning out quite differently, as the extent and sophistication of the hegemony’s control mechanisms - and its ability and will to repress - battles against the ingenuity, skill, solidarity and bravery of the rebellious ships and habitats, and indeed the assumption here is that this point has been reached before and the hegemony has won… but it is also assumed that - for the reasons given above - that point is bound to come round again, and while the forces of repression need to win every time, the progressive elements need only triumph once.

      Concomitant with this is the argument that the nature of life in space - that vulnerability, as mentioned above - would mean that while ships and habitats might more easily become independent from each other and from their legally progenitative hegemonies, their crew - or inhabitants - would always be aware of their reliance on each other, and on the technology which allowed them to live in space. The theory here is that the property and social relations of long-term space-dwelling (especially over generations) would be of a fundamentally different type compared to the norm on a planet; the mutuality of dependence involved in an environment which is inherently hostile would necessitate an internal social coherence which would contrast with the external casualness typifying the relations between such ships/habitats. Succinctly; socialism within, anarchy without. This broad result is - in the long run - independent of the initial social and economic conditions which give rise to it.

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    • frongt@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Well at least there aren’t any natives we’d be oppressing this time.

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• Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  And how much space junk will end up there? Cleaning up afterwards costs more money and long term thinking isn’t something shareholders care about over more profit today.

  The tech is interesting, hopefully governments across the entire planet regulate it well enough. Although at the same time, its not like we really need to care either. In our lifetime its not like any of us are likely to be able to afford to go to space anyway

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  • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    It shouldn’t be too hard to engineer orbit decay as a feature to avoid space junk.

    Consider that space junk is so sparce it’s not really much if a consideration for launches. It’s like the rings of Saturn: the likelihood of a collision is so remote that they didn’t even consider it when we had a satellite move through it.

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    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It’s like the rings of Saturn: the likelihood of a collision is so remote that they didn’t even consider it when we had a satellite move through it.

      I didn’t realize that, what mission is this your talking about? Cassini?

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      • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Yes, Cassini

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    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Pretty sure its the asteroid belt, not planetary rings, that you don’t really need to think about when passing through.

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      • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        It’s my understanding that the idea of a dense asteroid belt (the kind Han Solo might try to hide in) is basically pure fiction, they don’t exist. However… that is essentially exactly what some parts of a planetary ring system may look like up close. So perhaps Han could hide in a planetary ring.

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      • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        The satellite Cassini passed through a less dense section of Saturns rings and was met only by dust particles, despite the rings being populated by objects between 10 meters and the size of mountains.

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• MrSmith@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Why? Why do we need to pollute the earth even more so that the capitalists can gain more capital outside of it?

  We have crises here that are only exacerbated by this dumb need to send people to space.

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  • Gsus4@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Space used to be cool when it was the playground of scientists and engineers. What made it all vomit was the privatization of astronautics to the worst possible assholes.

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    • MrSmith@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Bingo.

      I’m fine with national space programs and whatnot.

      I’m not fine with private sector in space.

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      • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I’m fine with national space programs and whatnot.

        Are you aware of just how much of NASA’s budget was being drained for bullshit ‘cost+’ contracts with Boeing et al?

        Elon sucks, but spacex has progressed space tech significantly, at a much lower cost than before.

        National space programs are great, but the US turned them into a kickbacks program.

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    • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Yup, I’m fine with it being done by a public org in the pursuit of science and furtherment of humanity.

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  • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    We have crises here that are only exacerbated by this dumb need to send people to space.

    The human race is capable of doing more than one thing at a time. That we aren’t working on solving our many crises has nothing to do with whether or not we’re in space. You’re tying together two issues that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

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    • MrSmith@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      “Absolutely nothing to do with each other”

      Do you think rockets burn unicorn farts and exhaust pixie dust?

      We have enough morons sending their penis extensions to space for shits and giggles, we do not want to “start manufacturing in space” so capitalists can fuck the climate up even more for the rest of us.

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      • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Do you think rockets burn unicorn farts and exhaust pixie dust?

        By that logic, pretty much any activity we do exacerbates the crisis. The climate is not being fucked because we’re launching rockets, save your passion for those issues where it actually matters.

        we do not want to “start manufacturing in space”

        Speak for yourself.

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    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      That we aren’t working on solving our many crises has nothing to do with whether or not we’re in space. You’re tying together two issues that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

      Climate change and space travel are literally opposing goals. If we send people to space, we add more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. If we stop polluting the atmosphere with dead dino farts we cant get people into space.

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      • hoch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        The end goal of manufacturing stuff in space is so we don’t have to waste resources to get stuff to orbit. If we can extract resources from asteroids, then we can just build up there without needing countless rocket launches and further pollution of our environment. The sooner we can become self-sustaining in space, the better.

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