JVL, I always look forward to your reading recommendations, and this week was spot on because space does indeed flip my skirt, for all the reasons you mentioned and more. SLS has me so frustrated and conflicted. On one hand, it's an incredible feat of engineering and ingenuity by thousands of talented Americans, and will bring us back to the moon (hopefully soon!). On the other hand, the extreme budget overruns, schedule slips, and Congressional mandates of decisions that should have been left to NASA management and engineers all leave me wondering what could have been. The criticism that it's primarily served as a jobs program for legacy aerospace and defense contractors is not without merit (and the merits of this can also be debated!). It was indeed apolitical from a D vs R perspective, but was absolutely political in its origins and motivations.
I highly recommend a piece Eric Berger at Ars published last week that takes a critical but fair (and somewhat personal) look at Artemis/SLS in the broader context of the space program at large. In your style I found a good chunk to quote here but it was way too much, so here's one short paragraph...
"Effectively, NASA was told to look backward when this country's vibrant commercial space industry was ready to push toward sustainable spaceflight by building big rockets and landing them—or storing propellant in space or building reusable tugs to go back and forth between the Earth and Moon. It's as if Congress told NASA to keep printing newspapers in a world with broadband Internet."
I’m not usually a killjoy leftie, but I always wonder if the money spent on space rockets and trips to uninhabited rocks is more valuable than, say, hiring more teachers or fixing some roads. Perhaps the discoveries made pay off in wonder drugs, better caulk or technologies that enhance our defense systems -- on the latter we may never know but need to trust, as we as a nation enjoy tremendous safety from bad actors. But still, I do wonder. My friend says a can-do spirit of discovery is crucial to a people, but so are universal healthcare and bridges that don’t collapse. I don’t want to start an argument; perhaps there are unbiased studies that prove space exploration has tremendous ROI beyond bread and circuses.
I enjoyed all three articles, especially the last two. Once again, however, I was disappointed not to be able to finish the third article, since it continues in a publication to which I don’t subscribe.
Just curious JVL, if you were inspired to read the "Three Body Problem" because of Artemis? Or just because...? Anyhow, after you mentioned it, I decided to reread it. So happy! Thank you!
To me, the "hard things" are learning not to slaughter one another, or rape and murder and torture babies and children and moms and grandmas, or steal or raze or any of the many ways human beings hurt, harm, damage, endanger, destroy, decimate and annihilate each other, every other living thing in all the various kingdoms of the earth, and the planet herself. The REAL hard thing is learning to be more than our worst instincts and living from a place of love and light and truth and kindness. Clearly. Or we'd have mastered it in the past few thousand years.
My husband, a Reagan Republican turned Anti-Trump Liberal, is about as pro-NASA as anyone. We watch Apollo 13 about three times a year. His reaction to Artemis? “Going to the moon is so last century. Been there, done that. Isn’t that kind of money better spent on homelessness and healthcare?” Well, isn’t it?
I am just having a shit-hot party inside when I think about Artemis. A moon base! I have only been waiting for this all of my life- Ad Astra! We are much later to the party than I thought we would be, but just try stopping us now…
And I have always thought that humans are at their shining best when they attempt the hard things.
Many thanks for Jatan’s newsletters. I am now a subscriber.
Boooooo! Modernity scares me. No more modernity. Let’s go back to the good ol’ days when everyone died by 35. Do you think during that period men in their late 20’s were the equivalent of today’s cantankerous 60 and 70 year olds or is cantankery just a function of modern decadence?
JVL, I think in some ways , we as a country, or we as in the "free world" are so good at doing the hard things that it becomes ordinary. After all it was we who developed and rolled out the covid vaccine in record time. Not to mention the other innovations from medical, AI, to the more mundane of Walmarts distribution system.
I agree with Shay Khatiri's take on conservative nationalists. However, I think there is an additional reason for their negative reaction to Sanna Marin. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I can't help but believe there is a major psycho-sexual aspect to the Marin animosity. Her combination of good looks, self-confidence (if you saw the party video, you understand), brains, political ambition and leadership capability is simply too much for these guys (they are mostly guys, right?). Especially leading a country like Finland, which despite being a successful social welfare democracy, still conjures images of tough guys with bolt-action rifles in a snowy forest battling Russians to a draw. Marin creates a level of cognitive dissonance that must be painful. Furthermore, they see Marin dancing at that party and the deepest, darkest part of their brains tells them they are utterly "not worthy." Hope my armchair psychology doesn't offend anyone.
I was promised moon colonies by 2001. Of course, back then, Americans actually had dreams. Instead, we got Reagan, 9/11, senseless wars and Donald Trump. How the mighty have fallen!
JVL, I always look forward to your reading recommendations, and this week was spot on because space does indeed flip my skirt, for all the reasons you mentioned and more. SLS has me so frustrated and conflicted. On one hand, it's an incredible feat of engineering and ingenuity by thousands of talented Americans, and will bring us back to the moon (hopefully soon!). On the other hand, the extreme budget overruns, schedule slips, and Congressional mandates of decisions that should have been left to NASA management and engineers all leave me wondering what could have been. The criticism that it's primarily served as a jobs program for legacy aerospace and defense contractors is not without merit (and the merits of this can also be debated!). It was indeed apolitical from a D vs R perspective, but was absolutely political in its origins and motivations.
I highly recommend a piece Eric Berger at Ars published last week that takes a critical but fair (and somewhat personal) look at Artemis/SLS in the broader context of the space program at large. In your style I found a good chunk to quote here but it was way too much, so here's one short paragraph...
"Effectively, NASA was told to look backward when this country's vibrant commercial space industry was ready to push toward sustainable spaceflight by building big rockets and landing them—or storing propellant in space or building reusable tugs to go back and forth between the Earth and Moon. It's as if Congress told NASA to keep printing newspapers in a world with broadband Internet."
...and you'll have to "Read the whole thing"
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/the-sls-rocket-is-the-worst-thing-to-happen-to-nasa-but-maybe-also-the-best/
I’m not usually a killjoy leftie, but I always wonder if the money spent on space rockets and trips to uninhabited rocks is more valuable than, say, hiring more teachers or fixing some roads. Perhaps the discoveries made pay off in wonder drugs, better caulk or technologies that enhance our defense systems -- on the latter we may never know but need to trust, as we as a nation enjoy tremendous safety from bad actors. But still, I do wonder. My friend says a can-do spirit of discovery is crucial to a people, but so are universal healthcare and bridges that don’t collapse. I don’t want to start an argument; perhaps there are unbiased studies that prove space exploration has tremendous ROI beyond bread and circuses.
I enjoyed all three articles, especially the last two. Once again, however, I was disappointed not to be able to finish the third article, since it continues in a publication to which I don’t subscribe.
Just curious JVL, if you were inspired to read the "Three Body Problem" because of Artemis? Or just because...? Anyhow, after you mentioned it, I decided to reread it. So happy! Thank you!
"America Can Still Do Hard Things"
Should have saved this title for the upcoming Trump indictment, JVL. :)
I don't see "going to the moon" as a hard thing.
To me, the "hard things" are learning not to slaughter one another, or rape and murder and torture babies and children and moms and grandmas, or steal or raze or any of the many ways human beings hurt, harm, damage, endanger, destroy, decimate and annihilate each other, every other living thing in all the various kingdoms of the earth, and the planet herself. The REAL hard thing is learning to be more than our worst instincts and living from a place of love and light and truth and kindness. Clearly. Or we'd have mastered it in the past few thousand years.
I know it’s good not to be Dugin these days.
Wasn't Dugina blown up in her father, Dugin's car, that she - for some reason - chose to drive?
That picture of the Moon is amazing....
My husband, a Reagan Republican turned Anti-Trump Liberal, is about as pro-NASA as anyone. We watch Apollo 13 about three times a year. His reaction to Artemis? “Going to the moon is so last century. Been there, done that. Isn’t that kind of money better spent on homelessness and healthcare?” Well, isn’t it?
I am just having a shit-hot party inside when I think about Artemis. A moon base! I have only been waiting for this all of my life- Ad Astra! We are much later to the party than I thought we would be, but just try stopping us now…
And I have always thought that humans are at their shining best when they attempt the hard things.
Many thanks for Jatan’s newsletters. I am now a subscriber.
Boooooo! Modernity scares me. No more modernity. Let’s go back to the good ol’ days when everyone died by 35. Do you think during that period men in their late 20’s were the equivalent of today’s cantankerous 60 and 70 year olds or is cantankery just a function of modern decadence?
JVL, I think in some ways , we as a country, or we as in the "free world" are so good at doing the hard things that it becomes ordinary. After all it was we who developed and rolled out the covid vaccine in record time. Not to mention the other innovations from medical, AI, to the more mundane of Walmarts distribution system.
Jack
I agree with Shay Khatiri's take on conservative nationalists. However, I think there is an additional reason for their negative reaction to Sanna Marin. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I can't help but believe there is a major psycho-sexual aspect to the Marin animosity. Her combination of good looks, self-confidence (if you saw the party video, you understand), brains, political ambition and leadership capability is simply too much for these guys (they are mostly guys, right?). Especially leading a country like Finland, which despite being a successful social welfare democracy, still conjures images of tough guys with bolt-action rifles in a snowy forest battling Russians to a draw. Marin creates a level of cognitive dissonance that must be painful. Furthermore, they see Marin dancing at that party and the deepest, darkest part of their brains tells them they are utterly "not worthy." Hope my armchair psychology doesn't offend anyone.
"Russia is where Occam's razor goes to die."
I am incredibly angry and jealous that I did not come up with that line. LOL
I was promised moon colonies by 2001. Of course, back then, Americans actually had dreams. Instead, we got Reagan, 9/11, senseless wars and Donald Trump. How the mighty have fallen!