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How Embarrassing [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-03-07

By David Glenn Cox

It is just plain wrong to cheer as the rocket careens out of control and explodes over the Caribbean. But I cheered. As I wondered in amazement about a company that would behave so rashly. SpaceX and the FAA haven’t completed the investigation from the last failed rocket explosion.

The old Soviet Space program used to demand stunts. The rocket must launch on Mayday, or Lenin’s birthday, ready or not. The German rocket engineers cautioned test, test, test, test. Soviet engineers had a Captain Ron approach. If anything is gonna happen boss, it’s gonna happen out there! The job was rocket engineer/please your boss; do as you’re told.

The stunning Orwellian SpaceX announcers who almost ignore the Hindenburg approaching the mooring mast. “Wow, what a great trip. All the way from Europe in a balloon in comfort and style! And now, here we are in Lakehurst! What a great trip!” As the rocket lost control and began to spin helplessly the crowd cheered as the booster landed itself. Never mind that debris field! Did you see us stick the landing?

But I cheered and wished Elon had been personally piloting this one and that’s wrong. It is a symptom of the inverted times we live in. It also calls into question the launch ready or not dogma. The failures are similar as guidance fails and engines quit. I hate mentioning this. If these were the problems of Kaput Nik in 1959, they would be tough ones. But in 2025, putting a payload into space isn’t rocket science anymore. Model Rocket clubs routinely reach the edge of space.

So, there really isn’t a justifiable reason for repeated failures except for a poorly run program. [investors take note.] It could be a design flaw, that happens. Somehow in the upper atmosphere the ship begins to tumble. Center of gravity? Unstable design or inherent flaw? Communications problems are easy to understand as the rocket tumbles at Mach 3 tearing itself apart, the radio don’t work so good. More of show biz than science.

Oh, shock! The huckster’s cancer fixing machine don’t really work! Golly!

Do you know who isn’t going to Mars? You and me and most of all Elon Musk. “Garsh Mr. Wizard, Can you really give me a brain?” It’s so fanciful and wondrously ludicrous it’s hard to believe even the dippy would believe it. Elon says he’s going to make space travel affordable for almost anyone. How much would you pay for a nine-month space adventure or two years round trip? Just your average Joe on holiday. On an airline which launches ready or not. Come on, where’s your pioneer spirit? This many days since the last accident.

You know, the South Pole is remote, but there is oxygen and water. “Oh, but there’s water on Mars!” There isn’t enough water for a city of a million people. No, they’re going to make rocket fuel out of it and drink it nine times, flush with it and breathe it and irrigate the whole planet with it. As of yet, no one has seen so much of one glass of liquid Martian water. Astounding, don’t you think? Get your tracksuit and Adidas ready, the comet’s comin!

How many of you separated hydrogen and oxygen from water in science class? It takes a lot of water to get just a little bit of hydrogen. If the Great Lakes were located on Mars, it might be viable. Let’s go live where there is no breathable atmosphere! We can take the limited water supply and make rocket fuel out of it! Humanity must survive even if we have to despoil a hundred virgin worlds.

Nobody is going to Mars because there is no reason to go to Mars. Spending trillions of fantasy dollars to build ten-ton robotic space bulldozers. Shouldn’t cost more than a couple of hundred twenty or hundred and fifty millions to get it to Mars. Where it can push soil around for some reason. We are going to build mines and shopping centers and bowling alleys with video games! And why are we going to do this? “To preserve mankind’s consciousness.”

[shakes head] Really? Really? How embarrassing.

Yup, we’re gonna live on Mars in caves! Elon says so. He also says I can play the trumpet if I think I can.

The Martian planet has no magnetic field offering protection from toxic radiation. You can’t terraform a planet with lethal doses of radiation hourly. The radiation will kill the plants just like it will kill you! The only greening going on here is Elon greening the public.

Just imagine just for the sake of dark mind play. A Martian world of self-absorbed billionaires. With no waiters or maids to pick up after them. No servants to do for them. A world without art or compassion just endless greed. That’s why Elon’s plan will never get off the ground. The billionaires have that here with servants.

“Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good?

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could?

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die

And your death will come soon

I'll follow your casket

By the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand over your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead”

[END]
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