[HN Gopher] Lunar Flyby
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Lunar Flyby
Author : kipi
Score : 158 points
Date : 2026-04-07 15:03 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nasa.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nasa.gov)
| ranger207 wrote:
| I have to admit, I've been an Artemis hater ($4 billion per
| launch lol) but the experience of watching people go back around
| the Moon has been incredibly inspiring, and it proves to me that
| maybe we _can_ still do hard things
| jameslk wrote:
| > $4 billion per launch lol
|
| The US spends almost that much on net debt interest each day
| (~$3 billion/day[0]). Not that adding to the debt helps at all,
| but the old proverb about being penny wise and pound foolish
| seems relevant
|
| 0. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61951
| ToucanLoucan wrote:
| Also we spend that much every 4 days we're in Iran, and
| that's only ONE of our neo-colonialist irons in the fire, as
| it were.
|
| If you want to make the US financially solvent, cut defense.
| Defense LAPS every other budget category. Whether you want to
| take the conservative position on why that is (our allies
| freeload on our defense spending) or the Progressive one (the
| U.S. is an empire in decline and every major empire through
| history has spent vast sums to maintain itself why would the
| U.S. be different) doesn't change the fact that our military
| budgets exceed over a dozen other nations' combined, the vast
| majority of whom are allies.
| Jblx2 wrote:
| >Defense LAPS every other budget category.
|
| I suppose it matters how you lump things, but for federal
| spending: - $678 B, Social Security -
| $478 B, Medicare - $425 B, Net Interest - $419
| B, Health - $412 B, National Defense - $320 B,
| Income Security - $184 B, Veterans Benefits and
| Services - $75 B, Education, Training, Employment,
| and Social Services - $53 B, Transportation -
| $43 B, Administration of Justice - $15 B, Other
|
| https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-
| guide/feder...
| fwip wrote:
| I think the common miscommunication here is that defense
| is the largest part of the US discretionary budget (about
| half overall), but that doesn't include those non-
| negotiable things like Social Security, Medicare, etc .
| typeofhuman wrote:
| > LAPS every other budget category.
|
| Except for social security, health, medicare, debt interest
| system2 wrote:
| $4B is chump change for the U.S.
|
| Gavin Newsom alone wasted (laundered?) billions of dollars in
| California. The United States can send 10 rockets per day and
| wouldn't even feel the financial impacts of it. The states
| individually waste millions per day.
| sublinear wrote:
| The longer term value of having moon outposts for observation,
| mining, etc. will pay off massively.
|
| This is way bigger than just putting people on the moon or
| hubris. It's the prerequisite for everything we've also said
| about Mars. Elon just muddied the waters so much that people
| are so negative about anything else.
| chrismcb wrote:
| Ignoring the fact that we aren't using money for rocket fuel
| (that is people are benefitting from us spending that money)
| the potential upside is immense. There are a time of resources
| available in the asteroids and a moon base makes mining those
| resources easier and cheaper.
| moralestapia wrote:
| >we can still do hard things
|
| Absolutely! What do you have in mind?
| delta_p_delta_x wrote:
| > $4 billion per launch
|
| This is not a lot of money on a nation-state scale. It's equal
| to giving every person in the US about US$12.
| ge96 wrote:
| Wonder how it feels after being out there, seeing that, then
| coming back like alright back in the system I go.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I imagine it depends a lot on your outlook. Someone could see
| the system as the thing that made the experience possible in
| the first place, and feel a lot of gratitude and a sense of
| possibility as a result.
| typeofhuman wrote:
| You might like this
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect
| _august wrote:
| Are full size/larger images available somewhere? 1920x1280px
| seems low.
|
| Edit: Found 'em:
| https://images.nasa.gov/search?page=1&media=image&yearStart=...
| drfloyd51 wrote:
| The solar eclipse pictures are absolutely beautiful.
| sph wrote:
| I shared some of these pictures with family members that hadn't
| even heard of Artemis, and one asked if the blue thing was Mars.
| I am shook.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| There needs to be a word for that feeling of dread you get when
| reminded of just how feeble and weak the average human mind is,
| and how tenuous of a grasp on reality most people have.
| sho_hn wrote:
| Maybe I'm an eternal optimist, but sounds to me like they
| actually tried to put themselves into space, made the
| assumption that anything visible past the moon must be further
| out and were left with "wait, I thought it was supposed to be
| red?"
|
| Uninformed, but not ignorant and perhaps even interested. I
| hope your response started with "No, actually, even cooler:
| ..." and you made a space fan that day.
| cruffle_duffle wrote:
| These things are so damn cool!
| jflessau wrote:
| Just wanted to say how moving I find these pictures. Proof of
| what humanity is capable of :)
| suzzer99 wrote:
| I hope they listened to Dark Side of the Moon on the flyby.
| Almondsetat wrote:
| We're so not accustomed to moon pictures taken with "normal"
| cameras. These almost look like 3D renders to me, it's incredible
| madrox wrote:
| There is something uncanny about the bandwidth and quality of all
| the artifacts coming from this mission.
|
| I've subsisted on photos from the Apollo missions and artistic
| renditions for so long that seeing the modern, high resolution
| real thing to be quite stirring in a way I didn't expect. It
| actually does make me believe that the future could be quite
| cool.
| LorenDB wrote:
| I think my favorite of all these images is
| https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-art002e009287/. The sheer
| size difference, while simply a trick of perspective, makes Earth
| feel tiny and insignificant.
| andrewstuart2 wrote:
| Yeah, gives me very similar vibes to the famous "pale blue
| dot."
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