Comment by Firebrand | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Firebrand | Hacker News Reader

The ISS is way too high maintenance for a profitable business. Putting humans in space is too expensive.

Humans jut do not belong in space yet. Most science and astronomy missions can will continue to be performed through machinery and automation. The cancellation of all most of the other missions is a direct result from this focus. We are all very curious about what's out there, and the absolute better way to satiate this curiosity and to actually discover new things is with machine focused missions: rovers, landers, and specially telescopes.

Further study into the effects of space on humans for the purposes of leaving Earth due to some apocalypse is very exagerated as well. Even in a bad apocalyptic scenario, the resulting Earth would still be better to live in than any other planet or moon we currently can reach.

The pictures from back from Juno, New Horizons, the Mars rovers, and the Hubble continue to inspire the future generations, and earn support from the general populace already.

> The ISS is way too high maintenance for a profitable business.

The ISS was never meant to be a "profitable business."

> Putting humans in space is too expensive.

It's an investment. If humans do not go into space, we are destined to be a one planet species, which carries its own health risks (comets, and other high speed massive objects that would be ridiculously hard to deflect, for example).

> Further study into the effects of space on humans for the purposes of leaving Earth due to some apocalypse is very exagerated as well. Even in a bad apocalyptic scenario, the resulting Earth would still be better to live in than any

Just because the surface of Mars is not habitable in its current state, I'd much rather be living in a box over there than on an Earth subjected to the 1918 Flu Pandemic v2.0 or the inevitable collapse of the US (all nations collapse, don't kid yourself thinking this one won't).

> The pictures from back from Juno, New Horizons, the Mars rovers, and the Hubble continue to inspire the future generations, and earn support from the general populace already.

It's not about "inspiring" or "earning support." I'm guessing you are from a previous generation where space travel was a great race to be the first to orbit, first to the Moon, etc. That 'motivation' should have died in the 1970s, but I see it is still alive and well amongst civilians. Politicians invest in space travel for national prestige, but there is real scientific value in studying how humans function in space.

> The ISS was never meant to be a "profitable business."

That comment was likely referring to the first sentence of the article:

> President Donald Trump wants to end US funding for the International Space Station (ISS) by 2025 with the aim of putting it into private hands.

I disagree. If the human species is to survive we need to colonize space. This isn't a next 100 years goal, it's a next one or two thousand years goal. If we don't succeed in colonizing other planets humanity will end when the Earth is no longer able to support life.

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