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Comment by circleit | Hacker News Reader

Beautiful posters. I’m baffled as to why anyone would want to spend time on planets that don’t naturally support life for humans. What is the appeal of nothingness. Just go put on a special suit and hang out in a desert on earth. At least there you might even see bugs or snakes, etc. but another planet with nothing but rocks (minerals, whatever)…how is this appealing. The biodiversity on earth is incredible and is being destroyed at an insane pace. All this space talk and people wanting to yet out of here really makes me think humans are unable to 1) appreciate what they have and 2) are extremely selfish to the point where, when whittled down in this scenario, prefer nothing to a lot of things. Besides exploring space, which I think is somewhat different, can someone tell me what the appeal of living in nothingness is…

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These posters capture the imagination that goes with pulp science fiction of the 40s and 50s. It’s nostalgic and whimsical, not meant to actually portray visiting barren planets.

When pulp sci fi was being written, no one really knew what might be in our own solar system. Some assumed Venus could be a jungle teaming with life, Mars full of caverns with civilization. Obviously now we know that’s not the case.

So the idea that there’s some appeal for people to walk around nothingness in a space suite is off the mark. The reason we want to send people to Mars is not to enjoy the barrens of Mars, but to further our capabilities. (Although there is an undeniable beauty ti geology as well, the beauty of the Grand Canyon for instance)

The barrens are a stepping stone.

If there are planets with alien snakes and bugs, whole ecosystems with intelligent beings, the only way to get there is baby steps in our own barren solar system.

So that’s the appeal. The challenge of exploration to see what’s over that next hill.

Edit: Your points of not appreciating what’s on Earth are right on point. You’ll note one of the posters is an Earth poster. In many ways demonstrating how barren and inhospitable most of the universe is, helps people realize what they have here and how precious it is. So in other words, your exact point of view is what many hope everyone can understand.

Some love the desert, some love the ocean, some love mountains, some love canyons, some love caves, some love volcanos, some love cities. Not everyone always wants to be in the rainforest or a coral reef or some pastoralist backdrop.

Whenever this comes up, it’s weird to me that people seem to not understand that different people have a wide variety of interests and tastes. Also, some people like making the barren into a lush garden.

“Why do people want nothingness” is a sort of earth-centrists’ strawman of what space inhabitation enthusiasts are passionate about, and also super factually incorrect about what space contains.

Now imagine a cave city on a volcanic mountain, with a view out of a canyon, over the desert coast...

:-)

are you saying an environment is only appreciable if it's a biosphere? why? that seems utterly arbitrary.

i'd quite enjoy bouncing around in 1/4 gravity, or sailing over lakes of hydrocarbons if i could. sure it's equally arbitrary, but it would be more novel than any environment on earth.

what does selfishness have to do with it?

> but it would be more novel than any environment on earth

I think you underestimate the experiences available on Earth, but I otherwise agree that it would be awesome as heck.

Yummie fumes...

Space enthusiasts don’t want “nothing,” they want this: https://vimeo.com/108650530

Exellent. With the exception of the last few seconds. Somewhere on some body in space, with a furred hoodie? Pelt? Fur? REALLY?

I've seen this before, and couldn't get over it then.

It’s not “some body,” it’s actually the cloud layer of Saturn. And yes, you wouldn’t need a pressure suit at that location, just oxygen mask and cold weather gear because the pressure at that point (400 millibar up to 4-10 bar) is Earth-like! The author of that video was, in fact, intentionally using a fur lined coat/hood/hat to underscore the fact that the pressure is Earth-like at the Saturn cloud layer and the coat is not a pressure suit but just insulation.

So it was intentional and accurate (or, rather, a possibility), not an unscientific mistake.

Yes, Yes, I got that. (With the atmosphere etc)

But really.. I'd expect some hightech fleece instead, maybe with a hexagonal weave pattern in it, or such.

What do people wear on scientific basis in Antarctica?

Space, the final frontier...

Do you really think they will/should 'ride' there in some rattling rocket, between shaking cargo crates in mesh nets, with clothing from military surplus?

SPACE should look like the highest technology ever. In all aspects PERIOD

It could be synthetic fur works best, after hundreds of years of scientific process we find that just recreating animal fur, which evolved over millions of years, is best.

Or it could be that someone standing on the desk of a dirigible floating in the clouds of another planet chose to wear gear that harkens back to the explorers of yore, like George Mallory.

Or it could be that it was done on a budget and a explorers coat and MSA Millennium mask are what they went for.

for me, the appeal of space is the idea of working on the frontier to expand human reach and resources. Space tourism would presumably have to wait until we were established and comfortable on other planets/moons, and I'd guess that the appeal would be the same as regular tourism; a change of scenery, a novel experience, and to be able to show off!

The media from an early age conditioned people to expect something more there than just rocks and darkness.

Space, at least anywhere nearby, is brighter than on Earth.

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