Posted by Championship_Vinyl at l1.wpalaw.org on January 23, 2004 at 14:47:43:
In Reply to: Re: Oh, but I'm serious. posted by Strictly Skewed on January 23, 2004 at 14:19:31:
: Physically? They sent an 80-year old man.
Yes, as a "hey-we're-NASA-and-we're-underfunded-so-check-this-out" publicity stunt. The old fella in question was also not actually a participant in the day-to-day workings of the flight, but the focus of a scientific study aboard... not to mention the fact that he was an astronaut in his younger days, and therefore somewhat more capable than everyday 80-year-olds.
: Mentally? They sent some rich guy who paid for it.
He, too, was simply a passenger. He had none of the detailed knowledge the rest of the certified astronauts aboard had.
: Emotionally? Okay, now we start to come to it.
Exactly. Spend a few weeks in cramped quarters on a space station and see if it emotionally scars you for the remainder of you life. Without proper training and a genetic affinity toward emotional stability, you'll crack.
: Is it safe? No. Is is very dangerous? No.
How is it NOT dangerous? You launch into an unbreathable environment using hundreds of tons of highly explosive material in a machine with more moving parts than all of the automobiles made by Chrylser in a year combined. Then you fly around at thousands of miles per hour before returning with zero control through an atmosphere of tens of thousands of degrees.
It's dangerous getting there, while you're there and coming back. And for most astronauts who have experienced space travel, it's dangerous a decade or two after they return and the effects of what they've done start to take a toll on their bodies.
: Why crazy? There are lots of jobs that are similarly dangerous. Look at the injury/death rates of policemen, firefighters, soldiers, etc. And yet we make *so* much about astronauts.
I meant crazy-brave as one sloppy word. Super-brave. Better?
Also, I never once slighted any of those occupations, nor so much as insinuated that they weren't just as dangerous.
: I would give *both* my nuts for the opportunity to go up into space, under *much* less safe conditions.
Then you're crazy in the literal sense of the word, and not my previous sloppily-constructed one.
: Do you realize how competitive it is to be an astronaut? Why is that? Are there that many crazy-brave motherfuckers out there? No.
No, there aren't that many... exactly why 98% of those involved in such heated competition to be accepted into austronaut training are eliminated from consideration.
: Are astronauts doing what they do for society's sake, the way policemen and such do?
Yes, they are. As much as anti-NASA politicians would like the public to believe, the "silly" things they do benefit everyone. I'm not expert, but from the seeminly unbiased things I've read about what astronauts do, most of it is pure scientific research that cannot as easily be done on earth, on everything from Alzheimers disease to making a more efficient combustion engine.
And how are policemen and women not involved in their line of work for personal reasons as well? This is America, and sadly, we all gotsta eat.
: Some, although for most of them it's for personal reasons, like mine.
I don't get it. Have you tried to be an astronaut and it didn't work out? If so, stop being bitter about it.
: Don't get me wrong, the first astronauts were heroic. But then again, the risks they took were much greater, and the purpose they fulfilled was much more important. Also, I think the current batch of astronauts are capable and willing to meet this challenge, but we as a society do not seem to be.
I'm not sure that I get this either. What statement are you trying to make, that we don't always pick our heroes wisely? No argument from me.
My only point was to argue that, personally, I feel astronauts *are* deserving of that title.