Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video] (bbc.com)

by mooreds 433 comments 524 points
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433 comments

[−] thegrim33 40d ago
It's pretty depressing that on a corner of the internet that's supposed to be a gathering of tech/geeks/nerds/stem people, discussing topics that "good hackers would find interesting", it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering.
[−] throwaway132448 40d ago
It’s unfortunate, but if you’re blaming the people in the thread for this, I think you’re directing your energy in the wrong direction. Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division and distraction instead. If you want people to appreciate the bigger picture, you can’t keep forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook. The HN that you’re presumably nostalgic for existed in a time when there was a lot more fat on the bone, and every efficiency hadn’t been extracted for nebulous benefit to the average person.
[−] guax 40d ago
I would be more depressed if, looking at the current political landscape this corner decided to be entirely alienated or oblivious to the environment in which this massive achievement is made.
[−] tdb7893 40d ago
The top comments complaining about other comments complaining about stuff really shows how negative internet discourse is hard to avoid. I don't think these comments are bad (meta-discussion is a good thing in general) but they also seems to embody that same negativity.

This comment also isn't positive and the cycle continues. I agree that people are often too negative and this is a good example of how that negativity is contagious.

[−] kube-system 40d ago
Hacker culture has deep political and philosophical roots, it's intrinsic to the community.
[−] Eji1700 40d ago
I have family who worked for NASA until the 70s. They’re one of the biggest sources of criticism of this project.

There are negative things to observe about this project. They should not be ignored

[−] skeeter2020 40d ago
There's just so little science here though, to expect the audience on HN to get excited about redoing something 65 years later for the purpose of political grand-standing and nationalism while the world literally burns and so many are hurting... I'd be more upset if a bunch of insulated tech nerds obliviously continued to along their easy trajectories without a though of everyone else. We may not be the 1% but we're definitely the 5%
[−] supliminal 40d ago
It is possible but you have to cultivate it. There is no mechanism here that automates it, so it’s up to each author’s sentiment to shape the outcome as they see fit.

Submit threads that are apolitical and guide conversations to be positive.

[−] yodsanklai 40d ago

> it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering

I quickly browsed the top 10 comments, didn't see much negativity.

And maybe this is because this is a forum of "tech/geeks/nerds/stem people" that you'd expect some educated and critical comments.

[−] troyvit 39d ago
Go through all the positive comments and upvote them. It feels good.
[−] sega_sai 40d ago
I think it would have been much better, if the nation that launched that mission did not in the same time start a war... I personally simply cannot separate these two things.
[−] not_kurt_godel 40d ago
How do you evaluate your own comment by the criteria you have set forth within it?
[−] telman17 40d ago
These people existed in the Apollo era just not on a website. We weren't exactly living in a utopia then either and you'd have difficulty convincing some folks to be excited about space exploration then too.

Some people feel their outlook on the world takes precedence. And they'll shit in other people's celebrations to get their point across. Best to downvote or ignore them and embrace what nuance you can find.

[−] ozgrakkurt 40d ago
This is never the problem with people talking this stuff. People don't naturally obsess about these things. It indicates that there are political problems.
[−] awesome_dude 40d ago
Not all hackers!
[−] infinitewars 40d ago
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[−] nasretdinov 40d ago
I like how most people's reactions at this point are "yeah, whatever", as if it's every day that humans observe the far side of the moon with a naked eye through a window :). We do know what it looks like and we have photos from the surface, yes, but seeing the reaction from real people who're actually there does hit different, at least for me
[−] md224 40d ago
A fun way to track the mission is via NASA's Eyes on the Solar System visualizer:

https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/#/sc_artemis_2

[−] _moof 40d ago
I just need to say it's an extremely huge bummer how much cynicism and negativity there is about this mission. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Neither was Apollo.

We are all painfully aware of the things that make it imperfect.

It's still joyous and exciting.

Try to let it be.

[−] _fw 40d ago
Am I losing it? They can’t be seeing the far side of the moon right now, because they haven’t adjusted course to go round the far side of the moon yet…

So does this suggest the BBC is wrong and it’s the side of the moon we’re used to seeing, but just it’s “dark”?

But then the astronauts are saying it’s weird seeing the moon in a whole new light (excuse the paraphrasing pun).

I don’t understand.

[−] davidw 40d ago
It makes me tear up seeing the absolute 'best of us' as humanity striving and exploring in the midst of so much wretched evil and awfulness.
[−] majkinetor 40d ago
[−] layer8 40d ago
[−] areoform 40d ago
It's interesting to me how cautious NASA is being with Artemis II. I wrote about the risk / mortality calculation behind this, but everything from the trajectory, the decision not to do an orbital insertion, the checkout in high-Earth orbit is very cautious.

I wish this mission took greater risks. Or, just at least go as far as Apollo 8, but stay for a bit longer, and try out new things. It would be fun to take a finicky low mass radio telescope experiment to the far side of the moon.

[−] cmrdporcupine 40d ago
Just some humans doing proper awesome human stuff and being good people advancing international brotherhood and scientific advancement.

Love seeing our Ontario native Jeremy Hansen on the microphone, and those two flags properly positioned beside each other.

I'm not a Christian today, but was raised that way. This is the hopeful message I want to see on this day, and the true meaning of the symbol. Hope for all humankind. Working together.

[−] cybermango 40d ago
They have live tracker you can follow https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis-ii/arow/
[−] notorandit 40d ago
Far side != Dark side
[−] starkeeper 40d ago
Why don't they have any decent external cameras absolutely goofy (or maybe they do and I am goofy?) also, framing!
[−] herodotus 40d ago
I am curious. If it is on the far side, where does the light come from for the photos? Other stars?
[−] Melatonic 39d ago
Anybody know if the O2O laser uplink / downlink is working? From what I understand its sort of a test and not guaranteed (depends also on weather near the ground stations).
[−] UberFly 39d ago
After watching that video, all I can think is - Please come back safe.
[−] wek 40d ago
so cool. This whole mission makes me feel like a kid again.
[−] the_arun 39d ago
I am really glad that NASA is investing in this. Hope this dream is not about exploration of travel as a service but much bigger & beyond.
[−] john_rambo 40d ago
how are they broadcasting in what seems like near real-time? i don't have a whole lot of understanding on the topic, but if they're seeing the dark side of the moon then i assume they don't have line of sight to Earth. it makes me feel pretty rotten about some SQL queries i have knocking about.
[−] throwatdem12311 40d ago
edit: knee jerk reaction was wrong

Still think what he said is worth hearing.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWvRjeEgecb/?igsh=MXZoYjZobDM...

[−] cucumber3732842 40d ago
So they let them just wear hoodies in space now? Or are these fancypants space hoodies that cost a quarter mil and weigh a couple grams less? Or does that level of weight reduction not matter because the rocket is nowhere near maxed out?
[−] dbacar 40d ago
Rather than the far side, what about the Dark Side of the Moon?
[−] nodesocket 40d ago
It’s sort of curious that BBC always seemed to get linked to the Artemis news on HN instead of the official NASA website or US news agencies.
[−] oyebenny 39d ago
Beautiful.
[−] jleyank 40d ago
I'm going to be VERY disappointed if there's no Pink Floyd music or commentary from the Artemis mission. Particularly now. Life's short, and one can't be serious all the time...

Wallis and Gromit would be a partial substitute, but the boomers are still around.

[−] shyam47 39d ago
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[−] crimshawz 40d ago
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[−] heyitsmedotjayb 39d ago
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[−] Fricken 40d ago
Are they going to land, to get out, take a look around? No. We have moon rocks at home.
[−] d-e-r-e-k 40d ago
There’s too many problems here on earth for me to get excited about a trip to the moon
[−] islandbytes 40d ago
Incredible achievement but I'll be honest — if you showed me this photo without context I would have no idea it was the far side. Just looks like the Moon. Also didn't realize we could capture an image like this in what I assumed was total darkness.
[−] kklisura 40d ago
On one of Apollo missions they've read from Bible, Book of Genesis [1]. I wish they did something like that here - and I'm not even a Christian, let alone religious. They did relay some beautiful message [2] though.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4tDZye57D4

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELslc6O4UVk