We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much, baby
Why can't you see
What you're doing to me
When you don't believe a word I say?
Suspicious Minds - Elvis
So as you can see in my live blog post from yesterday, apparently, there has been a successful moon landing. And even though I witnessed it live, so to speak, as much as I can say "live" as it was a live feed on a well-controlled internet stream, I'm not alone in having a few doubts.
First off, there's the whole business of knowing about the landing as it was about to occur in the first place. I consider myself pretty up-to-date and keeping with the news items of the day, especially as it pertains to space exploration, one of my favorite hobbies. Yet I didn't even know about this landing until about an hour or two before its scheduled touchdown. I discovered it in a YouTube feed suggestion by accident and quickly scrambled to get my computers up and running as depicted in the photo I placed in yesterday's post.
Then there's the live stream itself. Though it was simulcast on various news and space related sites, all the feeds I saw were identical. Mission Control, not through NASA itself, but through the private company Intuitive Machines. I guess this isn't unusual anymore, I've seen plenty of streams of SpaceX missions conducted directly from SpaceX headquarters, but for old folks of my generation, I think we're reassured that things are on the up and up a little bit more if there are official NASA personnel involved. Or, at least, independent news sources that can provide a different narrative if such a different narrative were necessary.
You can see in my timeline of events as the spacecraft approached the lunar surface yesterday, there were a few minutes of tension regarding the success of the landing. First there were questions regarding the way the spacecraft needed to use the backup laser guidance systems provided by the NASA payload rather than the main company systems which had failed. Then there was the fact that it seemed they had a problem getting immediate communication from the lander. Finally, the Intuitive Machines employee serving as mission director stated flatly, and with not-too-convincing "enthusiasm," that the touchdown was a success. This news was met with sporadic and rather downplayed and sketchy looking claps from a few of the mission control employees.
Later, and I do mean maybe a couple hours later, the last words from the company were the statement that said that the lander is "upright and sending data" and that pictures should be available soon. As of this writing at nearly 6:00 a.m. the next day, there's been nothing but silence.
Lastly, there's a total blasé attitude regarding media coverage of the event. I literally clicked on Google News moments after the landing was deemed to be a success, and there was nothing. No mention anywhere of the mission. It took at least half an hour for news outlets to start throwing up articles touting the successful landing. Then, after another hour or so, all the headlines reverted back to their usual focus on Biden, Trump, Israel, Ukraine, and Mrs. Jones tuna casserole recipe, not necessarily in that order.
I'm not the only one with my suspicions that something is up. Here's a Reddit post below and some of the comments regarding this issue. As mentioned in this Reddit post, why is it technology from the 1960s and '70s could provide live television broadcast of these landings, which were arguably more complex since they carried human beings? Yet an unmanned spacecraft, with modern technology, and reportedly having a robotic drone type thing that the ship supposedly ejected shortly before landing in order for it to capture live video of it landing. Again, as of 6:00 a.m. Friday morning, February 23rd, when we search for this awesome video, we get back crickets.
Maybe it's all fake. Apollo, all the Mars missions, all the recent lunar landings, and even the numerous failures thrown in for the sake of making it seem more real. What do the powers that be know? Are we really on a spherical planet floating in space? Or is reality something entirely different? Pardon me, I have to go to the kitchen now and grab some Reynold's Wrap. My head needs a shiny little chapeau.
Reddit post:
Discussion
Anyone else frustrated at the lack of scientific communication?
submitted 6 hours ago by GoldenTV3
If you go to any news video about the recent landing, the comments are filled with
"They expect us to believe they could livestream it in 1969, but not now?"
or
"My tax money is going to this? Useless."
And I feel like this sentiment is growing. The broadcasters, NASA, etc... just aren't doing a good enough job properly educating lay people. Like the gap between what we are achieving scientifically and what people understand is growing, and that gap is creating a sense of alienation and feeling left out in some people where they will just fall into a group that hears them out.
I feel like broadcasters and newscasters who cover these events should answer common questions a lay person might have.
"Apollo's Hydrogen fuel cells allowed the astronauts to livestream from the moon, but Hydrogen fuel cells are too heavy and are not suited for a research mission such as this. Because this craft uses solar panels it does not have the power output to livestream constant footage"
Of course there will always be those who will just refuse to accept reality. But a good majority are just lay people asking a valid question. But because it never is openly answered without needing a bit of research that most don't have the time or energy for in their day, they accept the easiest answer, which is suspicion.
If I'm not mistaken, didn't NASA used to hold broadcasted monthly or quarterly updates on the Apollo program, detailing the exact progress?
It seems like nowadays those who aren't super invested only see the end result and immediately have suspicion.
All 19 Comments
sorted by: best
[–]LittleKitty235 [score hidden] 6 hours ago
CNN had William Shatner on to talk about the moon landing. Besides his opinions being completely irrelevant he went off on some tangent about how mankind will never send large number of people to Mars and seemed to be very hung up about the drama of if the mission would be successful or not. He spoke over a female ex-astronaut several times and came off as really rude.
[–]nic_haflinger [score hidden] 6 hours ago
Needing to be the center of attention like after his New Shepard flight. Honestly if people didn’t dislike Bezos so much the criticisms would’ve been all about Shatner’s bloviating and not Bezos popping a champagne cork.
[–]BeancheeseBapa [score hidden] 6 hours ago
If you get your news from CNN/Fox News/MSNBC/“Popular” page of Reddit, you are getting hoodwinked by partisan information. CNN and Fox News take it a step further by not only being biased, but old and crotchety as well, as you experienced.
[–]Roaddog113 [score hidden] 6 hours ago
What is CNN? They still exist? I stopped watching them when Noriega was besieged. Self centred wannabes.
[–]magus-21 [score hidden] 4 hours ago
If I'm not mistaken, didn't NASA used to hold broadcasted monthly or quarterly updates on the Apollo program, detailing the exact progress?
That was when NASA had 5% of the federal budget, the equivalent of $200 billion per year now.
Today, NASA had 0.5% of the federal budget.
[–]dramignophyte [score hidden] 5 hours ago
Twitch has science streamers. Multiple cover space stuff. One is even a retired nasa engineer (I think its engineer, he may have been a nasa physicist).
[–]ASearchingLibrarian [score hidden] 2 hours ago
We are actually living in one of the greatest ages of discovery in history. Every day we are finding new planets, getting data on their atmospheres, but it was only 30 years ago we first found anything even just beyond Pluto. Yet, there is virtually zero discussion of it outside of niche places like this. Nobody in my workplace ever discusses it. Nobody I know is particularly interested. The media people consume these days prevents anything outside the bubble breaking in.
[–]GreyGoblin [score hidden] 3 hours ago
My brother needs to read the Demon Haunted World, where the great science communicator waxes on the subject of population scale ignorance in a increasing complex world.
It'll be pretty depressing. The man called this many decades ago, and if it's leading where he feared, then may the Gods have mercy on us all.
[–]SpaceInMyBrain [score hidden] 5 hours ago
This is all a part of the general outlook on life taken by Gen-X and Gen-Z. Everything is seen in it's worst, most pessimistic light, stewed in the toxicity of the internet. Any bright points offered by a big agency like NASA are discounted because it's an old organization that's part of the government. Anyone who's anything but pessimistic gets feedback that they're a naive fool.
Of course the scientific illiteracy of the general public is a long-standing basic flaw. It was overcome in the Apollo era only because there was constant high profile coverage of what the program was doing. There were limited number of TV and print media outlets and they were all giving a lot of coverage so it was hard to ignore.
[–]thefooleryoftom [score hidden] 3 hours ago
Lol, you think the lack of science communication and the stupid comments are all made by GenX and GenZ? Jeez…
[–]Desertbro [score hidden] 2 hours ago
It wasn't overcome. People just talked about it more, but laymen didn't know crap back then, as they don't know crap now.
People pretending to be smart on Reddit and using search tools to quote stats doesn't equate to "smarter", just more desperate to impress.
[–]TapestryMobile [score hidden] 2 hours ago
There were limited number of TV and print media outlets
Thats a big key.
If a TV station back then had a good presentation on a space program, a very large percentage of the population would have seen it. You could have conversations at work/school the next day "did you see...?" "Yes!"
Now, no matter how good a presentation is, only 0.0001% of the population sees it because everyone else is looking at tiktoc clips about celebrities cats falling over or other dumb shite.
[–]vidocq19 [score hidden] 2 hours ago
That is NASA and other science agencies biggest issue. Scientists do not know how to communicate their research in non academic rather boring scenarios. Most people don’t even know what satellites do for them
[–]EnigmaWithAlien [score hidden] an hour ago
NASA can't do PR and doesn't know enough to hire somebody that can.
[–]Temporary-Map1842 [score hidden] an hour ago
You forgot to consider that “lay people” are getting dumber
[–]ManOfDiscovery [score hidden] 49 minutes ago*
News video comment sections are not exactly the highest caliber of discussion. And as the old saying goes, the empty vessel makes the loudest sound.
I would put absolutely zero stock in reading those comment sections expecting to divine public sentiment. It wouldn’t be too far out to assume half of them are trolls and bots anyhow.
Wait a minute...I think we're getting an image as its camera points back towards the Earth now...
EDIT: Despite the fact that they said it landed "upright," the company fessed up that in fact, just like the Japanese lander, it fell over and is on its side. How this will affect experiments planned is still to be determined. And that Eagle Cam that was supposed to film it landing? They chose to not deploy it since they needed to conduct a software patch while it was landing. I shit you not. Oh, and as if this edit, at 9:30 pm Saturday, the only picture released is a shitty fish-eyed view as it was coasting down to the surface. It's so distorted, you can't make out anything. And everyone is talking about how the ship is designed poorly to begin with and I totally agree. It looks like a top-heavy, narrow apartment sized fridge. And don't get me started about how they wasted space and weight by mounting a stupid-looking art piece to it. The dude explaining the tipping said this artwork was on the side facing the ground. How much you want to bet the weight of that stupid thing contributed to it falling. Lastly, the whole thing is very short-lived anyway since it will permanently shut down in 5 days due to lack of sunlight as it can't withstand the cold. You know what would? A nuclear powered heat source. But no, the environment crazed Millennials are way too scared to use that!