Unpopular Opinions Thread

[HCB-11]

Here is my unpopular opinion

Star Wars Ep. 9 was good.

[XB-70A]

Orange rocket good.

[kerbiloid]

Gemini was the true way.

[XB-70A]

Launch presenters are mostly uninteresting to listen at.

Seriously, I realize it's extremely unpopular, but heck... how much I would like to have launch broadcasts available with a no-comments option. Just the sight of the launcher and sound from its engines. Personally, I found Roscomos lives in Russian the most easy to look and listen at. Once the lift-off occurred, they will not yell, "Lift-off! Lift-off! Lift-off! We have a lift-off! XXX carrying YYY for ZZZ! Lift-off! Lift-off!.. Oh and if you haven't followed, we have a lift-off!". Same for "nominal / norminal" given every 15-30 sec.

Orbital ATK still holds the world highest and worst record of nominally-nominal comments ever:

 

93 "nominals" in 632 seconds, that's almost one every six seconds. Just in case you are not sure Antares is going nominal.

 

Idem for ISRO and JAXA launch presenters saying, "Plus one second, plus two seconds, plus three seconds..." forever after lift-off. Some says the one from Mars Orbiter Mission is still counting today and is about to reach "plus 208 500 000 seconds".

Back in the day SpaceX was the only providing a no-comments broadcast option. Sadly, they stopped doing it around 2017.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

  

3 hours ago, XB-70A said:

Once the lift-off occurred, they will not yell, "Lift-off! Lift-off! Lift-off! We have a lift-off! XXX carrying YYY for ZZZ! Lift-off! Lift-off!.. Oh and if you haven't followed, we have a lift-off!".

They are yawning and covering mouthes with hands. That's so usual.

 

[p1t1o]

Well....you asked for an unpopular opinion....

 

We'd be better off cancelling all space programs beyond earth orbit for a couple of centuries. And limiting near earth orbit operations to those which facilitate earth-surface operations such as comms, navigation and operations against Earth impactors.

Its not that we couldnt derive benefit, just that we need more of that down here, especially until we have the materials to make more ambitious space programs a reality. Billions of dollars for very limited (compared to say, what we could achieve on earth with the same resources) science data from another world just isnt worth it. The "spirit of adventure/exploration" just isnt worth it.

Caveat - I rarely express this opinion....because rockets and spaceflight are just too danged cool, I can live with expensive data from outer space. But I really believe it.

We shouldn't go back to the moon. We shouldn't go to Mars. We should cancel all rovers and probes and close the ISS.

For quite some time. Maybe until we have abolished money. Yeah, a while.

 

[cubinator]

6 hours ago, p1t1o said:

some very good opinions

 

I think that what we should be cancelling is the military. War is absolutely unnecessary and the only way to end it is the easiest one - to put our weapons down. We spend far more on killing our fellow humans than we ever did on extravagant space adventures.

[StrandedonEarth]

32 minutes ago, cubinator said:

I think that what we should be cancelling is the military. War is absolutely unnecessary and the only way to end it is the easiest one - to put our weapons down. We spend far more on killing our fellow humans than we ever did on extravagant space adventures.

That would be great in principle. But if you're not prepared to defend what you have, someone is going to try to take it from you. If only everyone could have everything they wanted....

[HansonKerman]

first, the thing that will crucify me.

 

I liked Jar Jar Binks and the prequels as a whole.

 

 

Also pop music is horrible. I know it’s in the name but I don’t like it

On 6/14/2020 at 12:29 PM, XB-70A said:

Launch presenters are mostly uninteresting to listen at.

Seriously, I realize it's extremely unpopular, but heck... how much I would like to have launch broadcasts available with a no-comments option. Just the sight of the launcher and sound from its engines. Personally, I found Roscomos lives in Russian the most easy to look and listen at. Once the lift-off occurred, they will not yell, "Lift-off! Lift-off! Lift-off! We have a lift-off! XXX carrying YYY for ZZZ! Lift-off! Lift-off!.. Oh and if you haven't followed, we have a lift-off!". Same for "nominal / norminal" given every 15-30 sec.

Orbital ATK still holds the world highest and worst record of nominally-nominal comments ever:

 

93 "nominals" in 632 seconds, that's almost one every six seconds. Just in case you are not sure Antares is going nominal.

 

Idem for ISRO and JAXA launch presenters saying, "Plus one second, plus two seconds, plus three seconds..." forever after lift-off. Some says the one from Mars Orbiter Mission is still counting today and is about to reach "plus 208 500 000 seconds".

Back in the day SpaceX was the only providing a no-comments broadcast option. Sadly, they stopped doing it around 2017.

I don’t have a problem, but seriously. I don’t like how many “nominal”s there are. As for “lift off”, that’s fine. Rockets are cool. But like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

seriously. Dude. Just... we know it’s nominal.

[Space Nerd]

On 6/14/2020 at 11:26 PM, XB-70A said:

Orange rocket good.

I second this.

[kerbiloid]

I tritium this.

Spoiler

But looks like they don't add enough cadmium.

 

[Pikapolar]

On 6/16/2020 at 11:38 PM, cubinator said:

I think that what we should be cancelling is the military. War is absolutely unnecessary and the only way to end it is the easiest one - to put our weapons down. We spend far more on killing our fellow humans than we ever did on extravagant space adventures.

[kerbiloid]

The wish is granted.

Now the worldwide space budget is equal to the military one.

Spoiler

 

 

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, Pikapolar said:

It's insane how huge chunks of both of those numbers are from the USA. More than half in the case of the space budget.

 

On 6/16/2020 at 10:40 AM, p1t1o said:

Well....you asked for an unpopular opinion....

 

We'd be better off cancelling all space programs beyond earth orbit for a couple of centuries. And limiting near earth orbit operations to those which facilitate earth-surface operations such as comms, navigation and operations against Earth impactors.

Its not that we couldnt derive benefit, just that we need more of that down here, especially until we have the materials to make more ambitious space programs a reality. Billions of dollars for very limited (compared to say, what we could achieve on earth with the same resources) science data from another world just isnt worth it. The "spirit of adventure/exploration" just isnt worth it.

Caveat - I rarely express this opinion....because rockets and spaceflight are just too danged cool, I can live with expensive data from outer space. But I really believe it.

We shouldn't go back to the moon. We shouldn't go to Mars. We should cancel all rovers and probes and close the ISS.

For quite some time. Maybe until we have abolished money. Yeah, a while.

 

I completely disagree. Space exploration is critical to our future in space. At least as an underlying foundation for future exploration. You're free to have your opinion of course.

And that's ignoring potential benefits from the industrialization of space. Even just cislunar space would provide enormous benefits, on Earth. More GPS satellites could lead to higher GPS accuracy, for example. A space industry would allow larger satellites which could enable things we haven't even thought about yet. And we could also build solar power satellites which could be used to beam power to Earth, though that's somewhat far off. Not to mention that Earth science is a major part of space science. Data from orbiting satellites can provide information that assists agriculture, environmental conservation, and more. And if enough initial investment is made in space industry it could probably become fairly self reliant relatively quickly.

The US spends more on its prison system than the entire globe spends on space exploration. The problem is that there just isn't that many resources we can save by not going to space. There are many other areas we can save on.

Now for my unpopular opinion. Overpopulation isn't the problem. Our system of resource distribution, lack of effective environmental conservation efforts, use of fossil fuels, and more are the problems. But the biggest problem is that addressing those problems is virtually impossible because of how the world works. Population control looks like a solution but it isn't. It'll lead to further problems down the line and if any new problems crop up we may not have the population size necessary to deal with them. It is far easier to deal with our problems while having a growing work force than it is with a stagnant or shrinking work force. And to connect this with space, if we wish to maintain or improve standard of living we'll need to increase energy use per capita. This means we'll run into a heat limit on Earth that will force us off the planet or we'll risk massively increasing the temperature of the planet. Even if we don't "solve" any of our problems, we may still run into this issue rather soon. So a robust space infrastructure is a must in case we need to begin the process of taking civilization to space.

[kerbiloid]

Guys are drilling granite using the reconstructed Ancient Egyptian drillstick made from a wooden stick, a 10 kg gypsum cylinder, and an (industrial) copper pipe.

(In Russian, but self-explaining.

Caution: loud music.)

Spoiler

 

Summarizing the results: four labourers spent 8 hours in total, including 4 hours of pure drilling, to drill a 5 cm deep hole. The copper pipe lost 1 cm of its length. All participants got very tired.

So, they've proven that it was possible without some alien hi-tech.

Yes, now we know how to drill the stone without a microwave ultrasonic vibrobeam.

But on the other hand now we know that to drill every 1.5 m deep hole manually you need w week of 4 adult men 24/7 work and 0.5 m of copper pipe to be spent...

So, while they are celebrating, for me it just proves that you need a microwave ultrasonic vibrobeam if you need a pyramid rather than a drilled granite brick to show.

***

Another question stays unanswered: how did they drill 0.5 m wide smooth cylindric holes through several stones at once, if even a 5 cm wide one requires such efforts.

***

For me, all these pyramids-schmyramids just prove that an old mighty civ plays Spore with stolen humans, and UFO with humanoids is a part of that.
It would be strange if they were not humanoids.

Edited June 19, 2020 by kerbiloid

[p1t1o]

3 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

Space exploration is critical to our future in space.

Well....obviously lol

I will presume you mean "Space exploration is critical to our future"

Which I actually agree with. Just that "our future" is longer than the next 50 years and we as an imperfect species have a lot of work to do before we can "run" as it were. You can compare budgets until the cows come home, but the return on investment compared to earthbound enterprise is still small.

Given the passage of some period of time, our opinions would match very closely I think (given reasoned debate over which ideas are executed). But to me, that interim period is important, and quite long.

(note that in my previously stated opinion I did make allowances for certain necessary and socio-economically important space operations)

 

But I only wanted to address that our positions might only seem diametrically opposed due to a temporal difference, rather than an ideological one, Im not prepared (literally, I would need a lot of paperwork to robustly back it up) to start an exchange, I dont think that the spirit of the thread

Peace!

[kerbiloid]

I believe, the orbital (mostly uncrewed) presence should be extended and forced, but for reasons which would sound even less popular than the opinion itself.

[Cavscout74]

On 6/14/2020 at 4:29 PM, XB-70A said:

Seriously, I realize it's extremely unpopular, but heck... how much I would like to have launch broadcasts available with a no-comments option. Just the sight of the launcher and sound from its engines. Personally, I found Roscomos lives in Russian the most easy to look and listen at. Once the lift-off occurred, they will not yell, "Lift-off! Lift-off! Lift-off! We have a lift-off! XXX carrying YYY for ZZZ! Lift-off! Lift-off!.. Oh and if you haven't followed, we have a lift-off!". Same for "nominal / norminal" given every 15-30 sec

That isn't unpopular with me.  And not just for rocket launches - I would LOVE any and all forms of auto racing so much more if I could shut off the idiot talking heads and listen to the race.  Hasn't been a problem this year so far, but I swear if I have to listen to someone explain for the thousandth time how the drag reduction system on an F1 car works, I'll scream. 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Cavscout74

[XB-70A]

19 minutes ago, Cavscout74 said:

That isn't unpopular with me.  And not just for rocket launches - I would LOVE any and all forms of auto racing so much more if I could shut off the idiot talking heads and listen to the race.  Hasn't been a problem this year so far, but I swear if I have to listen to someone explain for the thousandth time how the drag reduction system on an F1 car works, I'll scream. 

My first on that list would be WRC, honestly. Oh, and similarly Red Bull Air Races when they were still a thing. 

[Cavscout74]

34 minutes ago, XB-70A said:

Red Bull Air Races when they were still a thing

Oh, those were great to watch

[Clamp-o-Tron]

To the people hating on "nominal".-

I LIKE that and the rest of the mission control chatter. What I don't like is XXX on YYY to ZZZ and the stream commentators explaining what MECO is for the third time in a row.

[kerbiloid]

Why not vary the "nominal"?

"Still flying... Still didn't fall... Wait!.... Wait!..  No, still flying... Nominal.... Nominal... Nomi... ... i-i-i-i...nal... Do you see, it's still there... Still... Still... Stiiii... STALL!!! ... Just joking, it's still flying..."

[SOXBLOX]

[snip]

On 6/14/2020 at 11:26 AM, XB-70A said:

Orange rocket good.

Yes!

My own: SpaceX didn't launch the first commercial astronauts. Convair and McDonnell did. It was called Project Mercury.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[StrandedonEarth]

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Why not vary the "nominal"?

"Still flying... Still didn't fall... Wait!.... Wait!..  No, still flying... Nominal.... Nominal... Nomi... ... i-i-i-i...nal... Do you see, it's still there... Still... Still... Stiiii... STALL!!! ... Just joking, it's still flying..."

"Was that supposed to happen?"

[Snark]

Some content has been removed.  Folks, please try to steer clear of politics, which are not allowed per forum rule 2.2.b.  This includes bashing people who come from a particular place.

Some of the content still remaining in this thread has been allowed to stand, but it's skating perilously close to the "politics" line-- take it down a notch, please.

Example of problematic content in spoiler.

Spoiler

On 6/16/2020 at 6:38 PM, cubinator said:

I think that what we should be cancelling is the military. War is absolutely unnecessary and the only way to end it is the easiest one - to put our weapons down.

^ This is an example of the kind of statement that skates really close to the line.  It's not quite politics, which is why it's been allowed to stand.

However, it's the sort of statement that many fellow forum members may legitimately disagree with, for cogent reasons.  It's the type of assertion that people are going to want to respond to.  Unfortunately, many of the best-reasoned counter-arguments would, of necessity, cite actual, real-world cases (of the "country A did <thing> to country B" sort)... and as soon as someone is citing actual countries and their actions and why those are good or bad, that becomes fairly unambiguous politics.

So that's why this kind of post is problematic, though not quite rule-breaking:  it's difficult to respond to without running afoul of the rules, which means it has a high potential for derailing threads.

I'm sure the post is entirely well meant, but this sort of thing does tend to put one's fellow forum members in an awkward position... so please try to be considerate of that.  And to anyone wanting to respond to something like this:  please try to avoid citing specific political entities-- even if it's a legitimate and great example for a counterargument-- because that would, indeed, be politics.

We're sorry we have to do this, but political discussions never turn out well, thus why we have to have the rule.  If anyone has any questions or concerns about this, please feel free to reach out privately to the moderator team (bearing in mind that rule 3.3 prohibits public discussion of moderator action).

Thank you for your understanding.