Do you talk about space?

[KOCOUR]

I like to talk about space, but non of my friends cares. People in my age have small children and need to worry about feeding theyr family not about spacetrawel. Actually when i say spaceexploration amongst my friends, it always ends up with ****storm of complaints about how goverments should spend money on better schools or better healtcare and not on "useless rockets", unfortunately in the end, even if iam space fan, i have to agree with them.

[Seret]

A healthy human being should be able to enjoy all those things.

This. There's nothing wrong with being into video games, masturbation and music videos when you're 14. Same goes for being into space exploration. Do whatever your thing is, and don't dump on others for doing theirs.

One of the nice things about the internet is that it's really easy to find groups of people who share your niche interests. Like this place.

[Acidum]

Ćuti dobro ti je dok ti u Å¡kolu ne donose rad iz hemije u kome piÅ¡e Co na kvadrat ili maketu sunÄÂevog sistema sa plutonom na mjestu Venera a Jupitera na mjestu Sunca.

O, da... Osećam tvoj bol... A tek neprilagoÄ‘enost u tim osetljivijim godinama... NauÄÂićeÅ¡ vremenom kako da to prebrodiÅ¡, najbitnije (i najteže) je naći istomiÅ¡ljenike, ili makar osobe sliÄÂnih interesovanja -> zajedno smo jaÄÂi!

...and to translate to out-of-Balkans visitors: Oh, yes... I can feel Your pain... And not to mention unfitness (inadaptability) at that age... As time goes by You will learn how to overcome that; the most important (and the most difficult) is to find same minded people, or at least people of simmilar interests -> together we are stronger! (last part is from a child song about friendship: everybody should know what friendship means, together we are more beautifull, together we are stronger)

I don't really.

In my studies (gamedev), everyone knows about me modding KSP and they can't wait to punch in some jokes. They are just interested cause it's a game, but not in the space-scientific sense like most of us here are.

But I had a birthday a few days ago and as I have a projector I usually play some music videos or concerts when I hold house parties, and I played some chill music at the end and thought how cool it would be to play

in the background. A girl on the party started asking questions like "are there people inside?" "how do rockets work?" and stuff like that I excitingly started explaining! =) ..and then there was the footage of Challenger and I told her that in this one there actually were people.. She remembered "Challenger, right? There was a teacher on board right? Oh no..." I was amazed she knew. (I'm not from US, people here know very little bout space) And she couldn't look at the explosion.

Other than that I very rarely get space questions, but a lot of people ask me scientific questions in general which I love explaining =)

This is one sad example of situation in countries that pay veeery little (if any) attention on space exploration (or science in general)...

I like to talk about space, but non of my friends cares. People in my age have small children and need to worry about feeding theyr family not about spacetrawel. Actually when i say spaceexploration amongst my friends, it always ends up with ****storm of complaints about how goverments should spend money on better schools or better healtcare and not on "useless rockets", unfortunately in the end, even if iam space fan, i have to agree with them.

I have to disagree on that one... Governments should not use money from science (or space for that matter) for schools and hospitals. They should use money from wars, criminals, unfit and bulky administration, bad politics, and overspending rich people FOR education, medicine, science AND space exploration.

[Aghanim]

Space station? There is no such thing as space station, is it the same as a train station? (ISS reaction)

[KOCOUR]

I have to disagree on that one... Governments should not use money from science (or space for that matter) for schools and hospitals. They should use money from wars, criminals, unfit and bulky administration, bad politics, and overspending rich people FOR education, medicine, science AND space exploration.

Well my government doesnt WAR too much, money from criminals should be returned to people from who the criminals took the money, and taking money from people no matter if poor or rich is stealing and stealing is allways bad.

[SFJackBauer]

and taking money from people no matter if poor or rich is stealing and stealing is allways bad.

Is it stealing if it's already stolen?

(quote from a movie )

Anyway, my boss (and company's CTO) worked in missile guidance systems and rocketry. The father of one of my friends (this friend which also happens to work with me) worked on parachute systems for the russian aerospace industry. You can imagine we have pretty interesting bar discussions Even though our jobs today have no connection to aerospace in any way.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Average Conversation about space: "Hey, look, this is Earth from Saturn!" "Where is it?", "That pale blue dot!" "Oh..."

[NASAFanboy]

Talking about space.

Ever wonder how I alienated myself from my friends, fell deep down the social ladder, and got a A in Physics? I really don't get the amount of hate that space exploration gets. Everyone's saying that we should spend it on healthcare and such, and one of my friends said we shluld give it to the military (My brain immediately did a internal headdesk from the stupidity of this comment to which I replied "What? To kill more Arabs?").

Space. I simply don't stop talking about it. Heck, the only reason zi excercise is to give me a chance to be a asronaut. I mean, the economy can crash, we can turn I go a police state, or something, but as long we have a successful space program, I'm happy.

[Acidum]

Average Conversation about space: "Hey, look, this is Earth from Saturn!" "Where is it?", "That pale blue dot!" "Oh..."

Usually followed by: "I thought it was a dead pixel...", or even "what's all the fuss about one more whitish star on a picture..."

[Djolox]

O, da... Osećam tvoj bol... A tek neprilagoÄ‘enost u tim osetljivijim godinama... NauÄÂićeÅ¡ vremenom kako da to prebrodiÅ¡, najbitnije (i najteže) je naći istomiÅ¡ljenike, ili makar osobe sliÄÂnih interesovanja -> zajedno smo jaÄÂi!

...and to translate to out-of-Balkans visitors: Oh, yes... I can feel Your pain... And not to mention unfitness (inadaptability) at that age... As time goes by You will learn how to overcome that; the most important (and the most difficult) is to find same minded people, or at least people of simmilar interests -> together we are stronger! (last part is from a child song about friendship: everybody should know what friendship means, together we are more beautifull, together we are stronger together)

Haha imam jednog druga s kim priÄÂam o inertnim gasovima a jedna mala neznam ima li 16 godina lupa se teÅ¡kom knjigom po glavi i uzvikuje:KAKO TI TO ZNAÅ Å Å Å Å Å Å Å Å Å Å Å Å Å !!!

i svi su poÄÂeli da bulje u mene i druga u ÄÂuÄ‘enju i tražili liÄÂnu kartu razred ime Å¡kolu starost baÅ¡ mi je bilo neprijatno!

[Arran]

Most people i know, get that look on their faces what tells you to asap to shut up and change topic, preferable on any topic i dont give an rats ... mostly about sports, and foremost soccer. Then they go fanatic and cant stop talking having huge discussions what club, Ajax, or Feyenoord should be the best, and what player is the best (i think, i never pay much attention then) and how they have season tickets and private seats in station. (seems to me a topic you talk about once, and everyone knows, but somehow they even after 20 years, still have to tell each other each time we meet).

Then if i try to keep the subject on sports, but the ones i like, again i get the same look, and asap its turned back on the soccer topic.

Then i want to leave because i get numbskulled bored, and get the remarks that i'm not very sociable..

And then people say we Geeks have narrow interrests< sigh>

Sigh, life can be hard when you'r not a soccer fan..

Edited December 23, 2013 by Arran

[Motokid600]

I got a nice story that'll warm your heart here.. I live in New Jersey about 2 hours from Wallops, VA where they set up a new launch center. So it was back in September when LADEE was launched. I gathered all my friends and some family together and we all walked out to the soccer field behind my house to watch it take off.

Now I was selling myself short. I thought it was going to be a lame orange star rising into the sky. And this is what I was telling everyone. I was wrong... Very wrong. There were some low level clouds on the horizon and the next thing I knew I was watching a mini sun rise. A firey torch rising into the sky..

Everyone gasped.. and just said "Wooow" with a few 'holy s**t!" In there as well. I myself was blown away at how marvelous the launch was. I let my friends pass around my binoculars and they were loving it. We saw the first stage burn out and I shouted to my buddy with the binoculars who put them down thinking it was over. "No, no follow it follow it!" And just as he found it again the next stage lit up like a small explosion in the night sky. ( LADEE was all solid fuel so it put on quite a show ) Needless to say there was another "holy s**t!" Scream.

We watched it go all the way. We had amassed a small crowd by now and we had people cheering, clapping and laughing.. it was a very inspirational night. My one buddy who was real depressed due to a divorce came up to me shook my hand went in for hug then said to me" I know now why you like this stuff so much.. thank you. That was amazing." Afterwards that's all anyone was talking about days after.

It blew away my expectations and was one of the greatest nights of my life in this hobby.

We even heard it.. truly a beautiful night. The faint crackle of the SRB's. Simply awesome.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Motokid600

[Themohawkninja]

Considering I am in college for astronomy, I tend to talk about it a lot.

[WestAir]

I find most people don't enjoy talking about subjects they're not extremely knowledgeable in.

Sports, alcohol, women, politics, the workplace... you can get almost anyone to spend hours talking about those subjects. Once you branch out into more defined niche conversations (Astronomy and space, socioeconomics, history, fishing, gaming, etc etc) you need to be talking to someone who has some prior involvement with said subject.

It's why when you first meet someone, unless you're at a place where persons from a niche group congregate (a convention, a show, etc) you probably don't start off by talking about general relativity or socioeconomics. And if you met your current group of friends from high school or the bar, chances are you still won't be able to relate to each others niche likes. My best friend played in an Orchestra. I can't entertain him in conversations about the Viola, Violin, or even the Piano. Likewise, he can't entertain me when talking about space or aviation.

If I go to the National Aeronautics and Space Museum in Queens, NY, on the other hand...

[Nikolai]

Yes. Yes, I do. In fact, I'll be giving a couple of lectures about diverting potential impactors at the local science museum next month. Really, really excited for the opportunity.

[iDan122]

In average, only 1/30 people I interacted with were interested in space. Females showed the least interest towards space, even something like Jupiter or orbital weaponry doesn't interest them, even the ISS.

Another experiment showed that females mostly don't talk when you explan, whereas most male individuals try to talk and make predictions(like my friend said "wait, isn't it weightlessness on Mars?"). Sometimes if you don't know, you just have to shut up....

[Piwa]

when I start talking about space always hear in response, "You cosmonaut???".People do not realize that to know the mechanics of space is not necessarily to be an astronaut/cosmonaut...))

[Forte]

Let's see, When I got a model of a Saturn V and Chris Hadfield's book for christmas a few days ago, I went running around the house screaming with glee.

When I start talking about the Apollo program, whoever was stupid enough to ask me about it will have to survive me going on and on and on...

Edited December 28, 2013 by Forte

[th3shameless]

i try to but i always end up getting too passionate about it and end up rambling or just lose them in what im talking about :/

[Seret]

Nope, not unless it comes up. Which it mostly doesn't.

[Joshington]

I had a conversation/debate with my sister about space exploration once. It was mainly about what triggers space exploration (not exactly that, but I've edited this post enough so I'm rolling with this). She argued that humanity could be much farther in space exploration if we didn't have wars, and I argued that the Cold War brought us to the moon less than a century after the plane was invented, and that if we didn't have wars or any violence we wouldn't have any reason to escape from Earth and reach for the stars as we would be living in a utopia (I was more or less playing the devil's advocate)

[Thomas988]

I don't talk about it much, but I'll say something if someone brings up a conversation.

[Kulebron]

If I see a tech person, it's worth discussing, apart from that I don't. They're not interested in more than a general discussion, or in unexpected revelations (like that our ships and engines are superior ), but I just name that fact.

Rarely someone tries to show their importance by making an argument with pure common sense. Then I drop a bunch of numbers and do a killer line telling to read the prime material. But all this is just a turf war.

A couple of times some people got interested in aviation details and wanted to know more, but as I started explaining, they kept asking, and the circle of facts I had to explain was growing exponentially, so I think they just got startled by the vast geeky knowledge.

Most of the people usually are interested in things they can imagine themselves doing or can relate to, so technical stories without drama, or pure technical drama, is not worth discussing.

I think the best use for anyone's passion is to be a teacher. High schools programs are to stiff for that, but extracurricular groups are great. There are many kids who like technology and want to learn things, but school and college programs are just too disengaging, you just learn for the sake of learning and reproducing data without understanding. This drains you and kills interest. If you instead offer them doing something meaningful, then learning becomes effortless, and achievements will boost the passions.

[Djolox]

All of you are lucky.

You have friends.

I have only one.

Others react like this: FU** Walking book! Run AWAY he is dangerous and contagious with science he is crazy!!!!

And that is the story why i am a book in everyone's eyes.

I am only with real knowledge in geography in the whole class.

[Djolox]

If I see a tech person, it's worth discussing, apart from that I don't. They're not interested in more than a general discussion, or in unexpected revelations (like that our ships and engines are superior ), but I just name that fact.

Rarely someone tries to show their importance by making an argument with pure common sense. Then I drop a bunch of numbers and do a killer line telling to read the prime material. But all this is just a turf war.

A couple of times some people got interested in aviation details and wanted to know more, but as I started explaining, they kept asking, and the circle of facts I had to explain was growing exponentially, so I think they just got startled by the vast geeky knowledge.

Most of the people usually are interested in things they can imagine themselves doing or can relate to, so technical stories without drama, or pure technical drama, is not worth discussing.

I think the best use for anyone's passion is to be a teacher. High schools programs are to stiff for that, but extracurricular groups are great. There are many kids who like technology and want to learn things, but school and college programs are just too disengaging, you just learn for the sake of learning and reproducing data without understanding. This drains you and kills interest. If you instead offer them doing something meaningful, then learning becomes effortless, and achievements will boost the passions.

Im still a 11 year kid and if i take job to be a teacher i think i will be worst fear of all students i am a heavy dictator.

So i don't want to scare kids i will just work on CERN or in ESA.