Does no one care anymore?

reply to post by boncho


So the thin air afforded a greater acceleration to perhaps 600 miles miles per hour.
Wouldn't he become unconscious or look like a rocket sled occupant with impaired mobility.
He has to be carrying a survival mechanism like a pressure suit at least.

Originally posted by boncho

Originally posted by badgerprints

Originally posted by boncho

If it's not big news, then what is? I guess gmbh, should have saved their money and just bought out some SuperBowl commercial time for Red Bull with the money they spent on this.

/sarcasm

You hit the nail on the head.
It's publicity.
A red bull commercial.

Yes, the difference being that this marketing campaign brought millions of people (friends and family) together for a live event... tested new materials for spaceflight.... tested human limits... collected scientific data... and broke world records.

Now what exactly has the McDonalds Monopoly Campaign done besides make me one step closer to a heart attack and fill my drawer with Park Place tokens to which no matching Boardwalk token actually exists?

Sorry,
I don't recall comparing the red bull stunt to the Mc Donalds marketing.
Nor do I recall a live event that brought millions of people to the tv set anything unusual, nor did the jump do anything for testing or spaceflight that a test dummy with sensors couldn't have accomplished.

The OP question was "Does no one care any more? " The answer is not about publicity stunts and advertising.
If it mattered at all beyond a high tech, high priced version of Evel Knievel them more people might care.

To me it's just another example of how people waste vast sums of money on self aggrandizing crap that accomplishes nothing more than adding to someone's bank account.

Arguing about whether or not Tom Brady is more athletic than Felix Baumgarnter is kind of silly isn't it? It is a pretty subjective thing to argue about. Not to mention it doesn't mean Tom Brady is cooler, maybe just more athletic. Not necessarily more important, but maybe more athletic =)

Whether you are watching football or watching a guy make a space jump you are still idling while the Earth turns to garbage around you. Not sure why one is better than the other.

I cared when I was younger. I cared a lot. That is why NASA turned out to be such a huge disappointment for me.

"okay, we did some moon shots, sure.... but now let's really challenge ourselves and see if we can do some orbits around the earth for the next 30 years.... what? explore other planets? no, no... Orbits I tell you, the people want us to orbit, it's like doing donuts in space, they love that s^%t. It's going to be expensive, though".

I was all excited, and watched the live cam for an hour before he jumped.
In the end it was a let down. It was not that neat.

But what did that stunt have to do with space travel or discovery?
It was more like a circus stunt.

Originally posted by TeslaandLyne
reply to post by boncho

 

So the thin air afforded a greater acceleration to perhaps 600 miles miles per hour.
Wouldn't he become unconscious or look like a rocket sled occupant with impaired mobility.
He has to be carrying a survival mechanism like a pressure suit at least.

Yes, apparently now the final data suggests he broke the speed of sound. And yes the suit was pressurized.

DAREDEVIL Felix Baumgartner reached a top speed of 1342km/h, or 1.24 times the speed of sound, in a record-breaking freefall from the edge of space.

The speed, revealed at a press conference after the unprecedented leap from 39km up, was significantly higher than that given earlier by a spokeswoman, who had put his maximum speed as 1136km/h.

www.heraldsun.com.au...

reply to post by badgerprints

Sorry,
I don't recall comparing the red bull stunt to the Mc Donalds marketing.
Nor do I recall a live event that brought millions of people to the tv set anything unusual, nor did the jump do anything for testing or spaceflight that a test dummy with sensors couldn't have accomplished.

Sorry, you are wrong. McDonalds does a marketing campaign that costs millions of dollars in giveaways and print media. You yourself called it a publicity stunt, in other words, marketing.

And it is, it's a marketing campaign with actual usefulness or real world impact.

8 million streams on YouTube is bringing people to watch it, talk about it, interact in some way. That is not even including tv viewers, etc.

www.dmwmedia.com...

To me it's just another example of how people waste vast sums of money on self aggrandizing crap that accomplishes nothing more than adding to someone's bank account.

Hypocrisy in its greatest form. So why not rant about useless advertising dollars first before ranting about dollars spent that accomplished something.

nor did the jump do anything for testing or spaceflight that a test dummy with sensors couldn't have accomplished.

Yet, they still decided to send people into space even though the monkeys completed their missions...

You can look at the marketing angle here.

When science can get its priorities right and focus on solving the worlds problems, ie poverty, cancer etc, then people will probably care about people jumping from a balloon. But people starving, or people living with cancer don't give a crap about some guy going for a personal record dare devil stunt. And quite frankly, neither do I.

Not one single cent of tax payer money should ever be spent on space exploration while the planet has these problems. If someone wants to fund their own exploration for their own benefit, then all the power to them and good luck.

Call me a scpetic, but i'd be looking a little closer at what new laws Congress passed while everyones eyes were on the sky ! Why have people focusing on the new laws passed, when you can have them looking at a guy jump from a balloon. I could be wrong in this case, but as a gambling man, i bet i'm not !

reply to post by AussieDingus

The thing about that whole approach of no tax money while the planet has serious problems is......this is how they get solved in so far as technology can ever contribute to them. Two things really took the world from the "black and white" days of tommy guns, soup kitchens and Bi-Plane.

#1 World War II and follow on military things

#2 The enormous national effort for the Apollo program and the Moonshot.....as well as the Skylab space station later and then the shuttles.

People down in the trenches and fighting the major problems don't have the time or ability, from there, to solve them. However, the massive technology demanded as prerequisite to major warfare OR space efforts benefit the world. Think of Velcro and hundreds of other things both small and large that have improved the standard of living in all kinds of ways. All from one of those two things...

Personally, I'll take space to war. Space is far more exciting and the benefit for loss is one even the people doing it are likely to call worth it in the greater sense.

I missed his jump today, but I care! My MIL's neighbor even brought it up over dinner, she is the last person I would have expected to care! My FIL chimed in on the conversation, I would expect him to care tho, cause he's kinda "in to" all that kinda stuff! During the jump I had people tweeting me that it was happening!!

I even brought up the youtube of him doing it and everyone gathered around my iPad, I think you are picking the wrong friends!

reply to post by zysin5


But the thing is scientific exploration helps everyone. For example Dr. Michael DeBakey develop an artificial heart pump based a space shuttle's fuel pumps. This is used when waiting for transplants.

Here are a few of the many other medical advances that came at least in part from NASA:

Digital imaging breast biopsy system, developed from Hubble Space Telescope technology

Tiny transmitters to monitor the fetus inside the womb

Laser angioplasty, using fiber-optic catheters

Forceps with fiber optics that let doctors measure the pressure applied to a baby's head during delivery

Cool suit to lower body temperature in treatment of various conditions

Voice-controlled wheelchairs

Light-emitting diodes (LED) for help in brain cancer surgery

Foam used to insulate space shuttle external tanks for less expensive, better molds for artificial arms and legs

Programmable pacemakers

Tools for cataract surgery

Link

I watched the jump. Was pretty epic.

You negative types are a sad, sad sack. You'd rather watch the zillionth game of football than one of only a few people in history to touch the heavens and freefall for miles back down? Dudes, if I wanted to watch 20-some-odd guys run around in tights and grab at each other, I'd just watch gay porn. We're not quite at the stage in our history where this kind of activity is commonplace, it's pretty historic and well worth watching. If a better suit can be created for any potential bail-out that way back to Earth from a higher orbit from the data collected from this and any future jumps, then it's worthwhile. That matters a WHOLE lot because guess where things orbit? Technically, within the upper layers of the atmosphere, not in beyond-the-atmosphere space. The ISS has a low earth orbit within the thermosphere. One could argue the next layer, the exosphere, is the final layer of atmosphere, or argue it is the beginning of space. Point is, if the ISS was to have a catastophe and needed everyone to totally bail out, updated suit tech would be a HUGE plus, especially if they had to come back down without a pick up ride.
If they can get higher up and more accurately test closer to orbital heights in future jumps, the more accurate the data applied to suits will be. It matters. If we're ever to completely leave the planet for a new colony, or even just trips up to an orbiting hotel, this stuff is important. Who wants to be careening back down in the event of an emergency with antiquated equipment? The G's Baumgartner experienced in his wild flipping when he hit air, they could very well find out a way to ease those G's significantly. Tom Brady (whom I thought was a golfer, apparently he's not) throwing a ball around a field does not matter whatsoever in the longrun. He will leave nothing of usefulness nor value to humanity. Kittinger will. Baumgartner will. It's pathetic that so few see that.

Originally posted by badgerprints
This was done back in 1960. 102,000 feet.

Over half a century ago with PROTOTYPE space suits.
Kittinger was TESTING new space suits by jumping from 20 miles up.

Baumgartner jumped from a higher altitude but he used technology that has been developed and improved for more than a half century.

I mean, the guy's got big balls and hats off to the him but It's really not big news.

It's a publicity stunt.

Sure, it's a publicity stunt, but I enjoying seeing someone accomplish such a personal achievement. I know I sure in hell wouldn't do it. Those that didn't watch would sit through hour and hours of the Kardashians or that boo boo honey crap. Now that's sad!

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by AussieDingus

 

The thing about that whole approach of no tax money while the planet has serious problems is......this is how they get solved in so far as technology can ever contribute to them. Two things really took the world from the "black and white" days of tommy guns, soup kitchens and Bi-Plane.

#1 World War II and follow on military things

#2 The enormous national effort for the Apollo program and the Moonshot.....as well as the Skylab space station later and then the shuttles.

People down in the trenches and fighting the major problems don't have the time or ability, from there, to solve them. However, the massive technology demanded as prerequisite to major warfare OR space efforts benefit the world. Think of Velcro and hundreds of other things both small and large that have improved the standard of living in all kinds of ways. All from one of those two things...

Personally, I'll take space to war. Space is far more exciting and the benefit for loss is one even the people doing it are likely to call worth it in the greater sense.

Personally, I agree that the war machine shouldn't have any money spent on it either, but this thread was about the science side, not the miliatry, but I do agree with you on that.

And if all those great things that space exploration brought us, then the question is, could we still of come up with those advancements WITHOUT going into space ? And why can't we have space exploration that involves equal input from ALL corners instead of what we have today which is nothing more than an egotistical pissing contest about who can be the first or fastest. Yep, thats tax money well spent !

The cure for poverty can easily be solved by proper management and distrabution of funds, but those funds seem to go to the war machine and space exploration. No trip or exploration to space is going to come up with a cure to the real problems on this planet. And the cure for cancer is more than likely [if it hasn't already and been suppressed] to be found either on this planet or under a microscope in a Lab then it is in space. So ALL funds should go towards these problems before we even think about invading another country or going into space. All that stuff can wait until we have the real issues addressed.

Its ironic that when people come out saying that a natural product cured their cancer, they get no mainstream meida attention at all despite no evidence to prove them wrong, yet when people say they were cured by a Nun or a Religious figure, that religious figure gets a sainthood and lots of media attention. Again, yet further proof of how we all have our priorities mixed up !

When there's a natural product grown or developed on our own planet that could possibly cure cancer, it gets suppressed so everyone stays on the "miracle drug", yet if a religous figure cures a disease, despite no physical evidence that they did, then its a no questions asked "miracle" ?

Space exploration may of produced a few advancements, but it has also seen NASA spend several million tax payer dollars on making an ink pen that would work in outer space. At the same time the Russian space program looked on their desk and used a 20 cent pencil. But in all reality, the NASA ink pen probably only cost $1000 and had the rest written off under "miscellaneous", so it can then be re-directed into a more behind the scenes project that the majority of society wouldn't agree with if they knew. More than likely some new advanced weapon that can be sold to the war machine in their next invasion of a country ?

But Operation Paperclip should tell all there is to know about NASA, and i'll let the results speak for themself.
I do wonder though, what all those on the recieving end of the MK Ultra program think about the technological advancements that were used on them ?

And i'm sure all those Nazi's snuck in the back door to start NASA didn't have humanities best interest in mind. You may disagree, but their track record would back me up !

If the masses had any idea what was happening with MK Ultra, the President would be dragged from the office by his hair today, and the alphabet agencies would be shut down as well, but most people don't know about it because they're too busy watching the Superbowl, or too busy watching Lady Gaga's latest filmclip, or maybe watching a guy jump from a balloon ?

But i do get a chuckle that a backyard mechanic can make a car that runs on vegetable oil waste, yet the science world still seems to be behind the eightball on that one, despite the brains and funds working on the project. Or maybe its a case of having the wrong people, working in the wrong jobs, with the wrong priorities, which all leads back to our real problems !







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reply to post by DarkKnight21

we simply cut NASA's funds, which is the one damn thing that should be a national achievement!

They are more interested in private corporations now so they can be more quiet as ever.. And don't have to lie anymore to public who paid there bills all the time.

I understand the need to get the economy back on its feet first and to pass the torch to the private sector

That you can say is more serious to people than some guy jumping from 35000 feet for a price tag of around 300000 dollars , you can pay lots of mortgages from that.

Leaving the negativity behind, I think its a great achievement ..

Originally posted by DarkKnight21
This afternoon I watched in amazement as Felix Baumgartner broke multiple records including highest freefall jump altitude and highest balloon jump. It is a breakthrough for science and will provide great insight for future missions to space and emergency evacuation procedures.

What saddened me is that virtually no one in my social circle cared. They would rather sit in front of the TV and watch football. (Maybe I am picking the wrong friends

).

What's with all the apathy towards space exploration now? Does no one care anymore? 60 years ago we were reaching for the stars, setting high standards for ourselves and trying to land (and return safely) a man on the moon. It seems that now we are perfectly content to send robots up in our place while we endlessly worship our sports and celebrities here on Earth.

Now - to make room for the outrageously over-funded defense budget - we simply cut NASA's funds, which is the one damn thing that should be a national achievement!

I understand the need to get the economy back on its feet first and to pass the torch to the private sector, but what good is that when the central banking system is robbing us all blind? More and more it is just looking to me like the elite flat out just don't want us to go to space. If we expand our horizons beyond the Earth and beyond ourselves, then we aren't fitting their agenda to keep us contained, selfish and stupid.

/rant

Get it through your head. No one cares about anything anymore. Period.

reply to post by DarkKnight21


Im my head its no big deal. Some guy jumps from a great hight to earth. Its been done before the only difference is this guy was higher up. No the kind of thing I would get excited about unless I was doing it for myself.

reply to post by DarkKnight21


I thought it was absolutely amazing and had it streaming live! Yep down at my pub however I am sure there was a game on that I could care less about!

Yes we've seen the headlines and bought the T-shirt and while Felix Baumgartner's impersonation of Joseph Kittinger is A-OK, what he is doing with it is B.A.D. The next statement from the wonder boy is how his jump will aid the safety of the new space tourist aboard the low lob Virgin 'Space' shuttle. But this is the worst example of profiteering. All the research for high altitude bailout has been done and there are many variants of ejection from steerable ejector seats to hermetically sealed capsules that retain flight control. All our budding entrepreneurs need do is ask Martin-Baker or Lockheed for help on design modification but this will be expensive because a lot of money has already been spent on R&D and down goes the profit margin. This means that whoever is gullible enough to risk their life when the plane goes up will have, at best, an experimental safety system designed by the people who bought you slim-line toasters and this reveals the darker side of the so called Hero explorer. If you don't believe me then read Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Journal (The greatest Book ever written). Note how they are jovial friends at Base camp but upon return from the South Pole Scott remarks that he wishes one of his injured party would wander off and die because of his hindering of the returning expedition. Back to the Space Tourists and what does the future mean for them? Well the Pilots (heroes) will be kitted out to the extreme for an emergency but I'd be surprised if the paying passengers (accompanying party) will be wearing much more than a track suit.