Nobody can even come up with a coherent reason for any of these proposals to exist. Even the ISS is more of a political instrument than a real science thing. NASA likes to say its about studying how to help humans live in space, but those results were in decades ago: more than a few months in zero-g wrecks people. So why are we still trying to build old modular Soyuz/Mir derivatives instead of trying to figure out the minimum spin humans need to stay healthy? Because the whole point is to do familiar safe things while providing full time jobs for ground control.
metalman•20m ago
Right!
And because China has a good chance of pulling of a moon and then mars landing first, they are lurching into, hmmmm,ok,they are lurching flat out trying to bluster up a program without disturbing the space grift industry, ie: SLS , Shuttle Leftover Systems
and the whole thing disolves into cringe
Muromec•7m ago
Disbanding NASA would be one of those symbolic things thay people will associate the dusk of American empire.
ACCount37•6m ago
I agree that a "long term fractional g spin test" is one of the most valuable things a LEO station can do. But there are others too.
For example, medical interventions against zero-g decay can be tested in any microgravity, spin or no spin. Development of in-space manufacturing and assembly can happen on any sufficiently capable space station.
All of that, however, requires a good amount of ambition. And I'm not sure if NASA under the current political system can deliver ambition.
cl0ckt0wer•14m ago
It's liability laundering. If an openclaw blackmails a politician while hosted in space, what's the legal recourse?
Muromec•9m ago
A person who wrote the prompt, the person who spawned the instance, the person who provided the access to infra, the person who launched it.
At the end of the day, there is somebody who profits from it or could have prevented it
ceejayoz•9m ago
International law says you spank whoever launched it. There’s treaties on this.
mikkupikku•1h ago
metalman•20m ago
Muromec•7m ago
ACCount37•6m ago
For example, medical interventions against zero-g decay can be tested in any microgravity, spin or no spin. Development of in-space manufacturing and assembly can happen on any sufficiently capable space station.
All of that, however, requires a good amount of ambition. And I'm not sure if NASA under the current political system can deliver ambition.