

IAmA NASA Astronaut who recently returned to Earth and I am new to reddit - razzaj
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/r62jp/iama_nasa_astronaut_that_recently_returned_to/

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erickhill
I have to say, it would be phenomenal if there was an HN equivalent to this
opportunity (e.g. like Ask HN but in the other direction) that didn't simply
promote a blog post elsewhere in order to spark intelligent discourse here.
This would allow intellectual superstars in the computer sciences and
entrepreneurial spheres to hold similar forums without (the likelihood) of
offensive comments to infiltrate the conversation, i.e. "Do boobs look cooler
in space?"

~~~
RyanMcGreal
There's no reason you couldn't do it right now with the existing
infrastructure on HN. It wouldn't be as fancy (e.g. the AMA subject's comments
highlighted) but it would be just as functional, down to the ordering of the
questions in the comments.

~~~
matdwyer
I find the reddit interface extremely annoying with AMA... I want to see all
the questions and answers, I don't want to see the random ones that don't get
answered, etc. Just show me everything in a neat organized way. Love the guys
that summarize everything at the end.

~~~
Osiris
I agree. I'm unclear how it decides what posts get shown and what is hidden in
the "Load more comments" tag. I've even found responses to questions within
those "load more comments" section, which I find odd. They are also completely
out of chronological order.

~~~
defrost
If you open a submissions comments you'll see in the top left corner under the
submission text and the empty "your comment" box a little drop down that says
"sort by" ...

The default sort order is either best or top scoring which will rank comment
order by vote score, I generally sort by "old" (oldest first; chronological
order.

If you have an account you can alter your default sort preference.

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c1sc0
This made me pause: "If the dinosaurs had a space program they'd still be
here." ~ RonGaran ... sounds like something Elon Musk'd say.

~~~
zipdog
A few years back someone wrote an article (to a science journal I think)
asking if it was possible that the dinosaurs had high technology but all
evidence of it had vanished in the millions of years that have passed.

Some dinosaurs were around for millions of years, which is a phenomenal amount
of time compared to human history, and if humans go extinct anytime soon we
may leave very little trace of our technology for a species 60 million years
after us.

Two factors weighed against it: plant diversity and evidence on the moon.

The first comes from the argument that any sufficiently advanced civilization
will travel around the globe, so fossil records will show the same plants
everywhere. It's tricky to determine this but the evidence seemed against it.

The second is simply that any high technology civilization will eventually
travel to the moon, which allows for a much more undisturbed record.

~~~
jackpirate
_The second is simply that any high technology civilization will eventually
travel to the moon, which allows for a much more undisturbed record._

If we didn't already know where the lunar landers touched down, do we really
think we'd be able to find them again with just a telescope? That's a lot of
area to search.

~~~
bilbo0s
The point is ... there is no question that our satellites would have found
such evidence by now. We may not tell the general public ... but we would
definitely have a good idea of where to look for evidence.

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Dove
_The Shuttle is a big powerful vehicle that you ride IN. The Soyuz is a small
vehicle that you WEAR._

That's just priceless.

~~~
lotharbot
A common sentiment regarding spacecraft of the era: _"Because of their small
size, it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were worn, not ridden"_

(From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury> )

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razzaj
My absolute favorite passage is "If the dinosaurs had a space program they
would still be here"... Beyond the caricatural aspect of this phrase, i think
it is a deep statement that needs to be understood by all humans. We had that
exact discussion the other day with a bunch of friends/geeks; we tried to
calculate the cost (to humanity) of all the "wasted" time
designing,building,marketing,selling things that reduce the likelihood of the
human specie survival beyond then next 500 years (an arbitrary large number).
Seriously just think of bankers (very popular scapegoat these days - not that
they do not deserve it) and the money (=time x effort) they wasted and how
this time x effort could have been a far better investment in advanced space
programs. Obviously, bankers are not the only negative contributors on the
planet...

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nickik
The bankers didn't waste money the gambeld and lost. The govs around the world
wasted the money by spending on them.

The freedom to do these things led to the innovations over the centuries, its
like evolution. Evolution is never the road to perfection but it adapts and
gets better (slowly). If we would set everything else aside and only work on
human survival we would in a short term make great progress but it would not
be good longterm. Curiosity into all directions is better.

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ErrantX
This one is my favourite question/answer so far:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/r62jp/iama_nasa_astron...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/r62jp/iama_nasa_astronaut_that_recently_returned_to/c437c03)

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kooshball
I agree. He also has a much more in depth answer about the return process on
his blog.

[http://fragileoasis.org/blog/2011/9/plunging-over-niagara-
fa...](http://fragileoasis.org/blog/2011/9/plunging-over-niagara-falls-in-a-
burning-barrel-and-more/)

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preichen
He just inspired me to write this blogpost about our startup and Space.

[http://blog.localuncle.com/2012/03/21/localuncle-goes-to-
spa...](http://blog.localuncle.com/2012/03/21/localuncle-goes-to-space/)

I really wish sometimes, I would've tried to become an Astronaut. I do have a
Master's in Mech. Engineering...

