Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by yetanother12345 899 days ago
I see something that worries me in this article.

It seems that any private enterprise can just launch any type of item(s) to the moon without any rules or oversight what so ever?!! How TF did we even get there? And how can we get rules and policing in place really really fast?

The article mentions advertising as one example - it would have to be a very large sign to be visible down here, but there are people that stupid, and there are corporations that rich. The thought alone is beyond disgusting to me, and I don't think I'm overly sensitive in that specific regard.

As an European it did not escape my attention that these enterprises are American. These private enterprises from one specific country are allowed by that one specific country to desecrate (and that is the proper word) something of immense importance to almost all the world. I guess there's a word for that, and I guess it's Hubris. But then there are many more words, none positive in any way.

This should never have started. It has to stop. Immediately. But how?

---

Also, after reading the comments, it seems that the concept "sacred" is not really something that my fellow commenters here, uhm... internalize (let alone, understand). Let's just say that if a spokesperson for an Indigenous Nation mentions that something is "sacred" to them, it means that that something is far more important to them than your morning coffee, or the distictions between Vi/Emacs, SPA/MPA, PHP/Rust. Which is something like "extremely important" times infinity.

Also, if a spokesperson for an Indigenous Nation says something like that, it will be beyond rude to suggest that he does not state the facts (or that he is somehow lying or pretending something).

This is regardless if you are religious, atheist, or whatever. Just FYI.

And no, I'm not Navajo.

2 comments

I had a similar reaction to your first half. As another concrete example, do we no longer avoid contaminating extraterrestrial objects with microbes as we did during the Apollo era?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection From the article: Category II: Any mission to locations of significant interest for chemical evolution and the origin of life, but only a remote chance that spacecraft-borne contamination could compromise investigations. Examples include the Moon, Venus, and comets. Requires simple documentation only, primarily to outline intended or potential impact targets, and an end of mission report of any inadvertent impact site if such occurred.[16]
Cool, thanks!

Are commercial space flights subject to the Outer Space Treaty?

My understanding is that they do need to follow the treaty requirements if they launch from a country that has signed it or, maybe, are incorporated in such a country.
Please don't write PHP on the moon