You know my first thought was that if I was a widower with two kids I definitely wouldn't work in a job that dangerous but what are the chances that being an astronaut is actually safer than driving an hour long commute?
I don't know. If my parent was an Astronaut and they decided to stop being an Astronaut for me. I would hate that, feels like a burden.
what are the chances that being an astronaut is actually safer than driving an hour long commute?
A trip to space is actually about 100,000 times more likely to lead to a fatality than a 20 mile car trip.
People really underestimate how dangerous space travel is.
(The math is in another comment below if you're curious.)
I feel like the sample size is too low though. I wouldn't argue that it's more safe... But a lot of the deaths in space travel were in the early days when we were still figuring shit out and had less sophisticated technology for things like automatic abort systems etc.
For a more recent data point, how about NASA's safety requirements for SpaceX manned flights, circa 2020?
Josh Finch, a NASA spokesperson, told Spaceflight Now that the agency’s calculated “Loss Of Crew” probability for SpaceX’s Demo-2 test flight is 1-in-276, exceeding the commercial crew program’s requirement threshold of 1-in-270.
Would you get in a car if you had a 1 in 270 chance of dying during each trip? Those aren't great odds for surviving a year's worth of daily commutes.
the difference is i doubt anyone will ever fly more than a few dozen trips in the rocket if that
For the sake of argument, let's use your numbers and say an average astronaut ends up taking a dozen flights on rockets designed to NASA's 1-in-270 "loss of crew" standard. If that probability holds, then we would expect 4.4% of all astronauts flying in modern rockets to be in a fatal accident during their 12-mission career.
For comparison, lifetime driving fatality risk for American drivers is right around 1%.
You could die working in McDonald's, at least this way he can support two kids on a single income.
"Hey girls, I know mum died, but I'm going to risk my life flying a rocket to the moon so there's a significant chance I won't make it back and you two will have to figure shit out on your own. Bye, daddy's gotta go, if I make it there I'll name something after you or something. I left some cash on the table, don't spend it all on pizza or meth, see ya! Well, maybe hahaha"
"Hey kids, I'm going to be gone for 2 weeks... Cause I'm going to the FUCKING MOON! Get dunked on nerds"
Yeah right. 'Cause he's a stay-at-home dad all year round and just flies to the moon in between for a two-week workation.
I find this claim of "he raises his two daughters" very dubious. I bet he does not have the time to raise that much.
I worked for ESA, I had lunch with 'just' ISS astronauts. Their schedule is packed. They need to be in constant training and if they're not, they have a lot of other duties. They're barely home. Bet that's even more true for astronauts flying to the moon.
I understand the PR, it's good to have role models out there, I hope his daughters understand. But...meh.
I get why you're being downvoted, but there's definitely a wee bit of truth in there..
Downvoted for being right, by butthurt americans desperately trying to convince themselves that the US isn't a complete fucking joke
Can you blame uneducated brainwashed narcissistic fascists? Their feelings got hurt. Downvoting is the patriotic thing to do, some even go as far as a dillusional rant as a comment.
Holy shit the comments ITT
Thousands of men do the same. Why is the guy who's in a roller coaster amusement park ride the one who gets recognition?
Thousands of men do the same, every day, and they deserve recognition even if they neither want it or get it. Humanity can’t comprehend its own mass, so the occasional exceptional member becomes the focus of attention. This mission is plagued by the politics of American exceptionalism, “been there, done that”, and its own problems. Despite our advances and technology and Hollywood, still isn’t that easy to send a human around the moon.
Because all single parents doing their best deserve recognition. We don't know the other "thousands of men" or hundreds of milions of women names, but we know this one and we give him the recognition he deserves. It doesn't mean all other doesn't
I also choose this guy's moon crater.
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