Slashdot Mirror
Crowd-Funding a Mission To Jupiter's Moons
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Like so many great leaps for mankind, getting a human to one of Jupiter's moons must begin with a small step. And Objective Europa is aiming to do exactly that. A small team — architects, futurist designers, private space pioneers and even Jacques Cousteau's son — is beginning the planning stage to send human beings on a one-way trip to the Jovian moon Europa. The effort is headed up by Kristian Von Bengston, the founder of Copenhagen Suborbitals, an open source DIY space program based in his native Denmark. And he's quite serious about transporting a man or woman beyond our atmosphere, Mars and the asteroid belt."
Open the pod bay door, HAL.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
As long as we attempt no landings there.
Step 3 Profit.
Who expects to live long enough to take possession of their collector edition t-shirt and fake rock?
Go exercise your paranoia in the open comments for the poll about Facebook.
Thanks - I'm here all week!
... will kill anyone who tries this in a few years. It would not be pleasant for the poor sucker.
My paranoia doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
I think our society has become too risk averse. Not only are many people more terrified of 1 in a million occurrences like terrorism and serial killers than truly dangerous activities like driving, many want the government to prevent others from engaging in risky behavior even when they only risk harm to themselves.
Case in point, I'm pretty sure if this was attempted there would be considerable debate on whether someone should be allowed to volunteer for a suicide mission like this. Yet no one ever questioned the sanity of anyone wishing to fly on the space shuttle with it's 1 out of 67.5 chance per flight of killing you in a massive fireball..
Soooo awesome. I was thinking about this a lot this year, a one-way trip to Europa, suicide for science.
They can't even figure out how to survive a single day on Europa without dying (due to the radiation), and they want us to just give them money. Also, how much will it cost to give these astronauts enough food, water, and materials to survive on, not only for the 600 day ONE WAY trip, for the rest of the time they are going to spend there?
This is going to cost a ridiculous amount of money, and the project itself is ridiculous because the project hasn't even been fully thought out beyond what's going to happen beyond Day 1 of landing on Europa. Hell, there might not even be a Day 2.
Only a fucking fool would invest in this.
Everything this guy does stinks of scam to me. He proposes truly massive ventures backed by what appears to be a very lightweight team, and always pulls out the 'one way trip' card as an 'aha!' to wave away questions about cost or feasibility. (eg: "you may ask why NASA says this would cost 100x as much and take decades.. that's because they don't plan on a one way trip!").
Funding at trip to Mars by selling TV coverage? Now, before that's even started to progress, announcing plans for a trip to Europa?!
If he was serious, then he would be sending fools to a quick death. As it is the only thing I think is happening is he is lining his pockets with the money of the gullible.
It would seem to me that getting to Mars (or even the Moon) might be a better objective first.
When the oceans were being conquered with ships set to explore and no guarantee of returning.
It's exciting to hear about but sobering to think about the tens of thousands who left, never returned and were forgotten 20 years later.
I wonder if we'll see the same happen over the next century.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
The radiation belts around Jupiter make that whole system a bad target for human exploration unless they can come up with some kind of personal electromagnetic shielding that can protect someone on the surface. I think, if and when shielding equipment like that becomes available, it will be for vehicles only as it will likely require a pretty decent power supply.
A more feasible mission would be to a moon around Saturn, where the radiation is not so out of the ordinary.
It's certain to make others go after you, though.
Bring it on, mofos, bring it on.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
The radiation level at the surface of Europa is equivalent to a dose of about 5400mSv (540 rem) per day, an amount of radiation that would cause severe illness or death in human beings exposed for a single day.
"All your monoliths are belong to US"
Seriously?
Who the fuck is dumb enough to envision a suicide run to Jupiter?
And, more telling, who the fuck is dumb enough to actually GO on one of these suicide runs?
Not quite sure where people's heads are at on this one.
If people die in the scientific endeavor of space exploration by ACCIDENT or misadventure? It happens. It's tragic.
But going out there knowing you're going to die, "FOR SCIENCE!"?
GET YOUR FUCKING HEAD CHECKED!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
If this was "going out with a slim chance of coming home". That's one thing.
This is "You AIN'T coming back!"
People who don't volunteer for this aren't "risk averse". They're simply proving they have higher brain function in the form of reason.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Forget about Europa, crashing into Jupiter proper would be an awesome and fun suicide. How does the cloud cover looks like when seen firsthand, just above it then inside it? Are you better off after crossing the radiation belts (radiation wise) and how far/how long can you survive exactly.
[What it must have been like w]hen the oceans were being conquered with ships set to explore and no guarantee of returning.
But we'll be killed!
Nonsense. Simmons, what do you suppose the edge of the world looks like?
Uh, a great cliff... Oh, in the ocean, right. So, a giant waterfall off the edge?
Precisely. All the water pouring from the ocean for hundreds of years... Then why isn't the ocean dry?
...Rain! Rain must be filling it back up.
Obviously. Now, by what mechanism would water reach into the sky to first fall?
Ah... uhm... A bucket? No...
Fool, think! What moves water in the air?!
Oh, Wind!
Truly, it does. What moves ships upon the water?
...
Sails!
Wind!
Indeed. So, there is nothing to fear, you see?
With a firm mast and steady sail, if the edge be reached then just like rain we shall follow our jibs into the skies!
If you're lucky we may even wave good day to St. Peter, or meet the maker Himself!
So, we'll be Dead?!
Quite. Now fetch me an sturdy umbrella just in case. Columbus has volunteered to go first.
Sounds like it would be a real blast going there with current technology....
Awesome? Maybe awesomely stupid.
Fun? Suicide? See a shrink. SOON.
Basically, from dropping unmanned probes into Jupiter, we already know that you just keep going down and down and down until the pressure crushes you.
If you want that, we can drop you into the Mariana Trench in a cut-rate submersible.
If you're LUCKY, such a death would be quick.
If not, it could be indescribably painful for the few seconds/minutes you have left.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I guess it's a question of perspective. I'm not saying I would do it but I can understand why someone would volunteer. It's like this: Everyone who had some kind of modern education knows the name of the first man who walked on the moon. It's a chance to be something like that again, to make history. Heck people might remember you as that crazy dude who had the most expensive suicide in the history of humanity but they still would remember your name and you would be a footnote in history for a while. I'm pretty sure some people would go for that.
All life ends in death. We're already born with our fucking heads in need of a check, according to you :)
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Of course the things you value in life must apply to everyone, by edict, or else! Who the fuck are you to tell others how to live their lives, and how to set up their values?
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Don't take that so seriously, or feel free to do so, I was just exploring a "what if?" and I think the idea is dumb anyway, whether it's a suicide mission or not. I believe that mild fascination in the context of a totally unrealistic and unreachable scenario is harmless. Remember that tale where a girl gets eaten by a talking wolf? It's even a cultural thing.
You never thought about silly things like which execution method would you prefer?, I would totally not do electric chair, gas chamber or injection but I'd be curious to know how hanging or guillotine feels like. Never read stories about crashes in the newspaper, or whatever? If you didn't resist your curiosity to read the news you must be mad I guess.
http://www.objective-europa.com/info/
Preliminary site is up, I quote:
Despite what you may have read on the Internet or in the press, THIS IS NOT A CROWD-FUNDING PROJECT.
You want the taste of dried leaves boiled in water?
You know I'd rather just send a robot. Because we've never actually done that before.
The enterprise of landing a rover on Europa - which is a literal one-way journey - is still something NASA isn't entirely sure about how to do effectively. And in that case we don't need to land food, oxygen and other life-support gear. And once you get there, we'd like to do something useful - but there's kilometers of ice we need to get through first.
I'm all for high-stakes missions to Mars, but that's extending our reach in a way which is achievable and would advance our technology and enthusiasm. When we can't do Mars even if we wanted to just yet, Europa is just lunacy.
You never thought about silly things like which execution method would you prefer?
Two girls, old age, and a wild night.
Anything else and you're not even trying.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
I guess it's a question of perspective. I'm not saying I would do it but I can understand why someone would volunteer.
It's like this: Everyone who had some kind of modern education knows the name of the first man who walked on the moon. It's a chance to be something like that again, to make history. Heck people might remember you as that crazy dude who had the most expensive suicide in the history of humanity but they still would remember your name and you would be a footnote in history for a while. I'm pretty sure some people would go for that.
Why the F would it matter if everyone knows your name if you are dead?
1. I mean shit we haven't even been back to our own moon in half a fucking century even though it's only 384,400 km.
2. We haven't even been able to send a single fucking person to Mars let alone anyone to the outer reaches.
And yet people are reaching for the stars... I think it's time to get back to Earth and face the facts.
I find all these type articles that popup from time to time quite laughable considering all the facts in hand. Am I a hater? By no measure. However, I for one am a realist, I'm not sure about those other people though. Mars might be visited within 10-20 years, provided that everything stabilizes on Earth first, after all the economic BS that date may be pushed in around the 20+ years. Humans visiting any of Jupiter's moons would be realistically possible, after we've put a person on Mars, within 30-40 years (+/- 5-10 years).
Cutting through the BS, humans may be able to visit Jupiter's moons... but that would be around 2070 or 2080 or 2100 at the furthest point.
I'm not sure why these crowd funding sources like MarsOne and this new Jupiter moon thing aren't considered scams because that's what they are. They are collecting money through merchandise and donations in turn providing false hope to people's dreams.
I'll be honest, I'm extremely pissed off and I always get pissed off the moment I see these types of articles and the reason why is they keep jiggling the false hope in front of your face and you keep getting suckered into it not realising humanity has just not reached the point of space faring civilization, and according to recent news, we won't be able to reach that point until the year 2500-3000 at our current progress.
How much more acceptable do you think this is?
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/10/mars-one-project-canadians_n_3250517.html