Top all-time · #2760
Roger Launius
Personal blog · launiusr.wordpress.comhistoryscience
Roger Launius's personal blog at launiusr.wordpress.com covers history and science. Since 2012, 26 different Hacker News readers have linked it 27 times, most often “Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (23) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for Roger Launius's post reproducing Ernst Stuhlinger's 1970 letter to a nun in Africa, which argues for space exploration. It is often cited in debates over space spending.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 23 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Commenting on Spaceflight, History, Religion, Baseball, and Other Assorted Issues
Most-linked posts?
- Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa16 people · 17 mentions · first linked 2014-11-13
- Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa.6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2012-08-12
What Hacker News says?
Ernst Stuhlinger wrote this letter on May 6, 1970, to Sister Mary Jucunda, a nun who worked among the starving children of Kabwe, Zambia, in Africa, who questioned the value of space exploration. At the time Dr. Stuhlinger was Associate Director for Science at the Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama. https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Philae has landed”Submitted Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa. as a story · 360 points
HN discussionHi highly recommend anyone to read Ernst Stuhlinger's (former NASA administrator) letter to a nun in Africa : https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Liquid water 'lake' revealed on Mars”Submitted Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa as a story · 277 points
HN discussionLet's say we poll the roughly 1b people living in first world, and ask them each to pay $10 to see SpaceX do whatever SpaceX does. How many people even think it's worth $10? I just wan't to add that the problem is not that SpaceX provides less to humanity than WhatsApp. The problem is that most people are not really far-sighted, but only see things which benefit themselves in a predictable amount of time. Why compan…
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Google Nears $1 Billion Investment in SpaceX”Submitted Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> public was actually never in favor of the Apollo program except for when we actually landed on the moon Wow, I wasn't aware that the "only point at which the opinion surveys demonstrate that more than 50 percent of the public believed Apollo was worth its expense came in 1969 at the time of the Apollo 11 lunar landing" [1]. [1] https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/exploding-the-myth...
Comment linking /2010/08/16/exploding-the-myth-of-popular-support-for-project-apollo/
on “Intuitive Machines successfully lands on the Moon”Submitted Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa (2012) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThanks JD. Good coverage on Mangalyan. For many Indians who are criticizing this Mission saying that the money would be better spent on toilets or teachers, this is an eye opener: Why Explore space http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Mangalyaan, India’s First Mars Mission”https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-... in general, there's a lot of items on the urgent list, there's so much money to go around and you don't want to invest everything in endeavour X only for Y to be worse and catch you by surprise. so you allocate some budget to secondary research as well. NASA doesn't even burn that much in the grand scheme of things.
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “SpaceX NASA returning human spaceflight to United States today (canceled)”The money is not "burned up" - it is spent right here on Earth. It's paid to extremely skilled engineers, technicians and scientists. The technology developed for doing such a difficult task will inevitably benefit all of humanity. It did so for Apollo. It will again in the future. https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight”There are always some naysayers. There were some for the US program too: https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “India launches 20 satellites in single mission”There are other benefits too. http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Mythbusting India's Mars Mission”> Here - https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-... . - some arguments for space exploration in general. I don't think anyone is against using space, but that's quite a different thing from human space exploration. The only specific example he gives of the direct use for space - using artificial satellites - don't require human space exploration. Neither do the more indirect benefits he mentions…
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-..
on “Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'historic' space mission”> A lot of the justification for human space exploration seems to be circular and rest entirely on the quasi-religious belief that sending people into space is inherently good. It's just a short summary of the reasoning. Here - https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-... - some arguments for space exploration in general. Human exploration in particular becomes more clear when one realizes that mo…
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Nasa head of human spaceflight resigns days before 'historic' space mission”hear, hear https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Making Plutonium-238 in large enough quantities is an ongoing challenge”i think a good counter to this sort of argument is : https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Meta readies $25B bond sale as soaring AI costs trigger stock sell-off”Anyone who thinks India doesn't need a Mars mission, please raise your hands up. Done, good. Now you've given your opinion. Please sit down and shut the F up. Whatever I write would pail in comparison to a thread posted a few days earlier: Link: http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a... HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4372563
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “India announces plans for a Mars mission in 2013”For those wondering why India doesn't first feed its citizens, here is a relevant post: http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “India announces plans for a Mars mission in 2013”I think you should read this: https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-... I had similar views until 5 years ago and questioned almost every new investment/endeavour by people that required significant upfront capital investment but I think this letter has changed a lot of my thinking process.
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Watching Jeff Bezos Go to Space Was More Depressing Than Inspiring”The space shuttle was funded and designed to meet Department of Defense specifications. Its cargo bay designed to ferry satellites up and to potentially return them back to earth. https://www.space.com/34522-secret-shuttle-missions.html https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/nasas-space-shuttl... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Department_of_Defense... The Hubble design was remarkably close to Keyhole: htt…
Comment linking /2012/11/12/nasas-space-shuttle-and-the-department-of-defense/
on “Photos of a KH-12 Kennan Keyhole Secret Military Spy Satellite (2013)”1) https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-... 2) the diarrheal diseases generally don't need much money at all. 16oz water, fist of salt, three finger pinch of sugar. Unfortunately, the adults in charge of those children tend to remain ignorant even after the Western doctors tell them about the cure. So money won't do anything for that. You can't force a Madagascan to stop dancing with family co…
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “What are children dying from and what can we do about it?”The initiative reminds me of this: https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-... The modern web made possible to represent knowledge in completely new forms and to easily collaborate with people in your fields of interest. From your home you can now find a 3D animation of how some piece of engineering or science works. With AR and VR you can comprehend complex concepts faster. The barriers to enter…
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Sustainable Web Manifesto”The money wouldn't be use for research because that's not how the economy works. This is covered in the frequent HN submission "Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa" https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Breakthrough in cloaking technology grabs military's attention”Yes sorry, FAA. I’m a Brit so not as familiar with the US institutions. My point is there is extensive and persistent oversight, debate and opportunities for input and objection. Journalists play a role in the public interest in any democratic society. One person didn’t ask whether we should? Space technology has been controversial since its inception. Citizens, journalists and politicians have been questioning it t…
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “SpaceX Punched a Hole in the Ionosphere”You might find this article interesting - "Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa." [1] (HN discussion [2]). [1] http://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a... [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4372563
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Neil Armstrong's death should be a wake-up call for the world”Here's a classic letter by Ernst Stuhlinger to Sister Mary Jucunda, a nun who worked among the starving children of Kabwe, Zambia, in Africa, who questioned the value of space exploration: "Why Explore Space? A 1970 Letter to a Nun in Africa" - https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/why-explore-space-...
Comment linking /2012/02/08/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/
on “Splashdown NASA’s Orion Returns to Earth After Historic Moon Mission”
