Golf In Space

[poliphilo]

I thought it was a bit of a laugh actually.

The Russian cosmonaut advertising some stupid Canadian golf commodity by teeing off into space.

As a photo opportunity it was rubbish. You really couldn't see what was happening and the ball just dropped off into the void. Plop.

But all the commentators are being po-faced and saying what a cheapening of the dream and I can't not agree.

I had high hopes of our space adventure.

I thought we'd be on our way to the stars in 2001+5. Instead it's all product placement and space tourism for the very, very, very rich. Bleeagh!

What mucky little apes we are.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Could've been worse. That Backstreet Boy might have actually gotten his arse up in space and done the advert.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I must have missed that story. Ads in space? Why to we have to pollute everything we touch?

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I Googled it for you:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2014153.stm

My bad! - it was Lance Bass from N'Sync, not the Backstreet Boys.

Advertisements are a constant in a consumer culture, there's just no way around it. Not using my TV for anything other than watching DVDs has definitely removed a sizeable chunk of advertising flotsam in my life.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that.

I hate ads.

At least in Britain we have one set of channels- those run by the BBC- which are free of them.

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

seems to me, if we want to colonize space, there's a hella long road to get the technology we're going to need.

technology seems often to be driven by the need to overcome some obstacle. obstacles like wars, or famine, or disease, or the desire to have ice constantly available in our fridges.

but yeah, there's not a lot immediate results (money) from space yet, because the technology gap is pretty huge, and the goals and aims and obstacles we can shoot for overcoming are also huge, and pretty amorphous in their rewards.

learn how to make ice on tap, you can sell that to people. ice is something they want. same goes for penicillin and anti-biotics, and whatever.

space though is a hard sell. where's the benefit to me? maybe in 100 years we'll colonize some other planets and trade with them for the cool stuff they have, but not yet.

so the marketization of space, via golf stunts, super-rich tourists, all that, that is going to drive the innovations that will bring the whole thing full circle and back to us, the hoi polloi general consumers.

as such- i think it's pretty cool they did the golf stunt. and if coca cola wants to put a huge system of mirrors into orbit that read 'coca cola' right across orion's belt, maybe that's ok. it's not ideal, but i don't see how else we'll get the technology if people don't think of new ways to profitize space, and thusly invest in the technology.

things like the ansari X prize are fine, but what is 10 million dollars as a reward? very little, when you're building the best rockets and delivery systems ever made.

also why i have a lot of respect for branson and virgin. he's an explorer, and he's driving change. that rocks.

rant over.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Didn't we use to climb mountains and go to Antarctica and stuff like that simply for the glory and the fun of it?

OK, Maybe not.

But remember I was born in the year that a team of plucky Brits first conquered Everest. Asked why he was bothering, Sir Edmund Hillary replied, "Because it's there."

And that's how I feel about space.