HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

I happened upon Brian Cox's video earlier today where he relates the film "Don't Look Up" to real world concerns, [0] and he mentions the DART mission [1] is a test-run for deflecting an asteroid, the press release reads, "DART [...] will impact a known asteroid that is not a threat to Earth. Its goal is to slightly change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be accurately measured using ground-based telescopes."

I suppose landing on comets/asteroids was the first step, now we can actually try moving them! (this first attempt is 160 meter diameter, I'm sure the result will be valuable to adjusting our simulations for larger hazards.)

My favorite part of the Brian Cox video is he mentions that the same tech for asteroid defense will be used for asteroid mining, maybe there is a profit motive to spur investment after all. Still, a botched asteroid capture could play out like the movie, we can only hope we have the chance to start small :)

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntaidEKs_Ks

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-dart-f...

⬐ numtel

I haven't watched this video but I want to say that this movie, written by Dave Sirota, the editor of In These Times magazine from many years ago has spent so long working with climate scientists and journalists that this movie he created is a reflection of his career trying to get people to care about environmental and labor issues.

⬐ jacquesm

Would it be fair to say given the contents of the movie that he's given up then?

edit: beautiful quote from the interview: "Are you really more interested in the private life of your favorite celebtrity, than you are in the protection of intelligent life in a galaxy of 400 billion stars?".

The answer to that question, for the general public, is not good news.

⬐ numtel

I haven't looked at his twitter recently but, to use Cornel West's brilliant term, being a long-distance revolutionary is a very difficult position to maintain.