Talk:2124: Space Mission Hearing

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Latest comment: Wednesday at 21:37 by 92.23.5.92
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Spaceship noises? What exactly does a spaceship sound like if you can't hear anything in space? Perhaps this is part of the joke! Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 13:15, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

Actauly you can - your own spaceship might be producing some sounds. Like sort of humming device. -- 172.68.244.102 (talk) 13:30, 15 March 2019 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Spaceships sound like the computer-generated chirps, whistles, and whooshes used in sci-fi media to make travel through space familiar to those of us who travel through air. I hear little 'pew pew pew' noises come from my computer whenever I burn a cd! 172.68.65.198 13:49, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
they add them artificcially like on electric cars, so that you do not get run over by a spaceship when crossing the milkyway. --Lupo (talk) 14:12, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
Isn't the ISS like crazy loud or something? I mean not in the sense that it'll give you hearing damage, but as in it's way louder than anyone would really expect it to be. RG (talk) 02:30, 22 July 2026 (UTC)Reply
It's not as if any sound 'goes anywhere'. i.e. running air-conditioning upon a earthbound building. you could put your fans outside and the majority of the noise would broadcast out into the open air (not a problem unless you're standing next to them in the back-alley/on the roof). Any oscillations transmitted to the building itself can also get redistributed and absorbed into the ground it's standing on, with the air and soil being effectively squishy 'inertial-absorbers', and inside the building the air-duct system is likely to include mountings and baffles to soak up the rest.
On the ISS, you can only isolate the internal recirculation fans from the internal mountings, but all the movement of the air is (necessarily) going to just propagate entirely internally, everywhere you have any such running mechanical equipment, and though you hopefully avoid any significant resonances (depending upon what else is installed), the ultimate 'sound-soak' that keeps it from just echoing around is going to be soft 'equipment bags' and other internal padding, which can't be everywhere, as well as the squishy meatbags that are the resident astronauts. It gets 'smoothed out', in parts by design, in parts just because of happenstance 'sonic obstacles'. But you'll never really escape 'the hums' entirely 92.23.5.92 21:37, 22 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

And I see that main idea behind this comics - that while we are trying to find some serious reasoning of space programms, the real motive that realy matters - IT IS SPAAAAAAACE!!! Everything else is not enough to justify such expenses. -- 172.68.244.102 (talk) 13:30, 15 March 2019 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It could be meaningful to list some reasons for exploring or not exploring space in the article ... There's a TV show about colonizing Mars that makes the point that once we inhabit two planets, we guarantee a future for our race if the planet doesn't survive. 172.68.65.198 13:49, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
Indeed, the main reasons for exploring space are (so very human) curiosity and need of achievement. Like exploring the lands and seas of Earth in the previous centuries (even if greed was a big factor as well). The former is more rational and largely more fruitful than the latter, in the sense that pursuing curiosity we (the humanity) learn new things while exploring space and advance general science and technology, which eventually (in some cases) leads to improvements of daily life. The need of achievement (hurray! we're first to do it!) is what mostly drives manned exploration, which also provides some scientific results but comes at a vastly greater cost. Given current and near-future advances in robotics, mechatronics, etc. the scientific value/cost quotient of manned exploration is very low compared to robotic missions in my opinion. I'd vote for building a thousand of Mars probes that will take some measurements in a thousand of points on the planet's surface over doing a manned mission that'll visit one spot - for a comparable price. But humans are not entirely rational beings and sometimes do crazy things just for the sake of them. Colonization on the other hand is a completely outworldlish idea. The colony would not survive without constant resupply from Earth - not in any forseeable future state of technology. Maybe in thousands of years, maybe never (i.e. we'd go extinct before we could achieve it). -- Malgond (talk) 14:47, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
See Mars (2016 TV series) which basically plays as a mix of advertisement for SpaceX and conventional sci-fi. They've got a surprising amount of how to do this figured out. And I can only imagine the funding comes from people saying "Spaaaaaace" with stars in their eyes. 162.158.79.149 17:27, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
Both rational though and our genetic programming says that we need to spread more to avoid the risk of extinction. Note that Mars guarantees nothing: Sun will go nova in just five billion years and destroys all inner planets. That's the deadline to moving to different solar system or at least moons of Jupiter. We would need to move to Mars sooner, as Earth will get too hot (yes, even if we stop current episode of climate changes). Also, that's assuming nothing will crash into our solar system when our galaxy will be crashing into Andromeda in 3.75 billion years. -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:46, 16 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
The travel-into-space efforts seem to either be "right now!" or "that's stupid" when it seems a more rational approach would be, "let's just make sure we're always working on this a little bit." 162.158.78.100 17:30, 16 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
I second that. Let's stop worrying what will happen in "just five billion years". Anything can happen between now and 5 Ga from now, including Earth being ejected into interstellar space (goodbye, Sun! goodbye, life!). We've already done a lot to avoid extinction in the last few thousand years, and we'll continue that effort; however, being unable to learn from an example, we can make a fatal mistake anytime without realizing it until it's too late. Or a random big event (internal or external) could wipe us all. Or a natural long-term trend (in human timescale, not billions of years) that we can't possibly adapt to. So research what we reasonably and affordably can and hope for the best :-) -- Malgond (talk) 10:56, 18 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
If species preservation gets integrated into the reasons we should include a mention to the title text from https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/893:_65_Years 172.69.46.10 11:49, 18 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

I’m glad there’s now a comic featuring literally me. Complicated explanation prior to yelling space and making laser noises. Netherin5 (talk) 14:23, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

The "Spaaaaaace" reminds me of the "Spaaace" substitution in 1288. Probably just a coincidence. 172.68.142.77 17:11, 15 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! Zmatt (talk) 07:42, 18 March 2019 (UTC)Reply
Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! Herobrine (talk) 22:29, 18 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

The obsession with Space makes me think of Space Core from Portal 2 ~Diceguy 173.245.54.7 00:04, 16 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

Are there any recent real-life hearings to justify a space-related project that this comic could be referencing? The comic feels like a parody of a real-life event, but a quick search of recent news found only a tiny statement by NASA, nothing like a big hearing.—Roryokane (talk) 13:19, 16 March 2019 (UTC)Reply

If by spaceship noises he means the engine exhausts then yeah, those crappy .arm players are perfect for an earape 172.68.198.130 13:27, 30 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

(Among us-style ejection beeping) SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE. Z1mp0st0rz (talk) 15:27, 11 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

152.236.8.106 - please stop reverting comments, or explain yourself 82.13.184.33 09:29, 22 July 2026 (UTC)Reply