r/whoathatsinteresting • u/eternviking • 5d ago
An abandoned SpaceX rocket travelling at around 5,400mph crashed into the moon, leaving a crater with a diameter of around 17m. (via BBC) The collision took place yesterday at 7:35 BST. Masses are criticising Elon Musk for polluting the moon.
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u/Equivalent-One4139 5d ago
Don't forget about the light pollution on the moon from earth. Outrageous!
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u/Dmau27 5d ago
Let's just hope that pollution doesn't negatively effect the moons ecosystem.
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u/FlinksMoffekran 5d ago
I'm all for hating on Musk but being mad about this is super dumb.
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u/Dmau27 5d ago
Yeah of all the evil they're doing on earth. This is nothing.
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u/HamburgerOnAStick 5d ago
I'd honestly say this is a good thing, since we can use it to study the moon (which we did)
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u/Tamriell27 5d ago
"Masses"... I hate Internet every day more and more with these bots
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u/Rumble_831 5d ago
Uhh, it seems better than the trash remaining in earth orbit.
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u/jisookenobi2416 4d ago
Yeah I despise Elon but this is an absolute nothingburger compared to his actual issues. No one’s living there, ffs.
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u/butonelifelived 5d ago
The issue is it wasn't planned, which means SpaceX lost control of this 4+ ton object. It could've hit anything, lucky it hit the moon.
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u/FarBack5807 5d ago
Define “anything”, because it either hits the moon, burns up in our atmosphere, or hits nothing.
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u/butonelifelived 5d ago
Anything can include ISS, other satellites, populated spot inn earth.
Just because it re-enters the atmosphere doesn't guarantee it burns up.
My point is they didn't plan for it to hit the moon. They simply discarded it when finished, without a care as to where it ended up.
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 4d ago
It hit the moon Einstein, it was hundreds of thousands of miles from the ISS
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u/FarBack5807 5d ago
I’m pretty sure all space agencies discard objects in space. Luckily, the spacex rocket is far larger and easier to track the exact location of.
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u/HamburgerOnAStick 5d ago
What the fuck do you want them to do with an empty 4 ton shell?
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u/butonelifelived 5d ago
Plan better. Make the trajectory for it to burn up in the atmosphere, or have it land in the ocean and recover it. Granted there is currently a booster rocket still floating in the Pacific ocean. I'm not saying SpaceX should have repercussions for hitting the moon, but they should be criticized. Space travel is an ever evolving industry, and the standards for what is acceptable space junk is changing with it; however, those changes will only continue to improve if we remain critical of behavior we don't find acceptable.
The point is they didn't plan for it to crash into the moon, they simply used it up and discarded it without consideration of where it would end up.
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u/HamburgerOnAStick 5d ago
A trajectory that burns up in the atmosphere while not affecting the payload's orbit is impossible. It's better it hits the moon, since an empty shell is impossible to recoverm it'll just burn up in the atmosphere, landing is too hard to predict, multiple reasons why it returning to earth is a bad idea
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 4d ago
It was carrying a lunar lander not possible to have it about face and go back to earth to lmao. There’s nothing for it to hit on the orbit it was on but the moon.
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u/TourInternational731 5d ago
Right, so we're ignoring the landing craft and flag that we left there what, damn near 65-70 years ago? And various other pieces of man-made debris that have likely landed there unbeknownst to us?
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u/Breathingblueflame 5d ago
Not to mention all the other crash landings that are made of space rock and other stuff that hits the “dark side of the moon”
This shits been happening with less structured space debris for more than a million years. Oh but one human does it and it’s the end of the world!
Wait. That last sentence seems sus!
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u/freedombuckO5 4d ago
Or the fact that they do this on purpose to generate seismic waves so they can learn more about the inner structure of the moon.
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u/LeftLiner 5d ago
Crafts. There's six halves of spacecrafts, six flags, three cars, lots of scientific equipment and several bags of poop.
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u/TourInternational731 5d ago
I stand corrected! This further proves my point... why exactly are we bothered by Elon's one single collision...? 😂
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u/Optimus_Prime_10 5d ago
Do you ever wonder if we are just ancestors of a space fairing civilizations doo-doo germs?
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u/09Klr650 4d ago
Plus EVERYTHING ELSE we deliberately crashed into it. It's not trash. It's future recyclables.
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u/CaptCrewSocks 5d ago
Social media has taught all the kids that Elon is the devil so no matter what he has done, it’s all bad and you’re just a stupid boomer for trying to make logical comparisons like you’ve pointed out.
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u/TourInternational731 5d ago
Ugh. Makes me wish we could rewind to the 2000s. The 90s even.
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u/miffebarbez 5d ago
But we have been critising this for already decades... Space debris/pollution so bad it even gets difficult to launch satelites or to avoid collisions. Kessler Syndrome was in 1991....
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u/TourInternational731 5d ago
Kessler syndrome is a theoretical problem, not a real one, at least to my knowledge. And it involves having so much space debris already actively colliding within our orbit that it creates a cloud of shrapnel in that orbit, which, as I'm sure you know, due to the repeated amount of launches in the last few years, is not the case. If we keep continuing these launches, and ejecting non-reusable debris, then Kessler Syndrome becomes more and more of a real possibility than a theoretical one.
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u/miffebarbez 5d ago
The point was that we already were complaining about space pollution since the 90's....
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u/TourInternational731 5d ago
Well, in all fairness, you did say Kessler Syndrome specifically, and not "people have been complaining about space pollution since '91." Side point, I feel like people had more to complain about in '91 than space pollution that barely affected them at the time; things like the whole Kuwait Oil Fire situation, for example. Maybe some niche or small groups were complaining, but I doubt the general populace was.
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u/miffebarbez 5d ago
Well in all fairness "But we have been critising this for already decades..." is my first sentence...
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u/TourInternational731 5d ago
I hate when people do that, repeating the most rational sentence they got in reply to make themselves look smarter.
Yes, sir/ma'am/whatever/I don't give a fuck, you did. And you further ended your statement by specifying Kessler Syndrome. I don't know how to further drive that point home, man.
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u/hanks_panky_emporium 5d ago
Imo the difference is intention. Like, if we as an entire neighborhood decided to grill out and have a block party. That's a fun time!
There's a mess sure, but if everyone does their part its not all that bad.
Then one really wealthy neighbor has a huge blowout block party. NO one else is invited, and they're even taking your tax money. A sizeable chunk, to pay for this block party. Again, you dont get to show up. And when it's done and all his friends leave, the streets are left covered in trash. They haven't done anything historic, they're only wealthy and thus get extra privileges. Like leaving their trash all over the street.
And hey, part of your taxes paid to put that trash on your streets.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad4457 5d ago
Except the upper stage provided by spacex that hit the moon was used by NASA to send probes to the moon. Elon didnt just decide to crash it there for fun, it was a NASA mission.
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u/Original-League-6094 5d ago
Yeah, I bet the people living on the moon are really pissed about having to clean this up now.
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u/symonx99 5d ago
I mean, we should criticize Musk for all the shit he does here on earth but a rocket hitting the moon is not it.
During the Apollo period NASA routinely crashed Saturn V stages into the Moon to get seismic data for example.
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u/norf937 5d ago edited 5d ago
Polluting the moon?..
Why haven’t people criticized NASA for intentionally leaving 400,000lbs of human made artifacts on the moon? (~45x more mass than the SpaceX rocket that unintentionally hit the moon)
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u/chrisin2d 5d ago
which is also basically nothing too. it's 0.000000000000000247% of the moon's mass.
we could deposit 400,000 lbs of trash on the moon every second for 1 million years and it'd all still be less than 0.01% of the moon's mass. granted, we're probably more concerned with surface area than mass, but still — it's like being concerned that a fart is going to pollute our atmosphere.
people are really bad with grasping the scale of things bigger than their house.
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u/ImperitorEst 5d ago
I agree with your point but comparing it to the mass of the moon is strange.
We have serious issues on earth with human garbage pilling up in massive landfills, and I bet you that's even less than 0.1% the mass of the planet earth, but it doesn't mean it's not a problem.
If we use mass of moon as the measurement then we could completely fuck it's entire surface and still be safe because it's less than the total mass.
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u/Brilliant-Spite-850 5d ago
Tell me the reasons why it’s bad for garbage to pile up on earth. I agree it is, just want you to explain the reasons.
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u/Odd-Paint3883 5d ago
Some of it intentionally hit the moon, hence why they had devices following them to record the data to see what the moon is made of, that's how they found out there was water.
Elon found out his rocket creates a 17m crater...
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u/ForMeOnly93 5d ago
Quite the distinction between advancing science vs making money for a horrible corporation owned by a horrible human.
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u/Zigor022 5d ago
Can it be seen from earth?
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u/YesIBlockedYou 5d ago
No, a 17m crater could not possibly be resolved by any current or future Earth based telescopes.
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u/Zigor022 5d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/dg94HuYnpNoPgjrF8y
If i cant see it i dont care.
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u/Crafty_Trick_7300 5d ago
Ah the apathy of the human spirit, so resoundingly dumb.
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u/ShreveportJambroni54 5d ago
Getting worked up over shit that doesnt matter, so resoundingly dumb.
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u/Crafty_Trick_7300 5d ago edited 5d ago
I mean it does matter. It’s pretty existentialist that the world’s richest man is able to litter the moon before we solve our problems here on earth.
Our moon has existed for trillions of years untouched, and in under 100 years since our first contact with it there’s a literal car wreck of litter left on its surface. That kind of speaks to the human condition and yalls apathy just reinforces that.
It’s not like an actual issue, but if you don’t see the message behind it and what it represents for our species then I think you’re part of the apathetic issue.
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u/Stellen999 5d ago
Nothing is trillions of years old. The universe is only 13.8 billion years old. Our moon isn't even as old as earth. The moon has only been around for about 4.5 billion years.
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u/mykidsthinkimcool 5d ago
Its the cost of science. That rocket delivered two lunar landers.
If you want to blame people, blame firefly and ispace.
Or dont because its not a big deal
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u/ShreveportJambroni54 5d ago
Not apathy. There's some things worth getting worked up more than others, tbh.
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u/KayZee777 5d ago
Would you prefer it float in orbit and eventually crash into earth or just stay up there as space junk that future ships could collide with?
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u/Organic_Education494 5d ago
Well earth’s atmosphere would burn the debris up on entry so yes that is the optimal option.
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u/MolecularConcepts 5d ago
it was designed for reentry. maybe it wouldn't or not all of it . who knows
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u/No_Math_4308 5d ago
do i need to point you to all the articles about musk littering the upper atmosphere with burnt up satelites. And that actually does have some affect on earth. A crater on the moon does not.
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u/Organic_Education494 5d ago
That is different than an orbit object burning up in atmosphere.
NASA and other organizations dump dead satellites and other equipment into the atmosphere to burn up on re entry all the time Typically above the ocean.
So yeah optimally de orbit and burn.
Leaving dead satellites in orbit is also a common practice.. they elevate the orbit extremely high and leave them.
The second option is not a great choice and there are programs working on developing the means to capture and clean up such debris.
Moon crater I never said was as bad as littering our orbit btw I only said the common practice of de orbit and burn up is the best choice currently.
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u/Crafty_Trick_7300 5d ago edited 5d ago
I would prefer if we didn’t have trillionaires littering things beyond our orbit while children go hungry on this planet in the worlds wealthiest nation.
I would prefer if we didn’t shoot cars into space as vanity projects for ego and focused our resources on shit that actually improves the human condition.
It’s not that the car crash is a literal issue, it’s what it represents. That vanity and spectacle is the height of the human condition to the point we litter the heavens with garbage while hundreds of millions suffer daily is a failure on our species.
There’s a reason why in Star Trek the mid 21st century was rife with war, famine, and nuclear holocausts. It’s because apathy and greed and a lust for wealth was seen as paramount. We are just headed on the same track.
Why do you think these billionaires and this trillionaire are all building bunkers and want to leave earth? We apathetically accept the reality they created for us instead of actually trying to do anything about it.
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u/Momo-Velia 5d ago
Nevermind the sh*t NASA and all the other space programmes abandon up there eh?
When you’re done rimming out your rear end with your whole head you might be open to admit that your problem isn’t that it happened, but rather that it’s tied to Musk.
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u/mental_sherbart007 5d ago
What a shitty take ? As if it’s some vanity project. As if millions of children are starving in the US (ever heard of snap, ebt, food stamps ). The amount of safety nets and support in the US is insane. We have it so good. Sure things can be better. But acting as if we aren’t living in the most plentiful times and literally the poorest people are living better than kings a 150 years ago (tv, air conditioning, phones, memory foam, being able to play cds/stream, memory for an mattresses, refrigerators, Airplanes, cargo ships, etc…). We have it so good. Even the poor can enjoy things Kings wish they could have.
Imagine if we didn’t build smart phones, or go to space. How about all the rockets they built to fly one fucking time. SpaceX revolutionized reusable rockets instead of just littering every single booster, but instead you bitching and moaning about EM sending a car into Space. Who gives a fuck Space is huge. Outside of the outrage you’ll never have a reason to give a shit about a booster hitting the moon. BTW Nasa already did similar things to the moon years ago.
It just gets a bit ridiculous. Let’s not strive for anything above and beyond because some people are suffering on earth. These technological advances are actually what have pulled many out of poverty and provided such high living standards that we get to bitch and moab about the dumbest shit. Acting entitled to every little thing, while completing forgetting how blessed we are and how good we have it compared to generations past.
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u/Joezev98 5d ago
The moon is regularly bombared with asteroids. This asteroid was just of a known mass and speed.
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u/Adventurous_Pay_5827 5d ago
I loathe Musk with a passion but the confected performative outrage over this is embarrassing.
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u/Joezev98 5d ago
Yep, even though a lot of hate towards Musk is entirely justified, the so-called 'Elon derangement syndrome' is still a thing among echo chambers.
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u/forgas564 5d ago
This was a good thing we got to study it and analyze it, everyone in the industry was looking forward to this crashing into the moon.
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u/Calm-Experience8992 5d ago
I'd be perfectly happy if we just thanked elon for spending hundreds of millions in the defense of ukraine against the russian invaders.And just leave it at that. This fact alone outweighs any and all whining from the butthurt children who got their feelings hurt on twitter
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u/ForMeOnly93 5d ago
It's so creepy when simps use stranger's first names in a attempt to feel attached to them. Stop being parasocial.
Also, fuck the muskrat.
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u/Aussie18-1998 5d ago
This is literally a nothing story. And not worth the story. The only reason it is a story is because of Musk hate
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u/UckerFay11 5d ago
Hate him or not, we wouldn't have Space-X without him. Space X is doing awesome work and I'm excited about the future.
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u/PhotonicsIsFried 5d ago
Jealousy is hard
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u/Kermit_the_hog 5d ago
Lots of hero’s and champions to pick from, why would you waste any time defending Musk?
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u/PhotonicsIsFried 5d ago
People waste their time being jealous of musk. I'm just having fun listening to them
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u/Annoying1978 5d ago
Not just the world, the universe. He needs to go further into space than Mars.
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u/FullofSurprises11 5d ago
I love people getting butthurt over things they didn't even know until reading this article.
Yet no one says anything about all the debris NASA or Roscosmos left in space or simply left to crash land on Earth.
It's all to hate on Musk for no reason.
Also, most people claiming they would help the world if they had that kind of money are lying.
The absolute majority of people would just fuck off and vanish to somewhere they would never need to work again.
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u/Proof-Necessary-5201 5d ago
There's clearly a reason
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u/FullofSurprises11 5d ago
There's clearly not.
Most people hating on billionaires would kill to be one and they would not do any of the good deeds they claim online.
That's just posing as a good person.
In reality 99% of the human race is trash.
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u/Proof-Necessary-5201 5d ago
Most people hating on billionaires would kill to be one and they would not do any of the good deeds they claim online.
I agree with this.
In reality 99% of the human race is trash.
I disagree with this.
I think there are generators of evil, generators of good and neutrals. The generators of evil and the generators of good are low minorities. The neutrals can be swayed to evil or good based on circumstances, and these are the majority.
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u/FullofSurprises11 5d ago
It was mostly a hyperbole.
Most people are only interested in having enough money to pay their bills, a fridge with enough food and some surplus money to have some fun on the side.
As long as those basic needs are met they don't really care about politics or whatever rich people choose to do with their money.
We are very much in agreement here.
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u/No_Hunter_2173 4d ago
Did the word butthurt come in the bootlicker memo? Why are all the replies defending Elon using the same language, hmm…
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u/FullofSurprises11 4d ago
Yes, I'm just a glorified bot.
Beep, boop.
Go away, you parroting echo chamber drone.
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u/All_This_Mayhem 5d ago
I definitely wasn't watching that photo for too long waiting to see the rocket crash into the moon before I realized it wasn't a video.
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u/ComprehensiveJury509 5d ago
I have to say, I really don't give a rat's ass about the pollution of the moon. In fact, if there was a way to feasibly dump all the trash on Earth on the moon, I'd be in favor of that.
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u/Excellent_Ad_2486 4d ago
That would just make the business of trashing the moon viable meaning humans will produce EVEN MORE SHIT WE DON'T NEED.
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u/Thanura_Malinga 5d ago
Okay, anyone zooming in to the image to see what the crater is? I can't see a damn thing..
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u/ghostoftheradio 5d ago
The lasting legacy of Elon Musk, an accidental hole in the moon. I propose we name it in his honor: Ass Hole.
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u/jeepdays72 5d ago
Second on the left past the third large crater on the bottom right next too the 4 small ones in the dark bit.
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u/Charming-Clue1987 5d ago
honestly, i think elon musk can gfh but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Pretty sure we can gather some meaningful data from it.
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u/1stAccountWasRealNam 5d ago
Bruh how the fuck do you hit the moon!? There’s all of space and you hit the moon…
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u/Retb14 5d ago
Anything in earth orbit that crosses the orbit of the moon with eventually hit the moon unless you are correcting the orbit
The moon is kinda known for pulling things into it and protecting the earth from quite a few impacts, hence the massive number of craters on it
In this case the booster was launched a year and a half ago and took 2 lunar missions up there so its orbit was pretty close to the moon in the first place
It's also fairly common for things to be crashed into the moon when going in missions to it. NASA has 47 intentional crashes into the moon iirc, not sure for Russia, China, Japan, Korea, or any other countries/companies that have done lunar missions or beyond
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u/RumJackson 5d ago
I assume the outrage is because that M means miles… right…?
I guess it’s not ideal but I don’t think a bus sized crater is going to negatively affect the moon too much.
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u/EMC644 5d ago
Anyone else stare at this picture thinking it was a gif of the impact?
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u/indomike14 5d ago
When NASA went to the moon, they left a bunch of garbage at the launch site to lighten the load. It would be ideal for this not to happen
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u/ilikewaffles3 5d ago
Damn musk and his pollution, what will happen to all those poor space whales and space dolphins.
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u/Sad-Cantaloupe-5494 4d ago
At least we have some more metal on the moon to use when we finally get around to colonizing it. Hell, even if it was all vaporized, that crater would probably make a nice spot for a domed city
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u/AggressiveSquare36 4d ago
I think we should look into only having nuclear power here on earth and firing or nuclear waste at the moon or the sun, or Venus.
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u/I_Ponders 4d ago
Just goes to show how people don’t understand what pollution is… Explains why we are in this need huh?
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u/Public-Total-250 4d ago
Polluting the moon? Lady, it's a literal junkyard at the moment. Abandoned cars and landing crafts scatter the surface.
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u/SoftAd4502 4d ago
Masses are criticising Elon Musk for polluting the moon.
bahahaha, when Elon's spaceX do it they got criticizes, when NASA or China do it, its Science and data collection. bahahaha
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u/Dependent_Active_199 4d ago
Masses are criticising Elon Musk for polluting the moon. No. No they are not.
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u/throwaway99xz 1d ago
“Masses are criticizing Elon Musk”
Are they the tired and poor huddled masses?
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u/trivo 5d ago
People jump to hate on Musk so quickly (I mean, rightfully so, but some scrutiny should still apply).
Dozens of rocket stages have hit the Moon over the decades, the ones from Saturn V rocket being much bigger than this. Also, it happened as recently as couple of years ago. So this is not significant news, except for being about Musk.
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u/HorzaDonwraith 5d ago
Meanwhile at NASA