Planet Earth is a hellscape

and humans are space orcs (main: sangotori) (icon by @stardust-specks)

[dramatic-dolphin]

a while ago I read this sci-fi short story from the 50s where a guy is kidnapped and interrogated by aliens using a very sophisticated lie detector, but he realizes that the lie detector works off technical truth, and with some careful phrasing and misdirection, he manages to make them believe that humans are a race of immortal, overpowered, omniscient telepathic beings. and it works.

my favorite part is when he tells them that humans are "capable of transportation without the aid of spaceships or any vehicles, just by using mental power to control physical matter". it's true, we can. it's called walking.

[dramatic-dolphin]

okay I found it, it's The Best Policy by Randall Garrett

and it has other gems such as "I know beyond a shadow of a doubt what every member of my race thinks of you" (they don't know you exist) and "every human knows exactly as much about the location of your home planet as I do" (nothing)

[mrsterlingeverything]

Color of the day

[grimoiremanifest]

absentmindedly wondering how the sun looks from space so i checked and was met with like a straight up angel from bible like holy shit dude

[serial-unaliver-deactivated2024]

[boopsloop656]

[sapient-simian]

Light Pollution: The Overuse & Misuse of Artificial Light at Night

Light Pollution: The Overuse & Misuse of Artificial Light at Night

[fazedlight-deactivated20251111]

The Dark Site Finder map lets you get a good sense of where near you might be good for stargazing.

[theunvanquishedzims]

[writersisland]

Human Quirks for Non-Humans to discover

the chain reaction a single yawn can cause

the sense to recognize something that looks human but is not quite human (uncanny valley)

getting songs stuck in their heads

the urge to sneeze but being unable to do so

not being able to breathe from laughter sometimes

the reactions caused by tickles

acting fairly casual about pain in their most vital body parts (head)

neurodivergent symptoms as a whole

[itscolossal]

NASA Just Dropped More Than 12,000 Photos from the Artemis II Mission

[zedogica]

ok. i survived 25 years outside the international space station. who gives a shit

[biglawbear]

Technically most moss is outside the international space station

[davvvd]

[cinamun]

WE ARE NOT TALKING ENOUGH about the fact that a Black man led the human race to the farthest we've ever been in the cosmos today!

Victor Jerome Glover Jr. (born April 30, 1976) is an American naval officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut of the 2013 class. A former F/A‑18 pilot and graduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, he piloted the first operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the International Space Station. Glover served as a flight engineer on Expedition 64 and became the first Caribbean American astronaut to live aboard the ISS.

On April 1, 2026, Glover launched as pilot of the Artemis II mission, becoming the first Black man to travel beyond low Earth orbit and the first to journey to the vicinity of the Moon. He is also, along with the other crew members of Artemis II, the first human that has traveled the farthest from Earth.

And he did it all while his beautiful Black family watched from home with the rest of us.

[steelplatedhearts]

there’s a local guy called the Sidewalk Astronomer who sets up outside the clubs downtown with a giant telescope and lets the drunk people walking by look at the stars. he’s my hero and he let me see the moon and Jupiter today

[dduane]

Artemis II Is Competency Porn and We Are Starving For It

girls will be like i needed this and it's just four nerds in space.

This is worth reading.

[cleverclara]

“Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson’s research tells us that emotions like awe and wonder do not just feel good in the moment. They literally broaden our thinking and build long-term psychological resilience. People who regularly experience awe are more creative, more connected, and less susceptible to the feeling that everything is about to fall apart. Awe is a biological reset button, and four humans went to the moon and pushed it for all of us, and your body knew what to do with that before you maybe had words for it.”

[shirleycarlton]

"Here’s what happened. Four humans got into a rocket and went to the moon, farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled in the history of our species. And they were so good at it, so genuinely moved by it, and so articulate about what they were seeing and feeling, that millions of people who have been running on anxiety and dread for the last eleven years just stopped for a moment and finally exhaled."

[plushdablush]

Random thing for people to consider is that since Laika is the saint of one way trips should Felicette be known as the saint of safe landings since she did make it back to the ground safely

[somefishycat]

tu LANCES félicette ? tu lances son corps comme la fusée ? oh ! oh ! prison pour les scientifiques ! prison pour les scientifiques pendant Un Mille Ans !

[bug-yogurt]

You can understand the French perfectly fine with only context but the English translation I got still had me floored

[importantcatpics]

[mon3trs]

in space no one can hear you moan like a girl

[fat-fuck-hairy-belly]

Ground control here, we can hear you just fine

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

"I mean, honestly, being human up here is one of the coolest things about this mission. We are just people trying to get by. And for example, we might go look at the far side of the moon and take in its awesomeness… and then go, "Hmm, maybe I should change my socks," and try to dig around for a pair of socks. So this is, uh, this is the dichotomy of human space flight." – Christina Koch, Mission Specialist (x)

[tact1calnecr0mancy]

"And to all of you on Earth, and around the Earth: we love you from the Moon."

— Pilot Victor Glover, Artemis II

[jbthegift]

Pioneers 😭🚀 🌙

[depsidase]

[thetreetopinn]

Early on, SpaceX was exciting because it was "new ways to explore space, make it cheaper so we can do more science and fly more frequently, even go to other worlds".

It didn't take long for it to become painfully clear that the sole motivating factor behind all of this was... money. Commodify space. Treat it like the next step in 'manifest destiny'. The stupid hippies won't let us steamroll over the jungles and prairies, let's just go into space where we can do whatever the hell we want and make shitloads of money for ourselves.

NASA... which is a government organization and by definition is not doing this for the profit motive... is actually interested in not just the science of space exploration, the advancements we could make as a result, but also the human experience of actually going to space.

This is why Artemis is important.

It reminds you that space is not a resource to be exploited to fuel unending economic growth.

Space is the next step in exploration. We go there to better understand the cosmos, ourselves, and our place in it.

That is what makes it exciting.

Not the incoherent babblings of a racist sex-pest marketing guru who designed the fugliest truck to ever exist.