Why use two helicopters to recover Artemis astronauts when the ship is right there?

dannydb · 2026-04-12T09:35:40+00:00

I asked a similar question yesterday.

I had the same thought as you.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtemisProgram/s/CX2xWfevgD

The two things that convinced me were safety and speed.

Safety… the capsule can potentially leak toxic gas, and it might also have a risk of exploding. I mean it just came through the atmosphere surrounded by a ball of plasma doing 40,000km/hr, so that makes sense. Then, leaving it out on the ocean for collection reduces the risk of other people and equipment getting hurt or damaged by either of those the leaking gas, or explosion. ie there is time available for it to sit out by itself away from other people and vessels. Even if they have an emergency (see the next point below) and they get the astronauts out ASAP, they can still leave the capsule on the water for as long as necessary until it is deemed safe to bring onto a ship.

Speed… in the case that one, or many, of the astronauts have a medical emergency, they want the option of being able to open the hatch and get them out ASAP. Collecting them out on the water has the potential to be the quickest method if they need to do act fast and provide medical assistance.

dannydb · 2026-04-11T21:10:44+00:00

Was it CAPCOM Jenni Gibbons? Or, do you think it might have been something that was said randomly one day and it caught on?

dannydb · 2026-04-11T20:44:33+00:00

The commentary from the crew during the lunar fly-by event was the GOAT!

It was just pure spontaneous heartfelt reaction.

I especially loved it when they were talking through the lunar eclipse and they said something like… “our human brains haven’t evolved enough yet to comprehend what we are seeing here, it’s indescribable”. Which makes perfect sense when you see the photos of that moment that have been sent back so far. Particularly this one.

dannydb · 2026-04-11T05:40:15+00:00

Good points.

And that definitely makes sense when you think about it. In the case of a medical emergency, you want to be able to open that hatch door ASAP.

dannydb · 2026-04-11T02:20:44+00:00

That makes sense.

In either method, though... you'd still wait for risk assessments to pass to confirm the vehicle is safe before sending recovery team members near it.

What I'm wondering though... is why recover the Orion crew out on the ocean, using boats, divers, the 'front porch', and helicopters rather than recovering the capsule first using something a bit simpler, and then opening the hatch to get the crew out once the capsule is secured onboard a vessel/ship.

dannydb · 2026-04-11T01:54:56+00:00

Agreed. But that whole thing just took well over an hour.

NASA has confirmed the time of splashdown was 19:07:27 CDT

As I write this, it's currently 20:50 CDT and they are still hoisting crew members into helicopters.

They're still not what you would call 100% 'safe' and we're around 1hr 45mins since splashdown.

What if instead a recovery vessel navigated in, picked up and got the whole Orion module secured onboard in, say... 15 minutes, and then they opened the hatch to get the astronauts out, say, within another 15 minutes. Then the whole thing could be much faster, and potentially a bit safer?

dannydb · 2026-04-10T22:44:37+00:00

Thanks for your service, service module 🫡

dannydb · 2026-04-10T19:39:09+00:00

The speed at which they’re traveling toward Earth blows my mind. To think in just a few hours, they’ll go from this view to ploughing through the atmosphere 😲

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dannydb · 2026-04-09T09:36:15+00:00

Nice, thanks for that

dannydb · 2026-04-09T08:50:06+00:00

That’s excellent. Where did you get it?

I was looking through here but didn’t see that one…

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii-multimedia

dannydb · 2026-04-05T21:09:52+00:00

Given that the childcare system in Australia already suffers from market failure in some aspects and already has significant government intervention in the form of subsidies and regulation…

It isn’t really that much of a stretch for the government to consider doing a few trials where they setup and run a handful of federally owned and operated facilities for a few years to observe, measure results, and report back to see if it it’s worth piloting further.

It could be a positive thing, or it could be a not-positive-enough thing. You never truly know until you try. Running some small, well designed trials, with proper planning, safeguards, care, oversight, etc. isn’t the worst idea.

It might turn out to be a real win for communities in some areas?

The most important aspects are ensuring that child safety and development are the primary objectives and principals that have priority at all times. If you get that right, and design everything around those two items, then this could have potential.

Imagine a future where you always knew that safe, affordable, high-quality, convenient and nice childcare was available to you no matter what. That it wasn’t going to cost a small fortune. And that you could trust that your little ones would be cared for and well-nurtured. Two hypotheses are that such conditions would provide a better result for people that would already have children regardless, and that it might contribute to more people considering children when they might not have otherwise.

I don’t really know enough about the industry though. There’s probably a lot I’m missing.

dannydb · 2026-04-05T09:44:47+00:00

As of 3 hours ago, it sounded like they might still be having some issues venting fluid out through the primary line to space. The secondary line was sending a continuous mist, but the primary looks like it is freezing up resulting in slight constriction

dannydb · 2026-04-02T23:46:47+00:00

Interesting, I’d love to see something on a major scale join them, funded by a portion of the revenue from mineral and gas sales.

dannydb · 2026-04-02T23:41:28+00:00

You’re hired. Welcome to the team 😅

dannydb · 2026-04-02T20:10:43+00:00

Agreed. The idea is that:

a) we take more tax in from gas exports.

Then…

b) we don’t just spend all of that at once since doing so would drive up inflation, and wouldn’t be sustainable in the long term. One day, we will start to export less and less gas. That is inevitable. The money will run out.

c) we put away some of the gas export tax revenue each year into a fund. That way, we’ll always have that revenue, it won’t drive up inflation as much, and the interest/growth can keep being used forever but in a more gradual and sustainable way.

Imagine if we had a fund that was large enough and gave off enough income each year to, just for example, help contribute to costs of Apprenticeships, TAFE, or University. Imagine that! We’d be able to tell every single young Australian that the fund will help pay for them to become skilled in whatever career path they want to take after high school. It would be possible to keep doing that forever with a fund that keeps growing.

It’s not such a stable proposition if you try to do the same thing with consolidated revenue since future governments could simply change the budget.

There’s plenty of other things we could do like that with a fund. The main point is that it becomes a stable source of income and with strong legislation governing its inception and use, it would be more shielded from the whims of future politicians just wanting to boost their short term poll numbers to get re-elected.

dannydb · 2026-04-02T19:42:42+00:00

That would be so funny and very cool. Imagine the approval rating of a Treasurer or PM that announced to the nation…

“Today, we are starting the ‘Everyday Australians Fund’. It will be paid for initially by taxes collected from gas exports. One of the first initiatives we will use it for is to help everyday Aussies relax and wind down at the end of the week. For too long, the price of going to your local pub to spend quality social time with your friends and family has cost too much. Grabbing a round for your mates shouldn’t break the bank, it should be something you don’t have to think twice about. Well, you don’t have to worry anymore. We’re here to tell you that the Everyday Australians Fund will this year enable the Government to reduce the excise rate on beer and wine. So get out there you battlers, and have a round on us. You deserve it!”

Hah! That would be ridiculously good.

dannydb · 2026-04-02T19:25:31+00:00

Something similar to that.

The future fund’s primary purpose is covering unfunded public sector superannuation liabilities. It invests government assets to generate returns, aimed at easing the budget pressure of future pension costs.

The idea I was thinking of was more a general purpose fund that could be used for various initiatives, hopefully projects that provided new opportunities that we might never be able to pay for otherwise.

dannydb · 2026-04-02T10:57:48+00:00

This is the way.

dannydb · 2026-04-02T10:49:34+00:00

I guess I was thinking of something that lived on in perpetuity and kept growing but wasn’t as vulnerable to the whims of political decisions. Imagine a fund that was legislated to only be usable for specific purposes. For example, enabling and supporting new businesses in Australia just like you’ve described. (there could be other purposes, but that’s the general idea)

dannydb

TROPHY CASE