Communism is a stateless, classless, moneyless society, but what tells you it will be "humbugless"? I know that research is far cheaper, safer and easier with specialized robots than with people, I just don't see why that matters. My idea is that people will land on the moon under communism because (1) it is possible, and (2) it is really really cool.

Edit: To be clear about my biases here: I was born roughly midway between Apollo 17 and Artemis II, and the first time I ever said what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was that I wanted to be the first person to set foot on Pluto. So if you're old enough to remember the '60s and '70s, then sure, I can understand finding Artemis II to be a complete wet fart compared to the Apollo program. You were there, you'd know. What I find less understandable is the certain majority of Hexbears who grew up in the '80s~'10s who have never in their lifetimes seen a human being go beyond LEO… I mean, yeah, sure, it's Been Done Before, but you haven't been there to see it happen, right?

So when I saw the Artemis II launch live, I was genuinely moved to tears. I felt connected to everybody else who saw the launch live with me, and to the past generations who saw the Apollo launches live. A launch like Artemis II is literally something I've been waiting two lifetimes to get to see happen, so when people go around making fun of it I get a bit irate. Like, there are many, many critiques of the program that are completely fair and that I don't mind reading or hearing, but when people come across as actually accusing anyone genuinely emotionally moved by the mission of being stupid… Y'know? I just don't like it. I don't like feeling like people are calling me stupid for liking things.