this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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Science Memes

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top 38 comments
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[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 11 points 4 hours ago

Its called landing, not watering ffs.

[–] TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works 19 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Pay attention to what? Why would you say that and then proceed to say nothing?

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago

It's 'think for your self'. Its a command, an open ended command.

Which they say with authority, because they fashion themselves as thought leaders (cough cult leaders cough) and have literally delusional levels of self confidence and ego.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 hours ago

Because it allows conspiracy theorists maximum flexibility to wrap whatever pseudoscience into whatever objections they get as replies.

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 hours ago

I recently left a job where my coworker was the absolute dumbest motherfucker I have ever met, but at least he was willing to listen to people with differing opinions. I think I managed to pull him a little left, at the very least he started out going "the people in charge generally know what is best for us even if they sometimes dip into things themselves" and ended with "fuck ice, they're fascists acting exactly like the nazis did and the shitbags in charge are enabling them at every turn, the whole system needs reset" which is a pretty big leap, IMO.

One thing I couldn't budge him on was the moon landing. It doesn't matter that I have assisted in a laser range-finding experiment using the retro reflectors left on the moon, thus confirming to myself that we HAVE been there.

It didn't matter how much I explained the Apollo missions, how much I explained why things behave in space the way they do, how much I explained why NASA essentially hd to rebuild a moon mission from the ground up, or any number of things. He still firmly believed it was all bullshit and we never went there.

I would always end the conversation about space stuff with "the biggest reason to me is that the USSR never came out and said 'this is fake, here's proof they faked the landing' and basically gave up not long afterward, and they clearly had spies and intelligence capable of infiltrating NASA systems and obtaining classified information, just look at the Russian space shuttle. If they knew we faked it, they would have every reason in the world to embarss us by revealing our lies to the world" and he would always agree on that point. Still fake to him though

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 40 points 6 hours ago (5 children)

I'm not really sure that's the main reason. In case of a chute failure you're going to have a bad time in either case.

Russian capsules land on land.

I think it's just a lot more easier to recover, when there's no landscape around that you need to traverse

[–] mercano@lemmy.world 49 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Russian capsules launch from the Kazack steppe. In the event of a launch abort, like there was in October 2018, you need to have a capsule that can land on land.

American capsules launch from Florida and fly over the ocean. In the event of an abort, they need to be able to land at sea.

They both took their abort modes and just made it the standard way to land after a mission.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 11 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like the real reason right here. The sea landing surely is a lot easier and quicker to recover as well.

[–] Krzd@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

It's also much easier to hit what you aim for
water -> water
Land -> oops, that's a tree, and that's a boulder, and that's a lake.
Although recovering the people is much easier on land, most of the time you can land a helicopter near the capsule, recovering the hardware is generally more difficult

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Makes perfect sense.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 18 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

There are so many things that you can land on land that will absolutely ruin your day. A large boulder, a large tree, a cliffside, a building, something flammable, near an angry hungry bear... Astronauts coming back to Earth after spending a significant amount of time in microgravity are also mostly helpless until they adapt to Earth's gravity again. The open sea is seen as safer in the American school of thought.

[–] 0ops@piefed.zip 17 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

I read that as "safer than an American school" and I'm like well yeah, low bar

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Did you see the Principal that tackled a shooter the other day? Bravo!

[–] Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 hours ago

The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a school administrator

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

The capsules can do a water splashdown with parachutes alone.

The capsules that land on land all seem to have some additional system to slow down in addition to the parachute. Boeing Starliner has airbags that deploy around and below the heat shield. Soyuz has a braking rocket system that fires immediately before impact.

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 5 points 5 hours ago

I imagine a lot of factors... but yeah that's a big one, no mountains, no buildings, no population centers, you can miss by 100 miles and just add some time to the recovery.

[–] megopie@beehaw.org 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

So, the issue does come down to the chutes. A chute capable of reducing decent speed to 10m/s is significantly larger than one capable of getting the speed to 60 m/s. Impractically large on a weight constrained thing like a space capsule.

The Soyuz uses a small set of retro rockets to reduce speed in the last few seconds before touch down, and even then it’s like being in a car crash.

On the Vostok capsules the astronauts didn’t even land with the capsules, they just bailed out and parachuted down.

Landing in the ocean is significantly more comfortable and less complicated.

[–] Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Your comment sounds good at first, it's just that they splash down in water at 7.5m/s.

[–] charokol@piefed.social 16 points 6 hours ago (5 children)

What is she even getting at?

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 hours ago

A lot of conspiracy narrative is just pointing out things that seem odd and that's enough evidence, you don't need a conclusion

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 10 points 5 hours ago

She's stupid, so don't worry about it. Or she's saying 'pay attention' as she's well versed in people drifting off when she speaks.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

I was about to say, what is even her point?

[–] kinkles@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

You’re obviously not paying attention

[–] Janx@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Sorry, what were we talking about? Something about pain and tension?

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Well, I am broke. Is this a weekly charge, or daily?

[–] Opisek@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Depends. Do you have ADHD? Then it's a lifelong recurring payment.

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 2 points 4 hours ago

I haven't even installed Meowgenics yet, give me a few minutes to get these things!

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

mb, mb, I'll do better 😅

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah. I’m ready for the wacked-out conspiracy shit.

[–] Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

It’s because the ocean doesn’t exist.

say that the astronauts landed in the ocean because they don’t want us to realise that there is no ocean. NASA landed on the moon and faked the “”””””””splashdown“””””””” (which was filmed by Kevin Reynolds at a soundstage on Specific Boulevard) just to keep people from realising THE TRUTH..!!!.!!.!!!.!!!!!!!!!!!

Pay attention.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 4 points 5 hours ago

Probably something along the lines of how the reptilians live in underwatwr cities thus landing in the ocean makes it easier for them to swap out astronauts.

[–] Photonic@lemmy.world 13 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

No, no she’s on to something. If they don’t touch down on land why is it called a landing and not a sea-ing.

Checkmate atheists

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 7 points 5 hours ago

Because sea-ing is believing, and they know that we should only WANT to believe, but not actually believe.

[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 15 points 7 hours ago

Water big, easy hit, soft splash.

[–] Mad_Punda@feddit.org 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It’s called splashdown for a reason. I guess on land it could still be a splashdown?

[–] notabot@piefed.social 6 points 6 hours ago

Unfortunately, on at least one occasion it was. Cosonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when the main parachute failed on his Soyuz 1 capsule. Probably the worst part was he knew, before launch, that he would probably die: CW:An all around grim story, and a picture of his, unrecognisable, charred remains

[–] Infamousblt@hexbear.net 3 points 7 hours ago

It's actually because astronauts are all dolphins

[–] saltnotsugar@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Astronaut: Oh crap, was blue water or land? Screw it, it’s land…oh noooooooo!!! Mr. Dolphin watch out!!!