6 and a half minutes of "terror"...

[Brian37]

I really hate the bullshit that every "hero" is always about sweat. Evolution isn't about all brawn. The thinkers, can be those whom use their intellect for ill as well. If our species never questioned anything we'd still be using the pony express.

Again, understanding the universe also helps us understand our planet, and our own existence.

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And my mother who was a lifetime teacher also worked in a climate controlled setting.

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If it were not for engineers and scientists
the Apollo 13 3 would not have made it home.

Heroism is about sacrifice and selflessness, not sweat. And I’m not denigrating people who work  in the space industry - it’s valuable work and I’m glad we have people clever enough to do it.  

But you still haven’t answered my question. What is it about this job that makes the people who do it ‘heroes’ - not clever, not dedicated, not important (I don’t disagree with you about any of that), but ‘heroes’?

Boru

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And the problem with "sacrificing" your life for others, is that you can also do that and be DEAD WRONG about the position you are defending.

I am sure the 9/11 hijackers thought of themselves as heros. Again, simply dying to save others is only one aspect of evolution. 

I can tell you my mom, whom never served combat, never shed her blood was still a hero, not only to me, but thousands of others whom without, would not be educated adults. I would not doubt that a few of them are now scientists.

If our goal as a species is to leave the planet less violent the prior generations, then a "hero" isn't one who tries to get to the moon or mars out of self glorification anymore than the soldiers of D-Day fought Nazis just so it could be harder on a future generation.

Risk is one aspect of evolution. But those risk takers stand on far more shoulders to get to that ability to make that risk. 

Humans are not curious or risk takers to make life more difficult. Heros are also those whom support heros. For every doctor whom saves a life, their are hundreds of teachers that got them through medical school. For every D-Day Soldier that fought the Nazis there were even more at home thinking of, and inventing the technology they used to do so.

You are trying to make this an either or thing and I am not. I am not a risk taker.

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Boru, I am a fucking wimp. Ok, I will admit that.

But even with me, it took me EVERYTHING to overcome my fear of flying to get to my friend in Australia. I could not be a fireman, or a police man or a D-Day soldier. But I do know countless people thought up the 747 I flew on, and countless people trained the pilots who flew me there, and countless computer programmers and meteorologists collaborated to make that passage safe for even a wimp like me, on the same plane as the pilot.