NASA will send one random, willing & able taxpayer on every manned mission going forward.

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MillionDollarHeckler@reddit

The Lunar Lottery. Gotta be in it to win it

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ContributionEasy6513@reddit

Honestly not a bad idea to capture public attention once a year or so. Send a Dragon around the Earth a few days doing some low risk experiments.

The absurd amount of training for a typical ISS mission though seems a little much.

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Bowwowchickachicka@reddit

So this person does a lot of astronaut training so they can cope with the realities of this undertaking. Then spend their time trying to stay out of the way of the mission crew?

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Colonol-Panic@reddit

Better idea: NASA sends one random unwilling non-taxpayer to space and leaves them there.

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urielrocks5676@reddit

Or send the conspiracy theorists, which makes me wonder how many would try to kill themselves to "prove it's not real"

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Fun-Benefit116@reddit

"Hur hur dur yeah, I'm TOTALLY gonna die if I open this outer hatch. Oh yeah, I'm definitely NOT gonna walk out onto a sound stage. How dumb do you guys think I am? Now, how do I open this..."

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Nate_Christ@reddit

Yall done fantasizing about the death of people you don't like?

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Fun-Benefit116@reddit

Relax, it's called a joke lmao. Did we offend you? Are you one of the "esrthbisnfkst and the moon landing is fake" losers 😂

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AutoModerator@reddit

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NotAFishEnt@reddit

Basically happened in >!the Project Hail Mary movie!<

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Colonol-Panic@reddit

That was a good book, haven’t seen the movie yet but can’t wait.

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NotAFishEnt@reddit

Sorry for spoiling it, haha. I'm wondering if I should just delete the comment. It has a spoiler tag, but you can't know what I'm spoiling until after you click into the spoiler tag

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Colonol-Panic@reddit

I mean I read the book so you didn’t spoil anything for me lol. Perhaps someone else but idk if they’d connect the dots

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10kLines@reddit

That "able" part is gonna be limiting. Being an astronaut is hard as fuck.

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therealgunsquad@reddit

We do send willing and able taxpayers, they're called astronauts.

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NukeDC@reddit (OP)

Astronauts don't count because they're getting paid to be there. Also, not random.

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therealgunsquad@reddit

They're the only willing and able people that can go. It takes years of training to be able to do what they're do not to mention the knowledge they must have.

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OkDrag3967@reddit

I agree, able definitely has a different definition here.

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qwertyqyle@reddit

I think what OP meant to say was "Willing and unable"

He wants to see a person who shops at Dollar Tree and Walmart, weighs around 300-ish pounds, and will be smuggling Twinkees aboard in their space suit.

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OnlyFuzzy13@reddit

Eventually we will need to see what happens to the ‘average American body’ in space.

For me, I think when they start redesigning the hatch size is when we’ll know that ‘all sizes are welcome’ in space.

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Ateist@reddit

We used to send dogs, you know.

Surely most people can do at least as much as dog can?

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coolbreezesix@reddit

I went to space camp I think I'm good to go. Let me on that rocket!

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TheVoiceOfEurope@reddit

Astronauts are random. None of us are born astronauts.

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HiImDan@reddit

Have you looked at their salaries? They're not doing it for the money.

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camracks@reddit

150k a year isn’t that bad, and that’s on average, I’m sure some do 250k.

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HiImDan@reddit

I guess the space shuttle disasters skew my feelings about going into space, but it'd have to be generational wealth for me to buckle in.

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Ninja_Wrangler@reddit

The key is "able". This limits it to just trained astronauts.

If you just left it at "willing" then that would be more in the spirit of what I think your original idea was.

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StarChild413@reddit

why does it have to be random and volunteer, just crazy-for-crazy's-sake?

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Mean-Garden752@reddit

Right but they make up for it by executing the mission. Your suggesting we add a kiddy seat and pay out the ass to give someone a ride they may not love through.

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MxM111@reddit

How do you know that they are willing taxpayers? Maybe they do not like paying taxes?

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Megalocerus@reddit

Am I the only one to remember that the first space ship with a tourist blew up?

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dontwannagetdoxxed93@reddit

How about instead of random, we force the highest follower count flat earther and just keep going until the largest account has fewer than 1000 followers

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Creative_Carob4922@reddit

Do you think upon takeoff he would be legitimately scared they’d hit the “dome” and crash ?

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dontwannagetdoxxed93@reddit

I think the largest people in the flat earth community are probably grifters who don't actually believe the earth is flat, but the smaller creators might

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TheVoiceOfEurope@reddit

You mean like an astronaut? Because astronauts pay taxes.

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NukeDC@reddit (OP)

Exactly, with the caveat that we're not sending anyone who can't, or doesn't want to go.

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zenon10@reddit

that's not crazy enough, they should be randomly selected, kidnapped while they're sleeping and thrown into a space shuttle.

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FoxtrotSierraTango@reddit

Christa McAuliffe probably regrets taking a similar opportunity...

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IHSV1855@reddit

What exactly do you think makes someone able to execute a space mission?

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In_the_year_3535@reddit

Just apply to be an astronaut; it's 1:1000 if you have a Masters in a science with 3 years experience in the field with progressive responsibility.

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In_the_year_3535@reddit

Oh, I got ads for it a few years ago.

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Repulsive_Chemist@reddit

They just sent 4 random tax payers. Put in the work and go.

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drossmaster4@reddit

Uhh we tried that. The boom was a PR nightmare.

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PracticalConjecture@reddit

I'd rather my tax dollars be spent to take a highly trained and educated expert up. Humanity learns more that way.

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It would be kinda neat to have like a lottery system to pick one person to go on important missions. I tell you, if say there was a contest to get onto Artemis IV in a few years, and I knew that I won, I would spend all from here till the mission doing the necessary training. Absolutely!

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TheGruesomeTwosome@reddit

I have said for many years that a NASA man could break down my door right now and say they'll train me up for a year to go to the moon and I would absolutely go, no hesitation

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Osiris@reddit

So the Astonaughts form the us then? Hell, they are paying taxes for their job right now.

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SemtaCert@reddit

If the requirements are "random, willing & able" then they are basically going to randomly choose a qualified astronaut because that's the only way to meet the "able" part of it.

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nashiraprincesspower@reddit

For some reason my brain read 'unwilling' and I thought wow that is a CRAZY idea!

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forgotwhatisaid2you@reddit

Great idea, what we need is an accountant taking the place of someone who knows what they are doing in space.

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nwbrown@reddit

That's what they were going for with Christa McAuliffe.

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Laura_011206@reddit

granted, but they send a woman 👁️👄👁️ jk lol

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urbanviking318@reddit

On the bright side, limiting it to taxpayers keeps the fuckin' billionaires out of space.

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hutch_man0@reddit

Not a bad idea. Would keep public interest in the program. But it they would have to pass all the psychological tests. Maybe even a polygraph that they have never thought about sabotaging the mission. Probably would be better to have a volunteer sign up website, and pick from there. Lastly this would need to be years in the future...currently there is not enough room for dead weight.

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giantpicklepi@reddit

Might need a weight limit, considering the average American...