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I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293

SmarterEveryDay · talk · Watch on YouTube

Space exploration & spaceflightManagement, leadership & organizations

What it is

Destin Sandlin of Smarter Every Day gives a talk to an aerospace audience, comparing how Apollo was engineered and managed with NASA's Artemis program. He raises concerns about unresolved details, the number of launches and in-orbit fuel transfer needed to reach the Moon, and the loss of institutional knowledge.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Commenters point to it whenever Artemis, SLS or Starship refueling comes up, as a candid and critical engineering assessment delivered directly to NASA.

  • 9 people recommended it
  • 7 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2023, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “I recommend you to watch it, it's really good.”

    Talk to NASA about Artemis concerns

    SushiHippie, 2023-12 · Strong recommendation · in “I was scared To say this to NASA (But I said it anyway) – Smarter Every Day”

  2. “one of the bravest talks I’ve seen in a while about the lessons of the Apollo program for Artemis”

    Brave talk on Apollo lessons and valid Artemis criticisms

    happytiger, 2023-12 · Strong recommendation · in “What made Apollo a success? (1971) [pdf]”

  3. “I recommend this amazing presentation, questioning the basics, and attitude in teamwork, of the Artemis project”

    Questions basics and teamwork attitude on Artemis

    pomian, 2024-01 · Strong recommendation · in “Where Have All the Websites Gone?”

  4. “Also highly recommend this “are we going?” Talk on engineering issues in Artemis”

    Talk on engineering issues in Artemis

    faizshah, 2024-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Experience the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing”

  5. “The talk compares the architecture and process of the Apollo mission with the modern Artemis mission, and is very critical of the latter.”

    Compares Apollo and Artemis architecture and process, critical of Artemis

    going_north, 2023-12 · Recommendation · in “What made Apollo a success? (1971) [pdf]”

  6. “Destin from Smarter Every Day gave a talk that addresses a lot of these issues that I found pretty interesting too.”

    Addresses many of the same Artemis issues

    zefhous, 2024-05 · Recommendation · in “The Lunacy of Artemis”

  7. “Read the comments (especially from NASA engineers).”

    Concerns about Artemis and courageous engineers versus poor management

    danesparza, 2024-06 · Recommendation · in “Allan McDonald refused to approve Challenger launch, exposed cover-up (2021)”

  8. “After watching this video i have serious doubts about the whole moon program”

    Raised serious doubts about the moon program

    rqtwteye, 2024-07 · Recommendation · in “NASA Spent $450M on a Moon Rover. Now It's Canceling the Mission”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: artemis, apollo, nasa, spaceflight, engineering management, starship refueling

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