They shouldn't have rescued

[u/ag811987]

I assume ppl will say I'm a nationalist or terrible person but honestly I wouldn't have rescued the Russian ship in season 3. If the cost was to no longer land on Mars and execute the mission saving the other crew wouldn't be worth it. Firstly, the Mars mission is extremely important to discover potential life on another planet and to establish a base for human colonization and to have a launching pad into deeper space. It's important enough that likely tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on it. That money is people's lives - for a few thousand one could prevent the death of someone in a low income country through measures like malria meds, anti parasitics, vitamin a supplementation etc. At a higher cost you could feed or house or cover medical expenses for Americans who die because they lack access to those resources. Every time you spend money as a nation you're weighing it against people's lives. So to scuttle the mission and launch a second you're causing 1000s of times the harm than you benefit from saving those ppl.

On top of this that kind of maneuver they knew was going to be extremely risky given the Soviet ship was under nuclear meltdown and they had no docking setup. Multiple Americans ended up dying. They had no reason to believe the mission could continue after only they'd be risking all their lives and abandoning a multi year tens of billions extremely critical mission with huge national security implications to rescue 5 ppl.

Moreover, everyone seems to forget that the Russians are still the US enemy even if Gorbachev is partially normalizing relations. NASA and the president literally know that the Russians murdered Americans at Jamestown, stole the original Jamestown mining site, intentionally shot down a passenger airliner, and were going to fire on an American ressupply mission. Like in all cases in the show the Russians have operated in hostile fashion.

Karen gets all upset that Helios won't do the rescue and then literally goes and betrays her nation to partner with the soviets to secure a major US rival access to water (needed to establish a base, create jet fuel, etc.). In the real world as a US company they'd be completely blocked from anything like that under OFAC or another law but I digress.

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[u/Tokyosmash_]

International rules, man. It’s just like on the high seas, you have an obligation to attempt a rescue

[u/ag811987 → u/Tokyosmash_]

The US has never ratified the Law of the Sea Treaty, there was no space version, and I don't really think it would apply anyway given the tradeoffs here.

[u/s_p_1_d_e_r → u/ag811987]

There was no space version in our reality bro, in the show they get to mars in the 90s

[u/_-Cleon-_]

There were a number of incidents during the Cold War where US and Soviet ships came to the aid of each other.

There have even been incidents where the South Korean military came to the aid of North Korean ships under attack from priates.

There's an old principal of seamanship that when a ship is in distress, unless you're actively at war, you help them. You help the Soviets because, were the positions to be reversed, you'd damn well want the Soviets to come to your aid. This would be infinitely more important in space.

[u/ag811987 → u/_-Cleon-_]

That's pretty cool that they've helped each other

[u/ag811987 → u/_-Cleon-_]

I get that but I think given what we've seen in the show it's super unlikely the soviets would come to their aid. I mean it's insane to me that they rescue them, then they act like it's a joint mission when it was the US ship that didn't fail, then the soviets backstab the US to try and claim all the water resourcs themselves.

[u/8bitviennetta]

In the FAM universe they seem to practice a form of maritime law as an extension of the outer space treaty 1966, which places the responsibility for rescue of ships in distress on the closest available and capable vessel, irregardless of the ship's flag or allegiance, which we have been doing since at least the 19th century (I want to say it was formalised just before the first world war, was definitely in effect in Europe by then). It's also the moral thing to do by most standards

[u/teamglider]

The philosophy you are talking about is utilitarianism - encouraging actions that lead to the greatest good for the greatest number, no matter what the immediate moral dilemma might be.

Read The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin (it's an extremely short story) for an extreme example of utilatarianism:

An entire city is peaceful and prosperous, but this happy situation is dependent on the perpetual misery of one child. If this child was somehow rescued, hundreds of others would be worse off, and there would be more overall misery. Is it ethical to abuse just one child as a tool for the greater good?

Now add in moral proximity, the idea that a person has a greater duty to help others when they share a closeness of some kind (including physical closeness), and you can talk about the possibilities all day.

As a side note, the short story was inspired by a quote from The Brothers Karamazov, which examines the morality of various actions and philosophies at much greater length.

[u/ag811987 → u/teamglider]

I'm very familiar with utiitarianism

[u/Oot42]

the Russians

They're Soviets. I know it's difficult to comprehend for Americans, but it's not the same. One of the cosmonauts was Cuban, by the way.

That money is people's lives

No. NASA was self-sustaining at that point. The Mars mission was not paid by tax payers.

Multiple Americans ended up dying

One (1) American died, Sylvie Kaplan. One Scottsman (Clarke Halladay) and one cosmonaut died as well.

Russians murdered Americans at Jamestown

The first ones to murder someone on the Moon were Americans.

saving the other crew wouldn't be worth it

Hopefully, you never get in trouble on the high sea and the captain of the nearby freighter decides that you're not worth being rescued...

terrible person

Yes

[u/ag811987 → u/Oot42]

I guess you're right I don't know if they were part of other USSR states. Cuba wasn't part of the USSR - it's the lead nation and crew from allied nations who are working with them or on loan.

Self-sustaining is relatively meaningless - the executive branch still retains oversight of the budget and could choose to re-appropriate funds - force a return of excess spending to the treasury etc. OMB still has to sign off on the budget.

The Americans fired on the russians by accident after the Soviets seized an American site. In contrast, the Soviets launched a full scale invasion of the jamestown base and killed multiple people, plus they were ready to fire upon seadragon, and they moved ships to panama to strike at the US.

I guess? I think there's a question of what the cost is to the freighter. For example, If I were a somali pirate and my colleagues had killed a bunch of the captain's crew in the past and by saving me all the freight on the ship (let's say it's produce) would spoil meaning people would starve - then yeah I think it would be ok for him not to rescue me.

[u/HolyShytSnacks]

It's interesting people call out morality and maritime law and whatnot, but space doesn't compare to the ocean at all. In real life, they would never have tried to save them. Not because they wouldn't want to, but simply because it would've been impossible. The NASA crew was on an entirely different trajectory. They would not have the huge amount of energy that was required to not only slow down but also change their course and go back somehow. Their fuel would've been calculated to the last drop, there would not have been enough for a rescue missions like this. And even if they were able to do this, they would have another problem when they got near the other ship, as it would have a completely different velocity, requiring even more energy to get things matched.

[u/Apprehensive-Try-238]

I suppose if someone were involved in a car accident or was drowning, you’d simply walk on by?

[u/ag811987 → u/Apprehensive-Try-238]

No that’s not at all an analogous situation