Lisa

It is always enlightening and fascinating to read what other people are moved to write on an open forum. It will tell you something about how the rest of society thinks and feels, often to one's bewilderment or despair. To quote two comments from the New York Times' article "The Proper Care, Feeding and Discipline of Astronauts":

"Nowak was merely an astronut who went moonie loonie. Now she can go on a true long voyage into the void. A prison cell and a space station have a lot in common. Anyone who thinks space travel is more glorious has swallowed too much Tang.

There is no valid reason to send people into space. The Sci Fi writers never tallied the huge cost of sending people “out there” or the exponential difficulty of creating self-supporting colonies in places that make the Sahara look like paradise. Unmanned craft work better and do not risk lives. In fact, better to get our scientists and engineers to think up ways to rely less on fossil fuels and make our “spaceship earth” more sustainable. Folks longing to see Mars can go to Natural Arches in Utah and see a version that is more beautiful, less lethal, and does not cost billions or a 4-year trip to see."

"Space travel is one of humanity’s greatest endeavors and greatest trials. It may be expensive, unbelievably difficult, and dangerous. However, in the pursuit of knowledge of the universe, such challenges must be met and overcome. Though it may not always line up with being “in the black” and budgetary “bottom lines,” the implications of space travel insofar as its power to unite humanity are truly staggering.

When all of this is considered, it becomes clear that those who would look to take society to the stars must also hold themselves to a standard that is, for lack of a better word, higher. This includes ethics and a commitment to the very best of one’s nature. To have feelings for another is expected, to act on them in terms of adultery is questionable, but to strive to end another’s life as a result is inexcusable for any person. I do not find mitigation for this person’s actions by those who would use the oft-quoted phrase “a woman scorned.” Humanity can and must do better, otherwise we have no right to impose ourselves on anything other than our own already burdened planet. Please note that this also applies to the man who decided to cheat on his wife with his colleague."

Now, as for the second quote, the poster has clearly missed the fact that the man in question was in fact divorced, and thus not cheating.

I see, from these and other responses to the situation, that there are two ways to look at this. One way is to see astronauts as real people, who, like all of us, are subject to stress and capable of actions and reactions which cannot be predicted or explained. We ought to cut astronauts a bit of slack especially, because despite the fact that they are good a stress, they lead exceptionally stressful lives.

From this viewpoint, no amount of psychological screening will be of help in the end; the best that can be done is to provide support and counseling, and perhaps monitoring. Problems with this are clearly that 1) astronauts will not always allow themselves to be counseled or admit to problems, for fear of not getting to fly. 2) Any sort of monitoring of astronaut behavior seems a bit of a disturbing notion. Astronauts in situations such as a human mission to Mars would need to be governed and restricted and watched more closely than any other human beings in other situations, if you're taking this view. Does NASA need to become a military organization? I hope not...

The other view to take is that of the second quote; that human beings are flawed but capable of self-improvement and discipline. This view assumes that astronauts need to hold themselves to incredibly lofty standards under pressure, and simply "do better" than other people do. This, indeed, is what has always been done. As it is, this is just one of the risks of spaceflight, but it cannot be helped and spaceflight is worth it in spite of the risk. Even if now it comes to light that it is a system held together by spit.

Then, of course, there is the debate about the worth of spaceflight at all. On the one hand, it is the only frontier left to us, and it does have the power to inspire and unite. But, with the cost and the risk, I feel that this incident has caused many to question whether human beings are worthy to go into space. Problems will arise and people will occasionally "snap". If so, why spend millions and billions on a program where just one occurrence like this during a mission would mean the waste of all that money in one fell swoop, and probably other valuable lives? Do we really want to go out and do this, knowing that we are creatures subject to the illogic of our emotions, and that we risk everything on the mental and emotional integrity of our astronauts, when they are in an environment most suited to breaking that integrity down? Why not spend that money on renewable energy, or any other of the myriad of problems we can't seem to solve in our Earth-bound society?

Well, there is a valid point in that, I feel. We do have a responsibility to the planet we are on. Spaceflight is important, however, if only for the perspective it can give us. In any facet of human society, people are going to act in illogical ways, and cause problems. And I'd say that spaceflight is not the only situation in which the actions of one person could have dire repercussions.