First of all, congratulations and Alhamdulillah on the safe return of Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor from his space mission. I must admit I missed the live telecast of the landing, and have not been following the all the live interviews and video-conferences either.
I did manage to catch one video-conference on TV, the one with Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis. Datuk Seri JJ asked our cosmonaut how his experiments were coming along, to which the hensem doctor replied was going well. The programme host then asked our Angkasawan about the ISS crew's reaction to the Malaysian food he had brought up in space with him. Towards the end of the programme, the Soyuz flight commander, Yuri Malanchenko was invited to speak as well. Again they asked him what he thought of the food.
The next day, VIP guests on the programme were none other than Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his wife, Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah. I didn't watch the programme, but Mak did. Apparently, the PM asked about the status of the experiments, and his wife asked the good doctor if he was eating well.
Come on people, isn't there anything else you can ask the guy? Why the preoccupation with gastronomical entities? And why couldn't anyone elaborate on the experiments beyond the basic 'Yes, I've started the protein crystallisation, and tomorrow I'll start on the cancer cells.'?
I was hoping that someone could elaborate on the actual objective of conducting those experiments in space. I mean, what do the scientists hope to achieve, or what technological breakthough might they lead to? Why perform them aboard the ISS and not just in a lab on Earth? The closest I got to a satisfactory answer to these questions were from a comment on another blog. (see comment written by Penjaga Cacing Angkasa on 2007-10-02 21:21:51)
To me, it seemed that the politicians were trying so hard to justify sending our man into space by repeatedly stressing that Dr Sheikh was conducting these scientific experiments, but they themselves did not seem to be fully aware of exactly how important those experiments are. Or maybe they do know but think that the Malaysian public are too ignorant to understand or care. Or maybe it's the media that thinks so. Or it's just the media people that failed to understand therefore did not bother to highlight it to the masses. Or it's all top secret no one but the scientists who devised the experiments know the details.
Whatever it is, I'm still rooting for newly promoted (congratulations!) Mej. Dr Faiz Khaleed for the next mission.
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