The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak

In article k.net,
Steven L. wrote:
It's too politically incorrect for NASA to admit it, but space
psychology is made more difficult by having mixed-gender crews from a
mixed-gender astronaut corps pool. It can lead to all the problems
we've seen here on earth with "workplace romances," amplified by the
isolation and autonomy and boredom on a long-duration deep space flight.

It might be too politically incorrect for *you* to admit it, but the
problems of "workplace romances" aren't limited to male-female ones,
especially in long-duration single-sex environments.

Sexual jealousy and stereotype-based group conflicts have *not* been
serious problems for the Antarctic research stations, despite growing
numbers of women there.

P.S.: If you really think single-sex crews are mandatory, the obviously
preferred approach is all-female crews. They are less competitive and
territorial, and their smaller size and mass reduce resource use.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

Henry Spencer wrote:
Sexual jealousy and stereotype-based group conflicts have *not* been
serious problems for the Antarctic research stations, despite growing
numbers of women there.


That's because the women are frigid. ;-)

Pat (running)

"Steven L." wrote in message
hlink.net...
But there's a silver lining in this sad episode: Nobody was seriously
hurt, yet it really illuminated the whole issue of space psychology, which
hasn't been given the attention it deserves, given that long-duration
crewed space missions like lunar bases and Mars landings are under serious
consideration.

I'm not even sure it's done that. NASA astronauts don't trust NASA doctors.
I'm not sure NASA is going to make serious progress in this area, despite
looking for "lessons to be learned", as they mentioned last week when
talking to the press.

Unlike the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, in which flaws were
identified at the cost of human lives, this time NASA got a very big and
very public wake-up call on a potential future problem without having to
pay a big penalty for it in human lives.

It's too politically incorrect for NASA to admit it, but space psychology
is made more difficult by having mixed-gender crews from a mixed-gender
astronaut corps pool. It can lead to all the problems we've seen here on
earth with "workplace romances," amplified by the isolation and autonomy
and boredom on a long-duration deep space flight.

Possibly, but I'd want to see the data for, say, stays at the base at the
South Pole. NASA isn't the best place to look for data like this. They've
not had many "long duration" flights, and those are limited to six months.

The Russians would be a good starting point for some of this, but I doubt
NASA would trust the Russians in this area any more than they've trusted
them elsewhere. When NASA looks at something the Russians have experience
in, they seem to almost always have a huge Not Invented Here reaction.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

"robert casey" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Looks like her astronaut career is history...

Hers and every other astronaut who's name is attached to this scandal.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

On Feb 11, 5:51 am, (Andre Lieven) wrote:
"Skylon" ) writes:
On Feb 10, 11:28 pm, "Steven L." wrote:

Unlike the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, in which flaws were
identified at the cost of human lives, this time NASA got a very big and
very public wake-up call on a potential future problem without having to
pay a big penalty for it in human lives.

Am I the only one who thinks it a stretch to even contemplate
comparing Columbia and Challenger to this?

Not at all. The only space related item in this whole story is that
the perp is an astronaut, the guy she apparantly wanted a romantic
thing with also is one, and the other woman works at the Cape.

Its like saying if a woman who works in a copy centre goes postal,
that there must be something wrong with the copy centre industry.
Nuts.

Theres nothing about this that is "space related " other than what
jobs the three people have. Theres not a whit of evidence that there
is anything NASA related in any of the causes.

Andre

That is one way to look at it. Here's another:

2 of the 3 people were astronauts. If anything like this would happen
during a flight, it would be extremely embarrassing for Nasa. Lisa
Nowak's recent actions have significantly increased the credibility of
such an event happening in space. So it *has* to do with space flight
after all.

"Gert van Spijker" ) builds castles out of
clouds:
On Feb 11, 5:51 am, (Andre Lieven) wrote:
"Skylon" ) writes:
On Feb 10, 11:28 pm, "Steven L." wrote:

Unlike the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, in which flaws were
identified at the cost of human lives, this time NASA got a very big and
very public wake-up call on a potential future problem without having to
pay a big penalty for it in human lives.

Am I the only one who thinks it a stretch to even contemplate
comparing Columbia and Challenger to this?

Not at all. The only space related item in this whole story is that
the perp is an astronaut, the guy she apparantly wanted a romantic
thing with also is one, and the other woman works at the Cape.

Its like saying if a woman who works in a copy centre goes postal,
that there must be something wrong with the copy centre industry.
Nuts.

Theres nothing about this that is "space related " other than what
jobs the three people have. Theres not a whit of evidence that there
is anything NASA related in any of the causes.

Andre

That is one way to look at it. Here's another:

2 of the 3 people were astronauts. If anything like this would happen
during a flight, it would be extremely embarrassing for Nasa.

Operative word: " If ". And, " if " it can happen now, it could have
happened in the past. So, as far as space flight goes, nothing at all
has changed.

Lisa
Nowak's recent actions have significantly increased the credibility of
such an event happening in space.

No proof offered ? Fact free claim fails.

So it *has* to do with space flight after all.

If spaceflight were based on made up tales set in formless clouds...

Andre

Andre Lieven wrote:
That is one way to look at it. Here's another:

2 of the 3 people were astronauts. If anything like this would happen
during a flight, it would be extremely embarrassing for Nasa.


Operative word: " If ". And, " if " it can happen now, it could have
happened in the past.


Only on the Gemini 7 flight where Frank Borman and Jim Lovell got engaged.
It was always suspected that Borman had a little something to do the
Apollo 13 malfunction after he found Lovell spending a little too much
time with William Anders preparing for the Apollo 8 flight.
That was bad enough, but when Lovell started hanging around with that
little stamp smuggling homewrecker, Swigert...well... Since they seemed
to like that sort of thing, maybe it was time for both of them to take a
licking, if you know what I mean.
It's no wonder that Borman had to "retire" from NASA after at. ;-)

Pat

Pat Flannery ) writes:
Andre Lieven wrote:
That is one way to look at it. Here's another:

2 of the 3 people were astronauts. If anything like this would happen
during a flight, it would be extremely embarrassing for Nasa.

Operative word: " If ". And, " if " it can happen now, it could have
happened in the past.

Only on the Gemini 7 flight where Frank Borman and Jim Lovell got engaged.
It was always suspected that Borman had a little something to do the
Apollo 13 malfunction after he found Lovell spending a little too much
time with William Anders preparing for the Apollo 8 flight.
That was bad enough, but when Lovell started hanging around with that
little stamp smuggling homewrecker, Swigert...well... Since they seemed
to like that sort of thing, maybe it was time for both of them to take a
licking, if you know what I mean.
It's no wonder that Borman had to "retire" from NASA after at. ;-)

I swear, we've got to find a guy who does standup who you can
write for, and make a mint at it. bg

Andre

(Andre Lieven) Thou busy-meddling fiend.
Contemptuous base born callet. Thou rude-growing hellhound. Thou reeky
fustilarian. Ye made known and ye dripped:

****ING BLACK LIMO I swear, we've got to find ****ING BOUNCERS a guy
who does standup who ****ING ASS HOUND BEATING OFF you can write for,
and make ****ING TART BROTHEL CREEPER a mint at it. bg ****HEAD
GONADS MOIST BITE BUM

****ING DUMBASS Andre KNOB BEAVER DAMN SPUNK STAB

Andre Lieven wrote:
"Gert van Spijker" ) builds castles out of
clouds:

2 of the 3 people were astronauts. If anything like this would happen
during a flight, it would be extremely embarrassing for Nasa.

Operative word: " If ". And, " if " it can happen now, it could have
happened in the past. So, as far as space flight goes, nothing at all
has changed.

Lisa
Nowak's recent actions have significantly increased the credibility of
such an event happening in space.

No proof offered ? Fact free claim fails.

So it *has* to do with space flight after all.

If spaceflight were based on made up tales set in formless clouds...

This event *is* a data point. A single data point, yes, but still a
data point.

Prior to this event, we assumed that all the people in the astronaut
program were respectable and responsible people. Now, we have had what
appears to be an egregious example of bad behavior from a former
Shuttle astronaut.

This says to us that the people in the astronaut program at the
present time are not as level-headed and responsible as we had assumed
them to be. (Proof: this news item was experienced by the American
people as surprising.) This says that our estimate of the probability
of an untoward event happening in space has to be adjusted upwards.

The reasoning is not illogical. To derive inferences from observation,
one has to resort to Bayesian statistics, because one is operating in
inductive rather than deductive reasoning.

John Savard