NASA's foremost mission? Improve relations with Muslims.

[applecorped]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/05/nasa-chief-frontier-better-relations-muslims/

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world."

 

[Stellafane]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/05/nasa-chief-frontier-better-relations-muslims/

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world."

Does he think Muslims come from another planet?

 

[skullerello]

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world."

Given his position, that's got to be one of stupidist things I've ever heard.

 

[MG1962]

Does he think Muslims come from another planet?

No he was in an Islamic country being interviewed by an Islamic TV station during a joint US Islamic celebration

Given NASA is just about down to test flying box kites, what else has he got to do with his time

Or maybe he was simply inspired by this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections_by_Sagan

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

 

[Pardalis]

If this means they will try and find a livable extrasolar planet on which they can establish their Caliphate, and leave Earth alone, I'm all for it.

 

[theprestige]

No he was in an Islamic country being interviewed by an Islamic TV station during a joint US Islamic celebration

You seem to be implying that Muslims are, on average, complete and utter idiots who wouldn't find Bolden's statement to be just as much a non-sequitur (if not an outright lie) as anybody else.

Alternatively, you seem to be implying that Bolden thinks this.

Alternatively, you seem to be implying that NASA's mission is like the Bible: many things to many people, a vague cloud of fairy tales, easily interpreted however best suits the subjective perceptions of one's audience du jour.

 

[bozothedeathmachine]

He must think those 3 Yemeni guys who sued NASA over trespassing on Mars represent the totality of the Muslim world.

 

[WildCat]

It's the legacy of the space shuttle and the space station, which ceased being mainly about science and became a mostly diplomatic excerise years ago.

The space station gave the shuttle a place to go, preferably with people from different countries. Isn't it great how we can all get along in space, just like Star Trek!

 

[Ohmer]

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world."

Given his position, that's got to be one of stupidist things I've ever heard.

Unless you listen to the next couple minutes of the interview, where he explains what he meant:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/talktojazeera/2010/07/201071122234471970.html

When he says "improve relations with the Muslim world", he means encouraging Muslim nations to contribute to international efforts in space exploration. Not at all unreasonable given his position.

 

[Ziggurat]

Unless you listen to the next couple minutes of the interview, where he explains what he meant:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/talktojazeera/2010/07/201071122234471970.html

When he says "improve relations with the Muslim world", he means encouraging Muslim nations to contribute to international efforts in space exploration. Not at all unreasonable given his position.

In other words, in the subsequent interview he basically contradicts what he said at the beginning, which didn't involve getting them to do anything, but only to feel good about having done something good hundreds of years ago. What he says subsequent to that opening is fairly reasonable (though still open to considerable criticism, since the ISS is a money pit), but the opening was not. And just as troubling, even if you choose to substitute what he said later as what he meant (but didn't say) at the beginning, we're still left with the fact that actually accomplishing space exploration wasn't on the list of priorities given to him by Obama.

 

[Chris L]

The idea of helping the Muslim world enter the 21st century is a good one. The problem is, it seems to have made it to the top three list, which does not appear to include space exploration. The inspirational qualities of the space program should be a by-product (or "spin off" if you will) of the main mission of exploring space. It should not be the main focus.

 

[NewtonTrino]

If this is the kind of garbage we are going to have NASA do then I'm ready to shut the whole thing down. Let's take the $10-15B a year and use it to incentive private investment in space. Or better yet not spend it at all and encourage private investment in space through other means.

 

[BeAChooser]

What Bolden originally said:

http://www.darkskiesblog.com/2010/0...-feel-good-about-its-scientific-achievements/

Here’s the exact statement by NASA administrator Charles Bolden in his interview with Al Jazeera in Cairo (and here’s the entire youtube video–the “foremost” comment occurs at the 1 min 20 sec mark):

“One, he [Obama] wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering — science, math and engineering.”

Yeah ... that sounds like something Barack Hussein Obama would want.

After all, he is Stuck On Stupid.

 

[MG1962]

Unless you listen to the next couple minutes of the interview, where he explains what he meant:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/talktojazeera/2010/07/201071122234471970.html

When he says "improve relations with the Muslim world", he means encouraging Muslim nations to contribute to international efforts in space exploration. Not at all unreasonable given his position.

Hey back off there buddy, you are ruining all these guys knee jerk reactions

 

[applecorped]

Hey back off there buddy, you are ruining all these guys knee jerk reactions

Affirming is more like it.

 

[MG1962]

Affirming is more like it.

 

[NewtonTrino]

When he says "improve relations with the Muslim world", he means encouraging Muslim nations to contribute to international efforts in space exploration. Not at all unreasonable given his position.

What? How is this at all reasonable? Why should this be one of NASA's missions? Why encourage Muslim nations more than non-muslim nations? In fact ICBM's are a close relative to space technology and pushing nations full of morons to do more work in space seems counter-intuitive to me. Perhaps you could explain the logic?

 

[bit_pattern]

"What it is is expanding our outreach so that we get more people to contribute to what we do. The International Space Station is as great as it is because we have a conglomerate of about 15-plus nations who have contributed something to that partnership that makes it what it is today. If it not for the presence of the Russian's for example we would have the ISS in this form. If it were not for the Japanese and their incredible module Kebo, which is perhaps the best laboratory module on the ISS, it wouldn't be what it is. It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best out of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim nations."

How is that controversial?

 

[Ziggurat]

"What it is is expanding our outreach so that we get more people to contribute to what we do. The International Space Station is as great as it is because we have a conglomerate of about 15-plus nations who have contributed something to that partnership that makes it what it is today. If it not for the presence of the Russian's for example we would have the ISS in this form. If it were not for the Japanese and their incredible module Kebo, which is perhaps the best laboratory module on the ISS, it wouldn't be what it is. It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best out of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim nations."

How is that controversial?

The other contributors to the ISS have significant technical expertise in space. There are no Muslim nations which do. Seriously, what do we have to gain from them? Working with them doesn't help NASA's mission of space exploration. Which gets back to the point that actual space exploration is apparently not a priority.

 

[bit_pattern]

The other contributors to the ISS have significant technical expertise in space. There are no Muslim nations which do. Seriously, what do we have to gain from them? Working with them doesn't help NASA's mission of space exploration. Which gets back to the point that actual space exploration is apparently not a priority.

You're right. A much better approach would be to never engage the Muslim world ever and to entrench the us-against-them mentality as an immutable natural law, after all they are mere barbarians who have never contributed to the total sum of scientific understanding and whose scientists could never, ever bring anything of any benefit to the table.