 In my post Space Project before this, I raised some questions about the relevance of Malaysia sending our first astronaut to space.
Astronauts, for what? Why doctors?
After having a brief conversation about the main project with one of the candidates, Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar, I’ve managed to clear up several matters that may answer those questions.
Astronauts?
Other than proving Malaysia’s bolehland agenda, it is part of agreement between Russia and Malaysia when the country bought Sukhoi jetfighters from them. It is an opportunity for our country to venture into new perspectives, searching for opportunities. Furthermore it strengthens the ties between both countries.
Doctors?
We know that the candidates who applied come in different background ranging from engineers, pilots, army personnel to doctors and at last both final candidates were doctors. Why? I don’t know, but the most relevant answe
r is the kind of experiment that they will carry out at the International Space Station ( ISS ). What he mentioned was experiment on cancer cells. If one engineer and one doctor are chosen, that would be a problem in terms of preparation for the experiment, cost, equipment, etc. etc. So it is better if both of the final candidates to be in the same field. In addition to that, the choice of experiment is also one of the reasons for the decision. The R&D in our country’s medical sector is improving and as what I know, these doctors do a lot of experiments in their career world. So by conducting medical experiments in outer space, our medical sector would probably benefit from it.
And this is NOT totally a bolehland agenda after all.
In my opinion, this project is relevant. If not now, then when will we start? We are venturing into new sector or perhaps trying to do something new and at least, we are doing something.
Have you done anything? Or are you just criticizing and talking?
5 responses so far ↓
Jorami Ibni Karakhani // Oct 29, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Hope they do not mind swallowing their own sugi after brushing their teeth, or consuming water that is recycled feces and urine.
spaceblog.xprize.org/2006/09/12/the-road-to-baikonur/
bangku // Oct 30, 2006 at 1:42 am
Well… the best we can hope from this endeavor is for it to have a symbolic effect upon our citizens and our image on the international stage.
But I think you need to clarify further on two points:
1. What is exactly the agreement between Russia and Malaysia when buying the Sukhois? - I dont trust these corrupted Russian oligarchs, and neither do I trust our Ministry of Defence that much.
2. Why do you want to carry out cancer-cell experiments at the ISS?
This issue is a matter of priority. World systems based on capitalism require that we focus on what we do best, and trade it with what we are deficient of. What exactly is it that we do best is good question to think about. That’s all I can say.
cyzrael // Oct 30, 2006 at 1:22 pm
About the agreements, all that were reported are only about 18 Sukhoi jetfighters were bought by our country and in return, Russia will bare the cost of training of two astronaut candidates for a year and agrees to send one of them on October 2007.
Well.. if u ask me what’s the significance of conducting experiments on cancer cells on space, I don’t think I can provide a detailed answer on that but lets put it like this, why in space? The main reason to that is to benefit from the microgravity environment in space. It is reported that the environment allows production of better protein crystals from biological cells because they form more slowly in microgravity. Here’s the excerpt:
Other phenomena occur more slowly in space than on Earth. One example is the growth of protein crystals from biological cells, which are important in the development of treatments for cancer, AIDS and diabetes. The microgravity environment of a spacecraft allows production of crystals that are better because they form more slowly.
A crystal forming rapidly on Earth may become as irregular as a brick barrier hastily thrown up, like the Berlin Wall. A wall built slowly and carefully will assume the precise shape the builder desires. But protein crystals growing slowly in space will exhibit a greater regularity, allowing researchers to design drugs with a more precise “fit.”
Working from these well-formed protein crystals, scientists can design exact antidotes to disease-causing organisms, rendering them ineffective.
Some protein crystals produced in space are larger and more symmetrical than their equivalents produced on Earth, and consequently more useful to scientists. Scientists at the University of Alabama’s Center for Macromolecular Crystallography hope that longer flights, or even an orbiting space station, will produce larger and even better-formed crystals. Thus, the microgravity effects that slow some biological processes can be as useful to scientists as those which speed others up. The same is true of those that are just different.
Here’s the full report
Other than that, the efforts of conducting experiments on space benefits other sectors too like for instance engineering sector. This is because as more complex the experiments to be conducted in space, there is need for more advanced equipments, more compact and multifunctional. The space carrier itself is being improved bits by bits so that it gets more useful as time goes by. The technology of space exploration is expanding!
And that is why there’s need to start something new and put serious efforts on it. Let’s just hope that this project will be a stepping stone for us to participate actively in the space exploration sector and would later on benefit from it.
bangku // Oct 30, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Thanks for the explanation. I was unaware of microgravity cancer cell research.
But still, I don’t think space exploration is something Malaysia should go into seriously. By all means, make the best out of it, but providing education and agriculture/biotech research seems a more viable option.
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