Malaysia's First Astronaut in Space

A 35-year-old Muslim doctor, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, is aboard the International Space Station for an 11 day visit. He is not only the first Malaysian in space, but the first Muslim to celebrate Ramadan in orbit.

It feels strange to write those words above, because I am living in Singapore. Of the two nations, Malaysia and Singapore, the latter has always prided itself on being the more advanced, the more modern, the more "together" of the two - yet it is a Malaysian who is in space, today, not a Singaporean. This is one first that Singapore will never, now, be able to claim. Perhaps, one day, there will be a Singaporean in space. It would be good to see. Who knows, maybe Singapore will have its own space authority, one day. However, today is Malaysia's triumph - and the Malays'.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who is an ortopaedic surgeon and University lecturer, took off from Baikonur space station, in Kazakstan with two other astronauts, US Commander Peggy Whitson and Russian Yuri Malenchenko, both space veterans. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was selected from an amazing 11,000 candidates, in a deal with Russia over a $1billion purchase of jets. The canny Malays bargained their way into space as part of the purchase deal. That bit of political manouevering has won them a place in Space history, as far as South-East Asia and the Muslim world are concerned.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor's colleagues will be staying in space for a full six month stint. His words prior to lift off echoed Irish American astronaut Neil Armstrong's when he said: "It is a small step for me, but a giant leap for Malaysia". He promised to share his experience with all Malaysians - and Muslims - on his return.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The study of Geography

Strange names appear on the lips of my son, Ainan, 7: Valles Marineris, Olympus Mons and the Caloris Basin. These are terms that he has challenged me with: "Where is the Caloris Basin, Daddy?" etc.

Clearly, Ainan has become interested in geography...but what kind of geography is this? I had a clue in that I recognized Olympus Mons - the 24 km high flat-topped volcano on Mars. Ainan is pouring over the geography of the planets, and Solar system bodies - in particular the geography of Mars (areography) where Valles Marineris is situated (a 4,000 km long, 7 km deep canyon, by the way) - and the Caloris Basin, from Mercury (which is a 1,400 km wide impact crater. Ouch.)

Ainan is familiar with many other names, details and information on all the bodies in the Solar System. "Epimetheus?" he challenges...a moon of Saturn. The time for light to reach Earth from Titan? 1 hour and 7 minutes, at light speed (minimum distance apart).

Ainan knows the Solar System better than he knows Earth.

Ainan is only 7 years old. No doubt he will grow up into a world in which people live appreciably longer than the generation before. Is, therefore, his study of the geography of the planets, other bodies of the Solar System, and astronomy - an irrelevance, or will he, one day become familiar with some of these places in person? It is strange to wonder how far and how fast things will change. It is strange to consider what the world he - and my other children - will grow up to live in, will be like. If I look back over the course of my own life, there has been so much change. When I was Ainan's age, there were no personal computers, no mobile phones, no Space Shuttle, no internet...the list could go on quite a way, but you get the idea. What, therefore, will there be in thirty, forty, fifty years time? Could Ainan ever visit the Moon, or Mars? Will it ever become normal practice for people to inhabit these bodies?

The answer to the latter question is, I am sure, an undoubted yes: the future of Man will be a space-going one. As for the answer to the first, I think it depends on the development of the transport systems: if they are affordable and safe, I think many of our children, Ainan included, may one day take a trip off planet, perhaps, in some cases, to stay. If they remain expensive and hazardous, that space going future may be restricted to the few with wealth and an appetite for high risk (like the approximately one in 25 failure rate of Shuttles (as it was in the Challenger days))

There is no telling, at this time, how long our children will live. If science solves the problem of aging before our children begin to suffer from it, they may live hundreds of years. In such a world, Ainan will come to see space-faring as routine: it will be as normal as a transatlantic flight. In such a world, he may one day see these fabled places that now he studies in devoted curiosity. Ainan may one day see Epimetheus outside his spaceship portal.

I wonder in this way, for I see no reason why the future should be closed and circumscribed. It should be open-ended and filled with possibility and wonder. With the rate of change in the scientific and technological world, our children will live to see a much different world from our own, one that we cannot, perhaps, imagine, without failing to capture its richness.

I would not be surprised if, one day, Ainan's unusual knowledge of planetary geography and astronomy actually has a use, for him.

In a way, I hope it does, for then it would mean that Mankind will be much safer and freer from the possibility of extinction. The day we are living off Earth, alone, is the day Mankind can hope for an indefinite future.

Now, that is something worth hoping for.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Ainan's seventh birthday: a space adventure

Every year, Ainan has a themed birthday party: something a little different to mark the day out as special. Last year, the theme was pirates. This year it was Space.

Yesterday was November 23rd 2006. This was Ainan Celeste Cawley's seventh birthday.

The house was decorated in blues and silver-greys, which my wife, Syahidah, thought were suitable colours for a space environment. Hand-drawn posters depicted scenes from space - or instructions/information thought typical of a space-going environment. For instance: "Warning: Don't Exit The Rocket While In Flight", was one fun example. Ainan himself had a specially drawn "Nasa" shirt, with symbols and the peculiar way Nasa writes NASA on its spacesuits.

There were games galore: the favourite being "Wrap the Alien" - which was my wife's idea. It was a simple one and fun for the children: it involved covering their mummies in toilet paper so that they could no longer be recognized. Four mothers were good enough sports to go along with the game and enjoyed it tremendously. The children thought it was hilarious.

We had a set of hand-drawn aliens - which were drawn by Syahidah's sister Hanisah - which were used as targets in a game. Prizes were distributed for those able to knock them down.

The greatest fun was had using an unexpected guest in the house: the dry ice that came with an ice cream cake from Swensen's. The cake, which had Ainan Astronaut written on it, was made entirely of ice-cream and was cooled by dry ice, (frozen carbon dioxide), to prevent it from melting. This dry ice became the centre of the children's attention, who, under Ainan's guidance, dropped it into water, to create a ghostly mist rising from their cups. He also used it to demonstrate its potential explosiveness, by containing it as it evaporated, which, after a while, caused a BANG! as the container gave way and the gas forced itself out. Ainan thought this was great and proceeded to try it with all sorts of containers, creating a whole variety of booms. It wasn't a quiet party - what with Ainan's booms, and the children's shouts and screams - and the sound of party poppers going off. Ridley Scott's film said "In space no-one can hear you scream"...well a vacuum was no sonic protection in my house, yesterday.

A comic moment occurred during the "beat the pinata" session. As in Latin America - and America - I understand, we had a pinata - a shaped cardboard container, fashioned like the space shuttle. The children took turns in hitting it three times. It took about fifty or sixty blows to break into it. Long before that, however, as Fintan, three, took his turn - he ran off with the stick used to beat it, his mischievous laugh trailing him as he ran down the length of the basement carpark where we were - a whole gaggle of kids running after him. He was the youngest and smallest there, so it was funny to see this huge column of older kids running behind him, as they tried to catch His Naughtiness. Of course, they eventually caught him, and pulled it off him - but, for a glorious moment, Fintan had usurped the game's symbol of power: the "pinata stick".

There were about twenty guests and Ainan enjoyed his day tremendously, his laughter often to be heard, high above the tumult.

As is the tradition in Singapore (I don't know if it is elsewhere) - every guest left with a gift goody bag, put together by Syahidah.

I would like to thank my wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, for her inventiveness with the games and the theme: everything was her doing. I would also like to thank Hanisah Osman, for her drawings of aliens - and for the assistance of Sabariah (my mother-in-law) on the day itself.

Appropriately - and entirely without planning - Ainan's seventh birthday party - which had begun at 4.10 pm with the arrival of the first guest - finished at 7 pm, precisely. Incidentally, Ainan was seven, exactly, at the moment of his birth: 2:02 pm on the 23rd November, 2006.

I shall upload pictures later of the event - which you can catch if you check back in a few hours. Right now I am trying to overcome certain technical difficulties in doing so. (That is why I haven't uploaded photos for some time). After this is resolved, I shall try to upload photographs on a more regular basis. Thanks.

Happy Birthday Ainan!

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, savant, the creatively gifted, and gifted children and gifted adults in general.)