We've got to figure this thing out.
What was it that caused Lisa Nowak to snap? There must be something in her past or her genetics that has caused this and will eventually be explained. Maybe it's a malady of some sort that could strike any one of us.
The Houston Chronicle calls it an explanation of "why a person as average as the next guy fell apart." But that's the rub -- Nowak is not as average as the next guy (or gal). She was already a celebrity. Not in the Anna Nicole Smith sense, but being selected in the space program is not like getting your driver's license. Nowak was a spokesperson for NASA who had gone through some of the most rigorous physical and mental testing and qualification possible for a human being.
If, as Stephen Hawking suggests, we need to be establishing colonies outside earth in the next hundred years to preserve the species, we're going to need some better testing.
