Stewart David Nozette, later arrested by the FBI for attempted espionage, worked on the LRO’s Mini-RF hardware. NASA Photo
We here at
Astronomy magazine try to stay out of politics as much as we can because, after all, astronomy can be plenty controversial on its own —
Pluto, anyone?. But sometimes, we just can’t help it. Take, for instance, the case of Stewart David Nozette (pictured at right), the former NASA scientist who was arrested October 19 for allegedly trying to sell government secrets.
This illustration shows NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) over the lunar surface, with the Mini-RF antenna attached to its Moon-facing panel. The scientist who worked on the Mini-RF, Stewart David Nozette, was arrested for attempted espionage on Monday. NASA Photo
Nozette worked on both the Chandrayaan-1 and
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions that made recent headlines with discoveries of water on the Moon. He also worked at some pretty high-level government organizations, including the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory (now a part of the Air Force Research Laboratory), the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (now called the Missile Defense Agency), the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He even went to MIT, the most well-known villain-training school ever (and my alma mater).
Allegedly, Nozette tried selling secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy, for a grand total of $11,000. But at least that’s not all the money his alleged espionage may have gotten him — the FBI says he worked for an Israeli aerospace company that paid him $225,000 in the last 11 years. It doesn’t look particularly good for Nozette right now — if convicted he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Coming so fast after the October 9 arrest of a CERN physicist for suspected links with al-Qaeda, I wonder if we’re not seeing the rise of the real-life mad scientist. Usually, I’ve found, people think of scientists as one of two stereotypes: the absent-minded, stuffy, but generally harmless lab-coat wearer, and the evil genius who either wants to become immorally rich or rule the world. I’ve only met a few scientists who fits either description perfectly, but it seems Nozette might come close to the latter. Maybe he just got tired of being thought of as the former? Either way, I think we can all agree this probably is not the best way to dissuade the public of its stereotypical notions.
So what do you think? Happy that scientists are taking a stand and showing the world they’re not all harmless old eccentrics? Or horrified that a member of your favorite lunar mission might turn out to be a spy?