An Open Letter To NASA

To Whom It May Concern,

As an unabashed nerd, I try to follow the happenings of NASA. I realize that while perhaps not the most pressing thing our Government is handling right now, there is great importance in what NASA does. The work you do inspires dreams, feeds our desire for continued exploration, and allows us to continue operating under the assumption that eventually man will be exploring space in tremendous star ships, just like Star Trek promised us.

Recently, NASA has received a lot of press over a poll to name the latest node of the International Space Station. I considered this a positive move, as those who are not as invested in the eventual development of the warp drive were now hearing about the latest work that NASA is doing. When Mr. Stephen Colbert began a write in campaign to get it named after himself, I realized that the clause allowing the agency to "ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency" would most likely come into play, but again just enjoyed the fact that NASA was getting some good publicity.

When the news came down, then, that instead of a module, a treadmill would be named for Colbert, I was unsurprised. In fact, I found it to be a nice compromise. Then I got the point where the actual module name would be Tranquility, and I took pause. Reassuring myself that I was not mistaken, I wandered over to the official voting page and confirmed that the name that received the most votes of the NASA supplied options was, in fact, Serenity. So Colbert received the most votes on the write in, but of the supplied options, Serenity received 70% of the votes. Despite this, you went with Tranquility.

Dear God, what have you done?

Look, having a bit of fun with Mr. Colbert was all well and good, but I don't believe that you understand the wrath that you may have incurred by thumbing your nose at the legion of Joss Whedon fans that voted on this. These people are not your garden variety nerds. Whedon fans (or 'Whedonites' as they are sometimes referred to) are not like the docile Trekkies of yore. These people are rabid. They've been burned by bureaucratic decisions before, and man they are just looking for someone to take down. What with Fox being too powerful (and temporarily culling their favor with Dollhouse), this puts you guys on the short list.

Look, all I'm saying is watch your backs. Hopefully, the new Star Trek movie will be popular enough to bring about a renewed interest in space exploration, but if not, then you may have inadvertently just alienated the current generation of science fiction aficionados, and these people have long memories (at least with regards to anything other than becoming invested in television shows offered by the Fox network). We need them on our side.

Now, quit reading blogs and get back to work on that warp drive.

Sincerely,
The staff at Dangerously Low On Grog