《Aphrodite Project 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】

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THE ‘APHRODITE’ PROJECT A. Bertram Chandler THE ‘APHRODITE’ PROJECT CARL LAWRENCE Gentlemen Herewith the final report of the Research Project 11FF. which as you know was started twelveyears ago shortly before the space stations were turned over to civilian operation. Preliminary research carried out under the title ‘Techniques for the Investigation underTerrestrial Conditions of Social Problems in Free Fall’ was devoted to the study of thesituations to be expected in free fall and to the changes they would involve in the livinghabits of personnel. The problem giving the greatest concern was that of course in all thehundred odd positions recorded by students of the subject the force of gravity was a commonfactor. It was feared that in free fall the absence of this factor would cause the other twofactors to drift apart at the least provocation leading to a general state of dissatisfactionand frustration among the personnel and to a high rate of employee turnover. Indeed two ofthese early investigators gave considerable time and effort to a device in which the force ofgravity was replaced by a spring. This line of investigation had to be abandoned when theinvestigators were trapped in one of the devices which was under-damped and went into freeoscillation. The investigators were rescued only in an advanced stage of debilitation. However subsequent experiments in field conditions showed that many of the fears expressedwere groundless and I am happy to report that the second phase of the project Techniques InFree Fall popularly known as TIFF has been an unqualified success. In fact it may be notedwith emphasis that under conditions of free fall a number of techniques are possible whichcannot be duplicated under terrestrial conditions. In addition any technique used in free fallrequires a degree of co-operation that is greatly to be desired but which is seldom attained inpractice under surface conditions. In conclusion this investigator wishes to take the opportunity of tendering his resignation.Because of the many close friendships he formed in the course of his work he prefers to remainon in the station. OBITUARY by A. Bertram Chandler It is with deep regret that we announce the death of Dr. John Thomas Alcock to whose pioneerwork the Research Project TIFF owes so much. He was in his passing one of Science’s mostillustrious martyrs a victim alike the inexorable workings of Newton’s Third Law and of hisown indefatigable zeal. Throughout his period of service in the Research Project and indeed all his life he was theenemy of mechanical appliances on every occasion that such devices tended to come between Manand his Mate - or as in the Space Stations when such appliances enforced an unnatural and attimes undesirable propinquity. ‘If that was what the Almighty had in mind’ he would say‘our First Ancestor would have been a rubber tree’ He did not scorn however the boonsblessings