managers of the U.S.S.R. program pay considerable attention to psychology, providing tapes, TV with families, surprise packages from families, heavy work schedules, but also work-free days. In addition, the “Progress” ships bring fresh fruits and vegetables. The space life scientists of both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are in substantial agreement on what the problems are, but the position of the U.S. is less clear than that of the Soviets. It is obvious that the Shuttle is not good for long duration studies and that we will trail the U.S.S.R. for some time to come on living in space. During the question period, Dr. Sharp was asked about radiation effects in low Earth orbit, and about experiments with rats at 2g in centrifuges. He replied that radiation in low Earth orbit was not much different from that on Earth and that hypergravity experiments do not work for embryology material because it is difficult to extrapolate from them. He remarked that teeth lose calcium in microgravity. A lot of the information received from the U.S.S.R. is face-to-face. The Soviets also provide formal documents under stricture of internal use until they are published. Dr. Joseph V. Brady of Johns Hopkins spoke on “Research With Confined Microsocieties in Programmed Environments.” He stressed the urgency for such studies, saying that it may be later than we think, and quoted Buckminster Fuller, who said we are now taking our final exam and that we may have only five years to see if we have passed. There is an urgent need for a better data base in the social sciences. He described a laboratory workshop consisting of three rooms with solenoid controlled doors, chargeable drawers, and a mission control which could control the environment and set up situations with rules governing interrelationships. About 50 missions have been run in the laboratory with 150 bright and hungry students as experimental subjects. It has been found with three people that two will pair up leaving the third out, but that this can be controlled. An ABA design is frequently used in the study where a condition is put into effect, then changed and finally returned to what it was in the first place. Students are given an incentive by being paid for tasks, with payment put into a common pool. Usually one of the three is not up to the productive capacity of the other two, but is accepted without complaint. When, however, conditions are changed, for instance by providing penalties for not meeting quotas, the low man in the shared situation is less tolerated and all participants snarl at mission control. Dr. Howard Thorsheim and Dr. Bruce Roberts of St. Olaf College presented a technical talk on “Social Ecology and Human Development: A Systems Approach for the Design of Human Communities in Space.” The system took into account human factors, quality of life, and human relations. A social ecology which consisted of (A) process; (B) systems approach which included [1] boundaries, [2] components, [3] flow, and [4] feedback loops; (C) systems levels consisting of [1] individual, [2] microsystems, [3] mesosystem, [4] exosystem, and [5] macrosystem; (D) system commitments, and (E) system components. The authors' conclusion was that the principal human energy resource is hope, which is renewable and capable of supporting a variety of alternate futures. Sherry Ray McNeal presented a paper prepared by herself and B. J. Bluth on “Influential Factors of Negative Effects in the Isolated and Confined Environment.” She spoke on isolated and confined environment symptomology finding parallels in normal life in unemployment, family problems, divorce, and loneliness. She said that when an individual has control over privacy, social interaction increases and that one of the principal problems in space environment is likely to be stress management. Thomas C. Taylor's talk on “A Modest Habitation Facility in Low Earth Orbit” began with a description of his experience in two habitats on the Alaska pipeline
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