Science: Little Spacegirls

Space pioneers of the comics are usually large and knobby with muscles. They are almost always male, though decorative females may be taken along for plot purposes. According to a symposium of psychologists which met in New York last week to discuss the public’s notions about space flight, this athlete-type spaceman is miscast for the part. Every ounce of weight and every cubic inch of volume will be precious on a spaceship. Big, strong crewmen will not be welcome. Only brains to act as computers will be needed, plus an absolute minimum of supporting tissue.

According to Dr. Harold B. Pepinsky of Ohio State University, the ideal person to send on the first long space voyage would be a female midget who is a graduate of M.I.T. with a Ph.D. in physics. He added that it might be a good idea if she were psychotic too, or at least wacky enough to enjoy long periods of isolation in inhospitable space.

Industrial Psychologist Donald N. Michael of Stamford, Conn, suggested that the best place to look for such women might be Russia, where women are encouraged to develop technical skill. The Soviet government, he had heard, is experimenting with putting women in isolation chambers to see whether they will prove to be the most resistant subjects.

Industrial Psychologist Herbert Krugman added a slightly happier note. The Russians, he said, apparently believe that both males and females have special capabilities. So they are putting one of each sex (not necessarily married couples) into isolation chambers to see if they do their technical tasks more effectively over long periods than crews of two men or two women. This might be all right for Russia, but none of the psychologists were sure how the U.S. would feel about manning its spaceships with male and female pairs of unmarried psychotic midgets.