CHAPTER 3 – CREW MATTERS
10:40 (California Time)
Tuesday, August 6, 2041
Office of the Director, Human Resources Department
Mars Home Project headquarters, Vandenberg Space Center
California, U.S.A.
Francine Dubois, Director of the Human Resources Department of the Mars Home Project, braced herself mentally before activating the intercom box on her work desk.
‘’Miss Steinberg, you may send in Doctor Bulganin.’’
‘’Right away, Miss Dubois!’’
The 51 year-old French psychologist then got up from her swivel chair and walked around her desk to greet the big, balding man that came in. She smiled to her visitor while shaking hands with him, speaking in good Russian, one of the five languages she spoke fluently.
‘’Doctor Vladimir Bulganin, I am Francine Dubois, Director of Human Resources for the project. Welcome to Vandenberg!’’
While the man smiled as well while shaking hands with her, his face still reflected a trace of frustration and impatience. In view of what Francine had read about the man’s character, that didn’t surprise her a bit. She however stayed polite and welcoming as she pointed at a low coffee table and sofas in one corner of her large office.
‘’I believe that we will be more comfortable to speak while sitting in those sofas, Doctor.’’
‘’Thank you, Miss Dubois! I hope that this is to announce to me that I was selected to be part of the crew of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP?’’
‘’Your candidacy is indeed what we are going to discuss this morning, Doctor Bulganin.’’ replied Francine diplomatically. She then led the Russian physicist to one of the sofas around the coffee table, then sat herself in a sofa, in front of which lay a file folder on the table. After a short pause, she looked the Russian straight in the eyes and spoke calmly but firmly.
‘’Doctor Bulganin, I have reviewed carefully your personal history file and the results of the various physical, mental and skill competency tests that you passed. I must say that your scientific achievements in nuclear physics are impressive, while you proved to be in excellent health for your age. However, your personality test pointed to a couple of problems that are of concern to me.’’
The Russian frowned at once and gave her a hard look.
‘’Me, personality problems? This can’t be serious! What kind of problems are you exactly alluding to?’’
‘’Basically, your interpersonal skills and your aptitudes for teamwork, Doctor Bulganin. If I can believe the info in your personal history file, you are known to be a rather harsh supervisor and somewhat of a disciplinarian.’’
‘’So? When you are in charge of a science project worth billions of rubles, you can’t afford to keep around lazy or incompetent employees. Such major science projects need a firm hand at the helm in order to avoid it to derail and fail.’’
‘’That may be an accepted management philosophy here on Earth, Doctor Bulganin, but not in space. Please understand that the crew of the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP will be in deep space or around Mars for over two years and that all of its members will need to work in harmony with each other in order to ensure the success of the mission. As important as their technical and scientific qualifications are for the mission, so is their ability to interact smoothly with each other while in space or on Mars. One negative personal conflict could be enough to seriously affect the morale of the rest of the crew, especially if the person in contention is in a supervisory position. Now, you were a candidate for the position of head physicist aboard the FRIENDSHIP, with up to four other top physicists under that position. We are talking here about men and women who have proved themselves as top scientists, with major advances and discoveries to their credits. They are also mature persons with lots of experience in working as part of a group. While you are highly qualified scientifically, your career history has shown you to be less than ideal as a project manager.’’
‘’What are you talking about?’’ exclaimed Bulganin, his voice reflecting anger. ‘’Has someone spread nasty stories about me? If that is so, then it probably is some incompetent that I had to fire in the past and who is now trying to take revenge on me.’’
‘’I rest my case, buster!’’ thought Francine while giving a dubious look at the Russian. She then picked up the file on the table in front of her and opened it, reading silently a particular paragraph before looking back at Bulganin.
‘’Doctor Bulganin, you were put in charge of the Kurchatov Nuclear Science Institute in Moscow nine years ago. Within a year of you taking over as chairman, fully sixteen percent of the scientific personnel of the institute quit or was fired by you, including the deputy chairman at the time.’’
‘’They were fired because they were incompetents and wouldn’t follow directives!’’ interrupted Bulganin.
‘’Then, in the following year, another 26 percent of the original scientists left. Are you going to tell me that the Kurchatov Institute is in the habit of hiring incompetent scientists, Doctor Bulganin, or did these people leave simply because they found it impossible to work under you?’’
‘’Why would I keep people who are not ready to obey my directives, Miss Dubois? I was the chairman of the institute and it was up to me to direct it and give it a focus.’’
Francine sat back in her chair, her mind now made up.
‘’Maybe, but we won’t have the luxury of firing people left and right while they are aboard the FRIENDSHIP and on their way to Mars, Doctor. We need team players, not martinets. I am sorry, but your candidacy for this project is rejected.’’
‘’WHAT?!’’ exploded Bulganin, shooting up from his sofa while glaring at the psychologist. For a short moment, Francine became afraid that the big Russian would physically attack her. However, she quickly overcame that fear and got up as well, facing off across the table from Bulganin.
‘’You heard me well, Doctor: your candidacy has been rejected. This decision is final, by the way, and has been approved by all the members of the project’s High Council.’’
‘’WE WILL SEE ABOUT THAT!’’ raged Bulganin before storming out of Francine’s office. The psychologist couldn’t help shake her head then: rarely had she met with so many inflated egos in such a short time.
13:07 (California Time)
Thursday, August 22, 2041
Main conference room, Mars Home Project headquarters
Vandenberg Space Center, California
Robert Lithgow, posted at the door of the conference room, greeted with a handshake and a smile each member of the project’s High Council as they arrived with their aides and scientific counselors. The last member to arrive was Jacques Rocard, the head of the French National Center for Space Studies, or CNES in French.
‘’Welcome to Vandenberg, Doctor Rocard!’’ said Robert in his laborious, heavily-accented French. The French astronomer replied in his own polished English.
‘’Thank you, Mister Lithgow. I understand that this meeting will be about matters a bit less dry than scientific dissertations.’’
‘’Oh?! I thought that astronomers, astrophysicists and the likes had orgasms listening to scientific formulas.’’
That made Rocard laugh briefly before he replied with a smile.
‘’We scientists, and especially French ones, still prefer to have orgasms in bed with a suitable partner. So, we are going to discuss matters pertaining to the crew of our spaceship, right?’’
‘’Correct, Doctor Rocard. If I can go by your last reply, you may find today’s questions quite interesting.’’
‘’Really? You are starting to intrigue me.’’
‘’Well, you will all know soon enough what I want to speak about. But please, go take your seat. It is the one to the left of Maria Cardona.’’
‘’Aaah, a judiciously chosen seat indeed!’’ said Rocard before walking to the swiveling padded captain’s chair set beside that of the NASA’s Administrator. On his part, Lithgow went to his own chair but stayed standing at first as he opened the meeting.
‘’Welcome to Vandenberg, my friends. While our project is technically on track and on schedule, we still have to take firm decisions concerning a few personnel matters. While our project specialists have already studied in depth those matters and have presented their recommendations to me, I will ask you today to study those recommendations and to either approve them, modify them or reject them. However, if you reject certain proposals, we will then have to agree on alternative ideas, as we need to take firm decisions so that our project could continue advancing without uncertainties.’’
Lithgow then sat down and clicked on a button of his computer station integrated to the conference table, making the first image of his presentation appear on a giant video screen set on a wall of the room.
‘’Lady and gentlemen, here are the points we will discuss this afternoon: policies about sexual relations in space; the possibilities of space pregnancies and our response to such pregnancies and, finally, whether our astronauts on Mars should keep fit to withstand Earth’s gravity. The two first points may sound a bit frivolous to some of you, but they are very serious ones indeed, as they may heavily affect crew morale during their long space mission. First, our policies about sexual relations among the crew of our spaceship. Right now, we don’t officially have policies about that matter, mostly because a lot of people were too embarrassed to talk publicly about it. However, we can’t hide from that question anymore and must take some definite decisions now.’’
‘’Could we review first the reasons why sex in space was not allowed in the past…officially?’’ asked the head of the Japanese Space Agency, Shinzo Kurozawa, making Robert Lithgow nod his head.
‘’A logical thing to do, I must say. Basically, the past reasons not to allow sex in space had to do with the conditions in the capsules and space stations of the time. Zero gravity was actually the biggest culprit: all kinds of bodily fluids and other things would end up floating around the spacecraft or station, something not very pleasant for the occupants, as you may imagine. Also, there was the fact that, unless you anchored yourself to something, you would find yourself bouncing around with your partner. Finally, the risk of developing pregnancies in orbit was deemed too great.’’
‘’All good points!’’ said Misha Borisovich, the head of Roskosmos. ‘’If I may introduce here a piece of information that had been kept confidential up to now, I can tell you all that a Russian couple once tried sex during a long sojourn aboard our MIR space station, many years ago.’’
‘’And?’’ asked Michel Dupré, of the European Space Agency, an amused smile on his lips. Borisovich rolled his eyes in response.
‘’The male cosmonaut said later: the girl was fine but the act itself wasn’t. As for the female cosmonaut, she said in rather unprintable terms that it had to have been the worst sex ever. Basically, that couple kept slamming around against other objects rather than inside each other. The cleaning job afterwards was even less pleasant.’’
That triggered a short round of laughs around the table as the respective heads of national space agencies pictured that scene in their heads. Maria Cardona then asked the next question.
‘’So, in view of that past experience, what are the recommendations on the subject that our experts arrived at, Robert?’’
‘’In the specific case of the future trip to Mars by the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP, our experts say that having sex in the artificial gravity of our spaceship should be both safe and as enjoyable as if done on Earth. Please understand that the living conditions aboard our new spaceship are infinitely superior to those found even on our current space stations. Now, that leaves the question of whether we want to allow our astronauts to pursue sexual relations during the trip to Mars or on Mars itself. Our expert psychologists told me that being able to have sexual relationships aboard the FRIENDSHIP could only be beneficial to the long term morale of the crew. The only point that would be touchy is about the possibility of a female crewmember becoming pregnant during the trip. Even though our spaceship is superbly equipped in terms of medical facilities, giving birth to a baby onboard and then raising that baby inside our spaceship is bound to raise a few problems.’’
‘’Is it, really?’’ countered Michel Dupré, of the ESA. ‘’The long term goal of this project is to create a self-sustaining Human colony on Mars. To me, a self-sustaining colony means one where its members can procreate and multiply. Whether some like it or not, we will one day have to allow pregnancies to develop on Mars. So, why not start right now? Don’t we want to find out as soon as possible if long space trips and sojourns on Mars could have any deleterious effects on fetus development and pregnancies? If some unknown factor could impact negatively on future births away from Earth, we should find out about it as soon as possible, no?’’
The other participants looked at each other, struck by the common sense in Dupré’s arguments. Wang Lao Xi, of the Chinese Space Agency, was the first to speak in support of the Frenchman’s position.
‘’I must say that Administrator Dupré makes a lot of sense on this subject. As you know all, China has a long history of carefully controlling its demographics and we learned quite a few lessons from it. For one, Administrator Dupré is right about the need to eventually allow pregnancies to happen on Mars. He is equally right about the need to ascertain if some unknown factor could make human procreation in space hazardous or even impossible, and this as quickly as possible, before we could end up with a non-viable colony on Mars. I thus say that we should allow the crew of the FRIENDSHIP free rein about starting sexual relations between themselves. I further say that we should ensure that our spaceship has both the facilities and the qualified personnel to deal with an eventual pregnancy during the mission to Mars. We should also ensure that some baby-related supplies and equipment be brought aboard our spaceship, just in case.’’
‘’I will second Administrators Wang and Dupré on this.’’ announced Shinzo Kurozawa. ‘’We can’t afford to play the offended virgins here, not when we are talking about the long-term growth of our future colony on Mars. A few hundred kilos of baby supplies shouldn’t make a difference in a 64,000 ton plus spaceship.’’
‘’I second this as well!’’ said Jacques Rocard, of the French CNES. With Misha Borisovich also jumping on that bandwagon, that left Maria Cardona and Robert Lithgow to ponder their own points of view as the other participants stared at them, awaiting their response. The Spanish-American scratched her head, taken off balance by such a quick, unexpected group consensus on what she had expected to be a contentious subject.
‘’Uh, I must say that I was expecting a more vigorous discussion on the subjects of sex and pregnancy in space. However, I have to agree that Administrator Dupré’s arguments are quite solid. I will thus go with the opinion of the majority here. Mister Lithgow, we will need your medical experts and psychologists to study the question again, with the view of formulating practical rules and protocols concerning crew sexual relationships and possible pregnancies and their aftermaths aboard the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP.’’
Lithgow wrote down a few notes quickly, then looked up with a smile at the other participants to the meeting.
‘’Well, this leaves us with the question of keeping or not our astronauts and future colonists on Mars fit to withstand Earth’s gravity after a few years on the Red Planet. As you know well, the astronauts who spent months in orbit aboard either the MIR space station or the International Space Station came back to Earth with greatly weakened muscles and bones, and this despite exercising vigorously while in orbit, to the point that they could barely walk once back on firm soil. Their visual acuity was also affected negatively and their DNA was modified by exposure to space radiations. This question was raised again recently by one of the members of the team sent in orbit to help assemble and activate our spaceship. Personally, I would like to see our astronauts and future colonists stay fit for Earth gravity levels, but the sole technical solution available to us right now, meaning the use of rotating living quarters on Mars, would entail the shipping to Mars of lots of heavy extra equipment, something that would cut into the quantity of more essential equipment and supplies we will send to Mars.’’
‘’I would say that such a requirement is not essential right now, Mister Lithgow.’’ Said Wang Lao Xi, bending forward and putting his forearms on the table. ‘’Our crew will travel in normal felt gravity conditions, while the Mars landing crew will stay on Mars for less than a year while living under 0.37 G conditions. We will be in a better position to discuss this at a later time, when we will have established a permanent base on Mars.’’
‘’I would tend to agree with you, Mister Wang,’’ cut in Maria Cardona, ‘’but I believe that it would be prudent to start studying designs for lightweight rotating carrousels, which would eventually be shipped to Mars.’’
‘’I would have no objections to that, Administrator Cardona, as long as such studies don’t impact negatively on the financing of the rest of the project.’’
‘’I believe that the costs associated with this problem are quite modest, actually.’’ Added Lithgow. ‘’It shouldn’t be a problem for our project. If you are all…’’
A buzz from his personal cell phone then interrupted Lithgow, who excused himself after seeing who was calling him under an ‘urgent’ heading.
‘’Yes, Francine?’’
Francine Dubois, the head of the human resources department of the project, looked and sounded a bit embarrassed as she spoke up on the line.
‘’Robert, I am sorry to disturb you in the middle of such an important meeting, but something came up that could actually need the members of the High Council to discuss that new problem and take a decision on it, and quickly.’’
‘’And what is exactly that new problem, Francine?’’
‘’Our crew size requirement estimates for the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP: they were incorrect.’’
‘’What do you mean, incorrect?’’ Replied Lithgow in a suddenly raised volume of voice, making the others around the table look sharply at him.
‘’Basically, our actual roster for our spaceship is too low, mostly thanks to incorrect assumptions about the number of hours of work per day to be demanded of our astronauts. The man who had been in charge of that roster count still believed in the old NASA tradition of working our astronauts to death while they are in orbit, with only six hours of sleep per day allotted. While this could pass on a short duration mission, it would be grossly abusive to ask our astronauts to live on such a demanding work schedule for two years. When I found this out while doing an ultimate review of our mission crew profile, I spoke about that with Greg Stransberg, the one who had calculated our needs. Unfortunately, Stransberg refused to change his point of view and I finally fired him out of frustration. I immediately put his assistants to work on a revised work schedule and crew requirements estimates.’’
‘’And how many extra crewmembers would we need now on the FRIENDSHIP, according to them, Francine?’’
‘’Well, the biggest discrepancy concerned the number of positions allotted to the onboard specialists charged with analyzing the data collected by the ship’s sensors while mapping Mars from orbit. Just for that, we will need an extra twelve specialist at a minimum in order for them not to drop out like flies from exhaustion. Our review is still going on, but I already foresee the need for at least an additional 24 specialists and scientists, on top of the twelve needed for sensors data analysis.’’
‘’YOU’RE SAYING THAT WE NEED TO ADD A MINIMUM OF 36 EXTRA CREWMEMBERS ON THE FRIENDSHIP?!’’ nearly shouted a shocked Lithgow, making the other participants to the meeting snap their heads around. Seeing their concerned expressions, the systems engineer briefly excused himself with Francine, time to tell the members of the project’s High Council about the new problem. He then returned his attention to the French psychologist.
‘’But, our planned crew already counted 98 members, while we have a grand total of one hundred individual cabins aboard the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP. Where are we going to lodge all those extra crewmembers?’’
‘’I think that this will actually be easy to take care of, Robert: we simply need to add a supplementary, elevated bunk bed per cabin, making them double bunk cabins. In view of their very generous present space allocation per member, this should not impact much on the crew morale. However, we will have to revise the amount of food, clothing and other supplies that we will need to bring aboard our spaceship. By the way, these estimates for extra crewmembers can still go further up. I will have firmer numbers for you by Saturday.’’
‘’Great! Talk about a rock thrown into the pond! However, this is not your fault, Francine, so don’t feel too bad about it.’’
‘’Thanks for your comprehension, Robert. I will contact you the minute that I have definite numbers for you.’’
‘’I will be awaiting your call with trepidation, Francine. Thanks for calling!’’
Lithgow then closed the line and looked at the other members of the High Council, feeling a bit of discouragement.
‘’Well, it seems that our discussion about sexual relations and possible pregnancies aboard our spaceship is now even more relevant than before, lady and gentlemen. We are talking here about having to accommodate a minimum of 36 extra crewmembers on our spaceship. The only way we could accommodate them is to install double bunk beds in each cabin, along with extra clothes lockers. We will also need to store more food, clothing and other supplies aboard our spaceship in order to provide for these extra crewmembers.’’
‘’Well, better that than finding too late that our crew is insufficient in numbers to analyze in reasonable time the data we will be collecting on Mars while orbiting it.’’ said Misha Borisovich. ‘’An overworked crew often leads to higher stress and more interpersonal tensions, something we found out the hard way while operating our old MIR space station.’’
The other members of the High Council nodded their heads at that, as they mentally recollected some of the past incidents on old space missions.
Two days later, as promised by Francine Dubois, Robert Lithgow got a visit from the French psychologist, who had an amused smile on her lips as she put a printed document on Robert’s desk.
‘’The new, improved crew list for the H.S.S. FRIENDSHIP! You will see that many positions are still not filled at this time, but I don’t expect any extra position over this new list to be added aboard our spaceship.’’
Robert quickly looked through the list before looking up at Dubois.
‘’We will now have a total of 145 persons aboard our spaceship for its trip to Mars? It will look like a cruise ship to Mars, Francine.’’
‘’More than you think, if the suggestion I got from someone is accepted, Robert.’’
‘’What do you mean?’’
‘’That one of the already designated crewmembers has asked me to allow his wife to apply for one of the still unfilled positions aboard. A few other crewmembers who are married but have no children heard about it and have also put up similar requests. The funny thing is that those spouses are all well qualified in terms of pertinent professional skills, are physically fit and will only need basic astronaut training and a psychological profile exam to fully qualify for a ship position, something that they should be able to easily complete in the two years left before the launch. Before you say no, think that this would be one nifty way to fill one of the new goals of the mission: that is, to study the prospects and problems associated with eventual pregnancies in space.’’
Robert was about to object to this but stopped himself. The truth was that Francine’s proposal was both valid and interesting. For one thing, having married couples aboard could only improve morale, at least in the case of the married persons involved.
‘’Damn! You keep pulling surprises out of your hat, Francine. Very well: add the names of those willing spouses to the list of people to be tested as prospective crewmembers. Just out of curiosity, what are the professional trades of both the selected and prospective member of that couple?’’
‘’The already selected crewmember, a U.S. Air Force sergeant, is one of the three assistant cooks of the FRIENDSHIP, while his wife presently works as a barmaid in a club near the base and is postulating for the job of bar attendant and stewardess on our ship. Both are in their mid twenties and the husband swore to me that his wife is very fit and healthy. To top the cake, the wife speaks Chinese fluently, along with a fair Spanish, on top of English. The husband also speaks Chinese, thanks to his wife.’’
‘’Double damn! Could you show me the personnel files of the couples who will pass the qualifications tests, once you will have completed the primary selection phase? I am really curious to see what kind of complementary skills this business of bringing couples into space will give us on this mission. Thinking about it, why don’t you discreetly pass the word around our selected married members without children that their spouses could apply to ship’s positions relevant to their skills, as long as they are both professionally qualified and medically fit?’’
‘’I will be more than happy to do that, Robert. Thanks for your comprehension.’’
Robert sat back in his captain’s chair as Francine walked out of his office. As a systems engineer, he never would have believed until now how complicated and delicate, yet crucial, selecting the right personnel for a job could be.