Space Solar Power Review Vol 7 Nums 3 & 4 1988

undesirable for space planners to be unprepared for such eventualities but did not offer any approach for dealing with it. Inclusion of prenatal medical facilities in the station was regarded as undesirable; birth control should not be mandated, nor should pregnant women necessarily be required to return to Earth as soon as pregnancy was discovered. 3. Social Control and Deviance As the work force becomes large and as duty tours become longer there are likely to be some individuals who deviate from cultural norms and regulations regarding official duties, interpersonal interaction and behaviour, and the use of station facilities. Such possibilities must be taken into consideration during planning for the space station. The panel favours cultural norms and informal sanctions that will govern most behaviour, but it also favours development of a legal code that involves some degree of on-orbit judicial process. Incumbents of certain crew positions should be given responsibility for on-orbit behaviour of workers and the authority to apply formal sanctions to assure compliance with regulations. It was felt, too, that the station should contain provisions for physical restraint and confinement. Serious deviations that threaten crew safety and mission accomplishment should subject violators to immediate return to Earth where they are to be dealt with under provisions of an Earth judicial system. Space crews, however, should not include individuals whose duties are specified as law enforcement, and the panel does not favour promulgation of rigidly enforced personal behaviour codes that govern both on and off duty behaviour. It is possible that some individuals will seek to engage in narcotic and alcohol abuse. The panel regards this as undesirable but does not favour a system of constant surveillance that would exercise control through limitations on personal privacy. There was, however, a considerable amount of ambiguity with respect to how the problem should be handled; the panel favoured prohibition of non-medical use of narcotics and alcohol, and punishment for violation of the prohibition, but it also favoured controlled use of mildly stimulating narcotics and alcohol for recreational use. Informal cultural norms and sanctions should govern such recreational use. 4. Social Organization The organizational structure which is appropriate for the early, socially homogeneous, work force may not be appropriate for the more socially heterogeneous force which will follow. An authoritarian organizational model, with minimal on-orbit autonomy, is likely to characterize early space habitats, but a larger and more heterogeneous work force, with longer on-orbit duty tours, may insist upon greater autonomy and a more democratic system. The panel regards premission screening to assure that the space work force contains only personalities that are compatible with the authoritarian model to be undesirable. The initial authoritarian model should be allowed to evolve toward participatory democracy in which workers will participate actively in decision making. Control of mission activities should be separated from control of other activities, with mission activities being regulated by an official hierarchy, whose members are chosen by the workers, and non-mission activities being subject to informal social controls. This transition from authoritarianism to self-government must be monitored carefully, and controlled to some extent, in order to avoid the social upheaval that might arise from uncontrolled sociocultural evolution. Early space station crews will be characterized by a social class structure that

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