The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1975

the guidance area of some vast space-ship, and a highly-trained crew of top- line personnel to staff it. These people are always on duty . . .    Yes, they sleep. Even in their un-natural situation they have to preserve the routine of normal human life. But each of them is duplicated, so to speak, by the computer that is the very heart of Moonbase. A fantastically complicated computer capable of taking information, and not only storing it, but of evaluating it. Capable of coming up with decsions. Even orders. Not that it actually controls. Its orders can be counter- manded by John Koenig. But it is so logical that it is nearly always right. It can process reports that come in, say, regarding a planet caught at first glimpse in the long-range video, and tell within seconds whether the place is inhabited, cap-

able of supporting life, and if not, why not. Its greatest value is that it actually speaks its findings, so that the personnel of Main Mis- sion do not have to waste precious time consulting print-outs.    In charge of the computer, David Kano . . .    He is seen with his assis- tant, Sandra Benes--nomi- nally one of the 'service section' staff of Moonbase, as indicated by the yellow identification colour on her sleeve. They all have their colours. Flame for Main Mission, White for medicals, Rust for technical, Purple for security, and so on.    In her capacity as Kano's assistant, Sandra Benes is also responsible for scan- ners and extra-Lunar com- munication.    Of the white-sleeves, Doctor Helena Russell is the chief--in charge of the whole medical set-up on Moonbase.    As on Earth, the people under her care are suscept- ible to any known disease. The base is not, and never has been, completely sterile. There is an extensive, fully- equipped hospital.    Why is there still illness, in such an advanced environ- ment? Because humans, once removed from the threat of disease, would cease to produce those inner substances which combat germs, bacilli and viruses. And a human incapable of combatting such things would be useless in the possibly malignant atmos- phere of some new planet. What use would it be if Moonbase Alpha eventually came into position to use Operation Exodus--the scheme by which they hope one day to leave their space- wanderer--only to land on another world and then be

wiped out by something as ordinary as a common cold epidemic?    The hospital--as the last picture shows--contains some of the most sophis- ticated eqiupment medical science has yet devised. The auto-analysis machine, for example, makes it possible for Doctor Helena Russell to diagnose illness accurately in seconds. Computerised scanners fit over a patient's body and, quite painlessly, read off the whole of his condition. Temperature, pulse-rate, blood-pressure, corpuscle count. Instru- ments even measure muscu- lar impulse and brain-wave, checking and coming up with an immediate video signal on a bank of dials. Treatment, too, is of the most advanced kind. Injec- tions are given by hypersonic projection. No problems with blunt needles on Moonbase!    There are problems with which Helena Russell's de- partment cannot deal. Those which stem from unusual, unpredictable occurrences out in space. People, for example, brought in after excursions to alien planets, suffering from unknown conditions induced by malign effects on the mind.

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