Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 71: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

out on landing into a chemically un- known atmosphere? Would you have the outlet valve of their breathing apparatus open into vapours that explode when mixed with expired air? Suppose they do find water on or under the rocks. Have they got to drink it first to discover whether it gives them extra time to stay_on the planet ornomoretimeto beanywhere ?” Then they had the confounded impudence to ask me if I couldn’t train one of the operatives in the crew to carry out routine gas and water analyses. They even named a price for such services! As if any mere cash could compensate for the torment ot wonaering how the poor idiots would oe making out, and me not with chem. So | said, just to show them: “I’m wondering already why you did not consult a man like me before you began .o plan at all. You went to Kaddens the fuel chemist, to Paxon the mecallurgical chemist and to half a dozen other specialists. I don’t doub: that they have done all you FIsTY-"OUR asked of them, and done it well, but the trouble is you don’t know enough to know what to ask them and they would not know enough to be able to tell you anyway. A simple example: you wanted portholes in your space- ship. You went to Sudnorth the plastics chemist. He gave you Consti- flex as a transparent substance with a negligible coefficient of thermal ex- pansion, resilient to internal and external pressure differences, and of considerable shock resistant qualities, all combined with lightness. Did you tell him about the extra ultraviolet light in solar radia- tion which has not filtered through atmosphere? It didn’t matter? Do -you know what will happen if you send that stuff into space? Whenever it is facing the sun, it’s going to fluoresce. Instead of merely letting light pass through it, it will be itself a source of light— a beautiful pale pea green. Your navigator will be charmed by it, no doubt,but he won’t be able to see the stars or planets through it. He might be quite unhappy without these space-marks, ‘“‘Whether you let me travel or not, I would be very happy to be allowed to go over as many specifications of materials in use as possible to see if I can hit on any other snags for you.” I GET THE JOB Our wrangling was a little less strained after that, and ultimately the top beaurocrat said: “This man certainly wants to go—and that alone commicbooks.com