Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 157
7. All candidates both recommended and not recommended must enter
the project. All of the candidates did not enter the project. The final selection
took into consideration all of the assets of the candidates. These assets included
past training, experience, recommendations from the Lovelace Foundation, and
recommendations from the Aerospace Medical Laboratory (AML).
8. At the completion of the project all of the participants must be graded on
the effectiveness of their performances. The above condition has not been satisfied
as this report nears completion. It will require several years to satisfy this condition.
9. The investigators must then seek significant correlations between subject
performances on the various simulating and nonsimulating tests and successful
mission performances. Since condition [5] 8. is not satisfied, this condition also
cannot be satisfied. An alternative approach has been used. It has been assumed
that the Mercury Astronauts are the best potential group to fulfill the mission of
Project Mercury. It has also been assumed that they will carry out the mission successfully.
There is confidence that these assumptions will mature into fact. Based
upon these assumptions a significant correlation study has been sought. Ideally, it
is premature. Practically, it is valuable, since the program has demonstrated tests
that should be pursued in future crew recommendation studies.
Each chapter has been written by the appropriate principal investigator.
Throughout this report the candidates will be referred to by alphabet letters
assigned to their names. There is no relationship between these alphabetical designations
and their names or NASA numbers. It is impossible for the reader to
identify a particular subject’s name or performance. This system was designed to
maintain the privileged communication due each candidate.
REFERENCES
0.1. McGuire, T. F. Stress Tolerance Studies, Part I. Unpublished Data. 1958.
0.2. McGuire, T. F. Tolerance to Physical stress, Part II. Unpublished Data. 1958.
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CHAPTER X
[pp. 6-98 not included]
DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Thirty-one highly selected adult males were the subjects of a crew recommendation
study. Data were gathered from the performance of each subject on
each test. One hundred and four performance variables were correlated. The following
statements represent preliminary impressions from this Project Mercury
Candidate Evaluation Program. It is recognized that the investigators were studying
a small, highly selected population. Therefore, it is difficult to render conclusions
on statistical significance.