332 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



that you think is the king of all melons, you still discover that there are melons 

 that absolutely defy the scientific approach. 



After you pass this stage you are considered an expert if you develop the final 

 and fool-proof system. The secret of success and the secret of good melon 

 lunches in Iran is very simple. You vs'alk up to the storekeeper and say : "Give 

 me one good melon please." This roughly runs : "Lotfan yeki harbuse hoob bedi 

 hemen." When he hands it to you you ask him in a rising inflection : "Hoob astV" 

 vphich means: "Is it good?" And if you have dealt vrith him before so he 

 knows that you are a man of the world, then he is sure to give you a delicious 

 melon. This system does not fail ! 



The intense experience of life at an overseas station, and of tracking 

 satellites, considerably altered everyone who participated in it. The 

 observer was no longer the same man as when he started in the system ; 

 similarly, his wife and children had changed. Each had matured in 

 his own individual way. And in general, those who left the project 

 for one reason or another found that their experiences were both cul- 

 turally and financially profitable. 



Yet, a fundamental dilemma still remained. The kinds of people 

 who did the kinds of things that the Observatory wanted in those early 

 months — those who could combine technical knowledge with an ability 

 to work with people — became less and less contented with the situation 

 as the work became increasingly routine and therefore offered fewer 

 and fewer rewards. This was to become a crucial issue at the first 

 station chiefs' conference in mid-1959. 



COMMUNICATIONS 



In the first half of 1958, generally satisfactory communications 

 were established at all of the tracking stations. A number were linked 

 with Cambridge through the military network and others by com- 

 mercial wire services and teletype. At that time the possibility of 

 direct radio linkage with certain of the stations was considered, but 

 since the existing system was working efficiently, there did not seem 

 any need for such an arrangement. By March of 1958, the communi- 

 cations center in Cambridge was handling nearly 400,000 words per 

 month. 



Inevitably, there were delays of one kind or another ; messages were 

 lost; and sometimes the wrong material or information was sent to 

 the stations. At one pomt, the chief observer at one station sent the 

 following memorandum to headquarters in Cambridge: "We have re- 

 ceived the material on 'stuffing' and I might say it will come in handy 

 if we have any more visitors before we get this station into full oper- 

 ation. Since I failed to bring along my aqualung, I feel that it is 

 inadvisable to try collecting invertebrate animals other than insects 

 and molluscs. There are, however, thousands of fossils just a few 

 hundred yards down the hill from the station, so perhaps I'll try my 



