Entry 32: Stranger in a Strange Land

The first human expedition to Mars was selected on the theory that the greatest danger to man was man himself... Eight humans, crowded together for almost three Terran years, had better get along much better than humans usually did. An all-male crew was vetoed as unhealthy and unstable. Four married couples was considered optimum, if necessary specialties could be found in such a combination... The machines continued to run data...Captain Michael Brant...had an inside track at the institute, someone for him looked up single female volunteers who might (with him) complete a crew, then paired his name with these to run problems through the machines to determine whether a combination would be acceptable.  This resulted in his jetting to Australia and proposing marriage to Doctor Winifred Co. burn, a spinster nine years his senior.
     Lights blinked, cards popped out, a crew had been found

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Ahhhh science fiction.  Look at that fictitious science! I really like this concept of running people through machines.  Its like a dating website for space.  This scene kind of acts as a prequel to the book. It tells the story of the first mission to Mars.  The last transmission received from the ship predicted their landing but the last day nothing was communicated.  This scene becomes more important when we find out later that the Man from Mars was born of the crew on this ship. It's cool to know that his parents were so perfectly matched. Later on in the story this Man is treated as some sort of perfect being, and maybe being bred this way made him so.