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     For the playable teams (MARS, Recon, Science), characters must be:

• free of dangerous contagious diseases.

• free of medical conditions or physical defects that would require excessive time for treatment or hospitalization, or would result in unfitness or disability.

• medically capable of completing training, and able to operate in all likely geographical areas.

• not have more than 5 cumulative points (rads) of radiation exposure.

     Also, there's a long list of disqualifying medical conditions. You can be missing your pinky, or the tip of any two fingers except your thumb or dominant index finger. You can't have night blindness, or vision that can't be corrected to 20/40; contact lenses are usually ruled out. If you need glasses, the Project will issue you with 4 pairs (they go in your personal equipment box), plus prescription lenses for your issue gas mask. You can be color blind. Various diseases and symptoms which the referee doesn't really expect anyone to try and pass off are included as disqualifications -- asthma, for example. Certainly, anything that requires ongoing treatment or medication is a no-no.

Allergies

     There are a few allergies which (if severe) are disqualifications:   latex, nuts, wheat or dairy, for example. Nobody in the playable teams may be allergic to the standard Project meds (universal antibody, universal antidote, and the contents of the first aid kit and CBR kit).

Mental Health

     Various mental disorders also disqualify; some are:  sleepwalking or bedwetting after age 13; stuttering; agoraphobia; drug or alcohol dependence; homosexuality, transvestism, and other paraphilias (remember, we're talking about the Eighties here). Keep in mind that the Project doesn't have psychic psychiatrists -- well-hidden or suppressed disorders might slip by. Smoking isn't a disqualification, but the Project isn't going to support the habit. 

Height, Weight and SIZ - Men

     Height and weight requirements for men under age 28 (after training) are:

Height, Weight and SIZ - Women

     Height and weight requirements for women under age 28 (after training) are:

     We've simplified clothing sizes for MP coveralls:  there are 24 male sizes and 24 female sizes. Generally, if your weight is in the upper end of the "not over" column, you wear extra-large coveralls.

Example:  Slab Vanderhuge is 2 meters tall, 150 kg weight; he gets x-large/xx-long coveralls.

     Persons with a weight near the low end for the height listed are ectomorphs (skinny); persons near the top end of the weight range are extreme mesomorphs (muscular). In fact, it's pretty rare for a Project member to get over 140 kg, no matter what height. People above the "mid-hi" weight for their height look "muscular, like an athlete or football player", and should probably have an above-average STR. Someone with a weight within 10% of the maximum for their height "looks like a bodybuilder/wrestler/pro football lineman". Remember, these are weights for people in good condition -- not much fat on them.

     Specifically:  if your weight is greater than the "mid-hi" amount, you get checked for excess body fat.

Age

     You have to be at least 21 years old, but not more than 35 years old when recruited. A few senior staff got in on a waiver of the maximum age rule.

     Members over age 28 can have up to 5 more kilograms of weight on them.

Fertility

     Within the Project there were a lot of heated discussions about whether members had to be "fertile", especially when there was a push to increase the number of women in the Project in the early Eighties. This never actually became a requirement.