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"We [science fiction writers] always wanted to believe in "private sector" space -- hucksters make better characters than a government does."
- Larry Niven

Moon-Terror  
  A syndrome common to people who live in less than half Earth-normal gravity.  

Moon-terror. (Also, space-slang, gillies!) A disease common among people living under less than half normal gravity. Recurrent attacks, with intervals of comparative comfort, cause extreme distress. The syndrome includes changes in blood- and brain-pressure, and typical psychopathic symptoms. Early attempts at treatment, by centrifuge, drugs, and surgery of the inner ear, uniformly failed. Recent success has been claimed, however, for the psykinetic technique, developed by Kung, Swedberg, and Haldane. See PSYKINETICS. — Dictionary of Planetary Medicine. University of Mars, 218 C. S.

“The moon-terror is part of the price we have paid for the conquest of space.” With an effort at professional dignity, Haldane drew up his slightly stooped shoulders. “When we hurl ourselves out of the environment that has shaped our bodies and our minds for millions of years, painful adjustments are necessary.

“The task of planetary medicine is to assist those adaptations to the conditions of other worlds. I have followed up the pioneer work of my dead teachers, Kung and Swedberg, in developing the psykinetic technique.”

Technovelgy from Star of Dreams, by Jack Williamson.
Published by Comet in 1941
Additional resources -

Williamson, in his inimitable way, goes into more detail:

In my view, the moon-terror is simply a peculiar psychosis. Naturally, physical methods, such as drugs and operations and centrifuges, have failed to relieve a disease that is mental...”

“You see,” Haldane explained, “for millions of years, during the evolution of our ancesters on Earth, they were never free of the sensation of weight except when they were falling. Most falls had a painful ending.

“When one individual falls, and Is injured, a conditioned reflex is established. But a million generations developed that simple fear-reflex, into a racial complex. The old behaviorists discovered, centuries ago, that falling is one of the only two things that can frighten a newborn baby.

Compare to space-sick from Ralph 124c 41 + (1911) by Hugo Gernsback.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Star of Dreams
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