I am trying to find an old short story about men signing up for a tour of duty on Mars.
Any ideas?
From the story:
Breathing was unnecessary, except to provide wind for talking, but Manue breathed in desperate gulps of 4.0 psi Martian air; for he had seen the wasted, atrophied chests of the men who had served four or five years, and he knew that when they returned to Earth-if ever-they would still need the auxiliary oxygenator equipment.
According to this summary:
Desperate to find some sort of meaning for the work he is doing, Manue goes to one of the “troffies (for atrophy, the older workers who have given up any hope of returning to Earth), who explains it to him as a problem of overproduction and underconsumption.
We see here the essential elements of Mars, atrophied lungs, and of course the unique word “troffie.”
This is Walter M. Miller's “Crucifixus Etiam”.
Troffies are mentioned in the review below.
Desperate to find some sort of meaning for the work he is doing, Manue goes to one of the “troffies” (for atrophy, the older workers who have given up any hope of returning to Earth), who explains it to him as a problem of overproduction and underconsumption:
“So, it’s either cut production or find an outlet. Mars is an outlet for surplus energies, manpower, money. Mars Project keeps money turning over, keeps everything turning over. Economist told me that. Said if the Project folded, surplus would pile up-big depression on Earth.”
Miller, Walter M. – “Crucifixus Etiam” (1953) - Doomsayer Press
and in the story itself.
Earth chalice, Earth blood, Earth God, Earth worshipers—with plastic tubes in their chests and a great sickness in their hearts.
He went away saddened. There was no faith here. Faith needed familiar surroundings, the props of culture. Here there were only swinging picks and rumbling machinery and sloshing concrete and the clatter of tools and the wheezing of troffies. Why? For five dollars an hour and keep?
You can read the story online here
