Ribbon in the Sky by Murray Leinster — Read

"An unsolvable but urgent problem may produce in a society, as in an / individual, an uncontrollable emotional tantrum, an emotional denial / of the problem's existence, or purposive research for a solution. In / olden days, the first reaction produced mass-tantrums then called / 'wars. ' The second produced frenziedly dogmatic ideologies. The / third produced modern civilization. All three reactions still appear / in individuals. If the first two should return to societies, as such. " / _The Practice of Thinking_ Fitzgerald

The descent, at least, was not routine. It was nerve-racking. The / force-field from the planet's giant steel landing grid reached out into / space and fumbled for the Med Ship. That was clumsily done. When it / found the ship, it locked on. And that was awkwardly handled. The rest / was worse. Whoever handled the controls, aground, was hopelessly inept. / Once the Med Ship's hull-temperature began to climb, and Calhoun had to / throw on the spacephone and yelp for caution. He did not see as much of / the nearing planet as he'd have liked.