Re: Racetrack Design still possible?

Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:
Generally a 'racetrack' design would appear to offer a safer design for about 1/2 the station in the event that a fire or other problem cut off access in one direction.

Another option would be a survival inflatable bubble attached to a node2 port. In case of emergency, the crew in that section would enter the bubble. Separate from node2, and then the bubble would run along a guide line to node3.

In the end though, a pod like in 2001 would probably be best. Outfit the next russian module with a CBM hatch and that pod could berth there too. They would need to be remote controllable. So pod1 coming from node2 could tell pod2 at the russian segment to unberth and translate down a few metres so that pod1 could bert at the russian segment.

Such Pods probably wouldn't need much in terms of engines. Would pressurised air generate enough thurst to get a pod to travel with 2-3 people from one end of station to the other ? This way, there would not be any issues of the vehicles having lifetimes.


A simpler solution would be to have emergency EVA suits at each node with a free CBM port. Put the suit on and wait for pressure in the damaged section to have gone down, open the hatch and translate along a guideline to either airlocks to re-enter the station.

(But that still begs the unanswered question of whether Quest's airlock can be operated from the outside (eg: vaccum the airlock section so you can open the outside door, get in and re-pressurise it and then enter to the cabin pressure crew lock.)

Pirs is likely not operable from the outside, unless they outfitted some motor to close the hatch between Pirs and Zvezda to allow Pirs to be depressurised.

Note that PMA3 should be fairly easy to convert into a poor man's airlock.


This is a moot discussion since the station isn't getting any upgrades since the USA will lose any ability to send new modules when shuttle is grounded. However, such discussion would be relevant to a mars expedition ship.
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