Difference between revisions of "Starship Life Support Systems"

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(Created page with 'Life Support covers a myriad of functions that are kept under an umbrella term. At its core, life support covers specifically removing carbon dioxide from the air and adding oxyg…')
 
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==Scrubbing==
 
==Scrubbing==
C02 scrubbing is accomplished usually by freeze-seperat
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C02 scrubbing is accomplished by freeze-separation. The C02 is then stored and processed, with the carbon stripped out and the oxygen reused. Civilian ships will generally centralize this system, while military vessels favor a heavily distributed approach. At least two such scrubbers are required and should be fully independent. In emergency modes, the C02 can simply be vented into space, though this is less than preferable. Most ships try to carry significant amounts of breathing gases to maintain pressure, and evacuating anything is considered less than ideal.
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The emergency backup scrubbers are typically a basic chemical absorption system. These will be placed throughout the ship and have a limited life span. The backup to the backup is a system called "blood letting" in which the ship vents atmosphere directly into space and then tops off with fresh reserves. This system is both dangerous and extremely short-term, and is avoided at all costs.
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==Non-Vital Sub Systems==
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This section covers all of the systems that will not kill the crew in a failure situation.
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===Heating===
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In the icy cold of space, the biggest problem is, in fact, getting rid of heat. Most ship systems produce a considerable amount of the stuff, and basic heating for crew comfort is accomplished simply by moving heat around. Cooling, meanwhile, is a serious problem.

Revision as of 17:51, 15 January 2018

Life Support covers a myriad of functions that are kept under an umbrella term. At its core, life support covers specifically removing carbon dioxide from the air and adding oxygen. Without these functions, the crew would die quite quickly. However, "life support" also covers heat, ventilation, cooling, water reclamation and distribution, artificial gravity, waste disposal, even lighting and door mechanisms. Crew Comfort Systems may be a more accurate descriptor, but on most ships these systems are all considered vital for starship operations.

The Gudersnipe Foundation mandates that all spacecraft must have "triple-redundant" life support systems; EG systems with three levels of redundancy. This rule applies strictly to the basic requirements needed to keep the crew alive. On Foundation-owned starships, the general rule is "double-capacity, triple redundancy", meaning that a ship should have a capacity(in terms of life support availability) equal to double it's crew compliment, and that this system should be triple-redundant.

Redundancies

Most systems achieve the triple-redundant requirement by having a primary, secondary, and emergency backup. The primary and secondary may be inter-changable, usually copies of the same system but with fully-independent components. The emergency backup is usually much simpler, in most cases just a system that scrubs C02 and opens a valve on an oxygen tank.

The term "shuttle breathing" refers to a state in which all systems have failed, and the crew is left with nothing but the available oxygen circulating in the air. This is typically considered a very bad thing. Foundation ships are often designed with larger-than-necessary spaces in the pressurized section of the ship to provide a little head room in these situations.

Scrubbing

C02 scrubbing is accomplished by freeze-separation. The C02 is then stored and processed, with the carbon stripped out and the oxygen reused. Civilian ships will generally centralize this system, while military vessels favor a heavily distributed approach. At least two such scrubbers are required and should be fully independent. In emergency modes, the C02 can simply be vented into space, though this is less than preferable. Most ships try to carry significant amounts of breathing gases to maintain pressure, and evacuating anything is considered less than ideal.

The emergency backup scrubbers are typically a basic chemical absorption system. These will be placed throughout the ship and have a limited life span. The backup to the backup is a system called "blood letting" in which the ship vents atmosphere directly into space and then tops off with fresh reserves. This system is both dangerous and extremely short-term, and is avoided at all costs.

Non-Vital Sub Systems

This section covers all of the systems that will not kill the crew in a failure situation.

Heating

In the icy cold of space, the biggest problem is, in fact, getting rid of heat. Most ship systems produce a considerable amount of the stuff, and basic heating for crew comfort is accomplished simply by moving heat around. Cooling, meanwhile, is a serious problem.