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Space Exploration

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  • $\begingroup$ Can vehicles intended to dock be handled by the standard end effectors on the arm, or are these only provided on modules intended to be berthed? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 7:52
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    $\begingroup$ @MarkMorganLloyd only venicles meant to be grappled have the grapple fixture. Thus far no vehicles have had grapple fixtures and also been able to dock, unless Shuttle had fixtures for rescue contingencies that I'm not aware of $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 11:05
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    $\begingroup$ @ErinAnne Hence anything undocked would either have to have autonomous (re-)docking capability, or crew with sufficient provisions on board. Boeing: "Give us six months to plan and test that." SpaceX: "We can organise that overnight, and if it fails we'll have collected useful data from the attempt." $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 11:33
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    $\begingroup$ @MarkMorganLloyd Doesn't really matter. If one of your lifeboat capsules was out on the end of an arm or floating autonomously, the evacuation procedure in case of an emergency suddenly goes from a few minutes of "everyone go to your assigned hatch and get in" to a complicated process of launching one lifeboat, then maneuvering the second capsule to that dock and securing it, then finally boarding and leaving. It's not going to be a few minutes, you're talking about like half an hour if not more. It makes that capsule just not a lifeboat anymore, which defeats the whole purpose. $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 9, 2024 at 20:14
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    $\begingroup$ Unless your crew return vehicle happens to be a Boeing Starliner with multiple failures making it unsafe for return. But I would think this is definitely the exception to the rule. arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/… $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 11, 2024 at 21:42