Life Support Systems
Aboard any vessel, or space station, the mundane but very necessary life
support and environment functions break down into four general areas:
atmosphere, gravity, waste management, and emergency systems.
All space vessels and facilities require extensive life support systems to
support their crews. These systems are basically the same on all Federation
ships and space stations. Life support systems maintain a single environment,
suitable for most Federation races, although individual species, like the
Benzites, may require supplemental devices, such as respirators to help them
breathe.
Life support systems have to meet the highest safety standards. On
Galaxy-Class starships they are designed with multiple backups and redundant
safety checks that protect the crew, even in the event of multiple systems
failure. For instance, the atmospheric support system to the Main Bridge
features seven independent safety interlocks.
Atmosphere
Except for gravity, which is created by generators throughout the ship, this
safety net includes mutually supportive parallel trunk lines and a reserve
utilities distribution network for limited supplies of basics such as air, power
and water. In the rare event of a system wide failure, there will still be
sufficient atmosphere to maintain the crew for several hours. The exact length
of time will depend on the number of personnel on board, and how many panic.
Reflecting the overall ergonomic design, an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere is
maintained for Class-M life forms as a shipwide norm. Per standard 102.19 set by
Starfleet Regulatory Agency, this amounts to air at 26oC, and 45%
relative humidity at a pressure maintained at 101 kilopascals, amounting to 78%
nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% trace gases.
Processors are located throughout the ship at a rate of about two redundant
units per every 50 cubic meters of habitable ship's volume. The units combine
carbon-dioxide removal with oxygen replenishment, mostly accomplished via
natural photosynthetic bioprocessors. Normal maintenance calls for each side of
the parallel system to take the load every 96-hour cycle, which allows for
maintenance on the other, although individual units can be switched between the
two for greater flexibility and redundancy.
The third backup atmosphere net can provide up to 50% of the system capacity
for up to 24 hours. In addition, if the main and reserve atmospheric systems
fail, contingency atmospheric modules, available at most corridor junctions, can
cover evacuation, repair, or shelter-seeking time of approximately 30 minutes.
Artificial Gravity
Aside from the ease of mobility for work and play Artificial Gravity affords,
and the pleasing 'natural' feel, artificial gravity has long been known to be
practically indispensable for off-world living, due to its necessity for
cellular growth and health.
For the Galaxy-class starship, hundreds of simple synthetic gravity
generators provide the Class-M norm, tied in to the inertial dampers to
counteract acceleration effects in an effect much like the tractor beam, each
generator creates a gravity field by using a controlled stream of gravitons
generated by a superconducting stator rotating at speeds over 125,540 rpm,
powered by energy tapped from the electro-plasma system (EPS). The stator,
built, built of thoronium arkenide, is in turn suspended within pressurized
chrylon gas in the center of a hollow sealed chamber of anicium titanide 454,
measuring only 50 cm in diameter and 25 cm tall.
This device provides a graviton field of only a few picoseconds, so the decay
time demands that generators be located every 30 meters or so. The generators
are tied together by small waveguide conduits to allow 'field bleed' in cases of
extreme maneuvering and inertial movement.
Each stator is built in suspended state, and is maintained with only a
synchronizing EPS energy pulse every hour or so. In the case of EPS loss, the
stator will provide an attraction field for up to 240 minutes, with a dip down
to only about 0.8g predicted. Sinesopidal ribs on the inner surface of each
generator's sealed cylinder absorb motions with an amplitude up to 6 cm per
second.
The crew are protected from the effects of acceleration by the inertial damper
field, which enables the ship to accelerate to high speeds without pulverizing
ship's personnel.
Waste Management
Since no starships can carry the required amounts of food and water for extended
missions, recycling and waste reclamation is a must. Treatment and recycling
units for liquid waste, all of which is recycled into fresh water, food
replication, or general matter replication.
Solid waste is scaned for composition, and route items to the most practical
means required.
Some 82% of all solid waste can be recycled mechanically, but any material that
cannot be directly recycled this way or chemically - including about 5% of all
waste classed as hazardous - is set aside for general matter replication. Due to
the energy-intensive nature of full matter dematerialization, which is in effect
a one-way transporter, most recycling is accomplished by the older and more
common methods.
Reliability
Modern life support systems can cope with a number of situations that would have
been fatal on earlier starships and space stations. Most notably, hull breaches
are automatically contained by forcefields. Under normal circumstances, life
support is extremely reliable. Starfleet calculates that, barring a serious
accident, life support failure should only occur once every five hundred years.
Backup Systems
Despite the redundancy built into all starship systems, designers must allow for
emergency backup systems in case of system loss or damage.
The backup system includes 425 of the corridor junction modules cited earlier
which, in addition to atmospherics, include emergency lighting and batteries.
The shelters, powered by a series of dedicated and protected power trunks, are
designed to sustain up to 65 crew members for up to 36 hours. They also include
24 hours' worth of air, water, food and power supplies independent of even the
backup, as well as two emergency pressure garments.
Evacuation Options
Even in the event of an emergency, it is highly unlikely that life support will
fail throughout the ship. In the event of a partial systems failure, the
Commanding Officer may opt to evacuated or with the entire crew taking refuge in
the unaffected section.
