Re: [GZG Fiction] Seventy Dead after Freighter Accident

On Wed, Jan 28, 2004 at 04:40:10PM -0600, DAWGFACE47@webtv.net wrote:

>a. assumption, military vessels would always  enter combat (given the
>chance) with vacc-suited crews and   0-atmos pheric pressure in
>compartments to avoid
>damaged from explosive decompression and   internal explosions, period?

This is certainly a valid assumption - _if_ the vacc suits are good
enough that you don't lose massive amounts of dexterity while wearing
them. This is not true of current zero-atmosphere pressure suits;
personally I think it's a reasonable assumption for the fairly near
future, but not everyone agrees with me.

Also consider the practicalities of trying to give someone first aid in
zero pressure. Suddenly a small splinter causes a potentially fatal
wound.

>and in a 0-gee or micro gee environment fire does really weird things (
>i am told; flows like	water, floats about in self consuming fireballs,
>etc?

Yup. All sorts of weird stuff.

>firefighting gases and foams to flood	a burning compartment, while
>saving the day, might also make for really serious stuff to deal with
>later?

Best bet is to pick a non-corrosive agent, especially relevant when
you're dealing with electronics bays. CO2 is relatively good for this -
not ideal but not as bad as some of the others. And of course with
current tech weight matters a lot too.

>and wot about those  magazines inboard loaded with boom thingies and
>store power?

That's why the damage control teams are paid the big bucks. What,
they're not? :-)

> air hazard? radiation hazard? bio hazard? 0 gee/ micro-gee conditions?
>fluctuating lighting  (strobe effect by accident)? 
>i think a really nice	learning  talk about fire, explosions,
>eletctrical arc,  and	other nastiness would be a help to an admitted
>less than rocket scientist like me

"If it's bad, there's a good chance it'll happen." :-)

I think this may be too long for a mailing-list post, but I'll see about
writing it up as a web page...

Roger