Well sealed cannon plugs are not difficult to make or use. The rationale
for putting stuff outside is that it maximizes the space inside to use
for people and real equipment. Wires don't need air to live (and are
less likely to make a high O2 atmosphere go fizzle...boom). This also
minimizes pressure vessel mass for a given amount of workspace.
Chuck Kuecker wrote:
>
> More than that - what's the rationale behind putting all those cables on
> the outside of the units? Every cable that pierces the hull is a potential
> leak - and any wiring problems now force an EVA, with attendant loss of
> expensive atmosphere. The cabling is now more susceptible to damage from
> space junk, etc.
>
> What's so difficult about running the cabling and piping inside the
> interconnections?
>
> Chuck Kuecker
>
> At 08:38 AM 3/17/01 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >It seems like designing a standard modular protocol for power and data bus
> >connections would be an important part of developing a robust space
> >infrastructure. I've envisioned a basic system in which design modules are
> >applied to one or two basic structural "envelopes", a la LEGOs(tm). You see
> >hints of this in the video downlinked in the last couple of days from ISS in
> >the way that the Italian Leonardo MPLM "moving van" is just a simplified
> >version of the design for the US lab module in size, shape and basic
> >mechanical structure. Why isn't this approach applied at a finer-grained
> >level to the power and data cabling?
> >
> > Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
> > Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
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