| I can't understand why they take air with them. Given that the N2 is just dead weight and the costs of getting anything into orbit, I cannot figure why they don't just take O2 and maintain cabin pressure at 0.21 Bar. I guess they'd have to repressurise by adding N2 before reentry (so that she doesn't squash like an old can) but it would minimise these sort of problems and also be less stress on the structure, which would only need to retain a 02 bar rather than 1.0 bar pressure differential.
Mind you, they ARE rocket scientists, so I guess they have probably thought this through.
Richard M. |