He is disarmed by a Maya-transformed reptilian beast, but escapes. When Koenig recovers, he and Maya quickly seal off and depressurise Alpha, then proceed to the disposal site in Eagle Two. Older and located some distance from Disposal Areas One and Two, it was not involved in the cataclysmic explosion of 1999. Six concrete-capped shafts store atomic waste ten thousand feet below the surface.
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Of the two record breakers, the first (the commander of the Submarine Escape Training Tower at HMS Dolphin) was a regular ascent under control. The second, a petty officer instructor from the Submarine Escape Training Tower suffered an emergency release having given the alarm signal whilst flooding up the chamber. It was considered safer and quicker to escape him rather than depressurise and drain down. Both escapees suffered no lasting effects and returned to normal service.
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Vent and drain valves are examples of normally closed valves which are only opened when required to depressurise (vent) or drain fluids from a system. Isolation valves must effectively stop the passage of fluids. Gate valves, ball valves and plug valves are generally considered to provide tight and effective shut-off. Globe valves and Butterfly valves may not be tight shut-off due to wear on the plug or the seat, or due to their design, and may not be appropriate to provide effective isolation.
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This would require some skilled flying on the part of the pilot, as any use of the front-facing RCS jets could present a serious hazard to the astronauts on the LESS if the hot exhaust gases hit them. Once docked the CSM pilot would depressurise the Command Module and open the hatch to space, so the astronauts on the LESS could use the external hand-holds on the Command Module to crawl to the hatch and climb inside. The crew would then separate the CSM from the LESS and leave it in lunar orbit when they returned to Earth.
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The tests were to gauge the performance of long-distance docking and the feasibility of removal of the expensive Kurs automatic docking system from Progress spacecraft. Due to malfunctioning equipment, both tests failed, with Progress M-33 narrowly missing the station and Progress M-34 striking Spektr and puncturing the module, causing the station to depressurise and leading to Spektr being permanently sealed off. This in turn led to a power crisis aboard Mir as the module's solar arrays produced a large proportion of the station's electrical supply, causing the station to power down and begin to drift, requiring weeks of work to rectify before work could continue as normal.
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The internal pressure system includes a primary and reserve chamber gas supply, and the valves and piping to control it to pressurise and depressurise the main chamber and auxiliary compartments, and a pressure relief valve to prevent pressurisation beyond the design maximum working pressure. Valves are generally duplicated inside and outside and are labelled to avoid confusion. It is usually possible to operate a multiple occupant chamber from inside in an emergency. The monitoring equipment will vary depending on the purpose of the chamber, but will include pressure gauges for supply gas, and an accurately calibrated pressure gauge for the internal pressure of all human occupied compartments.
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Protective shielding and protective drugs may lower the risks to an acceptable level, but data is scarce and longer-term exposure will result in greater risks. At the low altitudes at which Mir orbited there is a variety of space debris, consisting of everything from entire spent rocket stages and defunct satellites, to explosion fragments, paint flakes, slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by RORSAT nuclear powered satellites, small needles, and many other objects. These objects, in addition to natural micrometeoroids, posed a threat to the station as they could puncture pressurised modules and cause damage to other parts of the station, such as the solar arrays. Micrometeoroids also posed a risk to spacewalking cosmonauts, as such objects could puncture their spacesuits, causing them to depressurise.
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