Habitat
Space to move in space...
It's no good having a spacecraft that is so compact that you can't move freely within the 'human habitat' area.
As a guideline, a human in a spacesuit (and you never know when you may need to don a spacesuit) will require at least 1 meter diameter for clear passage, and will require some allowance to negotiate bends and turns. Therefore, (and in honour of the Jeffries tube) I recommend that a Jeffries standard be adopted for spacecraft design as follows:
All 'human habitable areas, corridirs, service access ports, gangways and safe zones meet a minimum dimension allowing free passage of a theoretcal cylindrical object exactly 1 meter diameter, and 1.8 m in length. The former allowing for a full spacesuit with life support backpack, and the latter to take into account the 'inflexibility' of most current spacesuit design.
Any standard CAD package, such as Solid Works etc will be more than capable of checking the conformance of a spacecraft interior to the Jeffries standard.
Additonally, manufacturers of spacecuits and designers of objects that require transport within the confines of a craft will have defined criteria to work within.
Copyright © 2005-2008 Ian Whiteley