> The pressurized crew section would, of course, occupy only a relatively   
   small portion of the vessel's internal volume.  Any other compartments outside   
   of this pressure hull would either be totally unpressurized or would contain   
   compressed fluid or    
   reaction mass.     
      
   Why? You could pressurize the whole ship without requiring too much extra mass   
   for the pressure bottle. The larger the volume, the more efficient (mass-wise)   
   it is to pressurize it, since envelope mass grows with radius squared, but   
   volume grows with    
   radius cubed.   
      
   Whole-ship pressurization would do away with suit acclimation time, would   
   allow much tighter passages to be used (space suits are very bulky) and vastly   
   increase DC crew agility (space suits are very heavy).   
      
   Of course, if the whole pressurized envelope pops, everybody inside is in   
   serious trouble. Then again, if that happens, chances are the ship is already   
   destroyed.   
      
      
   On a side note:   
      
   > What I'm trying to sort out is how damage control might be taken care of on   
   board this vessel.   
      
   What weapons will attack the ship, and what protection does it have? It's   
   possible that any impact will disable the ship, and the purpose of damage   
   control is to ensure any surviving crew continue to survive until whoever wins   
   the battle gets around to    
   rescue them. Alternatively, the ship is built to survive attacks and keep   
   fighting, with DC performed to restore functionality to combat-critical   
   systems.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)