6.84 to save propellant. The transfer pod then brings its capture ring up to the colony's. The contact shock is absorbed by the shockretract mechanisms behind the capture rings. Once the capture rings are docked and latched, the shock-retract mechanisms then draw the port and pod together until the docking rings latch together forming a pressure seal. With the docking completed, pod and port doors are opened and the cargo is transferred. Should the forward docking mechanism on the transfer pod fail, the pod has a duplicate at its aft end. If the transfer pod crashes into the docking port, the excessive impact is absorbed by the crushable honeycomb structure supporting the colony's docking and capture rings. If there is a zero-g assembly site for large space structures near the colony, the free-floating docking facility should be incorporated into that site to save on cargo transfer. A docking facility design, therefore, depends on its projected uses and on the structure of which it may be part; no such specific design is given here. However, the function of the docking facility is to serve as a cargo-holding area and a fuel depot. It includes one or more spherical propellant tanks, a number of docking pads for the transfer pod and for cargo containers, navigation systems, refueling equipment, and station-keeping systems. The cargo containers mentioned above are cylinders designed to fit in the Shuttle payload bay. They can, therefore, fit inside the transfer pod. The containers have docking mechanisms at both ends but these are smaller than the pod's and the colony's docking mechanisms. The docking facility therefore has adapter pads with a small cargo-container-size mechanism separated from a transfer-pod-size mechanism by a pressure door. This allows cargo from containers to be loaded in the transfer pod without loading a container as well. VI.9.5: Flat Mirror and Shadow Reflector: Figure 6.35 shows the final colony configuration. The flat mirror consists of a low-mass trusswork supporting a reflecting membrane. It is elliptical, a 45°-projection of the circle forming the rim of the solar cell array
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