ISS dimensions and stuff

[tntristan12]

I\'m stumped here, guys. I need to make an MCNP model of one module on the International Space Station, and I\'m thinkin the Zvezda module since it actually has some sleeping quarters in it. The only problem is that the dimensions I found on wikipedia are for a cylinder... and Zvezda is not a cylinder. Furthermore, I have nothing about how thick the walls are, and how big the sleeping cubicle is for the astronauts or anything like that. I\'ve searched on nasa.gov for any sort of real numbers and I can\'t find anything. I was wondering if there were any die-hard space station junkies out there who might know a few numbers I can use to make a somewhat reasonable approximate model. Thanks

[millsw]

I have no sweet clue. What course is this for anyway?

[tntristan12]

Radiation shielding. I\'m trying to create a monte carlo simulation to estimate dose equivalent to a sleeping astronaut as the ISS transits through the proton portion of the van allan radiation belt. I just need a very simple approximation for a model but so far my searches have turned up jack schmidt.

[Hypocee]

Cutaway

NASA hi-res model

Port (and apparent enhancement) of NASA model into Celestia

Some relevant figures and yardsticks, possibly another cutaway if their gallery works for you

Someone\'s preceding interior model for Orbiter

[RedRockets]

Maybe you could marry your station part to this Proton Rocket. Its got it where it counts.

[Technical Ben]

Cutaway

NASA hi-res model

Port (and apparent enhancement) of NASA model into Celestia

Some relevant figures and yardsticks, possibly another cutaway if their gallery works for you

Someone\'s preceding interior model for Orbiter

Nice, downloading the ISS model now to compare with my own of other ships.

[tntristan12]

Thanks for the resources! I definitely plan on using them, but do you have anything with some information on the pressure wall and any shielding that might be in it? That\'d be awesome!

[Hypocee]

Nope. Looked. I did see a mention of shielding added after integration to the station, but it was just ballistic shielding over a few square meters, with a few (Kevlar?) panels quoted at '20 pounds' apiece. You\'re the one taking a nuclear physics course, but my understanding is that scattering/absorption is basically a question of how much mass a ray passes through and dedicated shielding is simply a matter of getting as much matter in a small space as possible, the opposite of every other non-reentering spacecraft constraint. The impression I get is that dedicated shielding is simply nonexistent in all US ISS modules, and with all respect to the Russian designers I don\'t expect them to have deviated much from the same economic challenges, especially since that specs link states Zvezda is a modified Soviet-era Mir. We\'re talking millimeters of aluminum. These people are working on optimization of radiation shielding, and they basically mention dedicated shielding once and dismiss it. The rest of the paper is devoted to grouping internal equipment racks around the sleeping quarters and rotating the whole rest of the station towards the worst cosmic rays. The fact that the ISS orbit was initially designed to stick even further in the magnetosphere is another sign that radiation shielding is likely to be light.

I focused on geometric resources because my best guess is that you\'re going to wind up subtracting inner from outer volumes, multiplying by published loft masses and treating the pressure hull as a homogeneous body - with separate equipment bays if you get really fancy. Sorry.

[tntristan12]

I found a somewhat useful illustration hidden away in a presentation on micrometeorite protection of the ISS. Not sure if it is what I think it is, but it says that the pressure wall is approximately 2mm thick Aluminum, 2.3mm 'Nextel AF62', 2.3mm 'Kevlar 710' and 4.8mm Aluminum again. This would mean that the entire pressure wall is only 3/8' thick, which is consistent with figures I found on a different page. The only thing now is that I have no clue what the composition by weight of the two middle portions of the pressure wall sandwich are, which is what I actually need so I can run my MCNP simulation.