How big is SID?

How big is SID? The story in Countdown comic (e.g. issue 46) shows
SID as big enough for a man to work inside SID's central hull.

"anthonyappleyard <[hidden email]>" wrote:
> How big is SID? The story in Countdown comic (e.g. issue 46) shows
> SID as big enough for a man to work inside SID's central hull.
>

Well obviously the Countdown comics can't be relied upon for
this kind of information, but the episodes can, and The Man Who
Came Back shows that this is, indeed the case.

James Gibbon wrote:
>
> Well obviously the Countdown comics can't be relied upon for
> this kind of information, but the episodes can, and The Man Who
> Came Back shows that this is, indeed the case.
>

.. which is remarkable, really - in 'real life', as I understand
it, man-made satellites are designed to be as compact as
possible to minimise the cost of deploying them - hence (except
for those such as MIR, designed to support human inhabitants)
they are really a very densely-packed chunk of electronics.
But SID is shown as having a spacious interior, with tall,
mysterious looking upright racks and disco lighting.

> How big is SID? The story in Countdown comic (e.g. issue 46) shows
> SID as big enough for a man to work inside SID's central hull.

Yes, SID's interior is at least big enough to contain a man. In fact,
SID has clamps at his front to allow an interceptor to dock
(presumably for repair and maintenance purposes).

Angelo Finamore's site at

http://www.ufotv.it/ART.htm

gives a few clues in the shape of blueprints, but no definitive scale.
You can prolly get a rough idea from here, though. Take a look at
the enlarged cutaway blueprint, which shows a floating astronaut
alonsgide SID for scale comparison.

Dave.

[hidden email] wrote:
> > How big is SID? The story in Countdown comic (e.g. issue 46) shows
> > SID as big enough for a man to work inside SID's central hull.
>
> Yes, SID's interior is at least big enough to contain a man. In fact,
> SID has clamps at his front to allow an interceptor to dock
> (presumably for repair and maintenance purposes).
>

That's interesting, I can't quite see how that would work - I
can't see how the pilot would get from the cockpit into SID.
Also, the maintenance technician would need to be
interceptor-qualified, although in SHADO everybody seems to be
able to do everybody elses' job anyway, so perhaps that's not a
big consideration.

But certainly in the one episode where SID _does_ need repair, a
conventional NASA rocket launch from Earth is used for this.

James

> > Yes, SID's interior is at least big enough to contain a man. In fact,
> > SID has clamps at his front to allow an interceptor to dock
> > (presumably for repair and maintenance purposes).
> >
>
> That's interesting, I can't quite see how that would work

The source is from the UFO annual itself:

http://www.darkstar2.demon.co.uk/annual/p51.htm

> - I
> can't see how the pilot would get from the cockpit into SID.

Well, the annual page shows airlocks for entry. I would *guess*
that it would involve a spacewalk.

Dave.

[hidden email] wrote:

>
> The source is from the UFO annual itself:
>
> http://www.darkstar2.demon.co.uk/annual/p51.htm
>

Hmm well I think it's probably fair to say that that's
not really canon.

--- In [hidden email], sigourneysslave@f... wrote:
> Well, the annual page shows airlocks for entry. I would *guess*
> that it would involve a spacewalk.

The picture shows a door. It is likelier a plain single door and the
mechanic would need to stay in his spacesuit.

If he got to SID in an Interceptor --- then well, I always said that
it would be more sensible for Interceptor pilots to wear a full space-
type pressure suit and not that thing like a riotsquad helmet.

--- anthonyappleyard wrote:

> How big is SID? The story in Countdown comic (e.g. issue 46) shows
> SID as big enough for a man to work inside SID's central hull.

Well, I think I can provide you with some frame captures from THE MAN
WHO CAME BACK which shows the size of an astronaut compared to SID.
Let me upload them :-)

Christian

--- In [hidden email], James Gibbon <james.gibbon@v...> wrote:
> sigourneysslave@f... wrote:
I haven't seen that episode in about 30 years :-), so I vaguely
remember that SID gets hit by a UFO, don't remember how it is
repaired.

Anyhow, going back to servicing SID. Nowadays, certain satellites
(the prime example is the Hubble Space Telescope) are designed to be
serviced in space. But, but, but, the repairs that can get done are
essentially from the outside of the spacecraft, they always assume
that there will be an astronaut with a bulky space suit doing the
repairs. Thus, it is practically impossible for an astronaut to have
access to the "inside" of the satellite. The repairs typically
consist on the astronaut swapping old (or failed) components or
systems for new ones.

In the case of SID, the idea of a satellite providing life support
systems, airlock, etc., for servicing purposes is far fetched.
Adding life support seriously increases the cost and complexity of
the spacecraft, and also can be impractical. For example, if the
failure is in the power systems, you wouldn't have energy to operate
life support and therefore someone wouldn't be able to work inside
the spacecraft to repair it, duh! Also, in reality, you wouldn't
waste energy inside SID to provide energy to light the inside
compartments.

David Levine

David Levine wrote:
Great, David,

these are really good comments! I agree with you.
On the other hand, the series was more based on fashion
(one of the reasons I like it) then on practicality or
cost-consciousness. Think of the interceptors with one
missile each and their pilots without a spacesuit or
of Sky 1 where I can't imagine that the docking manoeuver
after its mission is a problem-free one ;-) And I'm sure
that at this point Skydiver is very vulnerable.

Anyway, great comments, David!

Christian