Thanks Evyn for the JTAS description:
> When folded, the rescue ball is a cylinder about
> 5 cm in diameter and about 10 cm long.
> When deployed, it forms a sphere slightly over one meter
> in diameter which contains air sufficient to last one person
> for from one to two hours.

So this version of the rescue ball has a shell volume of ~200cc.
Where's the pump and air supply? The signalling beacon?

Internal volume when inflated is ~0.5 cubic metres, which is about 80
minutes of adult ventilation at 6L/min (tidal volume 500mL, rate 12/min).

Things are going to get rather hypercarbic for the occupant without some
sort of CO2 scrubber - exhaled air is about 5% CO2.

Richard,

Having a photoelectric power supply built into the shell is a good idea -
but orienting hemispheres to point towards the nearest star requires
thrusters. You may as well have panels over the entire surface.

The shell could be made of a selective surface radiator material to enhance
detection (peak IR wavelength = to core temperature e.g. ~7 micrometres at
310K) - it is a rescue device after all.

Large computer/recording capacity embedded into the bubble doesn't seem to
fit with the 'big iron' ship computers of Traveller. I suppose we could
invoke massive redundancy for starship grade machines.

I agree with the safety features. The service provider needs to know if the
bubbles can work when required, and when to repair/replace them when they
cannot.

Rob O'Connor