Power Coupling
Contents
Purpose
The power coupling is a piece of yellow foam attached to the exterior of the Habitat. It represents a power coupling for the hab's electronics systems. When the Habitat suffered an electronics failure, a simulator would remove the power coupling from it's bracket. When replaced, the power would be restored to the habitat. This gave the astronauts something that they had to physicaly fix in the event of a disaster.
Replacement
The addition of a completely new engine room, as well as the construction of a new engine mount for the habitat was proposed in 2005-2006. Both proposals would replace the power coupling with something more intrecate and realistic. However, bot proposals never got beyond the planning/scrounging stage.
Scrapped
The power coupling was dismantled following the 2005-2006 Mission Prometheus. The power coupling did not exemplify a good simulation ; it was not worked in to the systems so that removing or replacing it would cause any immediate and noticeable change. The simulators would be forced to wait for the astronauts to return to the Habitat to be able to check to see if the power coupling were reassembled correctly and restore power.
After being exposed to such an improbable and altogether useless piece of simulation technology, it has been decided that new additions to the Habitat must be integrated into the monitoring software used by Mission Control and the astronauts so that any change/fluctuation is immediately noticeable and the simulation is preserved.
