Last updated: May 30, 2009
I was playing Pandemic 2 and I realized something very scary. In the game Pandemic 2, you play a virus, bacteria or parasite with the goal of wiping out humanity. One of the sub-goals to achieve victory in the game is to prevent humanity from developing a vaccine by shutting down all the hospitals which serve as research facilities. Should this happen in real life and all our research institutions are unable to function, humanity is doomed.
What if there was a research institute insulated from anything that would happen on Earth? I see this as a huge benefit of a outpost in space. My idea is to have either an add on for the International Space Station or it's own space station. The living space of the researches would be separated from the labs; the lab would only be connected to the living area with a rope. Researches would spacewalk from the living area to the lab and the space suits would serve as biohazardsuits in the lab. Researches would keep their spacesuits on while in the lab so that they are sanitized when the spacewalk back to the living area. But, the lab will have an atmosphere so the samples stay alive.
This plan requires a space suit glove that can be used in lab work. Maybe researchers can used a work glove under the space glove that will still maintain the seal of the space suit when the space glove is taken off. But, a benefit of this system is that the lab's atmosphere can be evacuated if a sample is released. killing everything in the lab except the humans who are in spacesuits.
Well, what do you think? Is this a good idea especially in the light of the H1N1 virus? Is there someway a disease could shut down this lab?
