Decon

[Bry_Sinclair]

This just struck me this morning.

On ENT the shuttlebay had a decon chamber adjacent, which made sense (though obviously it was just an excuse to get the cast in their skivvies). Would ships of the 23rd and 24th century need something similar? Or is there a sterilisation field at work in more modern hangers?

 

[Robert D. Robot]

We saw that decontamination could take place on the transporter platform (The Naked Time). Maybe it would minimize the chance of decontamination if -once the shuttle had landed- the crew could be beamed to a transporter chamber and decontaminated there.

Also, if the crew were contaminated, the interior of the shuttle would be contaminated. What then?

This got me to wondering, also, about the situation where the exterior of the shuttle only became contaminated. I wonder if there could be emitters just outside the shuttle hanger that would create a sterilization field that the shuttle could "roll around in" (if needed) even before it entered the ship. It does seem like they'd need to have an option for decontaminating shuttles and maybe it would be less of a mess to do it in space...

 

[Jose Tyler]

We saw that decontamination could take place on the transporter platform (The Naked Time). Maybe it would minimize the chance of decontamination if -once the shuttle had landed- the crew could be beamed to a transporter chamber and decontaminated there.

Also, if the crew were contaminated, the interior of the shuttle would be contaminated. What then?

This got me to wondering, also, about the situation where the exterior of the shuttle only became contaminated. I wonder if there could be emitters just outside the shuttle hanger that would create a sterilization field that the shuttle could "roll around in" (if needed) even before it entered the ship. It does seem like they'd need to have an option for decontaminating shuttles and maybe it would be less of a mess to do it in space...

I would imagine that the decontamination process for the shuttle would be part of the landing process. In the TOS era, decontamination was probably part of re-pressurizing the landing deck. Maybe the lazy-susan like landing pad had some sort of giant microwave or broad-band EM field projector to clean whatever is sticking to the shuttle. In TNG time it was probably cleaned when it passed through energy field that kept the atmosphere in.

Now if your passengers are contaminated, in TOS time there might still be some sort of Decon facility off the shuttlebay to scrub up. By the time on TNG, you would probably just be beamed out of the shuttle and cleaned up through the transporter beam's bio-filter.

 

[T'Girl]

... and cleaned up through the transporter beam's bio-filter

Given the decontamination procedure we saw in Naked Time, it would suggest that in the time period of TOS, there was no "bio filter."

 

[Robert D. Robot]

I always thought it was odd that those suits in The Naked Time allowed for Joey to reach up under his hood to scratch their nose or blow on their hands. Seems like that is really not too effective an outfit to wear to protect against contamination.... anything could blow up in under there.

 

[T'Girl]

PPE (personal protective equipment) comes in various levels of protection - there isn't just "space suit" and then nothing. You could say reach under a surgical mask or a dust mask pretty easily to scratch your nose too.

The suits we saw seem to be a physical barrier only, not intended to be air tight, if (Tompson?) had replaced his glove immediately after scratching his nose, he and the ship would have been fine.

 

[Timo]

I'd argue the threat in "The Naked Time" was not biological in nature, thus wouldn't have been subject to biofilter attentions - whereas "The Enemy Within" had already shown the crew the dangers of "physical" contamination, meaning they would be inclined to do physical decon even if their biofilters had already invisibly eliminated all biological threats in "The Naked Time".

As for the suits in "The Naked Time", there's little or no indication that they were worn in order to protect the wearers from anything but the cold. Our heroes don't appear to suspect a threat of any sort until well after beaming down. Only when evidence of extraordinary behavior on part of the late researchers begins accumulating does Spock tell Tormolen to avoid contamination - a remark that would be unnecessary if Spock and Tormolen were wearing anti-contamination gear! The orange things are probably the 2260s counterpart to the more conventional parkas we see on Archer and pals, or later on Kim and Chakotay in "Timeless"...

Timo Saloniemi