3.4 Atmospheric Supply Failure

The Voyager environmental support systems are highly sophisticated, multiply redundant, and very rarely subject to any significant problem. Even in the event of total loss of power to both air supply subsystems and the backup system, there is sufficient air volume in the ship's interior to sustain the crew for many hours. Minimum power to ventilator fans could easily extend this for days, even without any new oxygen supply. In the event of a sufficiently severe systems failure, nonessential areas of the ship would be evacuated, and the crew would take refuge in a number of designated emergency environmental support shelters. Crew members working outside of these areas would probably have to don environmental suits. A catastrophic loss of pressure in the ship (as might happen if the hull were breached) would likely be limited to a very small section of the ship because isolator doors would automatically seal off the damaged area. In most cases, a forcefield in the hull would temporarily stop the leak until the crew can actually repair the hole.