[exDM69]

I understand what you mean by crisis.

But the question is: is there a planned procedure / contingency plan involving the Dragon as a lifeboat? If not, then it's not going to be used. They have rehearsed procedures for these situations. Including the worst of crises.

The 5 year old link you provided mentions the possibility of modifying the Dragon capsule to provide life boat capabilities. That's not what is up there today. The other one talks about "air circulation" systems, but that's not the same as life support.

[bostonpete]

> But the question is: is there a planned procedure / contingency plan involving the Dragon as a lifeboat?

Wouldn't it be safe to assume there is such a backup plan? You've got a vehicle that should be able to return humans to earth. If an emergency arose with other vehicle(s) damaged, why wouldn't the Dragon be in the mix? I would assume that in a worst case scenario, all sorts of unusual measures could be taken.

[exDM69]

Well no and and yes. The Dragon that is currently attached to the space station is unable to return humans to Earth. As far as I know, it is unable to undock from the space station without human assistance, it doesn't have any kind of seats in it and it's really not capable of transporting humans to or from the orbit. So practically it would mean that someone is left behind, sacrificing their own life to give someone else a marginal chance of survival. This will not happen unless it is known ahead of time that the Soyuz capsules are fatally damaged.

In contrast, the option of using the Lunar Module as a life boat in the Apollo 13 flight was planned and rehearsed ahead of time. Not all the details were worked out because it was thought that the crew would be dead before this would turn into reality (and the whole Apollo program was a bit rushed).

But yes, they must have thought long and hard about the option of using the Dragon. The whole Dragon program is built upon the idea of possibly using it as a life boat in the future but that is not the role of the Dragon up there at the moment. But the lessons learned have been translated into the next-gen human rated Dragon program.

But we don't really have to think about that. The last I heard, the CAPCOM and the crew were discussing about feeding the fruit flies onboard the ISS so the scientific objectives do not suffer more than they have to.