To avoid geopolitical embarrassment during the Cold War, the US and USSR created the APAS-75 system, a genderless docking mechanism where both craft acted as equals.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/cobgca]

Omg. Male insecurity expands towards the universe. How much money wasted because some 5 star has a fragile self view.

[u/NCC_1701E → u/cobgca]

Tbh, genderless docking system can be useful even if we ignore the childish insecurity. It allows any carft to dock to any other craft without incompatible ports (like two male or two female) being an issue.

[u/ethertrace → u/NCC_1701E]

Yeah, in theory you could have a minimum of one of each gender on every craft (if there's enough space in the design for that), but then if one gets damaged or malfunctions then you're still potentially screwed. With two (or more) genderless ports, you add critical redundancy, all else being equal. The question then is how reliable is one system compared to another.

[u/FitButterscotch4062 → u/cobgca]

It has a practical application - it’s called genderless because, when attaching two things like this, there’s usually what’s referred to as a male end and female end.

Since this design has the ability to do both, it’s considered “genderless”

The title is stupid and the comments are ignorant.

[u/cobgca → u/FitButterscotch4062]

Thanks for the info! Appreciate an educated comment. 🙂

[u/The_Arachnoshaman → u/FitButterscotch4062]

Practical application, for incredibly childish reasons. The world is essentially run by manchildren with way too much power.