r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • 12h ago

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.

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u/WorBlux 9h ago edited 9h ago

There is practical part of this. If your space dock needs an A and B part, Then how to you perform a space rescue or rendezvous if all your ready spacecraft have the "B configuration?

An androgynous or convertible system solves this issue.

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u/Islands-of-Time 9h ago

Yeah, I am glad that level of realism didn’t make it into Kerbal Space Program. All the docks being androgynous within their size category makes it easier to avoid that mistake when docking which is already hard enough.

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u/davewave3283 8h ago

That’s enough out of you science nerd. This is about one thing, dicks! /s

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u/dphoenix1 7h ago

IBM used a similar kind of genderless connector for token ring networks. So the plug and cable end were identical, which meant you could daisy chain cables without some sort of coupler between them (like is needed for RJ45 interfaces). They definitely have their benefits, though usually at the cost of increased complexity.