Subject:
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Re: Deciding on a crew for a spaceship
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Tue, 7 Nov 2000 16:23:49 GMT
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Viewed:
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733 times
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In lugnet.space, Paul Davidson wrote:
> Sounds like a great start. I think you might be missing a few key personnel
> (like a doctor).
Good point about the doctor. Hmm, maybe a hologram? ;) This might be an
overloaded position, depending on whether there's an MD amongst all the
degrees in the Science department. Or a couple of the pilots might have
emergency medical training. Or maybe the Doctor also serves as the
Nutritionist, which is a fancy title for Cook.
> Command & Bridge crew:
>
> Captain
> First Officer
I had planned (but didn't post) that the department heads (Science,
Engineering, Pilots) would also serve as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd officers. One
of the ranking officers must be on duty at all times.[1]
> Various (about 8) other ranked officers (all serve on the bridge or in
> communications)
For now, I'm assuming that 2 dedicated 'bridge officers' (besides the
ranking officer) can deal with the bridge duties. Either there's a high
enough level of automation to handle the load, or duties are informal
enough that the pilots can offload stuff on the scientists (so the
scientists have to place their own ship-to-home-system phone calls).
> Navigation/Cartography (in my world, navigation and space cartography is a
> special discipline)
Interesting thought. Could make for a very cool astronav bay.
> Security (like the red-shirts in Star Trek)
Internally on the ship, I'm not too worried about protecting the crew from
themselves (or each other). Exploration/expedition-wise, security should
be everyone's duty. Or perhaps, the unrated's can serve as red shirts...
> Other posts:
>
> Sickbay (served by a doctor and two nurses)
That could be interesting. Use one of the LQMs as a combination Doctor's
quarters and sickbay. Probably gets used as a biology lab most of the
time.
> Mess Lounge (served by one cook)
Yep, no replicators here. Turning yeast into food is serious business,
requiring a highly trained professional.
> Hydroponics (one hydroponics technician)
Besides the yeast banks, I'm planning on having fairly extensive vegetation
throughout the ship. Two greenhouses (one for Terran plants, one for Exo).
> Command/bridge crew serve all bridge posts, including helm, navigation,
> weapons/gunnery, communications, tactical operations, and ship operations.
> These posts serve as liaisons to Engineering, Navigation/Cartography, and
> the other ship departments.
With a crew of 34, there should only be 11 on duty at any time. I'm not
seeing a need for extensive compartmentalization (on my ship -- your ship
probably has different needs). If the ranking officer says to do it, it
gets done.
> I'm also toying with the idea of adding a
> mechanics/motor pool division for basic maintenance and repair.
So far, I figure the engineers deal with:
Propulsion--in the broad sense; I'm not even sure what the interstellar
drive technology is going to be, but it's not propulsive. This is very
likely going to be a dual-drive ship, one propulsive/relativistic drive (on
the back of the ship, of course) and one ultratech interstellar drive.
Droid maintenance--I'm pretty sure there will be some droids and/or
remotes.
Gravitation--I'm not sure if artificial gravity is technological or
magic.[2]
Miscellaneous systems--the lights, the furnace, the toilets, the sinks.
EVA Systems -- both human and automatic. Shuttles, sleds, probes, suits,
etc. Some of the scientists might share duties in this area, since the
purpose of most of the EVA equipment will be research.
The engineers are there to keep things going. They aren't going to rebuild
the warp core (or whatever the drive system is based on) out in deep space.
They're going to watch the guages, make sure the fuel lines don't get
clogged, make minor repairs, configure the equipment transport platforms
for the researchers as required.
> All in all,
> there are about 30 crew members. The Captain and First Officer have private
> quarters, the crew share 14 bunks in the male and female crew quarters.
For quarters, I'm trying for something more in line with the original Star
Trek. Not palatial accomodations, like on recent Trek series, but most
everyone gets at least some private space.
Well, the captain is likely to have some pretty decent quarters. Maybe
I'll build them using large UFO hulls, and place them above and behind the
bridge.
--
Steve
1) Since the Scientist must be available at any time important research is
going on, his schedule must be flexible. So he doesn't usually keep an
assigned watch. And the Pilot has a contractual option to choose his
watch, so he switches between 1st and 2nd watch, depending on whether the
ship is flying East or West. And the Captain grabs either 1st or 2nd
watch, opposite the Pilot. This all means the Engineer usually gets stuck
sitting around the bridge for the 3rd watch, and then does his *real* work
on 1st watch.
2) In Star Trek & Star Wars, I consider artificial gravity to be magic--it
just works too well. Luke's X-Wing seems to have it. The crew areas on
the Millenium Falcon don't seem to be equipped to handle failure of it.
Heck, the MF has multiple grav fields -- the top and belly gunner positions
have different grav orientations than the rest of the ship. A.G. very
rarely fails on Trek (I remember only 2 instances, one of which was a major
plot point). This stuff is just magical.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Deciding on a crew for a spaceship
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| Sounds like a great start. I think you might be missing a few key personnel (like a doctor). I'll show you what kind of crew my own capital ship has, to see if it gives you any ideas. I culled my own ideas from from Star Trek and Babylon 5, mostly. (...) (24 years ago, 7-Nov-00, to lugnet.space)
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