Spaceshippy type questions

[Mouse]

Ok, I don't know why I put 'type.'

I'm writing a short sci-fi story at the mo (my first one!) and have a couple of questions about spaceships.

1. What's the place called where smaller ships dock? And that whole area leading to it? (I'm calling it a corridor. So far my ship has too many corridors!)

2. Can the captain have an advisor?

3. Apart from techs and cleaners, who else works on a spaceship?

4. What are those round slidey doors called?

Thank you!

(If it helps at all, the only shows I've ever watched with spaceships are Firefly, Red Dwarf and Farscape.)

 

[Ursa major]

You need to watch some Star Trek, Mouse, particularly Next Generation which seems to be a bit more professional about the names of things and ranks. (I'm sure there are episodes on Channel One (ex Virgin One; goodness knows what hapenned there ) - every week.)



In the mean time

1. Call your hangar a hangar or a shuttle bay. (Corridors are fine.)
2. You can give your captain an advisor, who could be his or her second in command or, depending on the circumstances and the size of the crew, a group of ship's officers who can bring their different skill and knowledge sets to the captain's attention.
3. It depends how large the ship is, and how automated.
4. Doors.

 

[Mouse]

Cheers, Ursa!

Doors. Yes. D'oh!

 

[The Ace]

1. Airlock / docking port.. (A small enough ship may be guided into a docking bay).

2. This is the job of the First Officer. The Ship's computer is also a useful get-out clause.

3. Techs do the scutwork. Helm and Navigation officers a) steer b) make sure you're steering the right way. ( On a small ship, the pilot may combine both roles with that of Captain, but a big ship with a heavy work-load often keeps these separate). A communications officer (like a radio-operator but more sophisticated) isn't too unusual either.

A big enough ship will have a sick-bay with medical staff and a dedicated kitchen with chef etc. Science officers and their staff aren't uncommon, engineers oversee the systems and there may even be a weapons systems officer, if the ship is armed.

(Many a story has started in the mess (Dining/leisure area), these are usually separate, one for officers, one for other ranks.)

None of these have to be separate people, but a ship big enough to have a docking-bay will have quite a large crew.

Perusal of a large warship or passenger liner could give you a good starting-point.

4. Hatches if they're single. Unlike doors, they tend to be air- and water-tight.

Two hatches with a space in between them and the outer one opening to space make an airlock. Vital for entry/exit if you like having something to breathe.

 

[Ursa major]

Did you mean a specific round slidey door? (Like the ones used on, I think, airlocks on Deep Space Nine?)


I've just seen Ace's post:

1. Yes, also docking bay (and airlock for external attachment.)
4. It all depends. Ships in a Star-Trekky-type universe have "force fields" to get around the obviously-less-than-air-tight nature of the doors they do use. Without those, you could have "normal" slidy doors within sealable areas (protected by airlocks/bulkhead doors/hatches).



Perhaps we should ask other questions: How much of your short story is devoted to technical details? Is your POV character on the crew (or capable of being so) or a relatively ignorant passenger/stowaway/whatever. Would they, for instance, know the crew's names for most of these things? Radical thought: Do you have to mention the doors at all? (For instance, is the fact a character has to pass through many airlocks or hatches important to the story or can it be covered by: The Captain returned to her cabin?)

 

[Mouse]

I've seen bits of DS9, maybe that's where I'm getting the door thing from. I can picture them in my head, they split in the middle like those supermarket doors. But they're round.

Actually, there were door like that on Farscape I think?!

And thanks, Ace! Super handy. (What's scutwork?)

 

[Pyan]

Scutwork - trivial, unrewarding, tedious, dirty, and disagreeable chores

. What everyone else has found a good reason to avoid...

 

[Ursa major]

The ones on DS-9 didn't split; they rolled to one side.

 

[Mouse]

. What everyone else has found a good reason to avoid...

Hence 'scutters' in Red Dwarf I guess! Probably should've worked that one out myself.

The ones on DS-9 didn't split; they rolled to one side.

I must be thinking of Farscape then.

 

[The Judge]

Ignoring Red Dwarf and other spoofs, has anyone ever seen a cleaner on a TV spaceship, though? Or someone who does the washing and ironing and mending of uniforms?

 

[The Ace]

Officers don't get their hands dirty.

 

[Mouse]

I've just seen Ace's post:

1. Yes, also docking bay (and airlock for external attachment.)
4. It all depends. Ships in a Star-Trekky-type universe have "force fields" to get around the obviously-less-than-air-tight nature of the doors they do use. Without those, you could have "normal" slidy doors within sealable areas (protected by airlocks/bulkhead doors/hatches).



Perhaps we should ask other questions: How much of your short story is devoted to technical details? Is your POV character on the crew (or capable of being so) or a relatively ignorant passenger/stowaway/whatever. Would they, for instance, know the crew's names for most of these things? Radical thought: Do you have to mention the doors at all? (For instance, is the fact a character has to pass through many airlocks or hatches important to the story or can it be covered by: The Captain returned to her cabin?)

Missed this bit.

I've got two POV characters, one is a cleaner. But the other is the captain so she (how did you know it was a woman, Ursa?! Get out of my head!) should know a fair bit.

I probably don't have to mention doors, it's just that so far I kinda have. But only internal doors.

 

[Ursa major]

Ignoring Red Dwarf and other spoofs, has anyone ever seen a cleaner on a TV spaceship, though? Or someone who does the washing and ironing and mending of uniforms?

I assume those may have been some of the rôles of Janice Rand. The job didn't last the first season of Star Trek (the original series), I believe.

 

[The Ace]

Unless you do something really stupid (like opening a Bridge window) you could well get away with it.

To a cleaner, the bridge with its multiple stations and the Captain enthroned in the midst of it would be bewildering. This isn't because your character is stupid, but merely uneducated.

(TBH, I've always wondered who hoovers the, 'Enterprise,' bridge when only officers are permitted there. )

 

[Ursa major]

(how did you know it was a woman, Ursa?! Get out of my head!)

Spooky, isn't it?


(Or should that be Spocky...? )




As to Ace's question about the hoovering: perhaps Data has an "attachment" like Kryten's.

 

[The Judge]

I saw Janice Rand as an orderly, ie looking after Kirk (no rude jokes) and perhaps the other officers only, not responsible for sweeping the corridors, though her rank as Yeoman -- if they were following US naval nomenclature -- would have made her more of an administrative rating.

The sweeping can be done by some kind of mechanical drone thing (these innovation-y catalogues I get always seem to have one of them, but I imagine they'd come a cropper if they were left at the top of a landing!). But what about the dusting? Do they empty the bridge of all personnel and then open an airlock and let the dust get sucked** out? And who cleans down the control panels after they've left blood everywhere following a battle?

To a cleaner, the bridge with its multiple stations and the Captain enthroned in the midst of it would be bewildering. This isn't because your character is stupid, but merely uneducated.

Not so sure about that. I can't believe they'd take a complete noddle on board a space ship even when space flight becomes commonplace. Your average cleaner might not know much about astrophysics, but I'd imagine he'd have some inkling of the officers' responsibilities and command posts -- especailly if he'd watched any TV...



** OK. I know it's not "sucked" into a vacuum (or am I misremembering that?) but it sounds better than blown or pushed or whatever the opposite would be.

 

[chrispenycate]

In any space going vessel you will need someone responsible for life support (making sure you get enough to breath, that the water vapour is being pulled out of the atmosphere and stored somewhere, unromantic little details like that.) Depending on the length of the trip, you would need maintenance technicians for more or less of the gadgets; for a realistic journey of several months/years, I would expect at least the drive, control circuits and communications to require staff, although one technician might do several tasks (particularly with robotic help; and there's something more to go wrong.)

Everybody aboard would be trained in emergency measures for certain predictable disasters, like atmosphere loss in a section. That doesn't mean you wouldn't have specialists.

Gravity. Spin gravity, artificial gravity, acceleration from the drive replacing gravity, basically travel in free fall? They all give different cleaning problems (in free fall, practically all the dirt ends up in the air filters, as you have to keep air circulation running all the time; no convection. This means the astronauts will end in the air filters, too, if they stop moving, and the ladies' toilets are – difficult to clean.)

Of course, a full sized starship with landing craft, spending decades to arrive, would have the population of a small town and a wider selection of specialities.

And judge, "sucked" is precisely what it would be; but you wouldn't want to waste that much atmosphere, nor apply a somewhat unpredictable vector by reaction.

There's also a question of how long your space culture had existed; second and third generations born in space (not literally, but aboard stations and ships) would have very different skillsets from the planet-bound.

 

[Mouse]

Ok, so far my cleaner has mopped floors in a corridor. It's ok to mop in a spaceship?

This isn't going to be a serious sci-fi story, more of a lighthearted thing which is more about characterisation. Might post a bit of it at some point.

 

[The Judge]

And judge, "sucked" is precisely what it would be

Darn. Can't get this science stuff right even when I try and think about it.

 

[The Ace]

If the floors are being mopped, then you obviously have artificial gravity, but it's feasible. Certainly in an area where any loose object could become a lethal weapon or dust a choking cloud in the event of gravity failure means that keeping the corridors clean'd be a neverending task.

Judge, what I was saying is that a low-ranking* cleaner would know only basic safety procedures and the knowledge to do his/her job.

The bewildering array of consoles and cacophony of orders on a working bridge'd be completely outside their experience.

*Any ship has a strict hierarchy with the Captain at the top and our hero/ine at the bottom. The captain's responsibility for the safety of the ship and its crew gives him/her the kind of power normally only available to an absolute monarch