Engine noise inside a starship?
- Thread starter Stainless
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Good to see my question sparked a productive thread. Indeed, the GT Starships books (which I recently purchased) states;
"Starships are inherently noisy places, especially when certain areas are busy (such as cargo bays, flight decks, or weapons compartments). A ship's drives are particularly loud. In the drive compartments, engineers and mechanics normally wear soundproof ear protection with active noise suppression and built-in communications gear. Elsewhere in the ship, baffling and soundproofing tend to deaden the noise of the drives; experienced crew and passengers can still tell something of how the ship is maneuvering if they listen carefully."
I like the idea of getting information from the noise, so will probably have my engineers wear soundproofing/comms headsets that also process the ambient noise and deliver background sounds that the trained ear can interpret.
"Starships are inherently noisy places, especially when certain areas are busy (such as cargo bays, flight decks, or weapons compartments). A ship's drives are particularly loud. In the drive compartments, engineers and mechanics normally wear soundproof ear protection with active noise suppression and built-in communications gear. Elsewhere in the ship, baffling and soundproofing tend to deaden the noise of the drives; experienced crew and passengers can still tell something of how the ship is maneuvering if they listen carefully."
I like the idea of getting information from the noise, so will probably have my engineers wear soundproofing/comms headsets that also process the ambient noise and deliver background sounds that the trained ear can interpret.
Spinward Scout
SOC-14 5K
In Space,
No One Can Hear You Say:
"What the hell was that?!?"
hehe
P
Pickles
Guest
Pob'ly just outgassing. Got to ask the galley to go easy on the beans ..."
Spinward Scout
SOC-14 5K
You must have seen the movie Rocketman. If not, check it out, it's a good show.
"It wasn't me!!!"
"It wasn't me!!!"
Engine noises range from a deep throbbing to a perpetual low TARDIS hum to the sound of valves and gas venting, IMTU. Never have I made an effort to be consistent. It is just part of a colour. But, I have also used, "What the hell? Is that..." (note the sutler difference)
IMTU
The engine room has a distinctive low throb/hum sound that changes depending on what is going on. A bit like STNG engineering section. While the jump drive is charging this is significantly louder.
I guess with future technology the noise could be totally cancelled out, but that might prove counter productive. If you are not looking at the control panel, an odd sound might be the first sign of trouble. The chief engineer would be very sensitive to the noises the engines make and would pick up any change almost instantly. As an example of this; I work as a network admin and being around the same rack of servers day-in day-out I have become attuned to the noise they make. I can usually tell if a fan or hard drive is going bad just from the very slight difference in the noise. But that is only becasue I am there all the time. The average person would not notice anything.
The engine room has a distinctive low throb/hum sound that changes depending on what is going on. A bit like STNG engineering section. While the jump drive is charging this is significantly louder.
I guess with future technology the noise could be totally cancelled out, but that might prove counter productive. If you are not looking at the control panel, an odd sound might be the first sign of trouble. The chief engineer would be very sensitive to the noises the engines make and would pick up any change almost instantly. As an example of this; I work as a network admin and being around the same rack of servers day-in day-out I have become attuned to the noise they make. I can usually tell if a fan or hard drive is going bad just from the very slight difference in the noise. But that is only becasue I am there all the time. The average person would not notice anything.
Straybow
SOC-14 1K
I believe the long-lived Vilani would value their hearing enough to make engineering compartments relatively low-noise workspaces.
No Vilani IMTU, but the idea still holds. Machinery with no moving parts == little or noise. Materials engineered for zero thermal expansion don't "bang" like the old steam radiator. A few non-reciprocating pumps and the like add some sound.
No Vilani IMTU, but the idea still holds. Machinery with no moving parts == little or noise. Materials engineered for zero thermal expansion don't "bang" like the old steam radiator. A few non-reciprocating pumps and the like add some sound.
Well I've never been on a warship on the move, but the ferries I've been on always were humming and sometimes clanking. And never forget: One Passenger always leaves on his anti-theft alert in his car. 
IMTU the engines do hum quite loud, and the Bridge has a distinctive sound with almost musical qualities, after a while you don't register it consciously, but every change will alert you. (Yes, it's quite definitly Treklike)
IMTU the engines do hum quite loud, and the Bridge has a distinctive sound with almost musical qualities, after a while you don't register it consciously, but every change will alert you. (Yes, it's quite definitly Treklike)
Imho
Wouldn't the type of ship be a consideration? A "cheap" free trader or other low-budget ship would have fewer sound dampening features than a luxury liner type. Also, military craft and large corporations would probably have a higher budget to spend on dampening devices (not that they would spend a lot more, but more so than a "poor, old trader plying the backwater worlds barely scraping by.
Wouldn't the type of ship be a consideration? A "cheap" free trader or other low-budget ship would have fewer sound dampening features than a luxury liner type. Also, military craft and large corporations would probably have a higher budget to spend on dampening devices (not that they would spend a lot more, but more so than a "poor, old trader plying the backwater worlds barely scraping by.
Drakon
SOC-14 1K
I have served aboard submarines, so..
One thing that I don't see is the fan room. The air circulation system is pretty loud. Add a Hipack (High Pressure Air Compressor) which is not run all the time, and it is pretty loud. Also pretty well sound proofed.
O2 generators, because they are electrical mostly. Air scrubbers and burners have some fan noise, not real loud either, but more so than the O2 generators. Motor-generators sounds like, well motors, and can be somewhat loud.
The diesel, and the steam plant are pretty loud when in operation. Electrical systems are not, with the exception of ventilation fans, and those are not much. Electrical/mechanical systems, such as motor-generators do generate noise, as do air compressors, pumps (both mechanical noise and the whirring of the pump motor) and the like. Flow noises from fuel, water, steam, or any liquid or gas flowing through pipes are one thing to consider.
Would it not depend upon the age of the ship? Surely, a TL D retrofitted with a TL B drive might create more noise for all the extras to make the thing work. Most Traveller ships belonging to PCs or that they take are mixture of parts from across the Imperium. While the Imperial Standards Office makes sure they all work, nothing stops a local manufactory from churning out something good enough for the home market but not up to TL F standards. I always imagine that this is the basis for good role playing, so my machines all have noises and quirky sounds. What would ST:TNG without that beep on the Com or the clank of Imperial Stormtroopers armour on deckplates.
I never believe the future will peaceful and serene, if it is the players know to expect something really nasty, as it is always calm before the storm.
I never believe the future will peaceful and serene, if it is the players know to expect something really nasty, as it is always calm before the storm.
Drakon
SOC-14 1K
More exactly, the age of the bearings on any rotating machinery, like motors, pumps and fans. As they age, bearings will get out of round, and start getting louder.
In the Navy, we used to monitor bearing noise. When a bearing got too loud, we'd replace it at the next refit period.
Sure, the Navy can afford to do this because they have the facilities...navy bases, shipyards, etc. But, the lowly Free Trader is pretty well at the mercy of the market...how many of us Travellers have missed the annual maintance by a few months and been "punished"** by the Referee for it.
**Punished because it often lead to a fantastic adventure for the search or job to replace the parts...or misjump that took us somewhere fantastic.
Drakon
SOC-14 1K
You mean like the catalyser blowing up, causing a fire which takes most of your O2, and almost killing your XO whose married to your pilot? I hate it when that happens.
The may actually be some creaking and groaning...
Hi,
In addition to machinery and fan noises, I suppose that depending on how rigid the structure is you could argue that there will be some greaking and groaning sunds within the craft, particularly as it maneuvers, as nothing is 100% rigid.
Regards
PF
Hi,
In addition to machinery and fan noises, I suppose that depending on how rigid the structure is you could argue that there will be some greaking and groaning sunds within the craft, particularly as it maneuvers, as nothing is 100% rigid.
Regards
PF
gee, does that mean that someone jumping up and down can cause enough vibration to throw off a long range PA shot from a spinal mount? It wouldn't take much to throw aim off a couple of hundred meters at long ranges ( thousands of Km )..might be enough to cause a miss, eh?
To be totally honest...
Hi,
Although I assume Ishmael's question was mostly in jest to be honest I suspect it would have a lot to do with Tech Level.
Over the years I've had a tendancy to sometimes buy stuff that I don't really need and probably shouldn't be spending the money on, but that I find really interesting. One of these is a book on Space Station design by two German Professors. I guess I've always been interested in space ships and stations and the book has some really interesting info in it on design considerations for stuff like the current International Space Station. Anyway, in the book they touch breifly on perturbing accelerations within a station which can be caused by "control maneuvers, crew activities, unbalanced rotating devices, valves, or engines". For crew activity it shows that they can cause accelerations in a craft/station in frequencies from about 0.1 to 10 Hz's.
They also show a graph taken from an experiment on "Spacelab" where an astronaut pushed off one wall, floated across the module and came into contact with the wall on the other side, within a discussion of something called "g-Jitter", which apparently involves how parts of the craft/station can vibrate in resonance in response to these kind of disturbances, and this graph shows how this simple activity by the astronaut caused vibrations in various other components of the module.
I also seem to recall that at one time at least one of the modules on the International Space Station was going to be tethered to the rest of the station but not rigidly attached so that the vibrations from the machinery and people moving around in the main part of the station wouldn't affect the accuracy of experiments going on in the tethered module.
As such, I wouldn't be surprised if a ship or station was built at a Tech Level similar to present day, or even in the foreseeable future (maybe up to even the era of 2300AD type ships) then the effects of the crew could concievably have an effect on the accuracy of shipborne weapons.
However, since Traveller considers Tech Levels far into our future, with such devices as Inertial Dampers, Artificial Grav plating, and Thruster Plates, I'd suspect that the technology to minimize the impacts of crew motions on the weapons would also be developed.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Regards
PF
Hi,
Although I assume Ishmael's question was mostly in jest to be honest I suspect it would have a lot to do with Tech Level.
Over the years I've had a tendancy to sometimes buy stuff that I don't really need and probably shouldn't be spending the money on, but that I find really interesting. One of these is a book on Space Station design by two German Professors. I guess I've always been interested in space ships and stations and the book has some really interesting info in it on design considerations for stuff like the current International Space Station. Anyway, in the book they touch breifly on perturbing accelerations within a station which can be caused by "control maneuvers, crew activities, unbalanced rotating devices, valves, or engines". For crew activity it shows that they can cause accelerations in a craft/station in frequencies from about 0.1 to 10 Hz's.
They also show a graph taken from an experiment on "Spacelab" where an astronaut pushed off one wall, floated across the module and came into contact with the wall on the other side, within a discussion of something called "g-Jitter", which apparently involves how parts of the craft/station can vibrate in resonance in response to these kind of disturbances, and this graph shows how this simple activity by the astronaut caused vibrations in various other components of the module.
I also seem to recall that at one time at least one of the modules on the International Space Station was going to be tethered to the rest of the station but not rigidly attached so that the vibrations from the machinery and people moving around in the main part of the station wouldn't affect the accuracy of experiments going on in the tethered module.
As such, I wouldn't be surprised if a ship or station was built at a Tech Level similar to present day, or even in the foreseeable future (maybe up to even the era of 2300AD type ships) then the effects of the crew could concievably have an effect on the accuracy of shipborne weapons.
However, since Traveller considers Tech Levels far into our future, with such devices as Inertial Dampers, Artificial Grav plating, and Thruster Plates, I'd suspect that the technology to minimize the impacts of crew motions on the weapons would also be developed.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Regards
PF
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