Other ways to fix the Type S Funk

[Patron Zero]

This situation of 'ship-funkiness' is the perfect argument for having a maintenance drone aboard and maybe a suggestion of one (1) drone per 100tons of vessel as to adequately service-support the ship's vital systems.

Never to suggest that any starship be kept 'clean-room' sterile but just common courtesy that the smell of cooking and bodily functions not be a signature scent for crew and passengers alike to endure.

 

[phavoc]

This situation of 'ship-funkiness' is the perfect argument for having a maintenance drone aboard and maybe a suggestion of one (1) drone per 100tons of vessel as to adequately service-support the ship's vital systems.

Never to suggest that any starship be kept 'clean-room' sterile but just common courtesy that the smell of cooking and bodily functions not be a signature scent for crew and passengers alike to endure.

Drones? We don't need no stinkin drones! That's what privates, err, spacemen are for. What else are they gonna do while in jump space? There's only so many cups of coffee they can fetch for the officers.

 

[Ulsyus]

This situation of 'ship-funkiness' is the perfect argument for having a maintenance drone aboard and maybe a suggestion of one (1) drone per 100tons of vessel as to adequately service-support the ship's vital systems.

Good rule! Though, it would depend on how you saw the systems working. Hard mechanical and chemical scrubbers, or something more biological, as in Elizabeth Moon's novels with tanks of algea and such doing the heavy, er, bad-stuff-chomping.

How do you see the systems?

 

[Patron Zero]

Not so much against designer organisms but I prefer to remove the chance of 'mutation' or contamination of such as a hazard to crew and passengers from 'scrubbing' microbes becoming a virulent malicious threat.

As to scrubbing the 'bottled' atmosphere contained in a starship, I'm leaning towards some Traveller-era version of ultra-violet sterilization or 'smart' charcoal-based filter systems to keep the breathable medium odor-free. Such maintained by drones so tasked and properly equipped and 'knowledgeable' in servicing said systems.

Mind that the exchange and removal of CO2 (and other non-industrial waste gases) handled best by an algae specifically bred-developed for just that task. In some variants of that process the algae itself can be harvested and processed as a foodstuff.

I tend to find simple reliable solutions work better than to depend upon overly complicated and much over-engineered processes.

 

[GypsyComet]

There are going to be a variety of possible solutions as TL increases. The question you have to ask is "why just the Type S?" Some of the posters above have described scenarios that would make the odor problem universal; ALL ships would reek. Yet the problem was originally described as specific to the Type S.

 

[Sir Brad]

Because other ships are bigger and have much lower percentages of habitation, further because of their size they can have fewer "Dead Air" places on their duct work, further Commercial ships get re-furbished every 5-10 years where the bits that hold the stink get replaced, Scouts spend their 40 years of service with the same fittings before they get put out to detached duty as is (except they have their weapons package pulled).

 

[Ulsyus]

Plus there's a specific mention of it being a problem for the Type S, rather than it being an issue for ACS, or IISS vessels, or such.

 

[whulorigan]

There are going to be a variety of possible solutions as TL increases. The question you have to ask is "why just the Type S?" Some of the posters above have described scenarios that would make the odor problem universal; ALL ships would reek. Yet the problem was originally described as specific to the Type S.

Because other ships are bigger and have much lower percentages of habitation, further because of their size they can have fewer "Dead Air" places on their duct work, further Commercial ships get re-furbished every 5-10 years where the bits that hold the stink get replaced, Scouts spend their 40 years of service with the same fittings before they get put out to detached duty as is (except they have their weapons package pulled).

Plus there's a specific mention of it being a problem for the Type S, rather than it being an issue for ACS, or IISS vessels, or such.

Actually, the original text says it isn't so much a problem of the Type-S per se, as it is a problem for the particular Air-Handler/Scrubbing System installed on the Type-S. A more expensive replacement system can be installed that solves the problem, but takes up more internal volume. So I would think the issue has to do with the vendor that produces the system, and a desire for either cost and/or space-saving in the original IISS design.

 

[shadowcat20]

All those years of trying to figure out the smell issue, and no one ever figured out it was the ships cat using the unofficial litterbox behind the ships computer.

 

[Carlobrand]

All those years of trying to figure out the smell issue, and no one ever figured out it was the ships cat using the unofficial litterbox behind the ships computer.

The ship's cat died some years ba ... oh.

 

[Sir Brad]

Crab Bait and Live Junky, maybe it's the absence of Rancid Garlic Sauce has stopped the crew from looking for Mr Kitty, since he dosen't smell like Dead Junky.

 

[RandyB]

I find that sufficient handwaving by the Referee clears up the issue quite effectively.

 

[shadowcat20]

Maybe the issue is scout rations have not evolved from 1980's era MRE's