Rooms upon a Starship

[GRNDL]

I'm in the midst of creating a set of deckplans for a 1500-ton freight hauler, but have run into an interesting problem: I have lots of room in the "living area" that I feel shouldn't be filled with machinery, but I don't have any ideas of what rooms, or features should fill the space.

I've gone through the usual roster of rooms - lockers, storage areas of a variety of sizes, offices, staterooms, bar/lounge, mess, boardrooms/meeting rooms, freshers/hygiene units, etc.

I was hoping that you guys might have suggestions for things I might have overlooked about, or that I could include.

The ship's main mission is as a far/fat trader, crew of 40 or so.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on the matter.

 

[Murphy]

A galley and either assorted vats for producing syntheric food, or a greenery, or both. These are technically part of life support, which is included in stateroom space. Also worth mentioning are a computer/library room, a small gym and, most importantly, sickbay.

 

[GRNDL]

Thanks for your suggestions! I think that I should probably list the rooms I do have, so as not to waste anyone's valuable time.

Here we go:

Officers/Passenger Staterooms, Lounge, Crew/Small Staterooms,
Hygiene units, Vacc-suit storage compartments, Lifeboat docks,
crane controls, shuttle dock, Auxilliary bridge, Sickbay, Mess Hall,
Ops Briefing Room, Bridge, Engineering, Sensor array dome access, Communications,
Computer CPU core, Parts/Tools Storage (large format),
Cold Storage/Freezer, Consummables (non-refrigerated) storage,
Personal lockers (small format), Sensitive Equipment/Weapons storage, Ground Vehicle Bay/Maintenance

 

[Carlobrand]

Where's the ship's laundry facilities?

 

[BytePro]

Brig

 

[GRNDL]

Where's the ship's laundry facilities?

That is a very good point! Until now, they'd been left at the drydock, but I have just the place for it. Excellent...

 

[BytePro]

Don't see any Life Support/Waste Processing?

MgT has vaults, IIRC - what I call a Panic Room (hold off thieves/pirates for a while...).

Especially for passengers, additional entertainment facilities such as 'theater'/observation, arcade/gambling/gaming, swim lounges and salon/spa facilities come to mind.

 

[Enoki]

Just a note: I am pretty much a stickler for using naval terms for starships. It gives that age of sail quality to things.

Rooms are Cabins or Compartments.

You have decks, bulkheads, partitions, hatches, an overhead, etc. There is port and starboard, fore and aft. I just think that sounds cooler than the more mundane making a starship sound like an office building....

 

[BytePro]

Yeah, prefer technical over corporate flavor.

Though personally, I prefer Staterooms and Quarters to Cabins.

An overhead? That sounds a little too nautically centric, or corporate.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

I don't know.

Yeah, prefer technical over corporate flavor.

Though personally, I prefer Staterooms and Quarters to Cabins.

An overhead? That sounds a little too nautically centric, or corporate.

I think overhead is one the few that not only survives but thrives.

Think about the word. Overhead. So two spacer can tell each other that something is in a compartment that is above them and not below or to their left. I mean its not going to stick as meaning "this wall is always the top of the room" till artificial gravity comes into play.

 

[BytePro]

The compartment over head, sure.

The nautical compartment 'overhead' refers to the compartment's ceiling, not to the compartment in the deck above.

 

[Matt123]

40 crew and a 1500ton Freighter is a good size , equivalent to a medium sized business. Here's some random ideas to fill living space, no doubt some are better than others.

A commercial ship that size might have child care facilities and "family size" accommodation. Star Trek style. Which could lead to educational facilities for the crew and perhaps a stateroom for the nanny/teacher (paid for by the family of course).

I would also consider a separate Officers gallery, more spacious than the crew gallery.

A small movie theatre, gym and a games room for the crews recreational time, ideally two or three games rooms so the nearly 30 people off watch at any one time have got room to spread out and avoid those they conflict with.

A board room large enough to comfortably seat the Captain and say a third to half the crew.

As a very large Far Trader (I read speculator, but that might not be what you mean), I would add a sumptuous office, designed to impress the locals when making deals. Tied into that perhaps a "samples" room with examples of exotic products that can be sourced in volume by the Trader, or perhaps what is for sale today.

An office for the 2IC, whom can be expected to be kept fairly busy with Human Resource issues (or should that be Sophont resources?).

A secure comms station, might be in order to enable the Captain to get up-to-date prices etc as soon as the Trader enters the system. Also doubles as secure "Captains-eyes" only comms for dodgy deals.

A high tech sick bay with a suitably qualified doctor is guaranteed to win respect on many worlds. Everyone has a relative that could use advanced medicine and that can help win contracts.

A small store selling over the counter drugs, junk food and personal hygene products. Might be manned by the laundry crew.

Depending on the Captain's interests, a simulator. For example laser weapons, missiles or small boat.

A fully kitted out Engineering workshop. From Lathes to high tech welders and a large stock of material to form the basis of any new fabrication. Ditto to an Electronics workshop.

A very large, secure cupboard (or 3) for crew to store personal effects they don't want in their staterooms.

A safe room, for VIP's to hide in if the vessel is attacked.

A large formal entry hall off the main airlock, like the Captains office, designed to impress. Perhaps with displays related to the ships exploits.

Multiple air locks, one main, numerous secondary.

Emergency alcoves. Providing food and life support for individual crew in emergency.

Dedicated rooms for trades training, especially engineering, perhaps maintenance and electrical as well.

Hopefully food for thought This is definately not exhaustive.

Cheers

 

[GRNDL]

Wow, that's an impressive list to be sure and some solid suggestions.

I didn't really see this particular vessel supporting families, though, but I suppose an enterprising captain/owner might refurbish for that. Its primarily a work-horse hauler with crew doing shifts, so each of the facilities are a bit more scaled down. I visualize some of the rooms doing double duty - briefing room becomes a small scale cinema, for example.

The Laundromat, lack of septic tanks/waste recycling are the most grievous omissions I think.

I like the idea of a "welcoming" room near the main access, though I'm thinking of it as a customizable room serving a variety of greeting purposes (in the particular ship I'm creating, it might end up being more of a "planet-side part assembly room". Not only that, its already supported by my novel in a way! (there is a scene mentioned which implies it takes place in such an area)

Got the workshops, emergency store caches (tied into the vaccsuit stores), I've got airlocks out the wazoo.

Dedicated rooms for trades training. Interesting idea, why not just use the workshop instead, or is it because its use most of the time? I'm a fan of training on the job. Or am I missing something here? Keeping trainees away from critical systems? Its a good idea though.

Safe/panic rooms are a good idea too. Not sure if they'd have crash couches or not for rough flight conditions?

Thanks to all for your suggestions and to Matt123 for your truly extensive list. I think I can fill up the empty bits without feeling guilty now!! (and get these plans done, which I'm hoping Baron Thornwood will be happy for)


Not sure about the rooms, cabins and overheads, but I'll do my best.

 

[SpaceBadger]

A safe room, for VIP's to hide in if the vessel is attacked.

Safe/Panic rooms for "VIPs"-only offend my egalitarian principles. I'm sure the cook's assistant is a VIP to his/her family and self. Maybe someplace for all non-combatants to take shelter (and keep out of the way) while the more combat-oriented crewpersons defend the ship?

 

[Matt123]

Wow, that's an impressive list to be sure and some solid suggestions.

heh, I enjoyed it and I'm glad you could use a couple of bits.

I didn't really see this particular vessel supporting families, though, but I suppose an enterprising captain/owner might refurbish for that.

I was kinda thinking that if you have good crew and the 'only' problem is they don't want to be away from family for extended periods, then providing family accommodation (perhaps to the crew for cost?) might be viable on larger vessels. If the OTU culture is against this, then it perhaps implies crew have to retrain for dirtside jobs once they acquire kids. Pure speculation on my part though.

Dedicated rooms for trades training. Interesting idea, why not just use the workshop instead, or is it because its use most of the time? I'm a fan of training on the job. Or am I missing something here?

There will always be both practical and theoretic sides to trade training. Usually more hands on than theoretic. On a larger vessel though, you might have enough trainees to justify a class room. Or as you suggest, just borrow the galley, games room or Captains meeting room.

Safe/panic rooms are a good idea too.

I like the idea. With due respect to SpaceBadger's egalitarian principles, I think the galley cook will be grateful in the middle of a snatch raid that he doesn't own a multi-million credit space vessel nor has access to the safe codes. And it leaves the head of security focusing on the snatchers and protecting the crew, rather than protecting the boss, who hopefully is already safe.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and to Matt123 for your truly extensive list.

no problem,the exercise was a nice way to wind down after a late night at Uni.

 

[Frankymole]

A galley and either assorted vats for producing syntheric food, or a greenery, or both. These are technically part of life support, which is included in stateroom space. Also worth mentioning are a computer/library room, a small gym and, most importantly, sickbay.

I tended to make all life-supported corridors and circulation spaces out of stateroom tonnage, so if it has heat, light and air 24/7 then it has to come from the living space allowance. Unpressurized maintenance conduits (for robots?) or vacuum hold areas don't have to, but it can be a devil trying to do repairs in an enclosed space in a vacc suit, especially in an emergency. Plus, you'd need internal airlocks between the living areas and the depressurized/heat-free ones, or for passengers and crew to suit up every time you opened one (inconvenient). So, access to all equipment (e.g. all round, over and under the jump drive, avionics componentry, etc) would have to be life-supported.

 

[Spartan159]

Andre Norton's Free Trader families!!! Full of win IMO

 

[Carlobrand]

A 1 dT volume is a block 1.5 meters wide by 3 meters long by 3 meters tall. In other words, a deck is 3 meters bottom to top. However, the typical person does quite fine with about a 7 to 8 foot - 2.1 to 2.4 meter - ceiling. That leaves you 60-90 centimeters between decks for gravitics, wiring, plumbing, air and environmental equipment, and so forth.

That's 20 to 30% of the total volume of any given space - lots of room there for the life support and recycling machinery without needing to have a dedicated room for such stuff. Or at least, if you want dedicated rooms, they don't need to be terribly big - just big enough for boilers, controls, storage and settlement tanks and suchlike machinery that would need to be big.

 

[BytePro]

C. J. Cherryh has some interesting merchant family ships too (Alliance-Union Series).

[Norton compared at least one of her writings to Tolkien's - and both these authors are women who wrote under male pen names.]

 

[GRNDL]

A 1 dT volume is a block 1.5 meters wide by 3 meters long by 3 meters tall.

Forgive me, I was under the impression that a dTon was a 1.5m cube, though I have to admit I do have some confusion about it as an abstract concept. Could you point me toward more information about it?

For my starship visualization I'm running on the assumption that 1 hull ton = 4 dTons, and that a deck, from bottom to top, including bulkheads/framing, etc, crawlspace and "machinery between decks" is on average 5m. Is this too generous a guideline?