On Wed, 2 Jul 2014, Onno Meyer wrote:
As rule of thumb, i would include psychologists in the crew of
very long occupancy vessels, i guess someone knowing more about
the matter can suggests how many for how many crew members.
Enter the Ship's Counselor in Star Trek. It could also be the
chaplain or the political commissar, if those are supporting
staff officers and not back-stabbing sneaks. BTW, psychologists
in the science department or psychiatrists on the medical team?
The title and assorted religious and philosophical connotation would be
matter of the setting. You can also go with ship jester, ship prostitute,
ship barkeep ect.
I am not entirely sure if i get the terms exactly right, but i guess the
closest would be a psychotherapist. A psychiatrist would be qualified too
i guess, but have plentry of irrelevant additional qualifications, such as
the long term treatment of conditions, where the first symptom should
mean, that you get taken off star ship crews at the first opportunity.
If the ships mission also includes psychological field research, there
also might be overlap.
I also would consider it plausible, that fields and branches in that area
get redesigned as the sciences and their application (if it was hard
science we'd call it engeneering) develop. It would be a job for practical
application, the equivalent of engeneers and mechanics.
I would include some gym or arboretum or holodeck or other spare
time place, to give crew members a place for alone or small
group time. Propably the size of a cabin could be used as
guideline, how much is needed by a crew member, and a crew
member should have access for one or 2 hours every other day.
The gym in Babylon 5 Crusade (which looked like a real set for
one corner and lots of CGI) got me thinking. Large spaces are
dangerous when the ship maneuvers.
I don't remember the B5 gym. But a gym does not need to be much larger
then a star trek bridge, can have soft walls and floor, and would likely
not be used in emergency situation anyway.
I would include something like a mess hall, that could also be
used for large group activities such as card games or dances.
For ships with cabins, yes. When you have just 100 cf per bunk,
it might be better to add more to the bunkroom.
I would guess a conveninet place to socialize, without disturbing the
people who are on the job, is more important then a larger bunk.
And while it is possible that everyone gets food packages, to eat in their
own bunks, a mess hall to eat seems much better. And if you already have
to for eating, you can find other uses as well.
For a lone crew member you have only alone time so you will be
restricted by how long the crew member can stay sane, without
contact to other humans. And the crew member definitly should
not even suffer from a quirk level claustrophobia.
Historical precedent says motivated individuals can stay alone
for many months. Think of trappers or prospectors in America,
or single round-the-world sailors.
It also would depend on how monotonous the mission would be. Which can't
be answered in general.
Another thought -- for ships which travel known routes, like
passenger liners or freighters, higher speed might come
cheaper than larger quarters. Ships which spend a long time
"on station", like scouts or patrol craft, might see things
differently.
In the last couple of years I noticed that many of my older
starship designs were "wrong" -- near the minimum FTL speed,
when "reasonable" ships have a multiplier of ten or twenty.
If something is far away in travel time, there need to be exceptional
circumstances to generate passanger travel. So í guess there is a
practical limit to the travel time of passanger liners.
For freighters it's a matter of ecconomy, and thus depends on matters like
the relative prices of raw materials and manpower.
And there is also the matter, that you might want some travel time to get
the right look and feel, and then need to come up with an explaination.
BTW i did look the vehicle rules regarding maintainance up. As i
understand it, vehicles not under continous maintance have a maximum
operation time and every time you reach it, you make a HT roll. That it
only depends on the cost of the vehicle is a very crude measure. If you
replace the armour with one of higher quality, you need maintanance
sooner. Even that your drive might fail sooner, because you added an
additional gizmo, is not exactly realistic.
But even if the ships maintancance interval is quite short, for
emergencies, the crew could propably stop the ship, and the mechanic get
on their vacc suits and do their maintanance._______________________________________________
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