How to fill one SM +9 habitat system with 50 brave explorers
1. Cabin for Mission Commander (1)
2. Shared cabin for 1st lieutenant and chief engineer (2)
3. Shared cabin for 2nd lieutenant and 3rd engineer (2)
4. Shared cabin for 3rd lieutenant and 2nd engineer (2)
5. Shared cabin for military analyst and naval intern (2)
6. Bunkroom for buffer and three shuttle pilots (4)
7. Bunkroom for four ratings (4)
8. Bunkroom for four ratings (4)
9. Bunkroom for four ratings (4)
10–11. Double-sized bunkroom for eight marines (8)
12. Cabin for Ambassador (1)
13. Cabin for Dean of Survey (1)
14–19. Shared cabins for 2 academics each (12)
20. Shared cabin for two diplomats (2)
20-and-a-half. Half-cabin for the Ambassador's aide (1)
Total: 20.5 cabins (50)
There are some straightforward fixes, starting with
(a) put someone in a cabin that is outside the safe, relatively well radiation-shielded forward core section or
(b) double up the Ambassador with the Dean of Survey.
• I could cut the ship's complement: it is perhaps a luxury to have three flight crews with only two shuttles and to have three complete watches of three technicians (to provide a human damage control worker in each section). On the other hand I'd really like five more academics, and it's silly to let the granularity of a quick-and-handy system dictate the size of the mission in that way.
• I could split the other Core system (the Control Room) to get 6 more cabins, upgrade the captain to a luxury cabin (+1), give the 1st lieutenant an unshared cabin (+0.5), give the chief engineer an unshared cabin (+0.5), give the head of Natural Sciences and the Head of Social Sciences unshared cabins (+1), and add three shared cabins for the ambassador's aide, two more researchers, and three research assistants. Then I would have to split something else somewhere else to put in the missing 1/3 system of control room—presumably the control stations and computers are in the core and the basic sensors and attitude controls are outside it.
• I could not bother with the formal splitting and hit locations and such, just put 26 cabins into the habitat and slice 1/3 of capacity off some cargo capacity or hangar bay or something.
• I could adjust the mass, cost, and refuel cost of the ship a bit to allow for it being a bit bigger, but less than 200% bigger.
• I could just never mind the 1.7% adjustment in a system this coarse-grained.