[Spaceships] Does Soft Landing system require a Control room?

[shawnhcorey]

Originally Posted by RyanW

To be much more than a piece of drifting debris, a spaceship does require an instance of the Control Room component, which need not have control stations or any functional space that could be called a room.

But only the sensors and manoeuvring drives (the parts that do the actual work) would be big enough to see without a microscope. All the rest would be so small that it could be placed anywhere. Dedicating a whole room to it seems ludicrous.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by shawnhcorey

But only the sensors and manoeuvring drives (the parts that do the actual work) would be big enough to see without a microscope. All the rest would be so small that it could be placed anywhere. Dedicating a whole room to it seems ludicrous.

You wrote this in response to a post that ended with: "which need not have control stations or any functional space that could be called a room."

...

I think the term is non sequitur.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by shawnhcorey

But only the sensors and manoeuvring drives (the parts that do the actual work) would be big enough to see without a microscope. All the rest would be so small that it could be placed anywhere. Dedicating a whole room to it seems ludicrous.

It's 1/20 the weight of the craft. If you skimp down to a small system, which is perfectly reasonable for many craft, it's only about 1/60 the mass of the full vessel. The presence or absence of a physical "room" is irrelevant.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by shawnhcorey

But only the sensors and manoeuvring drives (the parts that do the actual work) would be big enough to see without a microscope. All the rest would be so small that it could be placed anywhere. Dedicating a whole room to it seems ludicrous.

The "Spaceships" design system is mass based, not volume (or room) based. When the book says that the 'Control Room' module also includes sensors, comms, maneuvering thrusters etc. it does not physically mean that they are all located in one room. It just means 1/20 the mass of the ship is dedicated to these items. They can be spread out all over the ship (sensors up front, maneuvering thrusters scattered around, com antenna stuck in the middle) but the TOTAL mass of the components is 1/20 of the whole ship. As another example, an 'Armor' component is spread out over an entire section of the ship, again at 1/20 the mass of the ship.
I do agree that the name is misleading. Control SYSTEM might be better than Control ROOM. The control Room is an OPTIONAL subset of the control System.