[Spaceships] Reconfigurable cargo hold:passenger seating

[Joseph Paul]

Looking for ways to get the most out of a shuttle or ships launch by making the passenger seats stow and go style systems. On one trip all passengers come up, on the next it is cargo. Need to haul more mass - just roll the seats right on out.

Total mass capacity would be based on the cargo hold configuration with no seating at all. When the seating is installed but stowed the cargo capacity would be limited by the mass and stowed volume of the seats though since volume has little to do with Spaceships that may just be hand waved. Obviously with the seats in place and open little in the way of cargo could be accommodated past personal carry-on luggage or a soldier's ready load. Hmm, extra heavy duty for battlesuits?

Any options for things like this?

[Diomedes]

I just made it a Reconfigurable System, at twice the normal cost of passenger seating.

[Joseph Paul]

Thanks - Don't have SS4 so I didn't know there was a Reconfigurable option. Eric B Smith's SS design spreadsheet doesn't seem to have that as an option. Do you normally just footnote that or is there a specific jargon for it?

[SCAR]

Reconfigurable System is in Spaceships (1) p24.

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Thanks - Don't have SS4 so I didn't know there was a Reconfigurable option. Eric B Smith's SS design spreadsheet doesn't seem to have that as an option. Do you normally just footnote that or is there a specific jargon for it?

I usually just say Cargo Hold/Passenger Seating and leave it at that. I haven't tried to do it in Eric's spreadsheet.

[Joseph Paul]

Ha, so it is! Right there with the other stuff I never look for! I saw a reference in a post to SS4 and mecha and Reconfigurable and just figured that it had come out then.

[munin]

Without extradimensional superscience, each passenger can only be replaced by 0.1 tons of cargo, even if the seats are "stowed".

Reconfigurable Systems only make sense "...for systems that ... would logically share a large number of components or use superscience." (Spaceships, p. 24). The former isn't the case for Passenger Seating and Cargo Holds -- one is primarily (about 87% by mass) systems devoted to passenger comfort and short-term occupancy life support, and the other is (mass-wise) empty space.

Each passenger accounts for 0.1 tons of load (Spaceships, p. 35) so passengers take up only about 12%-13.3% of a Passenger Seating system's mass (for example, an SM+5 1.5-ton Passenger Seating system holds 2 passengers massing 0.2 tons total). A Cargo Hold system, however, has 100% of its mass devoted to cargo. If you "reconfigure" a Passenger Seating system into a Cargo Hold, where did all the mass go? If you "stow the seats", that still only means that each passenger can be replaced by 0.1 tons of cargo because the rest of the system's mass is still on the ship (unless you're stowing them off the ship, in which case Modular Systems might make more sense: Spaceships 6, p. 6).

A Reconfigurable System requires either nanotech to rebuild systems quickly or something similar (TL11) or superscience (TL^). Nanotech can rebuild a system into another system, but it can't get rid of mass (at least, not if it wants to use it later). If the superscience in your setting allows you to, say, stow the Passenger Seating mass extradimensionally where it doesn't count against the reconfigured system's mass, that could explain converting it into a Cargo Hold and justify using a Reconfigurable System to switch between the two.

[Joseph Paul]

Is a cargo hold considered a shirt sleeves environment? Or do you need to suit up to go into it? Because if it is a shirtsleeves environment then you have the basis for the duplication of systems i.e. the machinery that makes the hold/passenger area habitable. The rest of the difference is the seating itself. That can't amount to a large fraction of the total overall mass and a dedicated effort in cutting that down to make the operational savings from a stow and go system worth the cost could cut it even further. So lets be generous and say that the PTB state that the minimum safe seating is a 200 lb seat. Put six of those in a 5 ton hold, stow them and subtract the 1200 lbs from the 10,000 lbs for a limit of 8800 lbs. Kosher or no?

[Dammann]

Works for my minivan; the key is that there is ample life support in the minivan regardless of whether the seats are folded down or not.

[Joseph Paul]

Which does bring up the question that if passenger seating is just a cargo hold with seats is it really overpriced using Reconfigurable?