[Spaceships] Reconfigurable cargo hold:passenger seating

[Snoman314]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Is a cargo hold considered a shirt sleeves environment? Or do you need to suit up to go into it?

That was the topic of much debate in a thread a couple of months ago: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=82679

Personally I think that having full life support in a cargo hold module is cheating, as you're getting something for nothing. I personally think it's reasonable that a cargo hold might able to be kept pressurised, but without extra life support capacity (ie temperature control, CO2 scrubbing/O2 supply, etc). In my mind, crew might go into a cargo hold during spaceflight, but the air they breathe comes from elsewhere in the ship, and they'll need cold weather clothing, or personal cooling system (50/50 chance) if they're going to stay in there long due to the temperature. (Note that the temp wouldn't fluctuate as much as outside, the rest of the ship provides some use as a heatsink.) Also, stays would potentially be limited in duration by radiation exposure.
I also would allow for the option that a specific ship might have a cargo hold like the space shuttle: airlock access only.

Steerage cargo on the other hand is probably where you want to look closer. (listed under habitat, Spaceships, p17). It sounds to me like it comes with extra life support capacity, as it specifically mentions using it to carry livestock.
Adding some stow-able seats into your steerage cargo sounds to me like what you're trying to go for.

[munin]

My views about the differences between Cargo Holds and crew/passenger spaces are very similar to Snoman314's. Cargo Holds are not designed for even short-term accommodations -- if you stick people in there, even in seats, they're going to have trouble, probably within hours.

My only concern with steerage cargo is that, although it does mention using it for livestock, it's not mentioned as adding to Occupancy stats (p. 35). Thus people in steerage will be comfortable, but if all the actual accommodations are full as well, you may overload your life support systems (p. 46).

[Joseph Paul]

Thank you for your responses. It seems that there is a wide latitude with respect to the limits of cargo holds and similar structures. The question arose for me in the context of making SM+6 launches for a diplomatic/military/exploratory vessel. Sometimes the launches will be used to haul cargo and sometimes they will be used for people. Sometimes they will be troop landers.

Since cargo holds are definitively pressurized they have some capacity for life support. Passenger seating includes 24 hours of life support for each seat (which raises the question if you have 6 seats and one passenger do you have 6 days of life support?). This would support the idea of the space being able to use Reconfigurable regardless of what the Cargo Hold by itself may or may not be able to provide.

Steerage + Passenger Seating would work as well and in SM+6 ships there seems to be no real loss of capacity versus an actual Cargo Hold. Reconfigurable would work here as well.

For either of them I could see reducing the cargo capacity by a fraction for the stow and go option. On the other hand you could argue that the stowage space is a freebie just like some of the other things listed on page 10 under free equipment.

[davester65]

Try having the passenger/cargo area as habitat with the option of steerage cargo. You loose about 1/3 of your cargo space, but you can figure that is the space/mass needed for foldaway seats and life support.