[Supers] A More Scientific Golden Age

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I still think I should add more positional titles and/or some things related to organization, but I'm not sure what.

The next things to decide are the crew sizes and mission durations of BIS craft. Those will determine the on-board organisation of the crew, and shape their organisation into squadrons, and the kind of support squadrons need at bases. Lots of positional titles will emerge from those things.

[Fred Brackin]

[QUOTE=Prince Charon;2436338

I still think I should add more positional titles and/or some things related to organization, but I'm not sure what.[/QUOTE]

If the titles are positional then you include the position and perhasp soem legacy weirdness. There could be things like "Gunner's Mate" or "Plumber's Mate" or such like.

[Prince Charon]

Things to think about. Thanks. My computer is down right now, and the tablet I am using is painful to type on, so it will be a while before I get much work done.

[Prince Charon]

OK, I have my regular computer working again, and have updated the BIS ranks post with more information at top and bottom paragraphs. Still not satisfied (for one thing, some of the phrasing could be better), so please have a look a d comment:

Working Title: BIS Operational Ranks

Members of the BIS are a mix of uniformed and un-uniformed personnel, with the latter often being less heavily trained (or just not having an 'astronautical' job), and the former being prepared to work in space. There were many arguments over what rank system uniformed BIS personnel should use, some of them still ongoing, though most in the BIS have accepted this compromise:

Space Chief Marshal (one crown over crossed rockets, wreathed) (theoretical rank, no current holder)

Space Marshal (one crown over crossed rockets) (theoretical rank, no current holder)

Space Vice-Marshal (crossed rockets) (theoretical rank, no current holder)

Rank 5 (with Courtesy Rank 2) [27]
OF-6 Space Brigadier (one crown and three bronze pips) (de facto professional head of space operations)

Rank 4 (with Courtesy Rank 2) [22]
OF-5 Group Colonel (one crown and two bronze pips)

Rank 3 (with Courtesy Rank 2) [17]
OF-4 Wing Colonel (one crown and one bronze pip)

Rank 3 (with Courtesy Rank 1) [16]
OF-3 Squadron Major (one crown)

Rank 3 [15]
OF-2 Flight Lieutenant (three bronze pips)

Rank 2 (with Courtesy Rank 1) [11]
OF-1 Space Sub-Lieutenant (two bronze pips)
OF-1 Pilot Officer (one bronze pip)

Courtesy Rank 3 [3]
OF(D) Space Cadet (one to five orange pips, showing class ranking)

Rank 1 (with Courtesy Rank 1) [6]
Sergeant (three chevrons)

Rank 1 [5]
OR-3 Leading Spacecraftman (one chevron)

Rank 0 [0]
OR-1 Spacecraftman (no insignia)

The Rank/Courtesy Rank levels are due to the small size of the service not matching either the intended prestige of the service, nor the level of training required.

'Captain' exists as the positional title for the onboard commanding officer of a rocket, rather than as a substantive rank as the Royal Navy had wanted. The Executive Officer has the positional title of 'Vice Captain.'

Spacecraftman and Leading Spacecraftman are often replaced by the names of specialties, such as 'Gunner' or 'Leading Engineman.' Sergeants will sometimes have an appointment added to their rank, such as 'Quartermaster Sergeant' or 'Chief Sergeant.' Sergeants with responsibility for larger formations may have further levels of Courtesy Rank (and some increased pay), but at this time do not have an increase in legal rank; additional NCO grades are also being considered (due to the small size of spacecraft crews, detractors claim that they are not needed - though others point to the space station and planned moonbase, as well as the expected expansion of the service due to the Martian Invasion).


Thoughts?

[Prince Charon]

I found a few Martian War propaganda/recruiting posters that someone on deviantART called craigypoos did, that are fairly relevant to the near future of this setting (not identical, since they're WWI style rather than WWII style, but still vaguely plausible and worth a look if you're interested in this sort of thing):

Remember Woking!

Martian Expeditionary Force - Standards Have Been Lowered (that's a scary thought)

Free Trip to Mars

Skilled Mechanics Urgently Needed (cool stylized rockets in this one)

Why aren't YOU on Mars?

[Prince Charon]

Probably complete, if no-one has any suggestions:

BIS Operational Ranks

Though a civilian organization, most agreed that the BIS space crews did need a uniformed hierarchy, and many thought that some of those involved in supporting them should, as well. There were many arguments over what rank system the uniformed BIS personnel should use, some of them still ongoing, though this compromise has generally been accepted:

Space Chief Marshal (one crown over crossed rockets, wreathed) (theoretical rank, no current holder)

Space Marshal (one crown over crossed rockets) (theoretical rank, no current holder)

Space Vice-Marshal (crossed rockets) (theoretical rank, no current holder)

Rank 5 (with Courtesy Rank 2) [27]
OF-6 Space Brigadier (one crown and three bronze pips) (de facto professional head of space operations)

Rank 4 (with Courtesy Rank 2) [22]
OF-5 Group Colonel (one crown and two bronze pips)

Rank 3 (with Courtesy Rank 2) [17]
OF-4 Wing Colonel (one crown and one bronze pip)

Rank 3 (with Courtesy Rank 1) [16]
OF-3 Squadron Major (one crown)

Rank 3 [15]
OF-2 Flight Lieutenant (three bronze pips)

Rank 2 (with Courtesy Rank 1) [11]
OF-1 Space Sub-Lieutenant (two bronze pips)
OF-1 Pilot Officer (one bronze pip)

Courtesy Rank 3 [3]
OF(D) Space Cadet (one to five orange pips, showing class ranking)

Rank 2 [10]
OR-5 Sergeant (three chevrons)

Rank 1 (with Courtesy Rank 1) [6]
OR-5 Sergeant (three chevrons)

Rank 1 [5]
OR-3 Leading Spacecraftman (one chevron)

Rank 0 [0]
OR-1 Spacecraftman (no insignia)

The Rank/Courtesy Rank levels are due to the small size of the service not matching either the intended prestige of the service, nor the level of training required. Thus, levels of Courtesy Rank are added to convey the appropriate level of prestige despite a lack of sufficient subordinates for the Rank Advantage. At this time, the officers of the BIS Operational Department do not hold Royal Commissions, and only a few hold warrants, though there is a bill being debated in Parliament to change that.

'Captain' exists as the positional title for the onboard commanding officer of a rocket, rather than as a substantive rank as the Royal Navy had wanted. The Executive Officer has the positional title of 'Vice Captain.'

Spacecraftman and Leading Spacecraftman are often replaced in conversation and documentation by the names of specialties, such as 'Gunner' or 'Leading Engineman.' Sergeants will sometimes have an appointment added to their rank, such as 'Quartermaster Sergeant' or 'Chief Sergeant.' Sergeants with responsibility for larger formations have the higher Rank advantage, and may even have further levels of Courtesy Rank (and some increased pay), but at this time do not have an increase in legal rank; additional NCO grades are also being considered. (Due to the small size of spacecraft crews, detractors claim that further grades of NCO are not needed - proponents of the measure point to the space station and planned moonbase, as well as the expected expansion of the service due to the Martian Invasion.)

Security for BIS facilities on Earth is provided by the British military, though Space Station Victoria has some BIS Operational personnel in that role, and there has been some debate about doing the same on the ground. Currently, many ground support tasks which in the RAF and similar services would be done by enlisted personnel and NCOs are instead performed by civilian BIS members and contractors, which significantly reduces the number of Other Ranks in the BIS. This is another of the things likely to change as the Invasion approaches.


Thoughts

[Prince Charon]

I was not expecting this to be ready for posting today, but it appears to be:

Experimental Space Guns

As governments and military personnel have realized the need to shoot other people in low-pressure environments down to hard vacuum, and in lower gravities or microgravity, so they have had to consider what weapons they will shoot with, and what weapons others will shoot at them. Naturally, many mad scientists are only too happy to step forward with their ideas. Thus, all space stations have firing ranges of some description, and these ranges are frequently in need of repair from use. The new designs are broadly split between conventional weapons and powered weapons, with most space powers being of the opinion that they'll decide between the best of both categories once more development has been done:

*Conventional weapons: These are guns that use chemical propellant to shoot a projectile at high speed (and all use some form of the Guns skill). This includes some modified 'normal' guns (with muzzle-brakes & other recoil-limiters), as well as unguided gyrocs (gyroscopic rockets), in both cases using graphite for lubrication. The large downsides of conventional weapons, especially those with normal cased ammunition, include ammo mass & volume, as well as debris from shells and clips, which can be a hazard in orbit.

The current front-runner in the BIS's conventional pistol competition is the Webley-Crowe, a four-shot gyroc revolver based on the Webley Mk VI, but scaled up (not only for the larger .753 Sterling Short Rocket round, but for hands in bulky space-suit gloves). The competition for a gyroc longarm is currently between the Lee-Enfield rocket musket No. 1, based on Rifle No. 4 and scaled up for .753 Sterling Long Rocket, and simply using a 10-bore Parker-Hale bolt-action shotgun with .753 Long Rockets in sabots (and in both cases, an enlarged bolt-handle, trigger, and trigger-guard). The USA and USSR have each decided that they will not use conventional longarms in space (conventional pistols are still being considered, as are conventional heavy weapons), once manufacture of powered weapons has been sufficiently established. Until then, they use graphite-lubricated versions of their standard weapons as stopgaps. The German government has made it clear that they are not interested in conventional space pistols, though they seem to be planning on using rocket-carbines (raketenkarabiner), and have ordered new weapons in three possible calibers, those being 17.6x36mm, 19x41mm, and 21.21x50.5mm. Other nations are still undecided at this time.


*Powered weapons: This category includes coilguns (magnetically-accelerated metallic projectile weapons), railguns (which use a slightly different action, but their metallic projectiles scrape the rails, making these very rare - if used at all, the rails are often part of the ammo-case or magazine), both of which use the Guns skill, and rayguns (masers, electron guns and other devices covered by the Beam Weapons skill; these are mostly reverse-engineered from Martian tech, thanks to gadgeteers, though there are also some weird ones with little or no Martian tech, most of which are large, and need to be vehicle-mounted in normal gravity). All tend use the same bulky (and quite expensive, which is a major downside of this type of weapon) post-Martian ultracapacitors, or sometimes weird Earth-tech (also usually expensive). Plasmoid blasters somewhat overlap between the two, being weapons that shoot magnetically-accelerated projectiles, but the projectiles are plasma, and the weapons have little or no felt recoil (Rcl 2 at worst; use Beam Weapons skill for Rcl 1, Guns skill for Rcl 2). While sonic weapons do fall under the same heading (and also use a Beam Weapons skill, usually Projector), the inability of sound to travel in a vacuum, and greatly reduced effectiveness at Mars's predicted atmospheric pressure, leave them out of the 'space gun' competition. Navies and police forces show rather more interest in the concept, and some experimental atomic submarine designs are armed with artillery-scale sonic weapons.

For BIS powered weapons, the nearest thing to standardization so far is that if a pistol-size weapon needs power pak of equal or greater weight and/or volume to the rest of the weapon (as most do), the batteries and/or ultracapacitors will be belt-mounted and a sturdy cable of reasonable length may connect the gun to the belt; the USA, IJN, and Brazil use similar standards by 1938, with Brazil specifically exploring the idea of wrist-mounted heat rays, with the power cable being held by loops along the body and arm of the space suit, rather than hanging loose. The SS and IJA have loosely standardised on either helmet-mounted or body-mounted powered weapons for pistol sizes (small coilguns or railguns are always body-mounted, due to recoil, while rayguns may be helmet-mounted or body-mounted). The Soviets do not use pistol-size powered weapons at all, while the French and Italians have no standards.


Due to expected combat ranges, many space guns have some form of targeting scope. In nearly all cases, this will be either a long eye-relief scope mounted in the usual position atop the weapon (though higher than normal, due to ergonomic difficulties brought on by the necessary shape of space helmets), or a scope built into the helmet (in the latter case, this often means that the weapon is also part of the space helmet, or involves a bulky camera mounted on the weapon and a bulky video screen mounted on the helmet).


(See also Pizard's equipment page and Atomic Rocket's sidearms pages.)

*****

Weapon skill specializations

Both Beam Weapons skills and Guns skills have a few new specializations (optionally applicable to Crossbow).

Back-mounted: Any weapon worn as a backpack; most often fires over the shoulder or behind the head, and may be pointing along the length of the body. This sort of weapon, along with chest-mounted and shoulder-mounted, are collectively referred to as 'body-mounted.'

Chest-mounted: All weapons worn on the chest, generally designed so that the recoil, if any, is widely spread. Also covers weapons mounted on the abdomen.

Shoulder-mounted: All weapons worn on the shoulder (often similar to but lighter than Back-mounted or Chest-mounted weapons).

Headgear: Any weapon worn on the head, often built into a helmet.

Wrist-mounted: Any weapon that is strapped to the wrist when carried and used, rather than held in the hand.


Thoughts?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Experimental Space Guns


Thoughts?

The conventional guns will fail rapidly if used for multiple shots. Even if they aren't machine guns you're still trying to use air-cooled weapons where there is no air. Water-cooled guns need to be redesigned to keep the water in until it boils off. Also to keep the water above freezing and below boiling when that might be the local temperature due to solar heating or lack there of.

The rocket guns might be okay but the projectiles will probably spray propellant residue onto the user's faceplate. Vented gasses from the conventional guns will be very hot and very high velocity and might be dangerous to soft spots in space suits.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The conventional guns will fail rapidly if used for multiple shots. Even if they aren't machine guns you're still trying to use air-cooled weapons where there is no air. Water-cooled guns need to be redesigned to keep the water in until it boils off. Also to keep the water above freezing and below boiling when that might be the local temperature due to solar heating or lack there of.

This requires a lot of experimentation, which is what they're doing. It's just a question of how fast problems are solved compared to the problems with other designs. Big radiator fins or discs are a possibility, especially as the sights need to be elevated anyway.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The rocket guns might be okay but the projectiles will probably spray propellant residue onto the user's faceplate. Vented gasses from the conventional guns will be very hot and very high velocity and might be dangerous to soft spots in space suits.

That depends on the design of the weapon. RL rocket guns (by which I do not mean the ones that failed on the market) tend to be big, bulky, single-shot things that have a long tube that directs the rocket exhaust behind the user. Smaller rocket guns would also need to redirect the exhaust, but that is easily within their technological capabilities (easier than dealing with the heat from regular guns), without even talking to mad scientists about it. They will also need to deal with heat, but that's to be expected and is being studied.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

This requires a lot of experimentation, which is what they're doing. It's Smaller rocket guns would also need to redirect the exhaust,.

In vacuum exhaust particles travel in straight lines like bullets and for similar distances. The plume will get wider and eventually be very thin indeed but as long as the back end of the rocket is pointed at the firer he could get stuff on his faceplate.