TL9 Basic Crew Vacc Suit 2200

Continued from Vacc Suit musings at TL9

One needs to explain that the way we think of suits as changeable set of clothes is NOT the way people who have to work and live in them see it. 

That a suit is your "workstation" for the next 8-20 hours depending on your shift. That something close to your skin and tight-fitting will trigger a panic attack of claustrophobia while a BULKY suit which can let the wearer pull their arms out of the armholes and self-comfort (massage your own arms and body) is the most Comfortable when you consider that again 8-20 hours (at least in TL9). 

The space suit in TL9 may turn out a bit heavier. of the 60kg and 120kg of support equipment, it  may be 80kg and 40kg of support equipment. I can imagine OSHA rungs (as required when working on elevated spaces) would be built into the structure and DRONES will move along these pulling or carrying Spacers for their work. 

You're not "wearing" a Spacesuit, especially in EVA work you're driving it. 

There will be divergent Specialization:

Work Suits (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) - for long work periods plus the support equipment would be 200kg in all. What is expected in the emergent Space race is a TON of these. Once the Infra begins in small runaway progress and thousands of Low-earth-orbit workers arise this is the MAIN labor unit for EVA. 

This will be replaced with special mini-flight work stations with articulated arms for work BUT that won't happen until Infra from asteroids makes for lower USD per kg LEO economics. You will see more mini-work stations when the TONS in space drops in cost because there is a lot of Asteroid material being redirected to LEO and HEO and GEO (see Atomic Rocket's Macro Economics).

Crew Suits (Like the Advance Crew Escape Space suits) - your secondary protection in a small service unit (like a small workstation you will use to do your work). 30-60kg but really not meant in hostile vacuum conditions in extended periods. Extended periods is higher lethal risk and the death spiral of exhaustion. 

Crew Suits will be worn at all times and can allow the wearer to be comfortable at the expense of safety (going to the HEAD or fresher). 

This is what will evolve to be TL10 Vacc Suits, but not I'm skipping 100+ years of work life. in the 5-10 generations. The time China took to Catch UP to the USA. The WORKSUITS will be iconic like the SAVE icon based on the 3.5" drive. 

Drastic human modifications will need to occur for Crew Suits to be something people can wear for days or weeks. Skin Cultures, waste modifications for humans, probably even diets changing altogether. Otherwise, the biomechanics of 2020 humans will require the suit to be as bulky as the EMU. 

Specifications of Advance Crew Escape Suits [edit]

• Name: Advanced Crew Escape Suit (S1035)^[1]
• Derived from: USAF Model S1034^[1]
• Manufacturer: David Clark Company^[1]
• Missions: STS-64^[6] to STS-135
• Function: Intra-vehicular activity (IVA)^[1]
• Pressure Type: Full^[1][3]
• Operating Pressure: 3.5 psi (24 kPa)^[1]
• Suit Weight: 28 lb (13 kg)^[1]
• Parachute and Survival Systems weight: 64 lb (29 kg)^[1]
• Total Weight: 92 lb (42 kg)^[1]
• Useful Altitude: 98,000 ft (30 km)^[7]
• Primary Life Support: Vehicle Provided^[1]
• Backup Life Support: 10 minutes^[1]

This is a TL9 Basic Crew Vacc Suit based on the Advance Crew Escape Space suits. 

A. Helmet. The early gen will be transparent. Later gen will be fully enclosed with redundant cameras.

B. Expandable helmet enclosure. This is how people GET inside the suit. This elastic portion expands to allow the wearer inside this. 

C. Displays for other Crew and Access Controls for aid and status. Hardshell portions limit the inflation in this area to give more flexibility through articulation as well allowing the wearer to pull their arms out of the sleeves and rest their arms on their chest and fix their face or reach inside the suit to make adjustments. 

D. Gloves are articulated and have poor manual dexterity except for specialized EVA tools. 

E. provisions of waste removal and waste storage. a complicated set of access control for waste and relief. 

F. Air filters, Power, Heat-Sink, Air Supply and Pressure management. Shielded basic electronics for controls of these.  

G. Tool dispenser. this is a mechanical container for large bulky tools for EVA. 

• Name: Basic Crew Vacc Suit TL9 2200 Model.
• To differentiate it with the Basic EVA Suit TL9 2200 Model. 
• Derived from: Advanced Crew Escape Suit (S1035)^[1]
• Manufacturer: Open Source any Fabrication System TL9 2100 models or older can manufacture the Grade-2 Spare Parts. Spare parts are 60metric tons per 1dton (4metric tons per 1 cubic meter). 
• Assuming Grade+0 Spare parts are 100KCr per 1dTon 20 metric tons of mass (half the density of aluminum).  5Cr per Kg of spare parts for Grade+0. 
• Assuming Grade are x3 more expensive every level in quality and value (x3, x10, x30, x100 etc...). 
• Grade+2 Spare parts for the suit is 50Cr per Kg. or 1MCr per dTon. 
• Grade+3 Spare parts for the Life Support and Tech at 150Cr per Kg. or 3MCr per dTon
• Function: Intra-vehicular activity (IVA) as secondary protection incase of Life support failure, limited EVA 1 day. This is used to Work Inside the Non-Rotating/Non-Gravity section of the ship (Which is 80-90% of the ship).  Crew is expected to wear this the whole time they are outside Grav Habitat. (While in the Artificial Gravity, they wear a TL9 Body-Fit Vacc Suit 2200 model (5-10kg including its helmet; only meant to minimize Pressure Sickness, and survive an hour at most in Pure vacuum - as its pressure management systems fail) in case of Habitat Hull breach or destruction.  
• Life Support: Vehicle Provided^[1]
• Backup Life Support: 10 hours (trained Spacers can reduce their life support demands to a day; this 10 hours is meant for heavy exertion). 
• Pressure Type: Near Full
• Operating Pressure:   0.8 Atmosphere, 81.06kPA, 11.7 psi (see Altitude sickness and decompression sickness)
• Work In Zero G. Pressurized Work in this suit is considered laborious (as though they were under a 10kg load) because of pressure (inflation) that the wearer has to work against. 
• This is where Work suits are better with their Hard Shell and Articulation. Some have 5kg of Load working in (so even characters with Low Str can do labor like Low G humans. But Grade-1 and up Work Suits have no Load Penalty. 
• Hard Shell Suits with labor-saving Strength Augmentation (Exo-Skeletons) are the first Mass Market Use of Exo-Skeletons. 
• A Basic Exo-Skeleton Add On, for Basic Vacc Suit eliminates the Load of working. Adds about 5KCr (but that's all it does). Usually, such Exo Skeletons have Thruster Packs and Safety Tethers.
• This will never be as comfortable to work with compared to a Grade+1 Basic EVA Suit TL9 2200 Model. 
• Work In 1G. considered under a load of 40kg (10kg of work to move, and 30kg for the weight of it) working in a pressurized suit in 1G. 
• Operating Life: 
• Maintenance: 7 hours of use requires 10 mins of servicing. 
• Work-Life:  5 years or 60 months of use and replacement parts is as though you bought a whole new Suit. 3.5KCr / 60 months = 60Cr per month of maintenance. Not counting the Life support Consumables at 2Cr per Man Day.
• Suit Weight: 10 kg; 500Cr
• Life Support Systems weight: 20kg,  3KCr
• Total Weight: 30kg at 3.5KCr

Vacc Suit Musing from TL9 and implications. Survival Rolls in Hard-Scifi Travel

I'm bothered by Vacc Suit and Combat Env Suit Stats of MgT2E. one is 10kg the other is 2kg and in the setting End+Str+Athl in Load capacity before Bane. I feel like having to correct this because it will lead to some Technical Debt - why use Vacc Suits if Env Suits by game mechanics is just as good. (So basically I learned to be constructive and talk about future problems of certain things that bother me). I don't like being caught off guard and having to make a poorly informed decision. 

The difference between a Vacc Suit and a basic sealed suit is that a Vacc Suit (Spacesuit) is meant for 8-hour stays (in TL8 EVMU) with enough life support and capacity for human waste management. this is a 60kg suit. Some are accessed through the back. Which has about 60kg of SUPPORT equipment that comes with it. For a total mass of 120kg. in the ISS the suit has more supporting equipment for long term use at 150kg. for about x2 its mass in support equipment. 

I never thought of that, the support equipment needed. It raises all these realizations like Workshops able to fabricate spare parts, equipment meant to test and check if the system works. Spare parts. 

Anything simpler like a counter-pressure suit would probably have special provisions for waste, but having no major container like an EVA suit it will.  Would probably way only slightly lighter like 30kg. 

Vacc Suit at TL 9 (10+ generations, or 50 years of development) 60kg to 40kg and the Carry-On support equipment would be 40kg. 20mh life support with 1-hour servicing per 20mh of use. It's going to be like some hardware - it's like you're renting as you always have to update and refresh. So even if you pay for a Suit good indefinitely with any workshop to fabricate parts you really need to update it every 3-5 years. Bleeding edge vs Main Lines of products which are designed to be supported indefinitely; while Disposable Bleeding Edge is bought with about 5-8 years of support before its a REALLY hard to support it. 

I could imagine someone replacing filters, screwing off and on panels and the system has a diagnostic check that tests its integrity. 

Heavy Labor. It may be zero-G but mechanical elements to reduce electronic malfunction because of radiation and space hazards. So many mechanical systems that will tire out the wearer. Imagine mechanical fingers with springs and purely powered by your own fingers and the devices breaking and needing replacement. your hands protected but the mechanical fingers are of a lower grade 

I realize Vacc Suit Manufacturing in the Ship's Workshop is very important. Every ship needs to be able to completely build a vacc suit from spare parts on hand and their workshop. 40-60% of users are using "Open Source" Locally fabricated Vacc Suits. 

Baseline EMU[edit]

• Manufacturer: ILC Dover (suit) and Collins Aerospace (primary life support systems)^[1]
• Missions: STS-6 (1983) to STS-110 (2002)^[1]
• Function: orbital extra-vehicular activity^[1]
• Operating pressure: 4.5 psi (29.6 kPa)^[1]
• EVA suit weight: 109 lb (49.4 kg)^[1]
• Total shuttle EVA suit weight: 254 lb (115 kg)^[1]
• Primary life support: 8 hours (480 minutes)^[1]
• Backup life support: 30 minutes^[1]

Enhanced EMU[edit]

• Manufacturer: ILC Dover (suit), Collins Aerospace (primary life support systems) and NASA (SAFER)^[1]
• Missions: 1998 to present^[1]
• Function: orbital extra-vehicular activity^[1]
• Operating pressure: 4.5 psi (29.6 kPa)^[1]
• EVA suit weight: 122 lb (55.3 kg)^[1]
• Total shuttle EVA suit weight: 275 lb (124.7 kg)^[1]
• Total ISS EVA suit weight: 319 lb (145 kg)^[1]
• Primary life support: 8 hours (480 minutes)^[1]
• Backup life support: 30 minutes^[1]

One of the things I realized is that - Belters will have a Smell. Space laborers will have probiotic creams used to cultivate and facilitate skin bacteria that act as a symbiot to reduce the infection rate and chafing in a 10-20 hour suit heavy labor. the bacteria feed off the sweat, heat, epithelial waste. Spacers will have a smell or if spacers are the norm, non-spacers will have a smell to the spacers.  

In a TRPG about TL9 space Pioneering - where characters develop the Infra (Skyhooks; Stations; a number of comets and asteroids orbiting HEO or LEO) that would be artifacts of future generations -, TIME scaling is an important part of storytelling. Particularly Casualties or Major Changes during the Extended Period rolls. The problem of Human sense of time and change - the Traveller "Survival" checks start showing up in GAME. instead of the Week Transit of Jump - the Week or Month Transit in System players roll SURVIVAL. 

A good roll is being able to train and practice and self-improvement. a bad roll is a Mishap. A TRPG set in pioneering TL9 or with hard science risks will be interesting as over the span of sessions PCs change A LOT. from being crippled and needing cybernetics, to being replaced by a new crewman. 

I wanted to Run also 2200 in Interstellar Wars (GURPS ISW) where there are Hard Scifi Ships with Micro-Jump Drives and Delta-V budgets.  Finite Jump points, Jumping requires a lot of calculations and happens instantaneously. Players are up for something scary: traveling from Jump Points and destinations - and the Players have to roll SURVIVAL. Imagine a 4-20 week trip. That's enough to learn a new skill (or lose a skill) and the players all roll Survival 4+ with your professional skills ( complying with safety measures). 

Can't help but pull back the veil and use PM skills.

 Project Management (PMBOK) is a skill to structure Uncertainty. It's for those who want to deal with uncertainty systematically. Its funny that the skill falls under Engineer, Management, and Analysis fields. 

I dont know how many PMBOK gamers there are that when facing a Challenge go through their PMBOK hard-wired skillsets: Identify Stakeholders and Develop Charter. It's weird because outside of PMBOK  there is no structure or standard how best to approach uncertainty. Having a hard-wired/ conditioned response is a pretty important skillset when shit-hit-the-fan... 

I guess its the belief that Characters have "Moxy" or agency. This is where GM's and their personal beliefs come into the game - where Heroism or Agency is something that can be TRAINED and its inherent quality (A genre of Storytelling that I seem to have encountered )

Questions

1. Does it matter? Kinda for me ever since I struggled with Anxiety I found having a skillset to face uncertainty very useful. Combined with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques I'm able to better regulate the emotions I feel when Problems happen and I have to act. 
2. Who will it negatively affect? People who don't believe in skills or learnable behavior. People are able to compartmentalize Agency as "Their Agency" and everyone as an "NPC" as well as blame the victim. There are people who believe being Poor is a Choice, even among gamers, and don't see problems of Agency, Learned Helplessness , Social Injustice or Problems as something that does not affect them. Gaming has many strong reasons to have an audience: it is fun in itself and you don't need to be a History, someone who observers and deals with social problems or come from a different set of experiences. 
   It will affect those who have a very different sense of ethics to the GM, because there are limits to tolerating pretend bad behavior.  The way a regular person doesn't dream up mutilating or harming their loved ones - a regular person has problems dealing with even imagined harm and behavior far outside their own. 

Actions

1. Admin (Traveller) or Administration (GURPS) or Intelligence Rolls to Structure Uncertainty. 
2. It's not bad to slow down and breakdown the Problem. It only becomes boring if other players don't feel engaged if they have no stakes. The GM or other Players (the Project Manager).
3. If you do get into PMBOK then practicing Stakeholder Analysis and Management becomes one of the most practiced skill with dealing with players. Action being that - if they are no Engage find out why and ask how can they be. 

MgT2E Problems with Equipment

 

what i like doing with my spare time. 

1. Armor Piercing and Armor Piercing Discard Sabot Rounds were not Factored in how battle strategies and practices change as we ramp up equipment and resources allocated. 
1. you dont want PCs or NPCs caught off guard of the existence of AP and APDS rounds. There should be some mitigation and compensation strategies for these. These rounds start raising the problem of Cover and effective Cover against AP rounds. 
2. Boarding shields only work if people are using Habitat Safe Rounds. You need to create a Trait Habitat Safe Sounds. If a Boarding shield is habitat safe why not use a Riot Shield? 
1. But once you allow for advance Melee weapons - like Weaponized Arc Welders -knives that allow deadly force that does not compromise the habitation. 
2. Start evaluated Ship Boarding and 
3. Extensive Culture and Lives around Vacc Suits and their Maintenance. The more I think of TL9 the more I realize:
1. Radiation will push towards Mechanical Controls. fingers and hands will be more mechanical with very particular designs and workaround strategies when they start to fail. 
2. Hard Suits to deal with vacuum make suit operation like a vehicle. Its easier to deal wth a hardsuit than the complex fabrication supply chain of having a Counter-Pressure or Compression Suit. 
3. Freshers are Vacc Suit cleaning. Lets get it out of the way: Vacc Suites are disgusting inside - to prevent immunocompromised users it goes through rigorous sanitation and maintenance. Mature Supply Chain and Manufacturing around the Hard Suits would pretty much make it the equivalent of Owning a Car: 2,000usd to 20,000usd suit with diminishing returns and creature comfort once you hit 10k and up. But you still get where your going in the 2k model or an "Old Junker" bought at 200-500usd. 
4. Probiotic Creams and Cultures used on Suits.   would living in a spacesuit lead to probiotic creams to prevent infections and to deal with human derma wastes? If a 30-40kg suit generates a lot of waste heat and sweat (and epithelial waste) would the effort to generate the inertia and motion lead to a lot of mess? Assuming EVA extensive lifestyles as construction booms. What would that look like? What would a probiotic skin cream or bio-culture do to make a suit more habitable in extended periods of time?
   I realize the cleaning and sanitation of suits would be resource-intensive but probiotics - assuming a culture works in space which feeds off the human waste and does what probiotics do: out populate harmful bacteria would be one of those side treks where it's used for a relatively short while before being discarded as supply chain and infra improve.  I can imagine it works for some people and others need high maintenance sanitation. Like how medicine tends to be really effective to some and indistinguishable effects with others.
4. Damage Scaling has problems in MgT2E and melee weapons violate many HEMA busted myths or misconceptions about melee weapons. 
1. if I used GURPS square cube of Joules of Damage then Note "Mechanical" effect of cutting/slashing etc... Melee weapons would be 1d2, 1d3, up to 2d6 (we can have Xd3 and Xd2 damage to keep it a D6 but differentiate weapons) while Firearms can easily 2d6 to 11d6 (browning 0.5 cal or 13mmx99mm at 18,000J)
2. If I have these Energy Baselines and Establish Armor baseline from this Its possible to make consistent damage scaling. 
5. Vacc Suites with Electronic Suit needs a Powered Duration. That Climate Control should be one of the details mentioned but handwaved. Of couse once its power is Off this becomes too hot to wear in an Earth-like climate. 
1. Missing Details I'd gladly fill are TL8 and TL9 Vacc Suits based on Delta-V and SevenEves.
6. TL after 10 becomes Grades where something improves in performance. TLs in GURPS tries to reflect major leaps and allows for many gradients between TLs.  I plan to run TL9 so TL9 grades of equipment is something I want to fix. World building and detailing Equipment and Tech. 
7. Handwaving Grav Plates but not dealing with "turning them on or off" in Cargo bay. and Even if you turn them on or off Tons of Inertia can Crush a person (first episode of Expanse the TV series). 
8. Delta-V budget for Thrusters. 

Another Project, when the Other Lost Steam. This time Post Pandemic Philippines 2020 using Traveller SRD.

Doing a simple write up of observations into a Traveller type mechanic. If you are familiar with Mongoose Traveller, I made a "Laborer" Career. It represents a type of "class" broken down into 3 groups: Laborers Low-Market-Value skilled workers (Installers, Helpers, haulers, Stock replenishers in retail), Peddlers people who hawk good, give out flyers, and have to deal buying and selling in very difficult conditions, and Messengers - errand boys and typically used for a lot of all-around work. 

I notice there is a DISTINCT bias to Officer or Airconed work place vs Field work. We have construction and manufacturing and I notice the difference in both pay of labor inside the Factory vs Labor outside (Construction). Definitely Outside Labor is a HIGHER Con Check for Survival. 

Then there are the Clerks: Encoders, Cashiers, Transcribers, and other Semi-Skilled workers etc... people who are need only a high school education. This includes the sales person in Ace/Handy man, or those who entertain people in an Oppo catching their attention and trying to bring them into the store. 

Clerks and Laborers is 2 careers that make up a LARGE percentage. Its the AMOUNT of people who easily qualify for this is what drives their Salaries down. Supply vs Demand. 

What is telling is their Status if I model their "Take Home" using the Status System in Traveller. When you compare it to the "ideal" of 60k combined household income by Gov't Analysts, the huge break in reality vs ideal becomes depressing. As a gamer and world builder, I realize - there should be a roadmap on how Workers and Clerks become Technicians - and how Technicians become Specialists. 

When I go to Technicians: Engineers, Knowledge Workers, Nurses, and IT is where things get more complicated, which is simplified by their Salaries and the Ebb and Flow of the Market. One day in 2019 there was a Construction Boom and PCAB was struggling to Certify a bunch of Biz to perform the work, and of course, that meant a lot of Biz hired Laborers and Clerks in this field. Next thing in 2020 a Pandemic. 

In converting Traveller SRD to Philippines 2021 I know it may be offensive to MODEL the system, Again modeling a system how I see it: the exploitation of the Market for Low skilled and Semi-Skilled labor, the challenges of "Raising" Status and how Status comes before Competence (the Perception of Competence will always be a Leading Indicator of Actual Competence). 

Good thing its just a Homebrew and coming from Family biz that has Manufacturing, IT, Engineering, Logistics, and Construction I have my blind spots. The food industry is something I have relatives in and I can only make educated guesses about it. Everything is my experience problems of seeing broken systems creating vicious cycles.  

The inquisitive mind will make HIGHLY Offensive questions. Again if Offense was a criterion we'd never get anywhere - nothing will be discussed and we never find out the forces that put good people in bad systems. 

I'd like to run that. Roll up a 22 year old, 34 year old, or 50 year old or 60 year old in 2021 and see how you make do in a BAD situation. Fail spectacularly or Succeed accidentally are interesting stories for me. 

Traveller SRD to Philippines 2021

 the equivalent of - livelihoods that are not "Careers" if I convert Traveller SRD character Gen to Modern 2021 Philippines. Note in Traveller "Livelihood Time" is 4 year increments. So if you are not "regular" in 4 years that means your probably been contractual. The pay and the privileges of regularization is so tangible as to allow me to make a mechanic for it. Can't imagine Irregular not being a "Matter" because of Retirement pay.

The thing about converting Traveller SRD to Modern Day's Character creation raises a lot of very interesting dilemmas in how do I model it for a game system. Especially since I will run it in the Philippines.

Modeling the beggars and "Indigents" would be losing such agency as to need Mental Health and Social Welfare services (Which the country really has very little of if any).

Just trying to Model 2021 in Traveller SRD is Whoah - Overwhelming.

Its in Bob's game did I start having to play a "Drifter: Scavenger" and my own notes made me think a lot about Migrant Filipino Labor (Most affected by Pandemic; while considered "Essential Workers" they are basically hurled at the pandemic). Even the 1k credits instead of Working Passage given to the Drifters is considered a LUXURY when I read the cost of living and make the economic analysis.

this is testing my HR knowledge lolz