Workstation
A Workstation is a designated area within a ship set aside for crew duties.
- It is a type of Ship Equipment.
Description / Specifications
A workstation typically contains a console housing one or more control panels and a crew seat. Removable panels give access to the internal electronics, connectors, relays and other equipment: panels cannot be removed without a security key.
- A workstation generally has a hard link to the ship's computer.
- It is ergonomically designed to allow prolonged usage.
- The seats within workstations may be acceleration couches.
A workstation's role can be generally be changed. For example, controls for the jump drive may be passed from the engineering section to a workstation located on the bridge.
- A ship may have multiple Workstations throughout the hull that are only utilized occasionally. These may include such things as the fuel purification controls.
- Systems such as Life Support or the Grav Plates may be monitored (or overridden) from a bridge workstation but are usually locally controlled by individual control panels.
Hard Workstations
A workstation associated with physical shipboard work such as repair duties. Such workstations generally lack a seat and have additional space set aside for supplies such as tools, chemicals, and other mundane shipboard equipment. Supplies are secured in place.
- "Hard" refers primarily to the lack of a seat.
- Hard Workstations are generally used by technicians, stewards and service crew.
- A control panel is used to keep track of supplies and consumables and to monitor the environment.
- A Hard Workstation generally has a hard link to the ship's computer.
The function of a Hard Workstation is generally set and cannot easily be changed.
Crewmembers assigned to Hard Workstations make much of the fact that other crew work at "easy" jobs.
History / Background
Workstations are usually sited in important locations around the ship.
- The bridge generally has a pilot's position, navigation and sensor workstations, commumications workstations, and workstations for any onboard defensive electronics.
- The engineering section has control workstations for onboard devices such as the Jump Drive, the Maneuver Drive, the Power Plant, and onboard fuel regulation. Such workstations may be clustered together into a main control room. They have multiple control panels.
- Machine Shop (a Hard Workstation). An area of the engineering section set aside for repairing or fabricating items, typically minor components for shipboard machinery and fittings. Most modern machine shops feature a 3D printer and a scanner, as well as more traditional equipment such as a lathe, a plasma cutter and gravitic clamps.
- Medical Workstation. A first aid cabinet with some limited diagnosic capability.
- Steward's Galley (a Hard Workstation). Typically this has facilities for washing fabrics, supplies suitable for cleaning clothing and equipment of all kinds, a small but efficient galley, and the facility to produce drinks on demand. You can tell a lot about a steward by the state of their workstation.
- Janitorial Closet (a Hard Workstation). Cleaning supplies of all kinds, including mops and buckets, solvents and detergents, and air fresheners.
- A gunners workstation is generally located within a weapon turret.
- Gunners may remotely control multiple turrets from another workstation aboard the ship: this facility allows turrets to be clustered into batteries of coordinated weapons controlled by a single gunner.
- Bay weapons have correspondingly large workstations that may require multiple crew.
- Spinal Mounts have multiple workstations.
- Screens such as Nuclear Dampers have control workstations.
- Warships may have a plotting room containing multiple workstations and control panels to coordinate fire and defenses.
References & Contributors (Sources)
- TBD
- Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science