Rocket Architecture

All the standard design rules in (any version of Traveller, and) Cepheus Engine for Ship Design & Construction can be used without modification. 

As described in the TECHNOLOGY section, Soviet design favours robustness, standardisation, and ease of maintenance. This industrial approach applies to space craft as well. As a design aesthetic space craft in the USSP would be recognisable to anyone of two centuries earlier as variations on a ‘rocket’. Complex modernistic designs are rare and limited to purely experimental ships. 

Bridge to Captain Tserkov

Spacious and comfortable

I cannot change the laws of physics

Most ships are either Standard or Distributed hull configurations. Streamlined ships, or spaceplanes, are known but are very rare. Streamlined ships are typically classed as yachts used by very well-connected comrades. Vessels of this type are often used only on the very well frequented space lanes, landing at top class space ports after sweeping majestically over the city in an overt display. The other use of streamlined ships is in the military, where dedicated vessels enter a planet’s atmosphere from the blind side to the target, and approach at hypersonic speed in the atmosphere.

A Standard hull configuration usually means a cylinder with fin stabilisation, oriented so that it lands on its tail and takes off again the same way. Artificial gravity is, of course, in use but the default arrangement and orientation is many decks stacked on top of each other rather than a few decks laid out flat. 

Distributed hull configuration means the ship is never intended to land on planets and so the form is less pretty. An uncharitable description might be they look like a floating oil refinery. Modules for habitation, cargo, engineering and the rest are arranged around an exposed infrastructure. Deck configuration in these ships more like a normal building.

Military ships use both Standard and Distributed hulls but will encase or otherwise protect the whole with armour plating. They are typically brutish to look at: menacing and imposing, bristling with death machines.

The engine rooms of all USSP ships are cramped, noisy, reeking, dangerous places. Sharp corners protrude from hard surfaces. Extreme heat radiates from some areas. Boiling or caustic fluids might be leaking. Toxic fumes are a constant threat, as is radiation. Characters must be aware that the engine room of the ship is where only competent professionals should be. A moment’s inattention could cause serious injury or death. On the other hand, every pipe and conduit is exposed with manual overrides visible and labelled. To a competent engineer these spaces are a delight as they can see, access, and maintain every part.

It is standard practice to have multiple robots dedicated to maintaining and repairing specific functions and systems. For example, small crawlers that wander the air ducts keeping them clear of dust and contaminants and making sure all the valves operate properly (residutors). Or units that patrol the halls making sure that the lights work and that doors open (luminatrixs. Not to be confused with the computer program cicadianation that ensures the lights go on and off and dim at the appropriate rates for optimal human health). As well as the more obvious and vital units such as those monitoring the powerplant (wattautons), and those that continually clamber on the outside of the hull repairing damage (mendicants). 

Only ships less than 100 tons typically have a ‘cockpit’ in the sense of pilots looking out windows and manipulating a yoke. Genuine space and particularly jump capable ships have CICs (Command Information Centres) more reminiscent of a submarine bridge than the cockpit of a plane. Smaller ships up to about 400 tons often do have an auxiliary bridge that does have a window and manual overrides, but these are typically more novelty than anything practical. Landing a rocket on its tail is the job of a computer, not a human. As is trying to dock with another ship when travelling at many tens of kilometres a second.

Cabins aboard most ships are similarly more like those you would expect to find on a submarine. Luxurious cabins certainly exist on the big passenger liners, but for your average working spacer conditions are close. Genuine privacy is hard to achieve and jealously guarded. 

Registration and IFF Codes

UFS: Civilian – Small freighter <400t

UFM: Civilian – Medium freighter 400 to 1000t

UFB: Civilian – Bulk carrier freighter >1000t

UD: Civilian – Yacht, typically for diplomatic purposes

US: Civilian – Survey & mining

UL: Civilian – Passenger carrier

C: Military ship – Capital Class (Battleships and Carriers)

F: Military ship – Frigate or Cruiser (Main force projection ships)

D: Military ship – Destroyer (Small to Medium sized offensive ships)

P: Military ship – Patrol (Long range ships)

A: Military ship – Assault (Troop carriers)

S: Military ship – Survey (Ships typically associated with SPF)

Any of the above prefixed with a D: Decommissioned military ship now in civilian use

Typical mass-produced designs include:

• 100t Silka class Scout Craft (eg. US-78429 Cydonia)
• 100t Luna class Mining Craft (eg. US-15744 Ghunne)
• 200t Semyorka class Light Transport (eg. UFS-22581 Piranha)
• 200t Desna class Research Vessel (eg. S-65636 Rybalkin)
• 400t Tochka class Starfreighter (eg. UFM-545519 Mitrofan)
• 600t Ovtsebyk class Starfreighter (eg. UFM-84755 Ubeysobakin)
• 600t Solnechnaya Ryba class Yacht (eg. UD-92931 Nevzorova)
• 800t Novator class Light Assault Carrier (eg. A-00458 Zadira 1)
• 800t Iskander class Patrol Ship (eg. P-85635 Admiral Zykin)
• 1000t Volk class Cruiser (eg. F-77514 Genereal Pavel Ilyin)
• 5000t Muravey class Bulk Cargo Carrier (eg. UFB-24612 Shuldeshov)

Adventure Hooks

These adventure hooks all centre around a specific ship in some way. They can occur anywhere.

• The ship’s computer is indicating a fault in the (electronic) gyroscope. Contradictory readings make it hard to track down, but the cause must be found and rectified before the ship attempts a landing. Characters with Computing and/or Engineering must run diagnostics, crack open panels, inspect components, and replace, rewire, or reset the computer to clear the fault
• The landing was rough, and sensors indicate a fuel leak. The crack in the tank needs to be found and repaired before either the ship attempts the next launch (kaboom), or before it runs out of fuel (pfft). Extreme caution needs to be taken while doing this: simply taking a welding torch to the area is not advised
• A novel is missing from a bunk and there were only ten pages to go! Either it’s returned immediately or there’ll be violence. However, the accused crew member knows nothing about a stupid book, is aggressive, and handy with a knife
• The Comrade Navigator informs the crew that due to a fault in the fuel sensor the ship is dangerously low and is at risk of not making port. Fortunately, an unmanned fuel cache (provided by the State for just such occasions) is not far away from the scheduled course. Unfortunately, the ship is not configured to dock with the tanker, so someone will have to make a spacewalk to connect the fuel lines. The captain calls for volunteers
• The micro-meteor hit took out a vital component of the ship’s sensor-computing and it cannot be repaired outside of dock. This means that someone has to be up in the observation dome with a handheld range finder, shouting down distances to be relayed to the CIC so that manoeuvring thrusts can be made to dock at the highport [this is the definition of an extremely difficult task with multiple potential failure points: the assessments; the calls; the shouted relay calls; the time delays; the application of precise thrust. Failure means hitting the space port at extreme speed. This remains true even if the ship has an Auxiliary Bridge unless the characters can demonstrate they’ve had recent practice operating it]
• One of the ship’s maintenance robots is disabling some vital equipment. It keeps opening panels and severing lines, apparently to get further to more concealed components. If it succeeds in doing so the ship could be crippled out here in deep space.  The ship’s computer brain records no faults, but the robot insists it has detected something with its own sensors. Is the sirenic robot on to something that needs detailed human investigation, or is it malfunctioning? Has it been deliberately tampered with to sabotage the ship?

(Traveller RPG)