Civilian Spacer Pay in 2300AD

Introduction

Space travel, even in 2300, is still risky.

There is the well-known triad of physical risks: radiation, zero-gravity ( most duty stations are in the zero-g sections of the ship), and loss of pressure ( or breathable atmosphere mix).

Beyond these, though, there are the equally dangerous psychological risks caused by "cabin fever", long separations from ground/station-side families, and the general heightened stress, on the mind and body, of living in a hostile environment where your first mistake will most likely be your last.  A distracted/stressed/tired crewman is an accident waiting to happen.

"You leave Earth, and anything you forget to bring with you will kill you; anything you do bring with you which doesn't work properly will kill you; when in doubt, assume everything will kill you."  -- Commander Nathan Spring, "Star Cops" ( a 1980's BBC television series).

Recently, while reexamining the monthly civilian starship crew salary table in the Director's Guide [ DG p 65], and the yearly average wage bracket figures in the Adventurer's Guide [ AG p 21], I noticed a curious fact.  The monthly salaries are 1/5th ( 20%) of the yearly salaries.

The only way this would make any sense, were if the starship crewmen worked only half a year.  As they are doing an intrinsically dangerous job, their pay for half a year is equivalent to what a groundsider makes for working a full year.  This also means that each starship would need two crews, just like modern nuclear submarines do ( the US Navy traditionally calls these the "blue" and "gold" crews).

So a crewman's year is broken down like this ( for ease of discussion I will round this to 360 days per year -- thirty days per month):

• 180 days as part of the active crew.
• 180 days as part of the inactive crew.

Life in the active crew

Out of the 180 days spent as part of the active crew.

• 150 work days spent doing their job: flying between star systems, flying within star systems ( inside the FTL threshold), and any time spent loading/unloading/maintenance while in orbit beyond that needed to discharge the stutterwarp drive.  These are the work days for which they get paid.
   
• 30 free days ( unpaid time off), which are given out a few days at a time, whenever the ship is in orbit.  Interface travel ( down to and back up from the planet's surface) is expensive, so most crewmembers will spend their days off in the orbital terminal's ( or Comet-based fueling station's ) bars and "other" facilities.  If the starship has its own interface lander, a few of the crewmen may be able to "hitch" a ride on it, if it is not full.

  Note that the work-to-free ratio is 5-to-1.

On slower ships, the crew will have to wait longer to get free days, but will get more days off in one block.  For instance, a fully loaded Anjou is quite slow, and can take 25 days ( or more) to travel from a world in one solar system to one in the next adjacent system.  So the crew would get five days off ( every five days of work, "earns" them one day off), once the ship makes orbit.

On faster ships, the crew ( or the company/foundation which owns and operates the ship) may have a policy of skipping/reducing free days at odd numbered ( 1st, 3rd, ...) stops, and adding them to the time off at even-numbered stops ( 2nd, 4th, ...).  For example, a ship that takes 7.5 days to travel from a world to the next system, could decide to give one day ( instead of 1.5) at the first stop, then two days ( instead of 1.5) at the second stop.  Or they could alternate having zero days, then three days.

Owners who routinely work their non-military crew for more than 60-70 days, without a single day free, will soon have a mutiny on their hands.

Note: The above means that if a long multi-system voyage takes 100 days to fly ( all the time spent at FTL, sub-FTL, and in orbit discharging the drive), a merchant/civilian crew will take 120 days to fly this route, taking into account the 20 "free" days they would get along the way.  In other words, multiply total working voyage time by 1.2 to factor in the additional "free" days.
 

Life in the inactive crew

• A gravity level equal to or higher than their birthworld's.  This helps rebuild muscle tone and bone density lost from all those duty shifts spent in zero-g ( the bridge, TAC, and engineering, as well as most cargo storage are all located in the zero-g portion of most starship designs).

  Most spin habitats, in order to keep the diameter, rpms, and structural mass within reason, do not operate at 1g.  Instead they operate at much lower levels of pseudo-gravity, enough to slow ( but not stop) the loss of muscle tone and calcium, and make off-shift life more comfortable than it would be if spent in zero-g.

  The location preferably has a breathable atmosphere ( if you are talking a planet), and wide-open spaces ( planet or station), as "outside" recreational activities ( hiking, biking, etc.) are quite popular.
   

• Being under the protection of either a planet's atmosphere, or a full-sized space station with 10 meters or more of physical ( crushed rock, etc.) radiation shielding, gives the crew a break from their much higher exposure to cosmic rays while onboard their ship ( especially those crew who go EVA frequently).

  The Nyotekundu Sourcebook does mention, offhandedly, the "disastrous failure of the LaFarge radiation screens aboard the ESAS Endevour in 2168" [ NyoSB p 6] when the ship was caught in a solar flare in the Nyotekundu system.  This implies that LaFarge screens are some sort of powered electromagnetic shield ( see the endnote, below).

  Due to the environmental cleanup after the Twilight War ( still ongoing in some places on Earth even in the year 2300), humanity knows far more about radiation damage and how to treat it, but they have not conquered it yet ( it is still a health hazard [ AG p 22]).  Six months spent each year, under terrestrial-class cosmic ray shielding, with ongoing medical support/treatment, gives the body a chance to recover/repair.  This will go a long way towards minimizing lifetime risk of cancer ( and other problems associated with radiation exposure).
   

• Gets them away from the same old faces ( fellow crewmembers), unless they want to vacation, or take a class together.  Most spend the time with their family and other friends.  Some spend the whole time on the beach ( surfing, sun, and the pursuit of "you-know-what").  Others get bored ( or have lost all their wages gambling), and so now seek adventure ( if that is not a hook for the gamemaster, I do not know what else is).
   

Hand-over days

The remaining five days each year ( or six if it is a leap year), are used for the "starship hand-over".  The crew finishing their 180 days of duty spend a two or so days briefing their replacements about any changes to the ship.  As both crews know the ship intimately, this is a fairly simple task ( "watch out airlock four has a slow leak if you do not shut the hatch just right, and number two port maneuvering thruster is now running one degree too hot, but otherwise checks out fine").  Plus each crew will have access to all the maintenance logs ( by 2300, computerized fault/status database with text/graphics supplemented by audio and video entries).
 

Revised and Expanded Civilian Starship Crewman Salary Table

Extrapolating from the average yearly salaries [ AG p 21], and including the monthly starship ones [ DG p 65], here is a revised and expanded civilian starship crewman salary table:

                  Monthly     Yearly
BRIDGE:
  Captain         10,000      50,000
  XO               7,000      35,000
  Helm             4,000      20,000
  Engineer         3,000      15,000
  Navigation       3,000      15,000
  Communications   3,000      15,000
  Computer         2,000      10,000

TAC:
  Sensors          3,000      15,000
  Remote           3,000      15,000
  Flight Control   2,000      10,000
  Weapons          2,000      10,000

ENGINEERING:
  Chief Engineer   5,000      25,000
  Sr. Engineer     4,000      20,000
  Engineer         3,000      15,000
  Asst. Engineer   2,000      10,000

OTHER:
  Medical          4,000      20,000
  Smallcraft       3,000      15,000
  Steward          2,000      10,000

Endnote

Cosmic rays should really have been called cosmic particles.  They are super energetic charged particles which are moving at almost the speed of light.  Solar flares release them, but these are amongst the "weakest" energy-wise of all cosmic rays.  The main source of moderate to high energy cosmic rays is the magnetic field of the galaxies themselves ( they grab hold of the low energy ones created by suns and accelerate them).

Right now, we know enough about our own sun's flares to make physical shielding against them.  The only problem is that realworld spacecraft have a difficult time dragging around the mass needed to protect the whole spacecraft.  This is why most current designs for a manned mission to Mars protect a small room against average or weaker flares -- a "storm cellar" for the crew to hide from the flare in.

Physical shielding can be overwhelmed by particles with higher energies than it was designed to stop "leaking" past.  If the density of "leaking" ones is too high, then the crew will suffer slight to fatal radiation doses.  Just like an armored vehicles, whose armor is designed to stop artillery fragments and small arms rounds, can be punched through by a much more energetic autocannon/cannon round.  But physical shields do not "disastrously fail" against what they are designed to stop.

LaFarge-style electromagnetic shields, involve using electricity to create a very, very strong magnetic field around the hull, so that the charged cosmic rays are deflected away.  Depending on the energy level of the cosmic ray, this can take a lot of power ( in some cases more power than the total output of some 2300 starship power plants).  So LaFarge-style shields are cheaper than physical ones ( the starship is much lighter), but if "a fuse blows", you have no protection.