The Mission Control Model for Spaceships

Inspired by this post from Atomic Rockets and these four (1,2,3,4) posts from Blue Max Studios.

Spacecraft very greatly in size, most having between 20 and 100 crew members. Some rock-hopping vessels can have very small crews — possibly fewer than ten — while the most massive ships can have several hundred, not including personnel who are not involved in the day-to-day running of the ship such as onboard marines or civilian passengers.

So what are all these crew members doing? What are their roles and functions? Who do they answer to? What are their titles, obligations, and privileges? The answer varies across the Solar System, but the predominant paradigm, established by the first interplanetary vessels so many years ago, is the Mission Control Model.

In essence, the Mission Control Model takes the ground segment of 20th and 21st century spaceflight operations and brings them onboard. The External Service (we’ll get to the Service in another blog post), its corporate allies, and Earther civilians all hew closely to this model. It establishes a clear hierarchy and a division of responsibilities, and makes sure everybody knows what to do and who to turn to in a crisis.

The following list of departments and positions is not exhaustive, nor is it always followed the exact same way. While a ship can get by perfectly fine with just the listed positions (or less!), many crews employ additional support staff.

The Four Departments

Every spaceship can generally be split into four departments, each staffed by its own crew and responsible for a basket of related ship functions.

• Command sets high-level objectives, supervises all aspects of the ship’s readiness, enforces discipline in the other departments, and maintains morale among the crew.
• COMAST (short for communication and astrogation) oversees all interior and exterior communications, including all functions that keep the ship pointing in the right direction, sending the right signals, and seeing the right things. COMAST is the ship’s eyes, ears, and mouth.
• Engineering is responsible for all maintenance and repair needs, as well as the operation of the reactor, the maintenance of the ship’s internal atmosphere, and the management of temperature inside the ship.
• Payload keeps track of everything the ship has, uses, and needs — including weapons, if it has any. Payload maintains the ship’s cargo stores, operates its guns, and addresses any injuries the crew sustains.

Traditionally, the COMAST, Engineering, and Payload departments are divided into two teams. Each team alternates 8-hour and 4-hour watches as follows:

0000-0800: Team 1 on watch

0800-1200: Team 2 on watch

1200-1600: Team 1 on watch

1600-2400: Team 2 on watch

Teams spend their “off-time” sleeping, drilling, training, cleaning, relaxing, and doing whatever else needs doing. With the exception of the Mission Commander, one of the Command staff will be in charge of each watch.

A ship with two watches and only the listed positions filled will have 39 or 40 crew members, depending on if a Mission Commander is present: three or four Command staff members and two teams of 18 people in the COMAST, Engineering, and Payload departments.

EDIT: It’s worth noting that these positions are not all equal in terms of training and pay. Command staff are almost always salaried and given generous benefit packages by their employer. The other personnel are probably paid wages instead of salary, with department heads paid more than their subordinate crew.

Generally, positions listed here are going to be compensated better than miscellaneous support staff. But even these roles probably pay worse than you think — a lot of Spacers are qualified to be a sensor operator or cargo technician with no formal schooling. There’s a lot of variation here between Spacers and Earthers and between departments and employers, but it’s safe to think of these jobs as mostly “unskilled labor” (as misleading as that term is).

Command

In multi-ship functions, the Mission Commander (MCOM) is the overall director of the entire operation. They’re the one who leads a task force into the Asteroid Belt to crush pirates, or oversees a settlement mission to a sparsely-populated moon. They’re the Big Boss, equivalent to an air force general or an admiral in a naval task force.

The Flight Commander (FCOM or Flight) is in charge of a single spacecraft. This is the archetypal captain, the one who supervises all aspects of the ship’s readiness and ability to perform the mission outlined by MCOM. Their job is to set objectives — it’s up to subordinates to carry out those objectives.

The Executive Officer (XO) is in charge of all tasks, drills, exercises, and inspections onboard the ship. While the FCOM oversees the big picture, the XO manages day-to-day administrative details and enforces discipline on all the other departments.

By contrast, the Head of Personnel (HOP) assists with the crewmembers themselves, ensuring good order and serving as a link between Command and the rest of the crew. The HOP also maintains all service records, including pay and benefits for the crew.

Communication and Astrogation (COMAST)

The Integrated Communications Officer (INCO) is in charge of the COMAST department and oversees all exterior and interior communications. They manage all the software functions that keep the ship pointing in the right direction and sending the right signals.

The Guidance Procedures Operator (GPO or Guidance) is the primary pilot, and second in command of the COMAST department after the INCO. They monitor the astrogation of the spacecraft, make sure that guidance control software is functioning as normal, and keep tabs on the velocity and vector reporting done by onboard systems.

The Spacecraft Communications Operator (SCOM) is the secondary pilot, and acts as the single, unified voice of the ship. They direct incoming messages to the proper departments, send outgoing messages in the proper format to the proper channels, maintain the transponder, and communicate between the ship and its auxiliary elements.

The Sensor Operator (SO) is the tertiary pilot, and is responsible for detecting, tracking, recognizing, analyzing, and identifying objects.

The Information Technology Operator (IT) monitors all aspects of onboard computer systems, including network and systems administration, security, hardware and software management, troubleshooting, and more.

Engineering

The Chief Engineer (CE or Chief) is in charge of the Engineering department and supervises all engineering systems on a spacecraft. Their job is to manage all function, maintenance, and repair of the reactor, computers, atmospherics, electronics, and communications systems.

The Assistant Engineer (AE or Second) is second in command of the Engineering department after the CE. They serve as a special assistant to the CE, and are expected to help with any problems faced by the other engineers. They might also be in charge of systems not assigned to other engineers, including radiators, solar panels, reaction control systems, electrolyzers, LOX and LH2 tanks, and more.

The Propulsion Engineer (PE or Prop) is in charge of the ship’s engine, which is usually but not always a fusion reactor. They monitor the ship’s delta-V and helium-3, and make sure the drive is working properly.

The Electrical Engineer (EE) operates and maintains all onboard electricity generation and distribution equipment.

The Atmospheric Engineer (AE or Atmos) makes sure the air’s safe, the temperature’s warm, and the pressure’s normal.

The Robotic Engineer (RE) maintains all onboard robots, robotic arms, and associated systems.

Payload

The Payload and Logistics Officer (PLO or Payload) is in charge of the Payload department and oversees both the ship’s cargo stores and its fighting ability. It’s their responsibility to keep track of everything the ship has, uses, and needs.

The Weapon Systems Operator (WSO or Wizzo) is second in command of the Payload department after the PLO. They direct all weapon and fire control systems aboard the ship. In addition, the WSO assists the PLO in cargo-related tasks. On an unarmed ship, the WSO is referred to as the Supply Operator.

The Missile Technician (MT) maintains both guided and non-guided missiles as well as their launching systems.

The Gunnery Technician (GT) maintains the ship’s kinetic weapons, such as railguns, coilguns, and shrapnel weapons, as well as the ship’s point-defense guns.

The Laser Technician (LT) maintains and calibrates the ship’s directed-energy weapons.

The Cargo Technician (CT) sorts and monitors the ships’ supplies, loads and unloads cargo, and makes sure that the cargo’s mass is evenly balanced.

The Flight Medical Doctor (FMD or Doc) is a jack-of-all-trades doctor who monitors the crew’s routine health and, in the event of injury, deals with everything from bone fracture to radiation sickness to an emergency appendectomy.

Small Ships

The smallest ships break the above dichotomy down to its bare essentials, potentially placing an entire department on the back of just one person. The smallest feasible crew size is four, outlined as follows:

The Flight Commander (FCOM or Flight) sets objectives, guides the rest of the crew, and supervises all aspects of the ship’s maintenance and readiness.

The Guidance and Communications Operator (GCO) governs the astrogation of the ship, its internal and external communications, and its sensor systems.

The Flight Engineer (FE or just Engineer) is in charge of maintaining the spacecraft, including its reactor, electrical systems, internal atmosphere, and robotics.

The Payload and Logistics Operator (PLO) supervises all cargo, including proper mass distribution, and any weapons on the ship. The PLO may also have medical training.

Under normal operations, the GCO, Engineer, and PLO will rotate eight-hour watches, with the FCOM assuming overall command. Under high-stress situations, all four crew members will be on duty.

August 15, 2022 Mission Control Model Rockhoppers Sci-Fi Space Worldbuilding