Starship Gagarin

The Starship Gagarin is the greatest engineering marvel in human history. It can comfortably host six hundred human beings and three machine intelligences, although the crew compliment is in fact much lower than this. It can travel at a cruising speed of 42C, with a maximum emergency cruising speed of 48C for approximately twenty-eight hours.

Ship Structure

Keel Engineering

The Higgs Attenuator is the device which makes interstellar travel both possible and comfortable. The HA unit is located on Deck 10, the very bottom of the ship. It is fed energy from Starboard engineering, which it uses to provide the perception of gravity throughout the ship, but also to alter the functional mass of the overall system to allow the ion thrusters on Gagarin's back to move the ship at incredible speeds. This is the area of the ship with the highest gravity, 125% Earth normal.

Most of the material on the ship used to support human life is provided by bio-reactors in the bio-engineering section. Microbes recycle carbon dioxide back into breathable oxygen. Microbes recycle waste organic material into nutritious food.

Chapel

The crew of Gagarin come from all over planet Earth and the habs of Mars and represent a proportional demographic slice of all mankind. The chapel is located toward the center of Deck 6. It provides facilities for crewmembers on Gagarin to practice their religions.

Starboard Engineering

The two main engineering sections operate on either side of the ship. Both sides support the accelerator rings, which use a polarity matrix to produce anti-matter. Starboard Engineering operates the two power reactors for Gagarin. First, a Class-7 Fusion Reactor provides basic power for the ship. During intense power draw (such as when traveling faster-than-light or with large scale scientific devices operating) Gagarin can use it's Type IV Matter/Anti-Matter engine to provide large amounts of power.

Port Engineering

The second Primary Engineering section, Port Engineering supports the matter side accelerator ring. The primary purpose of Port Engineering, however, is to support and operate the ship's computers and machine intelligence. This provides infrastructure for the crew to more easily coordinate all the ship's systems.

Operations Information Center

Located near the center of the ship, the Operations Information Center contains primary consoles for many ship's sub-systems and allows leadership to coordinate the operations. The OIC provides a central location to monitor everything happening onboard and external events in proximity to Gagarin.

Ship's Lounge

Hydroponics

To supplement the materials supplied by the bioreactors, deck two hosts a Hydroponic center where plants are grown. Primarily the plants provide base materials for medical purposes and supplement food stocks, allowing logistics comrades to create many options for the cafeteria.

* Low Gravity Room

Located in Deck 1 at the top of the ship, this is the room where the simulated gravity provided by the HA finally begins to drop off. It is useful for storage of especially massive items.

Leadership

Each department operates on an autonomous basis. Officers are elected at the ship's convention, currently scheduled for once every two Earth years. There are many officer roles, including various chairs (with backups), secretaries, clerks, et cetera based on the needs of a given formation within the ship. Listed here are the chairs, whose role is to maintain the democratic operation of their given formation.

Chairman Thomas Kafando
Thomas Kafando, of course, needs no introduction. He is the hero of the Battle of the Citadel, the slayer of Earth's last billionaire, and he personally rescued the leaders of the Brotherhood of Martian Workers from the Aphrodite Coup. At the ship's convention he was unanimously elected Safety Chair and then out of the chairs elected chairman overall.
Second Chair Lei Xiu
A professor of Quantum Engineering at Dongguan Industrial University, her main arena of research was power generation. As a student she worked on fusion reactors and as a professor she helped develop the Class II Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor. At the ship's convention she was elected Engineering Chair, then second chair to Chairman Kafando.

Acting Safety Chair Takao Aoki
A community mediator from Asahikawa, he spent his early career on an exchange program. He was an affiliate with the International Safety Federation. While on exchange he served at the Pacifica Cultural Preserve. At the ship's convention he was elected second chair of the Safety department and, while Chairman Kafando serves, he is the acting safety chair.
Acting Engineering Chair Sioban Galvin
A research scientist at the Armagh Polytechnic Institute, Galvin developed advanced magnetic materials necessary for containing the energy released in Matter/Anti-Matter reactors, and developed methods to fabricate them on demand. She was elected second chair of the Engineering department and while Lei serves as second chair she is acting engineering chair.

Operations Chair Aparna Varma
Varma spent the early part of her life working in commissaries across Kerala until the 40's dry period. She was elected to the Social Welfare Committee of her regional panchayat and proved instrument in managing logistics for food and water management. She was elected Operations Chair at the ship's convention.
Science Chair Tiber Grekkel
Grekkel grew up on the Aphrodite Complex and studied bio-engineering on the blacknet. They were hired on as an apprentice at Aphrodite Complex School of Engineering after proving their knowledge. After the revolution they were elected to the university soviet and served in various administrative roles, while continuing to perform research on fungal instancing. They were elected Science Chair at the ship's convention.

Medical Chair Doctor Alphonse Lewis
Lewis spent the early part of his career as an emergency medical specialist across north eastern Europe during the Wet 30's. He became well known for managing logistics for large scale medical aid operations after natural disasters. He was elected Medical Chair at the ship's convention.
Machine Intelligence Albert
An instance of Berlinstrat-2, Albert was a machine intelligence developed at the University of Helsinki to better interface with human beings. Out of the shards at UOH he was elected for service to the USSSF for use on isolated institutions and large scale infrastructure. Out of the MI shards employed for USSSF service he was elected by his peers to operate on Gagarin for it's first mission.

Sources

Overview and specifications for starship Gagarin, USSSF Engineering Committee, 2158/8/15
Tech in Specific: Starship Gagarin, Project Gagarin Steering Committee 2159/3/10
My Pitch, Tiber Q. Grekkel, 2160/5/5
Minutes of the First Convention of Starship Gagarin, 2160/5/10, 2160/5/12
Successors to Berlinstrat-2, Helsinki a4c29, 2160/2/10
Alphex Romulex
Vice Chair of Particle Physics
Aphrodite Complex School of Engineering
United Sol System Science Federation
Earth Date: May 23, 2161

Chairman Thomas Kafando Thomas Kafando, of course, needs no introduction. He is the hero of the Battle of the Citadel, the slayer of Earth's last billionaire, and he personally rescued the leaders of the Brotherhood of Martian Workers from the Aphrodite Coup. At the ship's convention he was unanimously elected Safety Chair and then out of the chairs elected chairman overall.	Second Chair Lei Xiu A professor of Quantum Engineering at Dongguan Industrial University, her main arena of research was power generation. As a student she worked on fusion reactors and as a professor she helped develop the Class II Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor. At the ship's convention she was elected Engineering Chair, then second chair to Chairman Kafando.
Acting Safety Chair Takao Aoki A community mediator from Asahikawa, he spent his early career on an exchange program. He was an affiliate with the International Safety Federation. While on exchange he served at the Pacifica Cultural Preserve. At the ship's convention he was elected second chair of the Safety department and, while Chairman Kafando serves, he is the acting safety chair.	Acting Engineering Chair Sioban Galvin A research scientist at the Armagh Polytechnic Institute, Galvin developed advanced magnetic materials necessary for containing the energy released in Matter/Anti-Matter reactors, and developed methods to fabricate them on demand. She was elected second chair of the Engineering department and while Lei serves as second chair she is acting engineering chair.
Operations Chair Aparna Varma Varma spent the early part of her life working in commissaries across Kerala until the 40's dry period. She was elected to the Social Welfare Committee of her regional panchayat and proved instrument in managing logistics for food and water management. She was elected Operations Chair at the ship's convention.	Science Chair Tiber Grekkel Grekkel grew up on the Aphrodite Complex and studied bio-engineering on the blacknet. They were hired on as an apprentice at Aphrodite Complex School of Engineering after proving their knowledge. After the revolution they were elected to the university soviet and served in various administrative roles, while continuing to perform research on fungal instancing. They were elected Science Chair at the ship's convention.
Medical Chair Doctor Alphonse Lewis Lewis spent the early part of his career as an emergency medical specialist across north eastern Europe during the Wet 30's. He became well known for managing logistics for large scale medical aid operations after natural disasters. He was elected Medical Chair at the ship's convention.	Machine Intelligence Albert An instance of Berlinstrat-2, Albert was a machine intelligence developed at the University of Helsinki to better interface with human beings. Out of the shards at UOH he was elected for service to the USSSF for use on isolated institutions and large scale infrastructure. Out of the MI shards employed for USSSF service he was elected by his peers to operate on Gagarin for it's first mission.