Honorverse ramblings and musings

saber964 wrote:Military personnel and people who spend a lot of time doing zero gee work could have the Honorverse equivalent of a dialysis shunt or nano colostomy.

Could, but I seem to recall the mention of one of the females doing a speed change into her skinsuit (possibly the LAC commander from Thunderbolt on station Tamale-001) and grimacing as she made the plumbing connections. The grimace would imply at least mild discomfort, possibly made worse due to doing it quickly.

In many ways, I imagine it being something similar to the Hot Gate books David's done, where Comet Parker was instructing on always keeping the catheter lubed. Which is also reinforced by, I believe it was Foraker, musing on getting stewards back for flag officers, because they have better things they should be doing than suit checks, etc.


And I dunno about you, but I'm sort of with HH where on Hades, she told Alistair that if it came down to better survival equipment on shuttles, or better shipboard grasers she knows which she'd prefer. Except here, it's choosing between better skinsuits, or better (anything related to combat); skinsuit's are the least important as long as they work.

saber964 wrote:Military personnel and people who spend a lot of time doing zero gee work could have the Honorverse equivalent of a dialysis shunt or nano colostomy.

This makes an incredible amount of sense.

A simpler approach might be medication that suppresses the appropriate reflexes and mitigates any short-term harm caused by that suppression (e.g. urea buildup in the bloodstream) for however long you can wear a skinsuit. Honestly, even if you had the plumbing connections most folks would go for the medication.

I also wondered who cleans and services everyone's suits after they have been at battle stations for 12 hours?

drinksmuchcoffee wrote:

saber964 wrote:Military personnel and people who spend a lot of time doing zero gee work could have the Honorverse equivalent of a dialysis shunt or nano colostomy.

This makes an incredible amount of sense.

A simpler approach might be medication that suppresses the appropriate reflexes and mitigates any short-term harm caused by that suppression (e.g. urea buildup in the bloodstream) for however long you can wear a skinsuit. Honestly, even if you had the plumbing connections most folks would go for the medication.

I also wondered who cleans and services everyone's suits after they have been at battle stations for 12 hours?

Probably like my nano colostomy and dialysis units. You could have nano units separate out water for the on-board drinking water, while whats left could go into disposable waste collection bags that would be put into the ships organic waste disposal system. As to suit maintenance it would be do it your self service for basic maintenance but down to the morgue for anything else.

drinksmuchcoffee wrote:I also wondered who cleans and services everyone's suits after they have been at battle stations for 12 hours?

Well, now I know why Honor really willed MacGuiness a few million... and let him keep it. Ew.

Seriously though, I tend to agree with Saber. It must be DIY(except for captains and flag officers with stewards). I wouldn't be surprised if they had automated washing units for suits in communal areas - it'd be a simple matter of sealing it up, connecting it to a pipe or two and waiting for the pumps to do their job.

Hell, it's probably done in the showers at the same time they disrobe and clean up.

https://www.cdc.gov/hai/ca_uti/uti.html

It isn't just a good idea. In a hospital this is done using sterile procedures, as it's a really great way to get seriously infected if you are careless.

This is also why girls who spend hours in dry suits use external solutions.

cthia wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote: Everyone underestimates the treecat's inate sense of humor. But I Think it was more anthropomorphism, imagining Honor unceremoniously grabbing him by the Johnson and sticking a catheter up it ...

Now that may be a little too much fleshing out of the details for my comfort. And just might prove to be an unceremonious bond breaker for Nimitz!

Ouch! I was too affixed to the other end of the problem!

I would expect that after a few millennia of working in space something a bit "easier" on the suit wearer would have been developed.

While I don't know how solid (more or less) waste would be dealt with by the skinsuit (nanotech breakdown and processing?), even today for males we have an EXTERNAL catheter (condom catheter) for patients with urinary incontinence issues (various sizes from itsee bitsee to Jolly Green Giant available) and I strongly suspect that something as easy to use would have been developed for the female space traveler's use.

This discussion, though quite interesting, makes me weak in the knees. The human element is always stalking me like a shadow.

I imagine all of the suggested solutions, good I might add, emplaced on a spacer that is intensely active—while fighting on the hull of the ship like in Star Trek or busy effecting repairs. Or any of a number of other quite active scenarios that are often depicted in movies—mobile and desperate situations that would highly exacerbate the discomfort.

The movements depicted in the many recent space movies while suited up makes me cringe. Being slammed against the ground or bulkheads while skewered makes me want to excrete from both ends!

Oh excrete! I've just schit the skewer!

munroburton wrote:

drinksmuchcoffee wrote:I also wondered who cleans and services everyone's suits after they have been at battle stations for 12 hours?

Well, now I know why Honor really willed MacGuiness a few million... and let him keep it. Ew.

Seriously though, I tend to agree with Saber. It must be DIY(except for captains and flag officers with stewards). I wouldn't be surprised if they had automated washing units for suits in communal areas - it'd be a simple matter of sealing it up, connecting it to a pipe or two and waiting for the pumps to do their job.

Hell, it's probably done in the showers at the same time they disrobe and clean up.

IIRC it was forty million. My guess is it's DIY for normal maintenance and minor repairs anything else would be in the suit morgue. It's also the reason why almost all skydiver's pack there own chutes and why in the 82nd ARB DIV parachute riggers can be ordered to make a jump with a randomly selected chute the the rigger personally packed. If the rigger didn't pack it right it becomes a bag of dirty laundry.


FYI dirty laundry is slang for a streaming chute which usually results in the parachutest bouncing.

munroburton wrote:

drinksmuchcoffee wrote:I also wondered who cleans and services everyone's suits after they have been at battle stations for 12 hours?

Well, now I know why Honor really willed MacGuiness a few million... and let him keep it. Ew.

Seriously though, I tend to agree with Saber. It must be DIY(except for captains and flag officers with stewards). I wouldn't be surprised if they had automated washing units for suits in communal areas - it'd be a simple matter of sealing it up, connecting it to a pipe or two and waiting for the pumps to do their job.

Hell, it's probably done in the showers at the same time they disrobe and clean up.

saber964 wrote:IIRC it was forty million. My guess is it's DIY for normal maintenance and minor repairs anything else would be in the suit morgue. It's also the reason why almost all skydiver's pack there own chutes and why in the 82nd ARB DIV parachute riggers can be ordered to make a jump with a randomly selected chute the the rigger personally packed. If the rigger didn't pack it right it becomes a bag of dirty laundry.


FYI dirty laundry is slang for a streaming chute which usually results in the parachutest bouncing.

That human element again.

The difference here is that spacers may have to suit up several times inside of a small window. Some of them may be too important to spend their time cleaning suits.

I'd be more apt to believe a pressure washing system like someone has indicated, in the manner of an automated carwash or dish washer.

And then, after the final rinse...

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. (UVGI) is a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet (UV-C) light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions.

Just properly hang your suit on the automatic rack and watch it go thru the car err suit wash.

cthia wrote:That human element again.

The difference here is that spacers may have to suit up several times inside of a small window. Some of them may be too important to spend their time cleaning suits.
....

Which raises another funky issue.

SOP for every navy in the Honorverse is to put the crew in skin suits and pump at least some of the air when you go to General Quarters. Given that servicing the suits (either with an automated system or (ick!) manually) will take a nonzero amount of time, you could in theory catch a ship (and crew) with their collective pants around their ankles.

Perhaps you could use the Lorelei decoys to lead a system defense force on a long, tedious stern chase before they finally reveal themselves. Then when the hypothetical force realizes it has been had and give it some time to leave GQ your strike force hypers in.

This is analogous to what happened to Nagumo's carriers at a place called Midway.

This idea wouldn't work if the servicing time for a skin suit is minutes, but would work if it were measured in hours.