More on Prime Base-I've been off for a while

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by tsofian

Add Janitors, catering staff, hydoponics, assorted other folks

This is one of the mysteries of TMP.

How do you get several hundred people to give up their lives, families, and futures to be a janitor, line cook, waitress, launderer, and dozens of other low paying service jobs.

I get all the smart kids with degrees in the cool jobs, but where do these service skills people come from?

I have only one explanation. They are poor or otherwise at a disadvantage in society. So the project hires them by doing something for them. They disappear into the Project and their family gets a big life insurance pay off. Their children are accepted into great universities, maybe with an eye to making Project members of them too.

[tsofian]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

This is one of the mysteries of TMP.

How do you get several hundred people to give up their lives, families, and futures to be a janitor, line cook, waitress, launderer, and dozens of other low paying service jobs.

Having done a lot of those jobs in the service I'm not so sure its that servile. The cooking staff certainly doesn't have to be meanials.

Terry

[tsofian]

It dawned on me that the digging machines will almost certainly be completely disassembled. They know that the tunnel out won't be dug for 3-5 years from the end of the war. There will be a period of years between the completion of the base and the beginning of the war that the machines will not be needed. This means there will be X=3 to 5 years when the machine will either need a lot of upkeep. I think it will be easier to take it apart and then put it back together. Just a thought

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by tsofian

It dawned on me that the digging machines will almost certainly be completely disassembled. They know that the tunnel out won't be dug for 3-5 years from the end of the war. There will be a period of years between the completion of the base and the beginning of the war that the machines will not be needed. This means there will be X=3 to 5 years when the machine will either need a lot of upkeep. I think it will be easier to take it apart and then put it back together. Just a thought

Depends... Do you think they are going to have the 50 ton and 100 ton cranes to move components and assemble the combined components? These look like there is hundreds involved in the minute by minute running of one of these.

[mmartin798]

Another consideration is the technology in the tunnel boring machine or subterrene. Experiments in the 80's using a fission reactor melting lithium to heat rods used to melt and fractures the stone and soil in front showed some promise. The Project has fusion reactors and laser technology. It is possible that a Project built borer could be arguably simpler than modern borers.

[ArmySGT.]

I just can't see the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) being a viable idea for deployment post War. These require hundreds of people. A concrete plant to make the wall sections. Dozens of dump trucks and drivers to remove spoil. The power requirement could be met by the Base systems. I get it before the War, when the place is being built, just not as a plan for after.

[Project_Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by tsofian

Having done a lot of those jobs in the service I'm not so sure its that servile. The cooking staff certainly doesn't have to be meanials.

Terry

I think everyone would have multiple roles, post apocalypse safe real estate will be the only real estate with any kind of value.

[Matt W]

I don't know if I've posted this link before, but this seems an easier way to build Prime Base: take an existing hole and put a roof on it

http://www.evolo.us/architecture/sky...round-society/

[tsofian]

I'm not sure the diggers will need some of the infrastructure they usually do. The spoils can be mechanically handled by conveyor belts. Prewar pits could have been dug for all the spoils and they are just dumped the debris in them. So instead of a Conga Line of dump trucks going to a site miles away they just run the belt from the digger to the pit. The cranes and everything could be in the caverns. Heavy lifting gear isn't a bad thing to have on hand for a lot of reasons, so it isn't unlikely that they have that already.

I don't agree with the cut and cover construction method. It is way too public.

[cosmicfish]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

This is one of the mysteries of TMP.

How do you get several hundred people to give up their lives, families, and futures to be a janitor, line cook, waitress, launderer, and dozens of other low paying service jobs.

I get all the smart kids with degrees in the cool jobs, but where do these service skills people come from?

I never saw this as much of a mystery.

First, the Project has advanced technology and I see no reason why they wouldn't have spend some "above-board" assets on minimizing menial labor for Prime Base. Buy some Roombas.

Second, a lot of these jobs can be either secondary tasks assigned to regular staff or primary jobs for people with significant other (and more advanced) responsibilities. I once worked in a classified lab that was unable to get janitorial staff cleared for the area, so all those tasks were divvied up between a dozen or so engineers and scientists. It can work.

Lastly, for those jobs that cannot be eliminated or given to someone on a part-time basis... time to justify saving your spouse! Seriously, there are probably a lot of people who would be ideal for the Project except they have that one person they won't go without. Make them a package deal. One person takes an important Project job, the other gets to come along and cook. Heck, even if you are separated into separate bases, at least you know the other is alive. Probably.

Makes for a nice side plot for a character - they're in Recon Team K-7, but their wife/husband/other is doing laundry at Prime Base and they WILL get there to find out what is going on!!