Space Fox MUCK

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====== Space Suits ======

There's obviously a need to get out of the space ship sometimes.  There are three broad categories of EVA (extra-vehicular activity) 'suits'; light suits, heavy suits, and worker-bees.

There are a few common elements to space suits; magnetic boots are common to all of them.  They activate on contact, and deactivate based on a tunable level of pull on the boot.  One must usually waddle a bit, using one boot to leverage the other boot, in order to walk which is rather slow going and can be an exhausting gait.  But, the magnetic boots can be locked on and used as an anchor for tool operation which is important.

Each space suit also has a life support system with breath recyclers to extend the time one can be in the suit.  The exact specs of the life support system vary based on the suit.

====== Light Suits ======
These are used for brief space walks, salvage operations, or other situations where one is not exposed to open space for extended periods.  You can survive in open space with one of these, but they aren't as thermally and radioactively hardened as the big suits so you can't survive as long without "some kind of shelter".

Engineers may wear them for brief external repairs, or if they need to get into something from the outside (i..e get into the engine nacelles themselves).

This suit is comprised of a body suit, helmet, gloves, and a backpack with survival gear.  The back pack has a very basic thruster system -- designed to give you a push but not designed to be used for extended periods or heavy thrust.  There is a fore-arm mounted touch-device to provide many functions that one's tablet can provide and to control the suit itself.  A heads-up display in the helmet can be activated to keep an eye on the suit's stats.

Generally, these suits can last about 4 hours without a recharge.  A recharge can be done from an airlock or from a shuttle, and does not require re-compressing the airlock or shuttle to do so; it simply plugs to the backpack.  A larger pack can be fitted for 8 hour stints if needed, but they are rarely issued because generally if one is going to be out that long, they should probably upgrade to the heavier suit.

An example of this suit may be similar to something from The Expanse:

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====== Heavy Suits ======

For extended spacewalks with no cover from being within some kind of structure while working, or if more thrust capability is required (i.e. moving cargo using your suit's thrusters), or if expected to spend all work-day in a suit, one should upgrade to the heavy suit.

This is a bit more akin to what we have RL today, however it is somewhat less clunky.  It is often paired with a thruster pack; the thruster pack mounts onto the back of the space suit and has arms that reach around the person.  The arms have control sticks and the thruster pack flies similar to a shuttle.  The thruster pack is heavy duty enough to be used to essentially tow large objects, and also provides some extra air to the suit.

These suits last about 8 hours without the thruster pack, or up to about 12 hours with the thruster pack.  It is not recommended that crew remain outside the ship for over 8 hours, but the thruster pack has additional air capabilities because with great power comes great danger.  Compared to the basic thrusters on the light suit which is difficult to get out of control with, the large thruster pack can send a crew member a significant distance from the ship -- far enough that a shuttle operation may be required to recover them -- which means the extra air provided by the thruster pack should be viewed as an emergency buffer rather than an extension of operational time.

If the thruster pack is not used, the suit still has small thrusters akin to the light suit.  It has a larger backpack, though.  It is composed of a leg piece, torso piece, helmet, and gloves.  One generally has to step up and into the leg piece, then have assistance getting the torso piece lowered onto them.

They also feature the arm-mounted touch screen and helmet HUD.  These look a bit more like this, but I imagine them as slightly bulkier still:

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====== Worker Bees ======

These aren't exactly space suits, but they aren't shuttles either; they are an intermediate device designed to assist in EVA operations.  A worker bee is a small craft that comes in a few different forms; most are enclosed pods that the operator rides in though some are a bit more like sleds the operator stands on with mag-boots to operate.

The difference between a worker bee and the thruster pack is multifold; for one thing, the enclosed worker bees are usually used with the light space suit as they provide some additional security and support.  Worker bees universally have some sort of utility arm and generally have an ability to hitch and tow cargo containers.  They generally have much higher thrust capabilities than a thruster pack, some of them almost as powerful as shuttles.

However, they do not contain any atmosphere, and cannot land on a surface.  They aren't proper craft designed to operate far from some mother ship.  They do, however, often have extended life support.

The sled variant of worker bees must be used with the heavy suit and is somewhat less common.  Both variants are usually found at ship yards rather than as auxillary craft on space ships themselves; the worker bees are useful for a bustling shipyard where an operator may spend all day going from ship to ship doing EVA operations with a bee, but for a single ship, the heavy suit thruster pack is enough for most situations.

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