Seat crew on a pod
Put a Meek in a pod or cabin in the hangar, so the ship may fly.
Use this whenever Fly opens your pod's sheet instead of launching and the line under the ship's mass reads "Seat an astronaut in the Command Pod". That sheet is already open at step 2 below, and an amber arrow stands on the empty seat saying Tap to choose a pilot; it stays until somebody is in it. With nobody free to fly, the arrow stands on the Meek tile in the parts column instead and says No pilot free: hire one here.
Before you start
- A pod or a cabin is on the canvas. A pod is any part with seats and the controls in it; a Passenger Cabin has seats and no controls.
- At least one Astronaut is on your roster and standing on the ground. Recruit a Meek if there is nobody.
Steps
- Tap the pod on the canvas to select it, then tap it again. Its properties sheet opens at the bottom of the screen, titled with the part's name.
- Find the Crew row. Under it is one wide button per seat the part has: one for a Command Pod or a CK-1 Cockpit, two for a Crew Capsule or a Passenger Cabin, three for a Crew Capsule L. An empty one reads Seat 1 · — empty seat —.
- Tap a seat button. It fills with the first Meek who is free to fly, shown as their name and their trade: "Seat 1 · Oru Venn · Astronaut". A scientist's seat also shows what their readings pay, for example "Seat 2 · Sabe Oda · Scientist +60 %".
- Keep tapping the same button to walk through everyone else who is free, then back to the empty seat. A Meek already sitting in another seat on this ship is skipped, so you cannot seat one person twice.
- Fill the seats you want, then check the readout at the top of the hangar. The crew warning under the ship's mass goes away when every pod has an astronaut in it.
What you should see
The ship's Mass at the top of the hangar goes up by 80 kg for each Meek you seat. Fly now takes you to the pad instead of selecting the pod, and the crew chip appears at the top left of the flight screen with the faces you seated on it.
What the warning line means
| What the hangar says | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Seat an astronaut in the Command Pod" | The pod is empty, or holds nobody who can fly. Only the astronaut trade flies a ship. If the ship is meant to fly itself, tap its Sat Controller (or other probe core) and turn on Control from here: the capsule is then along for the ride and needs nobody. |
| "A passenger rides only with an astronaut aboard" | A cabin has people in it but no pod on the ship has an astronaut. Seat one. |
| "Oru Venn is aboard Bird Two" | That Meek is on another ship of yours. Bring that ship home, or seat somebody else. |
| "Crew Capsule has 2 seats and 3 aboard" | More names are saved on the part than it has seats. Tap the extra seat button round to the empty seat. |
| "No crew roster here - the pod flies empty" | This device has no record of your space program, so it has no roster to seat anyone from: you are signed out, or the game cannot reach the world. The ship still flies, but it flies with nobody aboard and no crew chip — sign in and the seat row fills with your astronauts. |
| "No astronauts left - hire one at the Astronaut Center" | Your roster is empty. Hire one on the Recruit tab of the Astronaut Center. |
| "Every astronaut is aboard another ship" | You have astronauts, but every one is up there on a flight of yours. Bring one home and recover it, or hire another. If none of your ships is carrying them — the flight they went up on ended badly and nothing of it is left — they come back down on their own: the world puts anybody aboard a ship it no longer holds back on the ground as soon as you leave a flight for the hangar, and a day after boarding at the very latest. |
Note
A pod with nobody in it normally keeps the ship on the pad — but only when the game has a roster to judge it against. With no record at all (signed out, or offline) there is nothing to check, so the rocket launches and the pod flies on an anonymous pilot: no names, no crew chip in flight, and nobody earns anything from the trip. The hangar says so under the ship's mass, and the flight says it once as the first stage lights.
Note
The Crew row is a hangar row only: WHO is aboard is settled before you launch, and tapping the same pod in flight shows its actions and the ship's name instead. Where they sit is not settled, though — a ship with two modules can move people between them in flight (Transfer crew between modules).
