Cockpit or Bridge?

Question

Would a mid-sized transport spaceship (able to carry up to two hundred people, including crew and a fair amount of supplies - enough to survive in space for up to a couple of weeks, if need be) have a cockpit or a bridge? I suppose it's my call, but I'm trying to be realistic in my first draft. I welcome examples from real life, earthbound ships and scifi. I've tried running my own search but Google is a black hole when it comes to questions like this one.

For context, the ship primarily transports passengers between several gargantuan, low Earth orbit space stations and a moon base. Thanks for any help you can offer, and please be gentle on me. I've watched many space-based shows & movies and read a bit of space opera but want to be as realistic as I can.

Answer 1

It depends on how space ships operate in your universe. When they operate more like maritime ships (like they do in the Star Trek universe, for example), then "Bridge" would be appropriate. When they work more like aircraft, then "Cockpit" might be more appropriate. Which is why some space operas use "bridge" for large crafts (which behave analogue to naval ships) and "cockpit" for smaller crafts (which operate analogue to planes).

But when you want your spacefarers to inherit from neither naval nor aviation tradition and instead see their roots in 20th and 21st century space programs, then they might prefer the term "command module". That term also works for stations. The Zvezda module of the ISS is sometimes referred to as the command module of the station.

Another option: The piloting area of the Space Shuttle was called the "Flight Deck", so that would also be a term you could use. It would make most sense when "Deck" is also used as terminology to separate other sections of the vessel.

Answer 2

As a rough guide:

If its a vehicle with a single person in charge who is also a controller, even if this person has a couple of subordinates: Cockpit (or cab sometimes) Example: cars, trains, planes up to 747. Boats where the captain is also the steersman. Somewhat implies that here is only one steersman, although they may have a relief. Like a 747, which frankly should have a bridge not a cockpit!

If its a vehicle with a person in charge who is NOT an operator: Bridge
Example: any boat where the captain is not a steersman. Especially the bigger ones.

If its a vehicle that does more than just vehicle around, it will have an operation center. Which may or may not be co-located with the bridge, which only cares about the vessel itself. Example: Aircraft carrier. Missile cruiser. Fleet coordinator.

In your case, a "mid-sized transport spaceship (able to carry up to two hundred people)" would definitely have a bridge. It would have one captain, and one steersman position filled by different people in shifts. Unless you presuppose a LOT of automation, to the point where a single person can handle the navigation & steering & etc of the ship 24/7.

Answer 3

If the location is a small enclosed space where the commanding officer (and perhaps one or two others) directly controls the vessel and all or at least a majority of vessel navigational, communication, and engine control functions without having to move from their position at the controls, it is a cockpit. Not just aircraft, but boats have them as well. If the location is a larger space where multiple people are expected to be on a routine basis to carry out operations, and the commanding officer does not (the majority of the time) directly control the vessel, it is a bridge.

There is, of course, a gray area. On modern automated bridges a single person can control almost everything from one console, but it's still generally called a bridge if you can get up and walk around without interfering with vessel control.

The benchmark I'd use is the "being able to walk around" part. To use Star Trek and Star Wars examples, in the cockpit of a Starfleet shuttle or the Millennium Falcon if you tried to stroll around, the pilot (who is typically also the vessel's officer in command) will get annoyed because you're physically getting in their way. On the bridge of a Star Destroyer or a starship, you can move around without interfering with anyone carrying out their duties, and the officer in command isn't the one in direct control of the ship (most of the time). Related to it is that on a bridge you typically must be able to move around to get to different controls because they aren't all accessible from a single position.

For example, if you look at luxury yachts, this would be a cockpit:

All the controls are at one station, and aside from whoever is at the wheel and the person beside them (considered to be a co-pilot), you can't get in there without physically getting in the way. There isn't any way for anyone else except the two people in the cockpit seats to be able to do anything.

This, on the other hand, is a bridge:

Lots of room to walk around and not interfere with operations, and the person at the wheel has to move around to control other basic functions such as the navigation and radar controls, which also means that while it could be controlled by a single person, it could also have several people able to carry out functions at the same time.

Answer 4

I always read about "control rooms" in old science fiction stories.

I hate the term "flight deck" for some reason. Maybe because it seems too British and too areonautical for a vehicle which operates totally outside of any atmosphere. I prefer the term "cockpit" for airplanes. But much less for large scale spaceships.

After watching a lot of Star Trek I am used to the term "bridge". However, it seems a bit too nautical for vehicles which operate in outer space far from the surface of any body of water.

I note that modern warships are commanded from the CIC, not the bridge, which is only concerned with steering the vessel.

A combat information center (CIC) or action information centre (AIC) is a room in a warship or AWACS aircraft that functions as a tactical center and provides processed information for command and control of the near battlespace or area of operations. Within other military commands, rooms serving similar functions are known as command centers.

CICs were inspired by science fiction:

The idea of such a centralised control room can be found in science fiction as early as The Struggle for Empire (1900). Early versions were used in the Second World War; according to Rear Admiral Cal Laning, the idea for a command information center was taken “specifically, consciously, and directly” from the spaceship Directrix in the Lensman novels of E. E. Smith, Ph.D.,[3] and influenced by the works of his friend and collaborator Robert Heinlein, a retired American naval officer.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_information_center[1]

And possibly a passenger transport vessel might have some sort of OIC (Orbital Information Center) keeping track of the orbits of functioning satellites, dead satellites, space stations, space ships in transit, space debris, meteroids, etc. for hundreds of thousands of miles around the ship as it travels in Earth orbits and to the Moon.

But to me it is most natural to think of the command center (another prossible term) of a space ship as the "control room", or some similar term like "control chamber" or "control cabin".

And possibly different characters could tease each other by using different terms for the command center that they know will annoy the others.

Answer 5

I think the difference is whether the captain is in direct control of the ship as the pilot, which indirectly correlates to ship and crew size:

• Captain is the pilot with direct control = cockpit
• Captain giving orders instead of being directly control the ship = bridge

Answer 6

Well, this is a great question! I thought it sounded easy at first glance, but then I realised I actually had no idea...so I turned to our old friend Wikipedia. I'm sure you did this too and I am preaching to the choir, but here goes.

Cockpit comes from 'cockswain', and "referred to an area in the rear of a ship where the cockswain's station was located, the cockswain being the pilot of a smaller "boat" that could be dispatched from the ship to board another ship or to bring people ashore."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockpit

Whereas the term 'Bridge' apparently comes from an actual bridge on old time steam boats: "With the arrival of paddle steamers, engineers required a platform from which they could inspect the paddle wheels and where the captain's view would not be obstructed by the paddle houses. A raised walkway, literally a bridge, connecting the paddle houses was therefore provided. When the screw propeller superseded the paddle wheel, the term "bridge" survived.

Now, as to what term you should use in your story, well, it sounds like cockpit may be more true to form history-wise given you are talking about a type of smaller shuttle between larger craft, no?

As usual, I am completely prepared to be wrong - just offering my 2 cents worth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_(nautical)

Answer 7

Probably neither. There would be much less need for a specific bridge or cockpit area when systems are automated and monitoring can be carried out from various locations. There might be a central control screen to act as a psychological reminder that this is the place where any important flight decisions are made (abort options, initiate various engine fire operations etc).

More likely is an operations room (where the "bridge" screen might be located) where crew inside the ship can monitor crew outside the ship on EVA in space or on the surface acting as CAPCOM.

Ultimately it would be a matter of taste what such a room would be called. They could call it whatever they want, but in my view operations room would be a better fit than bridge or cockpit. Watch what happens to SpaceX and their Starship in the next few years, at some point you may well see a door, seat or screen labeled control room, bridge or cockpit. We shall see.

Answer 8

Basically, if you're coming from the angle of realism and practicality, it all comes to size. Small enough ships just simply do not have enough room to have a proper shielded bridge inside of them, and\or designed to perform things that might actually need a cockpit functionality (I.e. a direct unobstructed view of where you are going), like landing on the planet plane-style or manual docking.

But for the big ships definitely only a bridge would do, and it obviously should be in the center of the vessel instead of stupidly be exposed on the outside, like too many shows to count sin.

Answer 9

First and foremost think about your target audience and what they would like. Do keep in mind that many times media miss the "target"group and land with an untargeted group. Me, I like Bridge. Any space vehicle that is capable of carrying up to 200 people is going to be large. Not withstanding just the humans, luggage, food, water, fuel, life support, more fuel, seating, more water, even more fuel and what ever else you (the author) decide this thing will be called Ship = Bridge, craft = control room/cockpit. Give yourself some time to think this through and maybe you will come up with the perfect name for it, a name that you invent. Good luck to you.

Answer 10

Nomenclature

When you say cockpit, I automatically imagine a seated position cramped amongst the machinery in a small craft/fighter, whilst when you say bridge I imagine the space where the Capitan, navigator and pilot stay on a naval vessel. That is what every average joe is going to imagine when talking about that and that's what literature and TV have taught us over the years. I don't care it's might not be right, it is widely spread as such.

Use case angle

It all depends on HOW you work out your spaceflight. I'd say that for high-intensity short duration stuff the cockpit is better, and for low-intensity long duration stuff, the "bridge" is a better solution.

The cockpit

It's great for stuff that's high intensity highly autonomous and short duration. You don't want to be strapped there for hours on end, as it is a risk to your extremities and poses long term problems. You can have "gun operator" strapped in the turret for the duration of an engagement or a fighter pilot, but as a captain of a cargo ship going for days on end, it would be highly uncomfortable without the means to get out and refresh yourself.

The bridge/CIC

Better for low-intensity long time stuff and situations, where you're not sure about the number of people that might or might not be needed to make decisions at the time.

Imagine you need to have someone else (port official, tugboat navigator, diplomat,....) in the decisionmaking process that is not normally present and if everyone is communicating from their cockpit they have no reasonable means to intersect into the process without leaving some empty cockpits just for them.

It's easier to just make one "Command room"/"bridge" and let them come there and interact with the personell. You don't have to have every console on the bridge, but there needs to be a space where the "head honchos" and "leaders" can come together and communicate.

And the closing noncommital thoughts

All of this is of course dependent on just how you write your own fiction, you can have everyone in cryostasis operating the ship by connecting their brains to a network or you can have all of them in a "bridge full of capsules", where every capsule controls some subsystem. Or you can replicate the classical naval doctrine and have departments where they are needed and then have CIC if not everything is automated or the ship is REALLY large.