laundry on Serentiy

POSTED BY: gohm
UPDATED: Monday, February 6, 2006 22:06
VIEWED: 12333
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GOHM

Friday, February 3, 2006 5:57 AM

Just wondering...what's the laundry situation on a Firefly 03? It's certainly not like on Star Trek where the more mundane aspects of human existence (e.g. toilets) aren't ever seen. So where is the laundry room? I would assume that each bunk wouldn't have an individual washer/dryer (the ship is too practical for that), so where? Perhaps off of the airlock/stairs passage between the crews' bunks and the kitchen?

Thanks for your thoughts. Don't forget the fabric softener.

BARCLAY

Friday, February 3, 2006 6:12 AM

Well... you see a shower on Serenity at all? All we have is the shot of Inara taking a sponge bath, and Zoe's comment that it'd be nice to have "a real bath." So, my thoughts, given the fronteir nature of the show, are that there isn't a washer or dryer. Any washing of clothes is probably done by hand in a basin and hung to dry in your own bunk. More 'civilized' places, like the Core probably have some form of laundry service that's technologically advanced, but not fringe ships like a Firefly.

"You are on the Global Frequency."
http://www.frequencysite.com
http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com

TEALCANDTRIP

Friday, February 3, 2006 7:11 PM

Bump.... cause I've actually thought about this on occasion! Seriously, I'm a fairly new fan, but surely one of you guys has noted a thinly vieled washer/ dryer set in the back of one of the episodes....

Okay, off to go look!

TEALCANDTRIP

Friday, February 3, 2006 7:23 PM

You know they do do laundry in the verse...

How do I know?

Cause in the beginning of Hearts of Gold, the two young prostitutes are hanging up laundry to dry on the line! Which gives some credence to Barclay's theory.

Still these HoG people are in the middle of nowhere, at odds with the local population, and we don't know if they wash by hand too. Though come to think of it, that kind of describes Serenity.... Anyway that isn't to say that's how you'd do it on a ship. After all, water in the bunks (from the dripping clothes) could promote unhealthly mold, not to mention the fact that Jayne and Kaylee's bunks in particular are rather small. If they wash their clothes after every wearing, they'd have perpetually damp quarters! Also, we see everybody's room on at least one occasion, yet nobody ever has any clothes drying.

More to come...

DUG

Friday, February 3, 2006 7:59 PM

We do see Book headed to the showers in one ep; I think OIS. I would wager on a washer dryer on ship. The ship is designed for long trips; it's only logical that would have been included in the design.

Now, laundry may not be done after EVERY wearing due to water conservation issues. They don't seem to have any magic star-trek recycling capabilities, so they would have limits as to how much water could be wasted. And used water would have to either be stored in the septic vat or vented to space, which would add hazards to shipping lanes.

TEALCANDTRIP

Friday, February 3, 2006 8:10 PM

They could also use water multiple times.

Say drinking water is 'new' water.

Then used as sink/ shower/ bath water
Then dish/ laundry water (with a strong enough soap and a decent filter this could be okay)
Then coolant for the engines?

Just a thought.

MICHAELANGELO

Friday, February 3, 2006 8:35 PM

The aft head in the passenger section is too small. It has a toilette & shower there. There is space in the forward port side of the kitchen where an over/under would fit nicely.

And yes, having been in the Navy, you don't wash clothes after every wearing (undies being the exception). You wear your clothes for several days or even a week, same with towels. On my ship it took 1 sometimes 2 weeks to get back your laundry, so you'd better have enough to last. You would put it all in a web bag & pin/tie it shut. They would throw the entire bag in a huge washer.. along with a dozen other such bags. A good laundry day was when you got it back & it hadn't opened during the washing or drying. If it did open, you'd probably not get everything back. That bites.
Also, related a bit, you can take a "Sailor's Shower" with relatively little water. The shower head has a button on it that has to be pressed to get water. You can take a pretty thorough shower with only 1-2 gallons of water with a bit of practice. Field troops can maintain a semblance of hygiene with a fraction of that, washing the essentials (head, pits, groin & feet) for a fair amount of time. I’m sure water conservation was an issue on the ship. In ep1 Mal washed his hands pretty much by just getting them wet. For me it appeared to be a conscious effort to keep water usage to a minimum.

JUMPER

Friday, February 3, 2006 8:41 PM

I spent two weeks in the Utah Desert as Crew Engineer at The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station.

We had a pretty cool water recycling system:
-Fresh/Potable Water for drinking, washing dishes, and taking showers.
-Sink/Shower drains go to a 'grey water' tank.
-Grey water gets pumped into a set of tanks with algae and plants, which remove most of the contaminants. UV light treatment kills any remaining bacteria.
-'Clean' grey water is used to flush the toilet.

We had our water consumption down to like 30 gal/day of fresh water for 6 people. I believe the average in the US is like 50gal/day/person.

We didn't do laundry, though, plenty to last two weeks. Showers every 3rd day.

The thing that struck me about the system was that it was relativly simple and just by re-using water once and being careful we were able to cut our consumption so much without any major hardship. It's one thing when environmentalists preach about how much water we waste, it's another thing when you watch the 50gal tank in the Hab slowly drain throughout the day.

More info on MDRS here: http://www.marssociety.org/mdrs/index.asp

DUG

Friday, February 3, 2006 8:52 PM

I think the grey-water reusage ideas make sense; after I posted I came up with the same kind of thoughts too.

The sailor's shower is the kind of thing I figured Zoe was complaining about when she mentioned having a "real bath". Being able to luxuriate in the water rather than having to conserve being the difference.

I saw a home makeover show where what they called a european style unit was installed. It combined the washer and dryer into one unit the size of a small oven. Plenty of space on a firefly for somekind of laundry unit, even with todays off the shelf items.

FLETCH2

Friday, February 3, 2006 8:57 PM

My guess is that they probably do recycle for a number of reasons. First, very few of the places they go to seem set up to handle ships (ie they tend to land in fields and the like.) If taking on potable water was something they needed to keep doing that would seriously limit their ability to stay off the grid,

In addition in OOG it was going to take them 2 weeks to get where they were going. That's an awful lot of water to have to haul/trow away.

My guess is that they recycle a lot though of course the system is losy. Given the size of the ship it probably uses less space to have a small tank and recycle what you have than to carry enough for your needs and then throw it out.

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