More Trouble with Tons

As we all know, 2136 is the year the High Republic threw off the heavy yoke of the Pure Earth. But many have forgotten the tyrannical and inefficient International Standards Organization. And ISO Standard 668. Two more than the number of the Beast. Standard shipping containers. Earther standards, keeping the spacer down.

During the great Exodus, millions of humans left Earth for new homes in space. They brought with them millions of shipping containers. Containers full of stuff: food, survival equipment, the kid’s toys, you name it. Containers they converted to shelters across a hundred worlds and more.
Obviously, no old-fashioned Pure Earth Government standard shipping containers would do. The Freight handling experts of the High Republic convened committees, considered and argued, and in time produced dense, turgid, confusing Standard Documents. The Standard Document was prayed over, preyed over, blessed, and found good.

The High Republic Standard Organization Sealed Stackable Shipping Containers (HRSO-SSSC) were lighter than the old earthling steel ISO containers. More resistant to weather. Insulated. Chemical resistant, impact resistant, meteor and radiation resistant. Not only were there refrigerated reefer versions, some were vacuum sealed or had full life support.

The HRSO-SSSC standard spread into the GPR. (Even though it was a Capitalist trick.) And into the Mercantile League (Suitably renamed to disguise their Statist origin.) The Azzurich Imperium even extended the standard, specifying armored ‘Leader Boxes’ to keep the Beast encaged. In time the Terran Union and the UFP adopted the Standard as well. The future history of freight shipping was the history of the HRSO-SSSC!

A HRSO-SSSC basic type 1 unit was 30 cubic meters. That became the basis of shipping planning and charges, and later of modular living and working space. For billing purposes, an empty unit had a Tare weight of one ton. (They could easily contain 30 tons of cargo.) In time, 30 cubic meters became known as a “Ton” of space. The rule of thumb: for each colonist, passenger, or crew, allocate a ‘ton’ of living and working space. (Unless you were under-resourced. Or a Ranan.)

Because nobody but a Standards committee member was going to say HRSO-SSSCU, type 1 equivalent. Much less ‘High Republic Standard Organization Sealed Stackable Shipping Container Unit.’ There wasn’t enough air to waste on that mouthful!