Nostromo and crew size

Nostromo was a rather small towing vessel, and this is the refinery which it pulls with it back to Earth.

chli-

Understood. Still, that is a massive refinery and a lot of real estate for that crew. I know that I am nit picking but it always made me wonder.

That is the Rig it was pulling...

The Nostromo was the Smaller Ship that Landed on LV-426 but indeed yes a lot of the scenes i think was on this ship maybe some could have been on the Rig maybe?  i am sure SM would be the best one to answer this.

its a good question as the Rig was Massive...  and we have to ask... and this is a Question that never gets answered much if at all on here..

Why was a huge Rig being towed with none of the operational crew/staff of the Rig?

I just assume then the Rig maybe finished its purpose, or one job and was to be towed to a new destination and so did not need any operational crew.... so its a question of where did the crew of the Rig Go?   Likely they had finished there work and would make separate journey to their destinations...

Or the Rig was intended to get to a new location and then workers would be brought in to then conduct work on it.

As i would say that Rig would be able to support a few hundred people.  Size Wise.

I think  the refinery towers were partially responsible for the big boom the Nostromo makes when it's destroyed.

Yes, Big Dave. Routine operations and maintenance checks would have to be performed. A lot could go wrong on a ship of that size and a lot did go wrong on the smaller Nostromo. There simply is no hint of anyone else in the movie except for the crew. Still doesn't interfere with it being my favorite sci fi movie though.

Could have been automated. weyland, weyland-yutani had automated refineries in that time line and before.

I'm gonna jump on the automated bandwagon. Maybe Parker and Brett could handle any minor malfunctions if they came up, but it was designed to work on its own. 

Though another possibility is that all the refining is done, but they just ship the whole thing back to refine another payload that gets deposited at the destination.

The Sulaco, on the other hand makes zero sense. There was NO ship crew that we ever saw on that one and it's a BIG ship.

@Myrddin365

That was what I was attempting to convey. Everything was supposedly automated yet there were several malfunctions in the smaller ships. I think it stands to reason that the larger elements would be of similar technology and vulnerable to the same pitfalls. My main point is that a crew that small would have a tough time managing, especially since their cargo was probably pretty valuable.

Yeah I've noticed that about the Sulaco too lol.Big ass Marine vessel,only 12 marines and an "artificial person".

The artificial person was the crew.

"Nostromo was a rather small towing vessel, and this is the refinery which it pulls with it back to Earth."

It's Sevastopol station.

Yeah the refinery towers look like Sevastopol station but its not.And i don't really understand your Bishop comment.

Bishop handled things like orbital insertion on the Sulaco. ie. actual piloting duties.

That picture in the OP is Sevastopol; not the Nostromo refinery.  The refinery is a platform with four spires.

"The Nostromo was the Smaller Ship that Landed on LV-426 but indeed yes a lot of the scenes i think was on this ship maybe some could have been on the Rig maybe?  i am sure SM would be the best one to answer this."

All the action on the ship took place on the towing vehicle - none on the refinery.

That much i understand about Bishop thank for clearing it up.And the Nostromo figured as much.

No worries.

@SM

Hmm... thanks for the insight.

Yes, the action only took place on The Nostromo (A, B and C deck). I guess the refinery was shut down and was only a carrier of the produced oil? When they were on LV-426 the refinery was in orbit around the moon.

It wasn't shutdown.  It was refining the ore while travelling back to earth.

Does it really matter S.M.

As already stated, the Nostromo was a towing vehicle (pretty bigass yeah), and the crew of seven was relevant to the script as the poor lone xeno would have a lot of running, crawling and hunting to do if there were more crew on board.

Realistically speaking without context to the story though I'd expect maybe a couple of hundred more technicians and miners, but again that's irrelevant to the script.

S.M: Are you referring to script, film or novelisation? In the novel anyway (if I remember correctly), they say it's oil. If the refinery is still in use there would be personnel there and there is no communication whatsover with it when they unhook it and leave it in orbit around LV-426 (There is even a risk that they will lose it). I'm referring to the novel now . . .

u only have to look at modern day oil rigs and refineries to see they r designed to be maintained by a minimal crew. my father worked in the north sea and even on an old rig like the balmoral the number of guys working the rig got less and less every year

chli-

Interesting. That makes me wonder what would prevent the rig from drifting away or succumbing to gravity if it weren't being towed while the crew was on the planet.

ali81

That is also an interesting real world point. Makes me wonder what happens if something goes wrong. For the movie, it was simply not addressed.

im sure if the company could design the ship to be manned with a skeleton crew then that's what theyd do, all major companies look to save money and the best way is to hire only the bare minimum number of crew. the only area that had more than one member dedicated to it was in engineering (parker and brett) so im sure the company felt that only 2 engineers would be required for major maintenance and the rest of the crew could help with minor problems. anything they couldn't handle im sure it was just a case of pointing the vessel in the required direction, sending a message and then going into stasis till a more experienced and higher numbered crew intercepted them

ali81

That sounds plausible. If WY was behind it, the refinery could have been a front and its fate didn't matter. After all, it was crew expendable. All that would matter would have been whether the Nostromo could have made it back.

yea Iv said that before. the nostromo was the first ship going anywhere near that system so a course correction wouldn't draw unwanted attention that a specific expedition would. they def knew about the signal way before the nostrono was anywhere near the system as the weyland files confirm that. since weyland passed away and im sure the files, along with any files from the events of Prometheus, AC and subsequent sequals would be sealed and coded, the board running the company may only just be becoming aware of these events.

ali81: Interesting about the oil rig. When I come to think of it I believe that the refinery which The Nostromo was towing was automated.

dk: According to the novel, Lambert made the calculations (the correct velocity) so the refinery wouldn't crash on LV-426 or stray away in space.

"Does it really matter S.M."

Yes.

"S.M: Are you referring to script, film or novelisation? In the novel anyway (if I remember correctly), they say it's oil. If the refinery is still in use there would be personnel there and there is no communication whatsover with it when they unhook it and leave it in orbit around LV-426 (There is even a risk that they will lose it). I'm referring to the novel now . . ."

It says at the start of the film "mineral ore". The novel (based on earlier drafts) says oil.  The novel also refers to it being automated and uninhabited. I think the fact Ripley blew up the ship makes any questions about it being automated moot.

As you also said, Lambert says it will stay up in orbit for at least 12 months before it decays. 

"That is also an interesting real world point. Makes me wonder what happens if something goes wrong. For the movie, it was simply not addressed."

What would go wrong?

Agree, S.M