Mobile Suit Engineering and Operation
Author: Tommy

The humble beginnings of the Mobile Suit

With the Minovsky Era beginning military scientists and developers set out to create a conventional space fighter. Their starting point is the civilian space pod, a simple spacecraft equipped with hand-like manipulators for construction work. However, after extensive research, the researchers determine that a fully humanoid form offers greater flexibility and maneuverability. Rather than being dead weight, the vehicle's limbs can be used for maneuvering in accordance with the principles of action and reaction, conserving scarce propellant supplies. These movements are coordinated by an Active Mass Balance Auto Control (AMBAC) system, which handles all maneuvering and balancing automatically.

Researchers and developers have settled on a humanoid design they call the "mobile suit," likening it to a scaled-up space suit. Development was entrusted to a company, which constructs a series of prototypes. Though the first few designs are woefully underpowered, the problem was resolved by installing the recently completed Minovsky fusion reactor in its fourth iteration. The MS-04 is swiftly remodeled into the combat-worthy MS-05, the prototype of which is completed. Thus the mobile suit brought into the world.

Mobile Suit Variations

Mobile Suits were the foundation for other high-tech fighting machines used in military arsenals, the Mobile Weapons. Any weapon that uses mobile suit technology, be it humanoid are not, is referred to as a mobile weapon.

Researchers take the first step beyond the orthodoxy of the humanoid mobile suit. Resurrecting an alternate design concept from the early days of mobile suit development, they create the fearsome Mobile Armor (Mobile All Range Maneuverability Offense Reinforcement), a non-humanoid fighting machine with greater speed and firepower than the typical mobile suit. Liberated from the size and shape restrictions of the mobile suit, mobile armors can accommodate bulky devices like psycommu systems, I-field barriers and Minovsky crafts systems.

Mobile suit designers set out to create vehicles that can switch between mobile suit and mobile armor forms; in the former mode, they are versatile and maneuverable, while the latter mode provides power and speed. Depending on its size and power, a transforming design of this type is described as either a transformable mobile suit or a transformable mobile armor. However, these designs are seldom very cost-effective.

The development of military mobile suit technology also yields benefits in the civilian sector. Hosts of scaled-down civilian mobile suits appeared on the market, variously classified as petite mobile suits, middle mobile suits, junior mobile suits and mobile workers. These miniature mobile suits are used for tasks like construction, maintenance and salvage, just like the space pods that inspired the military mobile suit.