Sorry for lack of search-fu if its been asked already, can you have more than one essential component? page 199 of RT says a ship must have one (no more) component that could be taken as you must have at least one but you don't need two looking at the emergency gellar field it lends itself to this which leads into my next question. How many cargo passengers soldiers/ prisoners / star fighters and pilots crew members can you fit into barracks brigs launch bays crew quarters cargo holds is it some arbitary number or x number like some of the ships population break downs into servitors pilots or passengers. I remember reading for star fighters its something along the lines as 2 fighters per ship's total space and read some ships have crew pilots or servitors. Basically how much extra (in terms of prisoners or passengers unless you get them to run the ship to work off part of the passage costs) or doubly skilled (can be a crew member and a soldier and or a pilot) you can have in your ship based on the ships population without taking a hit to your crew pop and seeing a decline in your ships operations

No, by RAW you cannot have multiple Essential Components of the same type.

Ship populations and cargoes are largely arbitrary, but this is what Upkeep tests were designed to handle. If you happen to have a specialist slain in combat or accidentally vented to space or somesuch, make an Upkeep Test with the same initial modifiers. Success means you have replacements aboard. Failure means you just lost your only expert on Webway gate theory and will need to find another.

As to many spacecraft you can have: "a useful guideline is that a ship has room for one lighter, shuttle, or heavy lifter for every 5 points of Space its hull has. However, if a ship has a cargo hold component (such as the Cargo Hold and Lighter Bay), they should be able to hold an additional four vehicles."

There is a solution:

• Buy two ships.
• Install same essential component on each.
• Profit!