Thrusters

Box thrusters on an OKI Manta

Thrusters are a mandatory part of spaceships: Not only can a spaceship not move on its own without them, but the game defines a spaceship by their inclusion. Thrusters determine which directions a spaceship can be flown and at what speed, and they require power and propellant to function. Cables and pipes must attach a thrusters hardpoint to a network with sufficient power and sufficient propellant in order for them to function.

Basic information

• To be able to fly, a spaceship needs at least one thruster.
  • Plasma Thrusters are the biggest thrusters so far, which can be upgraded to output more thrust. For full thrust they need a warm up time.
  • Box and triangle thrusters are big "main" thrusters and consist of multiple parts that need to be bolted together.
  • Maneuver thrusters enable small movements of the ship such as adjusting yaw and pitch, though they can still be used as main thrusters on smaller ships.
  • Thrusters need to be bolted to a hardpoint that has access to propellant and electricity.
    • The hardpoint a thruster is bolted to much be bolted to the beam frame of the ship for the thruster to function.

• Thrusters need to be in the same data network as both the flight control unit and main flight computer, if they are to be controlled by the main flight computer.

• Thrusters require power to function.
  • To get power, a cable has to be drawn from a power source, such as a Generator or Battery to the hardpoint's socket.

• A thruster also requires propellant to function.
  • To get propellant, a pipe has to be drawn between the device hardpoint and a gas container.

• Plasma Thrusters will need an additional type of propellant in the future, called Karnite.
  • This new fuel will come in the same containers as regular propellant does.

Thruster types

There are four different thruster types currently available:

Box thruster

Type Thrusters

Function Generates propulsion

Size 360×96×144 cm

Mass 18,878.53 kg (approx.)

Volume 1,897.34 kv

Corrosion resistance 350

Input / Output

Electric input

• 210 e/s (all T1)
• 183.6 e/s (all T2)
• 297 e/s (all T3)

Propellant input

• 30.96 p/s (all T1)
• 26.966 p/s (all T2)
• 39.154 p/s (all T3)

Thrust power

• 500,000 (all T1)
• 550,000 (all T2)
• 650,000 (all T3)

Device interfaces 2

Sub-components

Triangle thruster

Type Thrusters

Function Generates propulsion

Size 144×144×144 cm

Mass 11,512.05 (approx.)

Volume 1,156.99 kv

Corrosion resistance 350

Input / Output

Electric input

• 96.2 e/s (all T1)
• 84.1 e/s (all T2)
• 136.1 e/s (all T3)

Propellant input

• 27.864 p/s (all T1)
• 24.369 p/s (all T2)
• 35.239 p/s (all T3)

Thrust power

• 300,000 (all T1)
• 330,000 (all T2)
• 390,000 (all T3)

Modular interfaces 3

Device interfaces 1

Sub-components

An assembled plasma thruster with two superconductor rings

Plasma thruster

Type Thrusters

Function Generates propulsion

Size 972×576×576 cm (min.)

Mass 687,479.93 kg (min.)

Volume 73,448.71 kv (min.)

Corrosion resistance 230

Primary material Kutonium

Input / Output

Electric input 913.3 + 880 per ring e/s

Propellant input 248 + 386 per ring p/s

Thrust power 4,000,000 + 7,000,000 per ring

Device interfaces 3

Sub-components

Maneuver thruster

Type Thrusters

Function Generates propulsion

Size 72×72×24 cm

Mass 446 kg (approx.)

Volume 46.16 kv

Corrosion resistance 350

Input / Output

Electric input

• 40 e/s (T1)
• 36 e/s (T2)
• 60 e/s (T3)

Propellant input

• 17.4 p/s (T1)
• 15.7 p/s (T2)
• 20.97 p/s (T3)

Thrust power

• 40,000 (T1)
• 44,000 (T2)
• 52,000 (T3)

Device interfaces 1

Device fields

Each of the four thrusters share a set of common device fields (below), but the plasma thruster has additional device fields owing to its unique characteristics.

YOLOL field	description	range
ThrusterState	Requested output of the thruster	0 - 10 000
ThrusterCurrentThrust	Current output of the thruster	0 - 10 000

In addition to these, the plasma thruster has two extra fields.

YOLOL field	description	range
isactive	1 = charge ; 0 = discharge	/
chargelevel	the current charge level of the plasma thruster, must be 1 to produce thrust	0 - 1

To learn more about how to use fields, consult these wiki pages:

• Universal Tool
• Data networks
• YOLOL

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