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. The hardpoint must be bolted directly to the frame to be seen as a valid thruster hardpoint.

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 has to be bolted to the ship's frame with at least two bolts in order for the mounted thruster to properly function or respond to the main flight computer's inputs.

• 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 propellant 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, with all thrusters except the plasma thruster now having three separate variants outlined as tiers one through three:

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

Thrusters comparison
	thrust/electricity			thrust/propellant			thrust/kg
	T1	T2	T3	T1	T2	T3	T1	T2	T3
Box thruster	2381	2996	2189	16150	20396	16601	26,49	29,13	34,43
Triangle thruster	3119	3924	2866	10767	13542	11067	26,06	28,67	33,88
Maneuver thruster	1000	1222	867	2667	1222	2889	89,69	98,65	116,59
Plasma thruster	4380 + 7955 per ring			16129 + 18135 per ring			5,82 + 50,36 per ring

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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