Plasma thruster

An assembled plasma thruster with two superconductor rings

Plasma thruster

Type Thrusters

Function Generates propulsion

Availability Luxury Items

Size 972×576×576 cm (min.)

Mass 687,479.93 kg (min.)

Volume 73,448.71 kv (min.)

Corrosion resistance 230

Input / Output

Electric input 913.3 + 880 per ring e/s

Propellant input 290 + 386 per ring p/s

Thrust power 4 000 000 + 7 000 000 per ring

Device interfaces 3

Sub-components

Plasma thrusters are a type of thruster that boast both the strongest thrust output and the highest price of all available thruster types. They are uniquely modular, allowing designers to place additional superconducting rings to increase the total thrust output. Though powerful, they are hindered by a slow warm-up sequence, leaving would-be pilots vulnerable until ready.

Basic information

A properly constructed plasma thruster is comprised of 23 components:

• 1 thruster core
• 4 thruster engines
• 4 thruster frames
• 2 capacitor structs
• 4 capacitors
• 2 nozzle collars
• 2 nozzles
• At least 4 superconductor ring structs

While plasma thrusters have relatively low thrust output for their mass in their base configuration, each addition superconducting ring adds an additional 7,000,000 thrust output with no upper limit. However, the output of a plasma thruster is effectively halved while the plasma thruster is 'cold', and can only reach maximum output by charging and undergoing a lengthy warm-up sequence:

• Plasma thrusters charge when their 'IsActive' field is set to 1 and lose charge if it is set to 0.
• A plasma thruster has to be fully charged in order to produce thrust.
• Once the plasma thruster is fully charged it will begin to warm up, which will take 60 seconds.
  • While warming up the thrust will increase slowly, until reaching double it's non warmed up thrust power.

Plasma thrusters also consume significant resources even while just idling:

• While charged, but not producing thrust the plasma thruster will use 913.3 eps.
• At maximum thrust the plasma thruster will use 913.3 eps + 880 eps per superconductor ring.
• At maximum thrust the plasma thruster will use 290 pps + 386 pps per superconductor ring

This makes them ideal for very large ships such as cruisers, haulers, and miners, but less so for ships that frequently accelerate and decelerate.

Device fields

YOLOL field	description	range
ThrusterState	Requested output of the thruster	0 - 10 000
ThrusterCurrentThrust	Current output of the thruster	0 - 10 000
isActive	Active state of the thruster	0 / 1
chargeLevel	Current charge level of the thruster	0 - 1

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

• Universal Tool
• Data networks
• YOLOL

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