Rocketry (Spaced Out)

Rockets in the Spaced Out DLC are multi-component constructs used to explore starmap, and send duplicants and cargo to different planetoids.

Construction

A Rocket Platform is the mandatory building on which a rocket is assembled. Modules are added in its menu once they have been researched.

A rocket requires at least a command module, an engine (with oxidizer possibly) and a nosecone. Engines are always placed at the bottom and nosecones at the top. Additional modules can be built such as cargo to transport goods and rover modules to visit planetoids; they don't have specific order and they can be reorder without deconstruction.

Due to game limitations, there can only be 16 active command modules at the same time.

Engines

Engines limit how high a rocket can be constructed and determine the speed at which the rocket can travel the starmap.

Each module added has a burdening factor that weighs down the rocket, thus slowing its speed (tiles/cycle it travels).

Total Rocket speed (AKA Hexes per Cycle) = Engine Power/total Burden.

Neither burden nor weight affect rocket range, only the amount of burnable fuel available.

Module	Material	Engine Power	Burden	Engine Module Height	Engine Module Width	Max Rocket Height	Wattage	Fuel per Hex	Fuel Tanks	Fuel Capacity	Range	Exhaust Element	Exhaust Temperature***
Carbon Dioxide Engine	500 kg Metal Ore	23	3	2	3	10	N/A	16.7 kg	N/A	100 kg	6	Carbon Dioxide	-28.15 °C / -18.67 °F
Sugar Engine	500 kg Metal Ore	16	1	3	3	16	60 W	75 kg	N/A	450 kg	6	Carbon Dioxide	1226.85 °C / 2240.33 °F
Steam Engine	200 kg Refined Metal	27	15	5	7	25	600 W	15 kg	N/A	150 kg	10	Steam	150 °C / 302 °F
Small Petroleum Engine	200 kg Refined Metal	31	5	4	3	20	240 W	45 kg	0	450 kg	10	Carbon Dioxide	990 °C / 1814 °F
									1	1350 kg	30
									2	1800 kg*	40**
Petroleum Engine	200 kg Steel	48	6	5	7	35	480 W	90 kg	1	900 kg	10	Carbon Dioxide	990 °C / 1814 °F
									2	1800 kg	20
									3	2700 kg	30
									4	3600 kg	40**
Biodiesel Engine	200 kg Steel	31	7	5	7	35	640 W	69.2 kg	1	900 kg	13	Carbon Dioxide	990 °C / 1814 °F
									2	1800 kg	26
									3	2700 kg	39
									4	3600 kg	52**
Radbolt Engine	500 kg Steel	34	5	5	5	20	N/A	200 Radbolts	N/A	4000 Radbolts	20	Nuclear Fallout	600 °C / 1112 °F
Hydrogen Engine	500 kg Steel	55	7	5	7	35	600 W	56.3 kg	1	900 kg	16	Steam	1726.85 °C / 3140.33 °F
									2	1800 kg	32
									3	2700 kg	48
									4	3600 kg	64**

* While it can take more fuel, it's not possible to have enough Oxidizer for that much fuel.

** This is only possible with Liquid Oxygen.

*** This marks the temperature the exhaust is ejected from the rocket, it will also receive heat from dry exhaust

Fuel tanks and Oxidizers

Sugar, Petroleum, and Hydrogen-fueled rockets require a ratio of 1 kg oxidizer per 1 kg of fuel when using Fertilizer, 1:2 when using Oxylite, and 1:4 when using Liquid Oxygen.

Module	Material	Burden	Height	Storage Capacity
Large Liquid Fuel Tank	100 kg Steel	5	5	900 kg
Small Solid Oxidizer Tank	200 kg Metal Ore	2	2	450 kg
Large Solid Oxidizer Tank	100 kg Steel	5	5	900 kg
Liquid Oxidizer Tank	100 kg Steel	5	2	450 kg

Cargo Modules

Cargo carry goods from or to asteroids, or fulfill any survival needs of the command capsule. Each module features an external port that corresponds to their specific resource, which is unlocked via the same research as the module variant. This port must be in direct contact with either the rocket platform or another port. Fittings carry anything from a cargo module into the command capsule.

Module	Material	Burden	Height	Carry Capacity
Cargo Bay	200 kg Refined Metal	4	3	12000 kg Solids
Large Cargo Bay	1000 kg Steel	6	5	27000 kg Solids
Liquid Cargo Tank	200 kg Refined Metal	3	3	9000 kg Liquids
Large Liquid Cargo Tank	1000 kg Steel	5	5	27000 kg Liquids
Gas Cargo Canister	200 kg Refined Metal	2	3	3600 kg Gasses
Large Gas Cargo Canister	1000 kg Steel	4	5	11000 kg Gasses
Critter Cargo Bay	200 kg Refined Metal	1	1	1 Critter

Utility Modules

Utility modules are used to better explore and colonize asteroids or make rockets command modules livable longer.

Module	Material	Burden	Height	Description
Orbital Cargo Module	400 kg Metal Ore	4	2	Delivers up to 6000 kg of cargo onto the surface of Planetoids in 200 kg shells.
Rover Module	200 kg Metal Ore	4	3	Deploys a Rover Bot for remote Planetoid exploration and labor.
Trailblazer Module	200 kg Refined Metal	4	3	Enables landing for one Duplicant to Planetoids that do not yet have a Rocket Platform.
Cartographic Module	350 kg Steel 1000 kg Plastic	3	5	Automatically reveals space within 1 hex of the rocket. Enables setting destinations to unrevealed space.
Battery Module	400 kg Metal Ore	2	2	Stores 100 kJ of power and leaks 400 J per cycle while producing no heat. Can be connected to other power grids.
Solar Panel Module	200 kg Glass	1	1	Generates upwards of 60 W from light whilst on a Planetoid or in open space.
Artifact Transport Module	200 kg Refined Metal	6	1	Collects, stores, and transports Artifacts from Space PoIs.
Robo-Pilot Module	200 kg Steel	4	4	Enables automatic rocket piloting without the Rocket Control Station. Consumes 2 Data Banks per Hex.

Command Modules and Nosecones

Command modules are required for the rocket to function and only one can be part of any rocket. Solo Spacefarer Nosecone can only be build at the top of the rocket while Spacefarer Module can be build anywhere but takes an extra Basic Nosecone or Drillcone.

Module	Material	Burden	Height
Solo Spacefarer Nosecone	200 kg Metal Ore	3	3
Spacefarer Module	200 kg Metal Ore	6	4
Basic Nosecone	400 kg Refined Metal 200 kg Insulator	2	2
Drillcone	400 kg Refined Metal 200 kg Plastic	2	4

Rocket Interior

Interior of a Solo Spacefarer Nosecone

Interior of a Spacefarer Module

Solo Spacefarer Nosecone functions as both the command module and nosecone, and grants a total of 28 tiles to build. Spacefarer Module offers a bigger 10x8 interior to be furnished, but does not serve as a nosecone.

The interior must contain a rocket control station to launch, however it can be deconstructed and placed at a different location.

Each spacefarer module has liquid and gas ports embedded in its walls. The liquid ports are found in the ceiling of the module, the gas ports are inside the floor. These link up to the pipe ports found on the outside of the spacefarer module and can be used to fill up liquid and gas pipes inside the spacefarer directly.

While in flight, the outgoing ports will dump any elements pumped into them to the outside of the interior walls, leaving them to be deleted by space exposure.

While grounded, the outgoing wall ports will clog if the (outside) spacefarer ports are not connected to a pipe.

Due to a bug, the space exposure outside the interior walls is currently not working for freshly constructed modules until you save and load once.

Telescopes inside a spacefarer module work regardless of their location and do not require building them adjacent to window tiles

The interior background has the unique biome type "RocketInterior"

Rocket interiors have a total world size of 32x32. The worldgen adds extra space to the world grid to guarantee enough free grid space for 16 rocket interiors with that size. While some clusters have more space available, the limit on the number of rockets is always 16. Note that this limit only accounts for constructed spacefarer modules, so you can queue more at the same time to exceed that limit (this has a chance to crash the game if the required space exceeds the available space).

Launch

In order for the rocket to launch, the command module checks for various conditions:

• A destination must be set.
• The rocket cannot have any pending constructions (it can be launched if a lander is not constructed).
• A rocket must have an engine and nosecone.
• A rocket must have a fuel tank (most engines have a fuel tank included).
• Cannot be over rocket engine height limit.
• The rocket must be sufficiently fueled to reach the destination (it can be launched even if there is not enough fuel to return).
• Cargo transfer must be complete (rocket can still be launched with partially filled cargo).
• Skilled crew must be onboard (crew is set through the pop-up and no other passengers are aboard).

The speed at which the rocket launches is directly dependent on its height. The more modules and total height a rocket has, the slower it takes for it to fully take off.

Landing

A rocket cannot land on a planetoid that does not possess a Rocket Platform. If so, a duplicant must be first sent via the Teleporter Transmitter or in a Trailblazer to the surface in order to construct one. In the event that multiple rocket platforms are available, the rocket will default to selecting one randomly; alternatively, the player can specify the platform to land on.

Heat and Exhaust

All rocket engines have an exhaust, which is divided into 2 parts:

• "Wet Exhaust": An element emitted at a specific temperature under the rocket and does not go through tiles. All rockets engine emits at the same rate of 50kg/s. Additionally the rocket hovers for five seconds on the landing pad before launching and finalizing the landing. During this period it also emits the wet exhaust at 50 kg/s. The exception is the Radbolt Engine, which emits 25 kg/s of Nuclear Fallout .
• "Dry Exhaust": A heating factor which heats all elements (solid tiles, liquids and gasses) under the rocket up to 2926.85 °C / 5300.33 °F, at a rate depending on the engine type and go through tiles and has a 3x9 rectangular pattern.

Both are done during launch and landing of the rocket.

The heat injected by the dry exhaust, in kDTU, is equal to the the (wet) exhaust element temperature in Kelvin (engines with hotter exhaust heat up the tiles faster) divided by 1 + the manhattan distance from the central output cell of the engine. Cells further away from that starting point only inject a percentage of the maximum heat energy, as visualized in the table below. This heating factor is applied every second, and follows the engine's path as it departs and arrives.

Heat Amount injected

50%	100%	50%
33%	50%	33%
25%	33%	25%
20%	25%	20%
17%	20%	17%
14%	17%	14%
13%	14%	13%
11%	13%	11%
10%	11%	10%

Abandon Ship

Selecting either the Rocket Control Station in the spacefarer module or the rocket on the starmap screen allows the player to use "Abandon Ship" in case of an emergency. Clicking the button will ask for confirmation, requiring a second click. Confirming this destroys the rocket and spawns rocket debris and escape pods that then crash land on the nearest discovered planetoid.

Rocket debris is generated from the following sources (50% of the original mass is always lost in the process):

• buildings inside the rocket generate debris from their construction materials
• items (inside storages and on the floor) inside the rocket generate debris
• world elements inside the rocket (liquids, gases, solid tiles) generate debris in their item form
• any items inside cargo bays generate debris
• any fuels and oxidizers generate debris
• any special module contents (ie. drillcone diamonds, orbital cargo module items) generate debris
• all rocket modules generate debris from their construction materials
• critters inside critter cargo bays die and generate debris from their remains (usually meat)

Rocket debris chunks have their element set to the element of the spacefarer module of the rocket. Each chunk of rocket debris can contain a maximum of 5000 Kg of items, usually resulting in multiple debris chunks getting spawned on rocket destruction. Once landed, rocket debris chunks can be emptied by duplicants (30 seconds work time, fetch chore), dropping its contents and deleting the chunk (similar to interplanetary payloads)

Duplicants will be transferred to escape pods that will keep them in stasis and reset their needs on landing. This can be used to prevent a starving or highly irradiated duplicant from dying, as it completely resets their hunger and rads to default values. Breath, bladder, stamina and many other statuses such as sickness are also reset as if the duplicant were freshly printed. Bionic Duplicants will also have most their attributes reset, their Gunk will be reset to 0% and their Gear Oil is filled, however their Power Banks are not reset.