Guide: Spaceships

(WIP - questions or suggestions can be directed to PeterHan5#1790 on Discord.)

Accumulator
Very short-range ships may be powered by accumulator only. + simple: easy to set up - low-powered: available power is very limited. - fragile: any event prohibiting travel or landing can leave the ship stranded and require an in-person visit

Solar + Accumulator
Adding solar panels addresses some issues of accumulators. + simple: easy to set up + low-maintenance: doesn't use any fuel or consume any items - low-powered: available power is limited. - bulky: uses a lot of space, and therefore hull integrity - affected by solar yield: be careful as some areas may not have enough solar energy to power your defenses...

Rocket Fuel Engine
Switching to Fluid Isothermal Engines uses rocket fuel, but provides continuous power + simple: easy to set up + continuous power: generates constant power as long as you have fuel - uses rocket fuel

Steam Battery
What holds a lot of energy in a small package? Nuclear steam! + simple: easy to set up + decent energy density - uses a lot of cargo integrity - no continuous power: must be frequently refilled with steam

Nuclear - Steam
Why carry around cans of steam when you can make it on-site? + good energy density + continuous power: good for long flights and high power usage - bulky: uses a lot of space, and therefore hull integrity - must be periodically refilled: condenser turbines only preserve 99% of the water used - complicated: 2 kinds of fluid, and extra circuitry for efficiency

Antimatter - Steam
Fission Schmission, let's use ALL the energy instead of just a tiny part. + amazing energy density - bulky: uses a lot of space, but at this point you have integrity to spare - complicated: 3 kinds of fluid, and extra circuitry for efficiency

Fluid tanks
Because you don't like having too many barrels + easy loading/unloading via underground pipes - need pumps to fill or empty quickly - may be slow depending on number of tanks - only store fluids

Roll-on trains
Trains... burning coal... in space... what could go wrong? + easy input/output - scheduling trains on multiple surfaces can be complicated

Logistic chests
Note: use buffer chests so logistic bots can both load and unload + easy loading/unloading via logistic robot - may contribute to robot attrition - may need a specialized logistic cell to load/unload completely

Normal chests - direct insertion
Direct insertion here means either long inserters over the wall or some sort of adjustable inserter mod. (I recommend the adjustable inserter mod) + ...not much - may be slow depending on inserter throughput.

Normal chests - belts
Space underground belts can tunnel through the spaceship floor and under the spaceship wall. Don't ask how that's airtight. + ... still not much. slightly faster than normal chests by direct insertion? maybe? - limited belt throughput: 45 items/second with normal space belts. - (if you're using deep space belts here, you need to think about your life choices) - takes extra space... like 3-5 times as much space.

Static cargo cars - direct insertion
A static cargo wagon can be placed on 3 diagonal rails, and including a stack inserter, makes it a minimum of 10 tiles per wagon (if stacked next to other wagons). + doesn't use cargo integrity - uses 5-6x as much space as a chest for its storage size - can't connect to the circuit network to measure contents

Static cargo cars - belts
+ doesn't take cargo integrity + belts can measure I/O with some complicated combinator circuitry - belts can measure I/O only with some complicated combinator circuitry - throughput limited by belts - takes even more space - like 2-3x as much as direct insertion cargo cars

Rocket fuel tanks
+ simple: the standard way - you brought enough fuel, didn't you?

Rocket fuel liquefaction
Why not bring the supply chain with us? + more dense fuel storage + can refuel with minimal planetary facilities - the fuel plant takes space and power

Vulcanite block-> solid fuel -> liquid fuel
Why not bring the supply chain's supply chain with us? + even more dense fuel storage + can refuel with even less remote facilities - twice the space, twice the power, unless you want to change the recipe manually Raw vulcanite -> crushed vulcanite -> washed vulcanite -> don't even go there that's too much to put on a spaceship.

Antimatter
It's safe, I think... + amazing energy density - can't refuel without a space facility and thermofluid

Signal I/O
Signals cannot currently be passed into or out of spaceships by wire without manual placement of the wire. A fix that adds electrical and signal transmission capabilities to spaceship clamps is in the works. Rudimentary communication can be done with fluids, tanks, and underground pipes.

Signals to console:
There is no real benefit from using more than one clamp, so use one clamp and put the signal on a constant combinator attached to the console. You can put more than one clamp, but it's pointless and may create problems for other spaceships. These two go well together on a constant combinator. You can either activate and deactivate it manually or with a decider combinator set to pass all received signals. The destination signal for a surface can be found in the info box in the universe explorer - it's a signal unique to each zone or spaceship. The destination clamp # can be found on the clamp
 * Speed - Tells the ship how fast to try to go. This is useful for regulating power usage on solar-powered ships to make sure there's enough power for the defenses. Recommended methods are either a constant combinator or a math combinator linked to an accumulator.
 * Spaceship clamp # - indicates the clamp on the spaceship to use to dock
 * Destination
 * Destination clamp #
 * Launch signal
 * 1) Launch based on fuel: Useful when you want to pass a signal to take off from outside
 * 2) Launch based on cargo: Useful when you can wire up your cargo either directly or with a roboport

Routing:

 * Simple back-and-forth
 * Multi-selector