Impossible liquid hydrogen

[Mr. Rimbaud]

The nearest asteroids I can reach don't have graphite so I can't produce super coolant. And I can't produce liquid hydrogen without breaking my pipes to fuel my hydrogen rocket. Some advice?

Thanks

[JRup]

Not impossible, just annoyingly tricky.

The game has this rule where liquid & gas pipes won't bust if the packet cooled is just 10% of the pipe's capacity... So that means playing with cooling loops that hold 1kg in liquid pipes and 100g in gas pipes, if a thermo regulator is your thing.

I've yet to face that particular design problem, but some kind soul could contribute with further ideas.

[Jann5s]

Put petroleum in the rocket instead? Or try the nuclear rocket, it can reach nearly all astroids.

[Mr. Rimbaud]

12 minutes ago, Jann5s said:

Put petroleum in the rocket instead? Or try the nuclear rocket, it can reach nearly all astroids.

But the petroleum rocket only reaches 10 tiles. Theres not in this range!

[yoakenashi]

11 minutes ago, Mr. Rimbaud said:

petroleum rocket only reaches 10 tiles

Add two liquid fuel tanks, you will be able to travel 20 tiles. Note that you may also need two solid oxidizer tanks depending on which oxidizer you use.

[meekay]

16 minutes ago, Mr. Rimbaud said:

But the petroleum rocket only reaches 10 tiles. Theres not in this range!

Large petroleum rocket + 2 liquid fuel tanks + a solid oxidizer module with Oxylite should go 20 tiles total. If you use a less efficient oxidizer like Fertilizer it will not go as far.

Curiously the small petroleum rocket does not seem to be affected by the quality of the oxidizer, so you can always use fertilizer with that one.

When I get far enough in the game to add a cryo facility to my astroplex, I use the small plastic pumps instead of the larger ones. It is less energy efficient but I don't have to worry about breaking pipes due to phase transition because they only flow at 1kg/sec. 1800kg of LH2 can take a while to load but that's usually not a big problem.

There should be graphite at the bottom of the ocean planetoid, more than you will ever need. I usually send an away mission to bring back 4-5 tons of it and fill the rest of my cargo capacity with Lime and Fossil. Or if your map spawned a gold asteroid cluster you can space-mine Fullerine directly there.

[blakemw]

9 hours ago, meekay said:

Curiously the small petroleum rocket does not seem to be affected by the quality of the oxidizer, so you can always use fertilizer with that one.

It is. If you use the built-in 450 kg tank, you get 10 range from any oxidizer and better oxidizer just means less is used by the time the petroleum runs out (e.g. with oxylite the tank will still be half full once the petroleum is gone).

But if you throw on a Large Liquid Fuel Tank for another 900 kg of petroleum, then you get 10/20/30 range out of fertilizer/oxylite/liquid oxygen.

[meekay]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately adding that fuel tank takes a huge bite out of the stack height. But it might make sense for sending a single dupe on a one-way trip...

[blakemw]

2 hours ago, meekay said:

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately adding that fuel tank takes a huge bite out of the stack height. But it might make sense for sending a single dupe on a one-way trip...

For 30 tiles, Small Petroleum Engine actually has almost as much usable range as Large Petroleum Engine, that's because with the Large Petroleum Engine you need 3 Large Fuel Tanks and 2-3 Oxidizer Tanks which uses up nearly all the extra height/burden the Large Petroleum Engine offers.

What can the Small Petroleum Engine do in 20/30 range configuration?:

1. 2x Trial Blazer + Solo Spacefarer, for delivering 2 dupes as far as you please, likely with enough propellant to come home.
2. Spacefarer with an Enclosed Telescope for all your scouting needs, or a portable base. This leaves 3 height for solar panels, battery, artifact modules, whatever serves the mission best.

In fact of the main things a rocket can do, the main thing you can't do with a 20/30 range Small Petroleum Engine is drill-coning, it fits, but a cargo module doesn't so drill-coning is right out. Large Petroleum Engine can barely be used for drill-coning at 30 range, you need Liquid Oxygen and can only bring a single Cargo Module, but of course is perfectly fine at 20 range.

[DolphinWing]

I think all asteroid should have a neighbor asteroid within 10 tile range. You just need re-supply your small petro rockets after one way trip to another asteroid. I used the small petro rockets in some of my plays for a very long time. Not yet found a asteroid that I can not reach.

[blakemw]

22 hours ago, DolphinWing said:

I used the small petro rockets in some of my plays for a very long time. Not yet found a asteroid that I can not reach.

Yep, Small Petroleum Engines are really the only engine you need.

But the expression "jack of all trades, master of none" applies well to the Small Petroleum Engine. It's always going to be slower than Radbolt and is usually slower than large Petroleum. It can't haul as much as any of those engines or the Steam Engine (and for a heavy load it's barely faster than the Steam Engine, which is saying something). Its largest relative weakness is at 20 range, which is the natural range of Radbolt Engines, and also the large Petroleum Engine still has a bunch of spare height. But Small Petroleum Engine has a tendency to be good enough even if it's not the best.