Rocket silo blues

[myxal]

Cheers. I'm gradually finishing up my FJ-inspired automated rocket silo.

 

A few bits that I added/changed:

• AFAICT, the placement of fuel/oxidiser tanks on the rocket makes no difference, so I'm intentionally putting them on the same level in every rocket, and padding the bottom of the rocket with research/cargo modules. Makes the ceramic piping shorter/cheaper, and puts the hydrogen pipe further out of harm's way. Though I'm still looping both liquid O2 and H2.
  
• Meteors crashing into vertical walls no longer spawn regolith on the other side, so double-walling is not necessary.
• The extensible part of gantry is vertically navigable, so dupes can climb onto it from below - that's why I put gantry access doors below it - I haven't yet had the guts to confine dupes to life in rockets so I get them out when they'd be more useful in the base than in the rocket.
  

• Rocket heat collector: Nothing too fancy, a pattern of diamond window tiles and coal tempshift plates, turned into 800kg refined carbon blocks, with a mix of regular igneous rock pipes and radiant gold/copper pipes. I used to run sedimentary/granite piping through the launchpad floor and  full-radiant throughout the whole collector block - this is OK for rockets with petroleum engine, not so much for ones with hydrogen engines - petroleum (coolant) in the pipes would boil, and if any of the pipes snapped, others would follow very quickly with the cooling loop halted. For H2 engines, I leave the floor under the rocket "heat-unsunk", and bring the pipes to 4 cells below the engine at the closest.
  
• A layer of obsidian drywall above the silo floor, to stop any metals/ores melting during landing/takeoff and escaping into space.

 

A few things keep bugging me:

1. I never quite understood why FJ built a bunker tile wall between the rockets - or was it that he built the silos one at a time, and left the wall in place after building the neighbouring silo? I just don't see the purpose, and with the enormous cost in steel, I feel like I must be missing something.
   
2. Bunker door control. Currently my bunker doors only open for rockets leaving (the 'rocket ready' automation output) OR returning (the buried space scanner under each rocket). As long as the rocket's return doesn't coincide with a meteor shower (when the meteor-targeting scanners are covered, and thus don't contribute to the scan network quality), the rocket-targeting scanners under the silos can detect a returning rocket in time. But what to do when a rocket is set to return during a shower? With all doors on the map shut, scan network quality drops to 0%, and the rocket scanner can't detect the rocket early enough.
   ?
    

 

[degr]

I never like something complex.

So, my rocket silo contains, rockets, steam turbines and auto-refueling system. Each rocket connected with timer sensor, with 5 sec green, 10 cycles red configuration. Refueling happens once each 3 cycles.

 

[Occam Blazer]

3 hours ago, myxal said:

I never quite understood why FJ built a bunker tile wall between the rockets

I would guess they are unnecessary.

3 hours ago, myxal said:

But what to do when a rocket is set to return during a shower?

I stopped covering up my rocket silos. Everything inside is pretty much immune to effects of meteors so let it rain.

This setup uses my rocket launch timer and drama lOx. I also use steam to move the heat from rocket exhaust to turbines. It exits around 530°C. This has all been running for 2,800 cycles with little maintenance.

[myxal]

14 hours ago, degr said:

Whoa.. does that still work for space-mining stuff that can't handle heat? Looks to me like solid methane and whatnot thaws off the rail, and I'd hate to lose isoresin.

I'm not quite so deep in the game that I'd fly more than 4 rockets simultaneously, though these x-thousand cycle builds do look impressive  

14 hours ago, Occam Blazer said:

I also use steam to move the heat from rocket exhaust to turbines. It exits around 530°C. This has all been running for 2,800 cycles with little maintenance.

Haven't tried using steam as coolant, yet - I imagine I'd need super-hot steam on startup, or eat the cost of burst pipes, or warm up the pipeline with hydrogen first..?  EDIT - oops, never mind. Now that I'm taking a closer look the insulated run is manageably short, and the vast majority of the pipes are running through hot tiles.

[degr]

 

10 minutes ago, myxal said:

thaws off the rail, and I'd hate to lose isoresin

It may happen sometimes in case if coal batch transform into refined carbon tile and "block" cargo bay. However, it may happen only in case if 2-3 rockets land (or been launched) in same time.