General
This is a large-grid ship designed for providing access to space from an Earthlike (or any other) world in the early and middle stages of a game. It is capable of carrying a couple small miner or other ships on its upper deck, while storing large quantities of cargo to ultimately be ferried back to the surface. I tend to use it to carry a mining ship so I can rapidly acquire massive quantities of ore to be returned to the planet for processing, as mining in space is far easier and more productive than doing so on the planetary surface, and a grinding ship so that I can grind down any captured ships during my trip and return their components as well.This is actually an updated and expanded version of a design I used in my survival world back in 2017, including both new content from later game updates and my own modding/scripting, as well as improved design in many places thanks to my increased skill in ship design since then.
What it looked like back then.
Features
The ship features a three-mode propulsion system; it is capable of maintaining level flight in atmosphere on the jet engines alone up to about 50% of cargo capacity; the additional hydrogen engines will cover the remaining difference, as well as allowing it to escape planets with gravity even over 1G, even when fully loaded. When in space, its ion system allows for the conservation of hydrogen without too serious a speed penalty, but it can operate on hydrogen thrust alone (especially useful for the early game before you have acquired platinum for ion thrusters). It is lightweight enough to be quite agile, even with only a handful of thrusters and a few gyros.It has a few external solar panels to maintain some level of battery charge, and contains onboard processing to produce hydrogen from ice and an (optional) stone crusher (see my mod for more information) to process the stone any mining ships deliver to save space. It also contains two assemblers, a hydrogen engine as a backup battery charging system, and two programmable blocks, one to rapidly offload its cargo when docked and one to cycle the lights through various colors to increase visibility so the ship can be readily spotted, even at a distance.
The cockpit area is pressurized, allowing you to conserve your oxygen, and the upper deck, in addition to the connector which will rapidly empty any connected small ship, contains access to both the cargo and hydrogen systems. There is a survival kit tucked in the right rear atmospheric engine nacelle, to allow for in-space healing, energy recharge, and gas refill.
For its return to the surface, the ship features additional parachute ports, allowing for a soft landing with low fuel costs; however, even without parachutes, it is more than capable of arresting its descent with the thrusters, though for high cargo loads hydrogen assist will be required.
Finally, the ship contains an antenna to maintain remote communications with a surface base.
Mods
This ship works perfectly in pure vanilla, but benefits from the aforementioned stone crusher. Without that, it will not have the ability to process the stone onboard, and will have to return it to base for conversion to gravel. Additionally, the blueprint comes with a Nanite Repair Beacon built-in, to allow for automated repairs. This is entirely nonessential; without that mod, the beacon will not be placed and the ship will retain full function.Blueprint Info
Grid Size
LargeBlock Count
402Estimated Volume
11x10x20Block Groups
- Atmo Jets
- Gyros
- H2 Thrusters
- Lights
- Space Truck Batteries
- Space Truck H2 Tanks
- Space Truck O2 Tanks
- Truck Gear
- Truck H2 Up
- Truck Ions
- Truck Parachutes
Estimated Block Breakdown
| Block Type | Count |
|---|---|
| AirVent | 1 |
| Armor Block | 120 |
| Armor Corner | 6 |
| Armor Corner Inv | 2 |
| Armor Slope | 21 |
| Armor Slope 2 Base | 2 |
| Armor Slope 2 Tip | 2 |
| Assembler | 2 |
| Atmospheric Thrust | 4 |
| Battery Block | 7 |
| Beacon | 1 |
| Cockpit Open | 1 |
| Connector | 3 |
| Container | 4 |
| Conveyor | 15 |
| Conveyor Sorter | 1 |
| Conveyor Tube | 6 |
| Conveyor Tube Curved | 23 |
| Gyro | 12 |
| Hex Stone Crusher | 1 |
| Hydrogen Engine | 1 |
| Hydrogen Tank | 1 |
| Ladder2 | 6 |
| Landing Gear | 3 |
| Lg Parachute | 4 |
| Nanite Beacon Construct | 1 |
| Ore Detector | 1 |
| OxygenGenerator | 1 |
| OxygenTank | 4 |
| Programmable Block | 2 |
| Radio Antenna | 1 |
| Slide Door | 1 |
| Small Atmospheric Thrust | 6 |
| Small Container | 1 |
| Small Hydrogen Thrust | 24 |
| Small Light | 19 |
| Small Thrust | 41 |
| Solar Panel | 4 |
| Steel Catwalk | 16 |
| Steel Catwalk Corner | 4 |
| Steel Catwalk Plate | 6 |
| Survival Kit | 1 |
| Thrust | 1 |
| Window 1x1 Face | 4 |
| Window 1x1 Flat Inv | 1 |
| Window 1x1 Inv | 2 |
| Window 1x1 Side | 2 |
| Window 1x1 Slope | 9 |
| Window 1x2 Flat Inv | 1 |