Thruster fuel and oxidizer ratio
A thruster at full power uses 120 thruster fuel and 120 oxidizer per second. With the basic recipes that is 3.2 chemical plants for fuel and 3.2 for oxidizer per thruster; with the advanced (calcite) recipes, less than one of each.
The recipes
| Recipe | In | Out | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thruster fuel | 2 carbon, 10 water | 75 thruster fuel | 2 s |
| Thruster oxidizer | 2 iron ore, 10 water | 75 oxidizer | 2 s |
| Advanced thruster fuel | 2 carbon, 1 calcite, 100 water | 1,500 thruster fuel | 10 s |
| Advanced thruster oxidizer | 2 iron ore, 1 calcite, 100 water | 1,500 oxidizer | 10 s |
All four run in a chemical plant. The advanced recipes need the advanced asteroid processing research.
Per thruster at full power
| Basic recipes | Advanced recipes | |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical plants for fuel | 3.2 | 0.8 |
| Chemical plants for oxidizer | 3.2 | 0.8 |
| Carbon per second | 3.2 | 0.16 |
| Iron ore per second | 3.2 | 0.16 |
| Calcite per second | none | 0.16 |
| Water per second | 32 | 16 |
Water comes from melting ice from oxide asteroids, carbon from carbonic asteroids and iron ore from metallic ones. See asteroid crushing.
Feed thrusters less for more efficiency
How full a thruster's fluid boxes are decides both its thrust and its efficiency:
| Fluid boxes filled | Efficiency | Thrust | Fuel use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% or less | 100% | 10% | 10% |
| 25% | 90% | 44% | 51% |
| 50% | 72% | 84% | 119% |
| 75% | 55% | 100% | 186% |
| 80% and more | 51% | 100% | 200% |
A thruster kept half full gives 84% of its thrust for 60% of the fuel it burns when full. That is why many platforms feed thrusters through a pump controlled by the circuit network, or simply build more thrusters and feed each one less.
Ready-made ships: space platform blueprints.