Rockets are the late game of Stationeers. They mine ore in orbit, scout locations and bring cargo back. This article summarises what the game data and the game code say about the parts: recipes, thrust, mass, volumes and logic values – and how a launch works.
It all starts with the rocket manufactory
Almost every rocket part is made by the Rocket Manufactory. The autolathe prints its kit from 20 iron, 2 gold and 10 copper. According to the game data it knows 36 recipes, including:
| Part | Ingredients |
|---|---|
| Fuselage kit (Kit (Fuselage)) | 20 steel |
| Launch Mount (kit) | 60 steel |
| Launch tower (kit) | 10 steel |
| Gas fuel tank (kit) | 5 copper, 10 steel |
| Liquid fuel tank (kit) | 5 copper, 20 steel |
| Avionics (kit) | 2 electrum, 3 solder |
| Rocket miner (kit) | 10 steel, 5 electrum, 5 invar, 10 constantan |
| Drill head (basic) | 20 steel |
Plan for plenty of steel: the launch mount, one fuselage kit and two tanks alone cost over 100 steel, plus steel sheets in the build stages.
Launch mount and tower
The Launch Mount is the pad on the large grid, about 4.4 × 3.3 × 4.4 m. It is built from the kit plus 4 steel sheets with the screwdriver and another 4 with the welding torch. The launch tower stands next to it. Neither has power or logic. There is also an orbital launch mount, but the data lists no recipe for its kit.
The fuselage
The Kit (Fuselage) builds several parts: fuselage pieces, an engine mount, fairings and a double door. Each fuselage piece gets 4 steel sheets with the welding torch in the second step, the engine mount 1 steel sheet. In the game code the engine mounts carry the size Medium.
Further fuselage types (A to E) are sold as kits by the rare items trader for 40, type E for 60. Crew modules have neither a recipe nor a trader in this version: their recipes are in the rocket manufactory data, but switched off there as unfinished.
Engines
The current engines are all made in the rocket manufactory; the heavy variants are bought from the rare items trader (1,000 per kit). The values come from the game code:
| Engine | Inlets | Max thrust (N) | Exhaust velocity (m/s) | Flow rate (kg/s) | Power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pressure Fed Gas Engine | 2 × gas | 40,253 | 3,862 | 10.42 | 10 W |
| Heavy Pressure Fed Gas Engine | 2 × gas | 62,602 | 3,541 | 17.68 | 10 W |
| Pumped Gas Engine | 1 × gas | 16,208 | 4,023 | 4.03 | 200 W |
| Pressure Fed Liquid Engine | 2 × liquid | 29,629 | 6,313 | 4.69 | 20 W |
| Heavy Pressure Fed Liquid Engine | 2 × liquid | 44,824 | 5,680 | 7.89 | 20 W |
| Pumped Liquid Engine | 2 × liquid | 6,755 | 4,054 | 1.67 | 200 W |
The three numbers are linked: max thrust = flow rate × exhaust velocity. The game code calculates the flow rate from the molar mass of the burnt gases in kilograms per second and displays thrust in newtons. For the pressure fed gas engine that is 10.42 kg/s × 3,862 m/s ≈ 40,250 N. The game determines the max thrust once in a test burn; in flight the real thrust depends on fuel, pressure and Throttle (0 to 100). It shows the trade-off: liquid engines exhaust faster and use fuel more sparingly, gas engines deliver more thrust instead.
The older Rocket Engine (Small) is hidden in this version and has no kit.
Fuel and tanks
All engines report Combustion – they burn gas or liquid. The pressure fed engines have two inlets (Input and Input2), the pumped gas engine one. Which substances burn together at all, and what they produce, is shown by the combustion table:
The tanks come in two sizes:
| Tank | Volume | Kits | Max pressure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gas Capsule Tank Medium | 1,500 L | 5 | 60,795 kPa |
| Gas Capsule Tank Large | 3,000 L | 10 | 60,795 kPa |
| Liquid Capsule Tank Medium | 1,500 L | 5 | 6,079.5 kPa |
| Liquid Capsule Tank Large | 3,000 L | 10 | 6,079.5 kPa |
A worked example with the gas equation: the medium gas tank at 10,000 kPa and 20 °C (293 K) holds n = 10,000 · 1,500 ÷ (8.3144 · 293) ≈ 6,160 mol. The large tank holds twice that at the same pressure.
Thrust versus weight
For a rocket to lift off, thrust must exceed its weight. The avionics show Thrust, Weight, Mass and ThrustToWeight for that. A value above 1 means: enough thrust.
The game code calculates this in plain physics: acceleration = thrust ÷ mass + gravity, thrust in newtons, mass in kilograms. How much gravity matters is shown by a worked example: a pressure fed gas engine with 40,253 N lifts at most this mass:
| World | Gravity | Mass at thrust = weight |
|---|---|---|
| Mimas | 0.97 m/s² | about 41,500 kg |
| Moon | 1.62 m/s² | about 24,800 kg |
| Mars | 3.7 m/s² | about 10,900 kg |
| Vulcan | 5.5 m/s² | about 7,300 kg |
| Venus | 8.87 m/s² | about 4,500 kg |
The same rocket that lifts off easily on the Moon does not leave the ground on Venus. According to the game code the rocket's mass is made up of fixed values per part plus the weight of the gases and liquids on board:
| Part | Mass |
|---|---|
| Fuselage piece | 250 kg |
| Engine mount | 100 kg |
| Engine | 500 kg, heavy variant 750 kg |
| Rocket Miner | 500 kg |
| Cargo Storage (Small) | 30 kg + 1 kg per occupied slot |
| Rocket Scanner | 50 kg |
| Gas collector, gas filtration | 20 kg each |
| Auxiliary battery | 10 kg |
| Fairing (nose) | 0 kg |
A worked example: engine mount, one pressure fed gas engine, two fuselage pieces and one cargo storage weigh 100 + 500 + 500 + 30 = 1,130 kg empty, plus the fuel. On Mars that is 1,130 × 3.7 ≈ 4,180 N of weight without fuel. 40,253 N of thrust gives a thrust-to-weight ratio of about 9.6 – plenty of headroom for fuel and cargo.
Avionics and control
The Rocket Avionics is the rocket's brain (10 W, kit from 2 electrum and 3 solder). It has the most logic values of all rocket parts, among them:
- Flight:
Altitude,Apex,VelocityRelativeY,Acceleration,Gravity,ReEntryAltitude - Propulsion:
Thrust,Weight,ThrustToWeight,BurnTimeRemaining,AutoShutOff - Destination:
DestinationCode,CurrentCode,TimeToDestination, writableAutoLand - Exploration:
Survey,Discover,Chart,NavPoints,Sites,Richness,MinedQuantity
It also has a mode. To match, IC10 has the namespace RocketMode. with Mine, Survey, Discover, Chart, Deploy, SurfaceScan and Transfer. On board there is a dedicated rocket circuit housing for an IC10 chip, and logic uplink and downlink (50 W each) carry data between rocket and base.
The launch step by step
According to the game code a launch goes like this:
- Set the target. The rocket stands on the Launch Mount. A chip writes
DestinationCodeto the avionics. Only a reachable target on the space map is accepted. - Give thrust. Switch the engines on and raise
Throttle. As long as thrust ÷ mass is smaller than gravity, the rocket stays on the mount – simply nothing happens. - Climb. Once the acceleration is positive, it lifts off. If thrust fades and the rocket falls back before it has completed the launch stretch, it takes the launch site as its target again. With
AutoLand1 the avionics then handle the landing. - In space. At the end of the launch stretch the rocket is in space, gravity no longer counts. At the destination the mode ends, and with
AutoShutOff1 the avionics switch off every device on the rocket's data network – except themselves, batteries and the rocket circuit housing. - Landing. With
AutoLand1 the avionics check before the approach whether the thrust is sufficient. If it is not, they abort and fly back.
The avionics estimate BurnTimeRemaining from the fuel use of the last tick.
Payload: mining, scanning, transport
- The Rocket Miner (100 W) takes a drill head. There are seven kinds, from basic to high speed ice. It hands out its yield through a chute output.
- The Rocket Scanner (200 W) works with a scanner head. The game code lists a cycle of 20 and 30 points.
- The Cargo Storage (Small) has 50 storage slots and chute connections.
- Umbilicals for chute, gas, liquid and power connect the rocket on the ground to the base.
Next steps
- Trading with traders and the landing pad: Trading: satellite dish, trader classes, landing pad
- Worlds and their gravity: Planet data sheet
- Superalloys for expensive parts: Furnaces and alloys
- What is printed where: Recipes by machine
Items in this guide
- Rocket Manufactory
- Launch Mount
- Launch Tower
- Pressure Fed Gas Engine
- Heavy Pressure Fed Gas Engine
- Pumped Gas Engine
- Pressure Fed Liquid Engine
- Heavy Pressure Fed Liquid Engine
- Pumped Liquid Engine
- Gas Capsule Tank Medium
- Gas Capsule Tank Large
- Rocket Avionics
- Cargo Storage (Small)
- Rocket Miner
- Rocket Scanner
- Rocket Engine (Small)