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outpost_2:outpost_2_manual:detailed_unit_descriptions [2015/11/28 21:17] – [Laboratory, Basic] dave_erald | outpost_2:outpost_2_manual:detailed_unit_descriptions [2015/11/28 21:33] – [University] dave_erald | ||
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After the disasters at the Eden and Plymouth colonies, the Basic Lab design was pressed into service to support essential survival-related research, and to aid in deciphering scrambled starship scientific databases. | After the disasters at the Eden and Plymouth colonies, the Basic Lab design was pressed into service to support essential survival-related research, and to aid in deciphering scrambled starship scientific databases. | ||
====Laboratory, | ====Laboratory, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Standard Laboratory structure was designed to replace the flawed Basic Laboratory design. The new design philosophy calls for a lab that can be converted for dedicated use in one field of study, making it ideal for " | ||
+ | The Standard Laboratory also includes improved built-in hazard containment facilities designed to deal with bio-hazards, | ||
====Laboratory, | ====Laboratory, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Advanced Laboratory, often known as the "Hot Lab," is an outgrowth of the Standard Laboratory, and maintains the same philosophy of task-dedicated design. The Advanced Lab has been completely redesigned specifically to handle difficult and dangerous technologies, | ||
+ | Other than power, the Advanced Lab is completely self-contained, | ||
+ | Despite all these precautions, | ||
====Light Tower==== | ====Light Tower==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Light Towers provide illumination for nighttime colony activity. | ||
+ | The strategic advantage of light towers comes from the fact that enemy units that enter their radius will always be visible on the mini-map, even if their lights are off. | ||
====Magma Well==== | ====Magma Well==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Magma Well begins its life as a specialized transforming vehicle, a Robo-Miner. Like the off-shore oil-platforms on old Earth, colony mining structures are designed to be built in one location, then moved to a promising site to put down roots and fulfill their main function. The Robo-Miner is also capable of being deployed in a conventional mine configuration used for both Common Ore and Rare Ore Mines. These are described elsewhere. The Magma Well process is an exotic and dangerous method of extracting Rare Metals directly from the planet' | ||
+ | Dutch miners, crab-like mining heads connected to the magma tap by long umbilicals, open the upper parts of the vent to allow for free flow of molten material, while nuclear drill charges liquefy rock in the deeper crust, providing the initial flow. This begins a siphon effect that, in ideal conditions, provides a constant and uniform flow of mineral-rich molten rock. The process is imperfect, however. The molten flow can go out of control or become blocked, causing an explosive pressure buildup. The hot-cracking process used to purify ore is subject to various kinds of instabilities and reaction run-aways. Though there are many failure modes, they have one thing in common. They are all violent. | ||
====Medical Center==== | ====Medical Center==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Medical Center is an integrated hospital and infirmary unit providing complete medical care for Colonists. The facility includes medical offices, examining rooms, treatment rooms, an automated medical lab/ | ||
+ | The med-station incorporates remote telemetry of patient life-signs, multiband diagnostic EM and field imaging, and a small biochem lab unit for testing and treatment synthesis. A built-in computer aids in patient diagnosis and monitoring. A backup power supply allows the unit to function at reduced capacity for up to eight hours in the event of a power failure. The med-station is a generalist, good at many things, excelling at few, and works best when supported by the more sophisticated facilities available at a Medical Center. | ||
+ | Remote monitoring via biosensors is also built into all Residence units, allowing all but the most serious illnesses and injuries to be treated on an out-patient basis. The Medical Center coordinates closely with the DIRTs (Disaster Instant Response Teams) to provide emergency medical services, and many Colonists receive special medical-aid training, so that they may be pulled from other jobs to supplement the medical staff in times of crisis. Since surgical facilities, advanced medical technology, and medical staff are limited, stasis units derived from starship technology may be used to suspend the life functions of critical patients until such time as the resources are available for proper treatment. | ||
+ | |||
====Mines: Common Ore and Rare Ore==== | ====Mines: Common Ore and Rare Ore==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Both the Common Ore Mine and Rare Ore Mine begin their lives as a vehicle, a Robo-Miner. Like the off-shore oil-platforms on old Earth, these mine structures are designed to be built in one location, then moved to a promising site to put down roots and fulfill their main function. While the Common and Rare Ore Mines use a common mining technology, the Robo-Miner is also capable of being deployed in a Magma Well configuration, | ||
====Nursery==== | ====Nursery==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | When little Colonists ask, " | ||
+ | Genotypes taken from the bank are carefully chosen to represent the 99th percentile in key survival areas such as intelligence, | ||
+ | The Nursery manages all this with a tiny staff, thanks to extensive use of robot " | ||
====Observatory/ | ====Observatory/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Still the risk was minimal throughout the colony' | ||
+ | While most of these meteors can be handled by the micrometeor shielding incorporated into all buildings and vehicles, some are large enough to cause major damage to the colony. Unfortunately, | ||
+ | This offered small comfort to worried Eden Colonists, however, and a method was sought to eliminate the threat of incoming meteors. The Meteor Defense they developed works in conjunction with the Observatory, | ||
+ | Despite a pilot laser that detects and corrects for atmospheric disturbances and the best efforts of Observatory Scientists, tracking and targeting aren't always exact, and the weapon' | ||
+ | |||
+ | New Terra' | ||
+ | |||
====MHD Generator==== | ====MHD Generator==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | New Terra' | ||
+ | The MHD Generator requires no fuel, but maintenance is a consideration. Though Buckytubes are pound-for-pound the strongest substance known, they are also very thin, and in this application often buried only a few centimeters under the surface. They are easily damaged, must be constantly monitored, and when appropriate, | ||
====Recreation Facility==== | ====Recreation Facility==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Recreation Facility provides a utilitarian play space that can be configured to support a variety of games, activities, and modest indoor sports. Favorite Rec Facility activities in Eden include handball, tennis, billiards, basketball, bridge, and poker. Among the favorites at Plymouth are gymnastics, volleyball, ping pong, go, and a primitive electo-mechanical game called " | ||
====Residences==== | ====Residences==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | While their function may not be glamorous, Residences are possibly the most important structures in the colony, and they are deceptively sophisticated in their construction and functions. The interior of each Residence structure is divided into two major sections: the living level(s) and the lifeworks. The living level is in turn divided into the commons and the living suites. The commons is a shared living area usually located in the center of the structure. It provides lounging and play space, along with limited entertainment and educational facilities. Potted plants located around the commons help boost Morale, contribute atmosphere purification, | ||
+ | Men's and women' | ||
+ | More than just apartments, the living suites provide extensions of many colony services. Computer links and smart-paint wall-sized screens can be used for entertainment and education, as well as job-related and personal communications. Bio-sensors built into the beds can be used to monitor Colonists receiving out-patient care from the Medical Center, and can even occasionally be used to make a remote diagnosis of a minor ailment. Simple exercise equipment is built into the walls, as is a small personal cooking facility (while most colony meals are centrally prepared, access to home-cooking is again a Morale issue). | ||
+ | While quarters are small and crowded, human-factor engineering is used to make them as comfortable as possible without sacrificing efficiency and utility (the Plymouth colony seems to be better at this than Eden). In an emergency, Residence capacity can be temporarily increased by installing beds in the common areas, removing some partitions to create larger suites, and hanging hammocks for additional bedding. While this is possible, it should be a matter of last resort, due to its detrimental effect on Morale. | ||
+ | Hidden from view is the other vitally important section of the Residence, the lifeworks. The lifeworks is an integrated life-support system for human habitation. It provides climate control, air recycling, water recycling, waste treatment, automated food preparation (supplying dispensers located in the commons), and even clothing (made to order from syntharoy fabrics, which are synthesized and cut on-site, then assembled using laser-welded seams). Each colony has developed its own specialized variation on the basic Residence design. Eden has created an Advanced Residence. Its redesigned lifeworks serves a larger structure, housing more Colonists, but with the same Power and Worker operational requirements as the earlier Residence. | ||
+ | Plymouth has developed the Reinforced Residence. This version incorporates increased shielding, self-sealing bulkheads, extra safety gear, heavier construction, | ||
====Robot Command Center==== | ====Robot Command Center==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Robot Command Center supplements the main Command Center in coordinating vehicle operations, and offers a remote assist to a vehicle' | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Note:// The vehicle list, available from the Status display for the Robot Command Center, only shows those vehicles that are "in the field." | ||
====Smelter: | ====Smelter: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Because of heavy asteroid bombardment several times in its early geological history, the planet' | ||
+ | The processes under which these veins were formed is unknown, and largely irrelevant to the colonies since they are easily detected without knowing their origin. Two general types of ore are known, each made from a soup of various metals. The first is simply called Common Ore, and it is rich in lighter metals such as aluminum, titanium, magnesium, yttrium, and chromium, as well as a few common heavier metals like copper and iron. So-called Rare Ores are rich in heavier metals including radioactives. Metals in this group include gold, silver, lead, cobalt, nickel, palladium, osmium, platinum, cadmium, zinc, mercury, thorium, and uranium. | ||
+ | The technology used in both the ore smelting structures is similar to that used in the GORF recycling structure. Ores are pretreated to maximize the concentrations of useful metal, then crushed to a uniform pellet size and fed into a fusion-electric smelter and pumped under pressure into a hot cracking column for separation into individual metals. While most metals are extracted in pure form, some, such as uranium and aluminum, require additional processing. The resulting molten metal streams are solidified into micro-pellets, | ||
+ | While both the Common Ore Smelter and Rare Ore Smelter use similar technology, the smelting temperatures, | ||
====Solar Power Array==== | ====Solar Power Array==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Solar Power Array is the service end of the space solar satellite power system. The satellite in high planetary orbit collects sunlight and converts it using photovoltaic cells into electricity, | ||
+ | |||
+ | // | ||
====Spaceport==== | ====Spaceport==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | While the Spaceport is treated as one structure for administrative purposes, it is actually a complex of tightly integrated structures that carry out a wide variety of space-related tasks. First, the Spaceport is a factory. The Spaceport can build launch vehicles as well as various satellites and starship components bound for planetary orbit. The Spaceport is also a warehouse facility, where satellites and starship components can be stored until needed for launch. Launch vehicles must be assembled on the launch pad, and may not be moved to the warehouse for storage. The Spaceport is also a fuel production and storage plant, capable of providing a number of exotic fuels and oxidizers. | ||
+ | Of course, the most obvious function of the Spaceport is to launch rockets, and that it does. In the interest of efficiency, a single pad is used for rocket assembly, fueling, loading, and launching. This pad is also used for landing Reusable Launch Vehicles, and for servicing and refueling them while they are on the ground. There are two main classes of launch vehicles. The expendable Single-Use Launch Vehicles (SULVs) are operated by both Eden and Plymouth. These vehicles are constructed primarily of composites and lightweight metal alloys and are usable only once. While their payload capacities and capabilities are much the same, Eden and Plymouth use somewhat different configurations. The Eden SULV is a two-stage rocket, using hydrogen/ | ||
+ | Eden has also developed a much more advanced Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). The RLV uses an all-composite airframe construction for maximum strength and minimum weight. The aerospike engine uses a unique hybrid propulsion. Exotic monoatomic oxygen is used as the fuel for takeoff and final landing burns. For most of the flight, the engine is powered by a gas-core fission reactor, heating liquid hydrogen as a reaction mass. Bleed liquid-hydrogen from the fuel tanks is also used as a heat-shield and critical-component coolant for reentry and landing. | ||
====Storage: | ====Storage: | ||
+ | |||
+ | To maximize efficiency and automation, most ores and metals are processed in the form of a slurry: particles are suspended in a recyclable carrier fluid. In this form, both the ore and processed metals can be pumped through pipelines, stored in tanks, then pumped as needed directly to smelters and manufacturing facilities. Once the slurry reaches its final destination, | ||
+ | Common Metals are normally stored in large bulk quantities, and are often moved and used in bulk as well. A Common Metals Storage Tank is subdivided into only a few large compartments, | ||
+ | Though these structures are relatively low maintenance, | ||
====Tokamak Fusion Reactor==== | ====Tokamak Fusion Reactor==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The cool-fusion process used to power vehicles, Arachnid robots, and some self-contained structures like Light Towers and Guard Posts is best used when small, simple, and lightweight power is required. However, the cool-fusion process does not scale up well to the sizes required to power a colony. For this, a Tokamak Fusion Reactor is used. This ancient, brute-force power generation method works very well at city-sized scales. A ring of superconducting magnets is used to compress a ring of hydrogen plasma to the incredible pressures and temperatures necessary to create the hot-fusion reaction. The design used is a model of automation and efficiency, and the plant normally operates totally unmanned, requiring only occasional visits for repair and service. | ||
+ | The system is not without its flaws, however. The Tokamak Reactor harnesses powerful and violent forces, not only nuclear, but magnetic. Failures can be spectacular and destructive. For that reason, Tokamak Fusion Reactors are usually located a safe distance from other colony structures. | ||
====Trade Center==== | ====Trade Center==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Trade Center provides communications facilities for diplomatic transmissions, | ||
====University==== | ====University==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | The University provides for secondary and ongoing training of Colonists qualified for science/ | ||
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- //Go Back to [[Online Manual]]// | - //Go Back to [[Online Manual]]// | ||
- //Go Back to [[http:// | - //Go Back to [[http:// |