The supermatter is a giant pile of exotic material capable of emitting both ionizing radiation and (flammable) gasses. While the generation of these elements is normally rather low, the supermatter can be activated into releasing more by, well, most anything: even the pressure of gases can start the delamination process if they hold enough energy (heat, usually). You see where this is going? That's right, self-induced chain reactions.

If working with supermatter, your main job as an Engineer will be to cool the supermatter down to prevent it from exploding (luckily a very easy job), while simultaneously exciting it to harvest radiation pulses and gather heat energy via its adjacent TEG. It's not an unforgiving engine, and as long as you handle it with proper care and never, ever, EVER touch it, everything will be fine.

A supermatter engine utilizes a highly volatile artificial element known colloquially as supermatter. Supermatter destroys anything it touches in a violent reaction, creating heat, plasma, and radiation. Observing a supermatter engine that is currently active will cause hallucinations unless you are wearing a Meson Scanner.

Supermatter is extremely volatile, and reacts to the gases, heat, and pressure in its environment as well as the stimuli it receives. If overstimulated, the shard will begin to destabilize. If this is not corrected quickly, the supermatter will detonate violently. You want to avoid this outcome, so pay attention.

Supermatter is VERY DANGEROUS. Activating the Supermatter should be the last step in setting up any form of Supermatter based power system! If you have had one shipped to you, the crate should stay LOCKED AND SECURED until everything is ready. If your Research or Boarding team has recovered supermatter, lock it in a safe place until you are ready to do something with it! You require safety gear to work around it. A full radiation suit or radiation-proof hardsuit AND meson scanners are recommended. Most of setting up the Supermatter involves a gas loop that is designed to cool down the Supermatter chamber and maintain a stable pressure. Engineers working with supermatter should have a working knowledge of Atmospherics. Anything that bumps into the Supermatter is fundamentally annihilated. Don't touch it, don't throw things at it, don't stare at it. The door to the Supermatter Chamber should be bolted at all times barring emergency maintenance.

The supermatter is an extremely unstable crystal with particular properties. Here's how it behaves:

The crystal's power determines how much energy is produced each cycle, and also the range and amount of radiation and hallucinations generated.

Power starts at zero, and decays toward zero over time. At zero, the supermatter is inactive; above zero, the supermatter is active.

Hitting the crystal with a non-physical bullet (usually emitters, but other energy projectiles will work) will increase its power.

Once activated, power is increased every tick depending on the gas mix. The impact scales with the gas' temperature.

Vaporizing an object or creature will increase the power by a significant amount, theoretically relative to the object's size.

Power decay can be lowered or even completely prevented with CO2.

Too much power will result in dangerous side effects, like arcs of lightning or anomalies.

The crystal must be kept stable if you don't want it to explode.

Stability does not change by itself.

Hot gases (hotter than 310K) will destabilize the crystal.

Cold gases (colder than 310K) will stabilize the crystal.

CO2 will gradually stabilize the crystal, depending on concentration, and can counter the destabilizing effects of power or pressure at high volumes.

Physical bullets will destabilize the crystal, depending on the damage they do.

Large amounts of power will destabilize the crystal.

Large amounts of moles of gas pressure will not only destabilize the crystal but also prevent the stabilizing effect of cold gases.

Each gas has a different effect when it surrounds the supermatter crystal. The strength of each effect depends on the percentage of it in the gas mix in the supermatter chamber.

The crystal produces plasma and oxygen while active.

Plasma and Oxygen can burn if they're hot enough. This will heavily increase the temperature and reduce the oxygen percentage; if not kept under control this can end up destabilizing the crystal. Plasma generates Freon when it burns, but will not generate enough to stop the ignition reaction on its own.

The amount and temperature of the produced gas is determined by the current crystal power; more power results in more and hotter gas, overall.

The amount of oxygen produced is proportional to the temperature of the absorbed gases. Very cold gas input will result in very little oxygen.

The crystal will affect nearby creatures and radiation collectors while it's active.

The range and power is determined by the current power. Being further away from the crystal also mitigates the effect.

The crystal will cause hallucinations to nearby creatures if they're not wearing meson scanners or equivalents.

The crystal will irradiate nearby creatures. A radsuit or other protective clothing can negate this effect.

Anything that touches the crystal directly that is not made of neutronium will be consumed and turned into dust. The supermatter is transported via a cart with a neutronium shield that prevents it from vaporizing; the only safe way to transport the supermatter is by pulling this cart around. Again, touching the crystal will result in death, so don't do it!

If the crystal reaches 100% instability, it will delaminate. There are several different events that may happen when the crystal delaminates and they all depend on the state of the crystal during delamination.

A crystal in a heavily pressurized gas environment with large amounts of moles will always collapse into a singularity. This will disrupt the immediate area, draw objects from farther away inwards, and release a moving singularity that may cause further damage throughout the ship.

A crystal that has excessive amounts of power stored inside it will cause an explosion that obliterates the immediate area, and releases several energy balls similar to Tesla energy balls that will cause further destruction; the number of balls depends on the power involved.

A crystal that is neither heavily overpressurized or overcharged will simply explode. This causes massive damage, but at least doesn't make anything worse happen.

A crystal that is heavily overpressurized and sufficiently overcharged may cause a gravitational cascade, which will begin to annihilate the ship altogether in an ever-expanding singularity. If this happens, abandon ship immediately because there is almost nothing you can do to stop a cascade event.

The supermatter engine can be set up in many different ways and experienced engineers are encouraged to experiment. The less experienced engineers can refer to the safe guide below.

This is an inefficient but very safe and simple setup for the engine. Stick to this until you feel that you understand the basics of this engine.

Put on an optical meson scanner and a full radiation suit in case someone prematurely activates the supermatter crystal. Why: Meson Scanners protect from hallucinations, while the suit protects from radiation. Once the supermatter is activated, it will start emitting both.

1. Your first step should be in setting up the pipe system so that your desired gases are being released at maximum pressure. The pumps you want to activate are the ones attached to the N2 canisters, the pumps in and out of the crystal chamber, and the pumps leading to and from space. Why: The pump on the top puts the filtered output gas back in the loop. The pumps leading out of the N2 canisters put N2 in the loop, reducing the power generated but also reducing the temperature the crystal generates. The pumps that go in and out of the crystal chamber simply insert and take away the gas mix. The two pumps below leading to space put the gas into a cooling loop, so it'll be cold when it is re-inserted into the engine.

2. Make sure that the filter on the left is set to None and the four filters on the right to N2, None, None and Freon. Turn them all on and set them to max pressure as well. Why: The first filter is there to collect plasma from the output mix into the canisters. You can optionally turn it on to collect plasma gas produced by the engine. The filters on the right separate the gases produced by the supermatter (N2, and Freon from burning plasma) to keep the airmix constant. There is a loss of oxygen this way, but it is safer.

3. Swipe your ID at the air alarm outside the Supermatter Chamber, and note the names of the three vents and three scrubbers assigned to the chamber. Open the air alarm menu and set the noted vents to 5000 kPA pressure and the scrubbers to siphon and extended range. Why: The air alarm controls the vents (which puts gas in the chamber) and scrubbers (which take gas away from the chamber). This step makes sure they're active and working efficiently. With these all done, the nitrogen should be cycling through the system and getting nice and cool.

1. Open the secure storage. You will need someone with access (CE, Captain, or ask the AI) to press the button in the CE office. This gives you access to the plasma canister. Alternative: Swipe an engineering ID on the APC to unlock it. Turn the APC off. Use a crowbar on the blast door to force it open. Return to the APC and turn it back on, then swipe your ID to lock it again.

2. Obtain six plasma tanks. They may already be loaded in the radiation collectors, or can otherwise be taken from the tank dispenser.

3. Fill each plasma tank with the plasma canister. First, click the canister with a plasma tank in your active hand. Then open the canister menu and set the pressure to max. Double check to see if the tank was inserted correctly, then open the valve and close it after the tank has been filled. Eject the tank. It's very important to only open the valve if a tank is inserted, or you'll be releasing a huge cloud of flammable, poisonous plasma in the air.

4. Insert each plasma tank into a radiation collector, then turn each on by clicking it with an empty hand. Lock them with your ID card when you are done. Why: Radiation collectors become more efficient if their plasma tanks contain more plasma. If you only keep the plasma tanks half-full, they won't produce enough power to fuel the ship. The engine is now ready to produce power.

1. Double-check to ensure the cooling loop is active; you don't want to have an active supermatter with a pump still set to 101kPa or the vents/scrubbers inactive!

2. Head into the emitter chamber, on the right side of the containment chamber. The emitter chamber is a series of mirrors positioned to reflect the emitter beams towards a central focus that is aimed at the supermatter in its containment chamber. Activate each emitter to turn them on. Don't stand in front of them unless you want some serious laser burns!

Congratulations! The supermatter engine is running!

Here are some pointers and hints on how to get more power out of this engine:

Coordinate with other engineers. Don't just silently adjust gases and pumps or you might end up causing accidents or decreasing efficiency.

Higher temperatures generate more energy. Higher amounts of oxygen moles result in more power.

There is a can of freon for emergency cooling in secure storage. Consider opening it in the engine airlock if the engine is about to go critical. You can always scrub out the freon later with a gas filter.

You can pump gas from the atmos mixing loop directly into the engine by using the orange pipe.

The supermatter crystal will glow in a distinct orange color if the gas composition and pressure levels in the chamber are ideal. This will reduce the impact of heat on the generation of power.

Consider setting the first filter of the loop to plasma. The supermatter produces plasma, which can be collected and used to refill the radiation collectors.

Assuming you know what you're doing when setting up the Supermatter engine, it should be fairly self-reliant. That said, if something goes wrong, it is likely due to incompetence, damage, or deliberate sabotage.

Inspect the gas loop to confirm it is intact and operational. Check the gas meters to quickly ascertain where a problem may lie. If any of the meters report an unusually high or low amount of gas, then you're close to finding the issue!

Common gas loop failures include:

Gas pumps offline.

Gas pumps left on default pressure. (Crank them up to 4500kpa!)

Gas filters offline. Remember! Filters do not allow ANY gas to pass through if they're turned off! If you don't wish to filter anything out, leave them online but set to filter nothing.

Gas filters left on default pressure.

Supermatter chamber vents improperly configured.

Supermatter chamber scrubbers not siphoning.

Heat exchange pipes broken. Space dust can slip through the defenses on occasion, or a traitor may detach a section.

Too much gas! If a section has too high of pressure, the gas pumps cannot push anything more into it!

Gas temperature too high to stabilize with the cooling loop alone? Unleash the freon.

If the supermatter is delaminating and the gas loop is operational, use an atmos analyzer to check for problem gases in the loop. Someone may have slipped in some carbon dioxide, for example. Double-check the filters to see if they're getting rid of unwanted gases.

If all else failed, pray that an Atmosian elder investigates and finds the problem before it's too late. Better yet, call one before the ship explodes.

By affixing a canister to the output of the filters, you can filter out whatever gases you want into canisters for later usage. Ideal when you want to extract purified freon for later usage, or remove CO2 from the mix quickly. Plasma canisters are already set up, but you'll have to add your own filter setups for other options.

In an emergency, you can change the filter settings of the plasma canister from None or Plasma to whatever gas you need to remove. It'll contaminate whatever you were doing with the canisters, but it's much better than letting the supermatter explode because you couldn't figure out how to remove the CO2 from the system.

Radiation collectors require tanks of plasma to operate. The more plasma, the better they perform and the longer they perform without needing replacement. As such, you may want to arrange for cooled plasma when preparing to replace the tanks.

The Supermatter SMES Cells typically don't require much in the way of setup, but if you optimize power output, you may want to take advantage of the additional power and turn up the charge rates. Remember to make sure all SMESes are recharging and that they are set at different staggered rates. This will give anyone operating the Power Management Console an idea that the Supermatter Engine needs to be checked if one or all of them stop charging, while still giving you plenty of power to work with. Assuming you use a standard 100/50/25 ratio for charging on the three SMESes, noting which one stops will give you an idea of how badly the radiation chambers need refueling.

Instead of just putting the heated gases through a heat exchanger in space, you can also run them through a heating/cooling unit. This is less efficient, but less vulnerable should something external break the space radiators.

Heated gases can also be run through a Thermoelectric Generator or Gas Turbine for additional power. Finding optimum gas mixtures may be difficult, so don't be afraid to experiment.

Xenomaterials may exist that are more effective than the known gases at one or more aspects of supermatter interaction, from radiation generation to delamination.

The Supermatter system can theoretically sustain a large number of Radiation Collectors, and thus more SMESes. A Power Regulator SMES, if built and added to the system, can ensure charge overages don't go to waste.

Want to sabotage the crystal but can't figure out how to pull it off? Here are some pointers and hints:

General hints:

Disabling the room's APC will stop all of the pipes and scrubbers from working, which can allow pressure to build in the Containment Chamber.

Disabling the telecomms APC will prevent the supermatter monitoring system from announcing its status.

Cutting cameras near the engine will stop the AI from being able to see them (although a savvy AI may note that they have no cameras there and draw conclusions.)

Instead of turning off pumps and filters, you can just set them to extremely low values instead. They'll still appear to be working, but will be effectively useless.

Taking out all the engineers before attempting a delamination helps a lot.

Opening one of the plasma canisters and igniting it will make it a lot harder for anyone to fix sabotage, but will also make it very obvious that something is wrong. A plasma fire will also burn through those radiation suits that might otherwise protect those trying to fix the problem.

Keep a flash or EMP on hand. The AI and its borgs are pretty much guaranteed to try and intervene to prevent harm, or at least keep the power on. Stay around and pretend to be helping so you can undo all the repair attempts by other people.

These are the easiest to pull off and require no special conditions. You'll want to keep the supermatter chamber very hot and full of plasma or CO2.

Use the filters near the emitter room to filter out N2 and N2O while keeping Plasma, Oxygen and CO2 in the loop.

Pump in pure plasma or burn mix from atmos.

Disable or break the cooling array. Deconstructing a single piece of the heat exchanger can be enough.

Get rid of engineering's freon supply.

Shooting guns at the crystal is extremely effective, but it's likely that you'll end up in the blast.

Disable the scrubbers once the chamber is hot enough.

This kind of delamination requires careful gas management but is faster, far more destructive and there's a good chance it will irradiate, burn and shock the engineers who are trying to fix it.

Ensure that only CO2 is in the supermatter chamber at all times. Filter all other gases and keep the scrubbers running.

Keep the emitters online and firing if you can.

Get as much CO2 into the chamber as possible. Larger amounts of CO2 can even compensate for the oxygen and plasma waste.

Wear as much radiation protection as you can. Consider bringing some charcoal as well.

Try to keep radiation suits away from engineers, they won't be able to get near the overcharged engine without one.

Make sure you are wearing insulated gloves to protect yourself from the lightning arcs.

Disabling the cooling is not required. In fact, keeping the chamber cool might help you get more power.

The anomalies, gravity pulses and lightning arcs will quickly turn the engine room into a deathtrap. Make sure you have everything set up correctly before this starts happening.

This is by far the most difficult but also the simplest one.

Pump in as much gas as possible into the chamber. The easiest way to do this is to disable the pressure checks on the vent air alarms.

Reverse the scrubber pump. It's a subtle alteration that might get overlooked in the heat of the moment and will prevent the excess gas from being pumped out.

Make sure no gas leaves the chamber. Put up walls, deconstruct scrubber pipes, do whatever possible to keep the gas inside.

Silicons have near immunity to heat, pressure, and radiation, making them excellent at dealing with supermatter problems. Additionally, both engineering cyborgs and drones come equipped with RPD and multitools. The ability of engineering cyborgs to deconstruct with their RCD may also come in handy when venting an area of heat. Moreover, they can interact with the air alarm at a distance without needing to travel in and out of the central chamber.

Remember, drones, non-interference means don't destroy the ship. If you plan to set up a supermatter engine for the heck of it, ensure that it does not delaminate.

supermatter engine EDIT The supermatter engine is the primary source of power for the station. While solar arrays may provide enough power to keep critical systems operational, they won't keep the whole station running at full power. This is where Supermatter steps in. This guide will explain the basics of supermatter engine operation. Refer to the Contents tab if you wish to read only specific part of this guide.

Content one Basic Operating Principle 2 Important Information 2.1 safety gear 2.2 Setup Gear 2.3 Supermatter Interaction 3 Engine Setup 3.1 Engine Section Map 3.2 Coolant Choice 3.2.1 Nitrogen 3.2.2 oxygen 3.2.3 Carbon Dioxide 3.2.4 Phoron 3.3 Coolant Injection 3.4 Intercooler Setup 3.5 Filtration Setup 3.6 SMES Setup 3.7 Radiator Setup 3.8 startup 3.8.1 Pre-Start Checklist 3.8.2 Emitter activation four Upgrades 4.1 Waste Freezer 4.2 coolant selection 4.3 coolant distribution 4.4 SMES Upgrade 4.5 Adding more TEGs 4.6 Customize 5 Maintenance 5.1 Core Reenergization 5.2 Waste Canister Replacement 6 emergency situations 6.1 Important Information 6.1.1 Temperature 6.1.2 Integrity 6.1.3 Delamination 6.2 diagnostics 6.3 Actions 6.3.1 Coolant Injection 6.3.2 Injection Of Different Coolant (IODC) 6.3.3 Coolant Replacement 6.3.4 Emergency Cooling Valves (EC) 6.3.5 Emergency Core Ejection 6.4 Other Situations 6.4.1 Core Breach 6.4.1.1 Inner Breach 6.4.1.2 Outer Breach 6.4.2 cold start

Basic Operating Principle before any modifications are made to the engine, it operates as four distinct loops of colored pipes; the engine hot loop (cyan+yellow), the engine cold loop (green+purple), and the waste hot and cold loops (solid purple, opposite side from the engine cold loop). While the engine hot and engine cold loops are physically connected to each other, there are valves preventing them from mixing during normal operation. When energized, the supermatter heats the engine hot loop which flows into the ThermoElectric Generators. The heat transfers through the TEGs, generating electricity, and passes into the engine cold loop. The engine cold loop flows out into a massive radiator in space, providing the actual cooling for the system; without it temperature will run wild until everything melts, which becomes very apparent when a wild space rockor something takes a chunk out of said radiator.

While not denoted by different colored pipes like the engine side, the waste loop can be considered two loops as well, separated by a heat exchanger; one side contains hot engine waste and the other is another cold loop that flows through a small radiator in space. As the supermatter does its job, it generates potentially dangerous gasses which end up circulating into the engine's hot loop. These gasses are then separated from the desired coolant by the filters and pumped into the waste loop's hot side. Heat is transferred from the waste, through the heat exchanger, and into the waste cold loop which uses separate coolant to transfer the heat out to the radiator. All of this is done to cool the waste gases and in turn raise their density making them easier to pump and store in the waste container,Atmospheric Technician .

Important Information This section covers most information you require when operating near active supermatter core.

safety gear Supermatter is highly radioactive, and safety gear should be equipped when operating near the engine. It is also recommended to wear protective gear when operating in adjacent rooms, for your safety.

Radiation Suit.pngRadiation Suit Radiation Hood.pngRadiation Hood MGlasses.pngOptical Meson Scanners Gas Mask.png(Optional) Gas Mask (when manipulating gas cans) Yellowgloves.png(Optional) Insulated Gloves (when manipulating wiring or SMES units.) Setup Gear In addition to previous safety gear, the following tools are recommended for setup

Utilitybelt.pngTool Belt (stocked with all standard tools and multitool) Supermatter Interaction Please note that supermatter is very dangerous, and touching it will instantly reduce you to a pile of radioactive ashes. If it is absolutely necessary to physically interact with supermatter core, genetic backup is highly recommended. The only safe way of moving supermatter (without killing yourself) is pulling (right click on supermatter and select Pull)

Engine Setup This section covers the most basic supermatter engine setup.

Engine Section Map This map shows engine section layout Engine 1 17 layout.png Click the image for full resolution.

Coolant Choice Multiple theories on which gas to use as Supermatter coolant exist. This section will provide information on all commonly used coolant types.

Nitrogen N2 canister.png(Standard) Nitrogen is optimal coolant choice for basic setups. It is inert gas with average heat capacity. Engine Room contains four nitrogen canisters, which means it is easy to obtain. Engine filtering system is also preconfigured for Nitrogen coolant, making setup slightly faster

oxygen O2 canister.png(Hardcore Mode) Oxygen both results in lower engine output, is extremely flammable, and induces runaway chain reaction in the core. In other words, do not use oxygen. It's only correct use is cold start as described in the “Emergency Procedures” section of this guide.

Carbon Dioxide CO2 canister.pngCO2 is slightly better than Nitrogen, due to it's 50% larger heat capacity. This means the engine is cooled by CO2 transfers heat to TEG 's more efficiently - resulting in slightly lower operating temperature and higher power output. It has no disadvantages over N2.

Phoron Plasma canister.pngPhoron is superior coolant type in terms of heat capacity. With 1000% larger heat capacity than nitrogen only small amount of coolant is required to transfer generated heat to TEGs. This results in a significant increase in power output when compared to N2 or CO2. Unlike these, however, Phoron is not inert. Phoron based engines are very susceptible to oxygen, as Oxygen + Phoron mix is ​​extremely flammable. It is recommended to ensure filtration operates properly, as oxygen buildup and a few sparks can quickly reduce the engine into a pile of radioactive slag. Please note that occasional flash fires may occur. Those are generally not dangerous, but it is recommended to leave the core shutters closed.

Coolant Injection Obtain four canisters of coolant you selected in previous section. Nitrogen canisters are available in Engine Room, other types can be obtained in Atmospherics or Engineering Storage. Four canisters are recommended, two are absolute minimum. Transport these canisters into engine room. Wrench one canister to each of injection ports. Enable pumps, set them to 15000kPa (MAX setting) Wait until canisters are fully injected, then swap them for a second pair of filled ones. Amount of gas left in the canister is visible in it's UI, accessible by clicking the canister. Intercooler Setup Intercooler cools waste produced by engine. It is located behind shutters in the western side of the engine room. It has to be filled by coolant gas, in a similar way the engine is filled. While Oxygen is safe here (as it won't reach Supermatter), it is still very bad coolant and therefore not recommended. Two nitrogen canisters or one phoron canister is available in Engineering Storage. alternatively you may obtain any other coolant type from atmospherics depending on your preference, however impact of different coolant is much lower here than it is with engine core itself.

Obtain one canister of coolant gas Move coolant canister to intercooler injection port, wrench it in place and turn the pump on. Set the pump pressure to MAX setting. Wait until canister is fully injected. Unwrench it. Relabel the canister to “CAUTION” (Click canister, and use the Relabel button, if it's gray the canister isn't empty). Wrench the canister on waste output port inside the intercooler room. NOTE: The waste output port is NOT the port in the main engine room next to the button for controlling the radiation shutters; wrenching a can there will just drain the good coolant straight back out of the engine.

Filtration Setup Locate two Omni filters in the western side of the engine room. These filter out waste from engine core. Click each of them to open the control UI. If the engine coolant is Nitrogen, skip to step four. Click the Configure button, and change the “Nitrogen” entries to your coolant type. Then click Configure button again to confirm the changes. Turn the filters on. Locate filter output pump and turn it on (MAX pressure setting). SMES Setup Engine has two SMES units. SMESs are complex power storage devices. They may be controlled with RCON console located in engine control room, or operated manually by standing next to them. Depending on engine setup, engine produces between 800 to 1200+ kilowatts of energy. Full functionality of SMES is described on SMES page. Engine Room SMES should be set to 250,000 Input (Auto) and 250,000 Output (Online). You always want this SMES to be fully charged, as it powers engine cooling systems, and without these cooling system the engine tends to fail rapidly. Main SMES should be set to ~750,000 Input (Auto) and similar Output (Online). This is very variable, depending on your current engine output level. Ideally you want to use all power generated by the engine.SMES.png NOTE: You may always check engine output by clicking one of the engine output cables with multitool. Remember to wear safety gear!

NOTE: SMES units are clever, and will partially charge when there is not enough available power on input wire. Having slightly higher input settings than actual power generation is okay!

NOTE: SMES units are capable of balancing loads. When there is not enough power, the SMESs will charge at the same percentage of input setting (example: Two SMESs are set to input at 100kW and 200kW, available power is only 200kW, so the SMESs will charge at 66% of input setting)

Radiator Setup Locate the engine radiator circulation pump. Turn the pump on (MAX setting) startup Pre-Start Checklist It is a good idea to go through this pre-start checklist before you energize the core, in order to ensure that you didn't skip any critical steps.

Is there sufficient amount of coolant? You can tell by looking at the TEGs. Left side should be spinning slowly. Is the radiator pump enabled? Once again, you can find out by looking at the TEGs. Right side should be slowly spinning too. Is there an empty canister on waste port? Are the waste filters and pump enabled and set correctly? Is there coolant gas in the intercooler? This might not be necessary if you installed a freezer. Emitter activation You are already wearing your standard safety gear, right? Before proceeding ensure all previous steps have been properly completed. Checklist above is good for this. Open core charging port with apropriate button located either in engine control or next to the core room. Click Emitter.pngemitter to turn it on. Emitters fire series of four high powered laser blasts. Do not walk in front of active emitter unless you want a nice new hole in your chest (often instant kill). You may also use apropriate button in engine control room to turn emitter on/off. Count carefully. You want to fire at least eight shots. Depending on coolant type you may want to use more emitter shots in order to get more power. Table below describes how many emitter shots may be fired depending on coolant type. Close the shutters. This is recommended as rare flash fires may damage the core windows, eventually breaking them and causing core breach. NOTE: If emitter failed to start check the SMES unit in engine room. If it is completely discharged read “ Cold Start ” part of Emergency Situations section.

coolant type Recommended Shots Maximal (Safe) Shots Average Output (Recommended Shots) Average Output (Maximum Shots) Nitrogen (N2) 8-9 ten 1MW ~1.1MW Carbon Dioxide (CO2) 10-11 12 ~1.2MW ~1.2-1.3MW Phoron (PH) twenty ? 50+? 1.6-1.8MW ~2-3MW

Upgrades

Upgrades are optional setup steps which may significantly increase engine performance.

Waste Freezer

Waste processing uses radiator to cool engine waste. When engine operates at high temperatures (3000K+) this waste takes lots of time to cool. It is possible to install a freezer on waste line to help with this.

Obtain a manifold from Atmospherics

Install the manifold next to the waste canister port, by replacing one of the straight/bent pipes.

Construct a freezer that connects to this manifold. Parts for one freezer may be found in Tech Storage.

Enable the freezer. Setting temperature below zero is not necessary, and will help you save some power. Twenty celsius (default value) should be enough.

coolant selection

As outlined above, other coolant types than Nitrogen exist. Advantages and disadvantages of other coolant types were already described above. Experiment with different coolant choices to find the optimal solution for your engine. As a side note, hybrid setups (different coolant type for hot and cold loops) generally bring minimal increase in output, while complicating use of emergency cooling valves, should you ever require to use them.

coolant distribution

Experiment with different amounts of your favorite coolant. “More coolant == better” is not true! The radiator loop (right side of TEGs) works better at higher pressure (denser gas is better at radiating heat), while core loop (left side of TEGs) generally works better with lower amount of coolant. 1:3 ratio is one possibility, but feel free to use any ratio you want.

SMES Upgrade

Engineering Storage contains some spare parts for SMES units. Refer to page SMES for information on how to upgrade existing units. This will increase energy storage and/or input/output capacity depending on used coils.

Adding more TEGs

This is very rarely seen, but it is possible. You can order parts for another TEG in cargo. Each TEG is rated for 500kW stable output. It is possible to output more but TEGs generally get less and less efficient as their power output increases. 1MW/TEG is entirely possible, 2MW/TEG is quite hard, and 3MW/TEG is nearly impossible for extended duration.

Customize

Engine was designed to be easily customizable. Other upgrades than those outlined in this section exist. Remember that you should get permission from Chief Engineer before you install any larger modifications. Always try to run practice simulation before testing things on live engine.

OOC NOTE: For larger modifications, try testing it on local server first. We are not to be held responsible if any of the following occurs: Radiation spikes, core overheat, core structural failure, lynch mobs attempting to hunt you down, supermatter delamination, death. Warranty void when any of previously mentioned incidents occurs. good luck.

Maintenance

While the engine is designed to be mostly self sustaining, minor maintenance is needed to keep it running at optimal efficiency.

Core Reenergization

Supermatter constantly loses a small amount of energy. This, over time, results in drop of temperature, and power output. Depending on used coolant you will, eventually, have to re-energize the core if you want to maintain certain output level. This involves application of additional emitter shots, as already described in engine start section. However, please note that you should only fire one or two emitter blasts at most, otherwise the core may overheat.

Waste Canister Replacement

Engine produces Oxygen and Phoron as byproducts. Filters (if set up properly) remove every gas except coolant one. This waste gas is piped into a waste canister. While pumps can pressurise gas up to 15,000kPa, they lack the ability to go any further. For this reason, waste canister should be replaced every few hours (depending on fill level). Usually anything below 7 500kPa is fine even with large reserve. Anything above means the canister should probably be replaced. Obtain new, empty canister and replace the current one on waste port. Then dispose of waste gas canister. Usually Atmospheric Technicians will be able to handle it easily.

emergency situations

This section contains information on how to handle dangerous situations that may occur during engine operation.

Important Information

This subsection will cover basic information on engine behavior

Temperature

Core temperature is shown by core monitoring computer in engine control room. Temperature is critical for two reasons.

Supermatter core begins taking integrity damage above ~5000 Kelvins High temperature may result in fire risk (if other conditions are met, ie: Fuel and Oxygen are present) Optimal temperature for engine operation is at most 3500 Kelvins. Safety cap is 4000 Kelvins. Core meltdown begins at 5000 Kelvins. This may be different depending on Chief Engineer's preferences and used coolant. However, 5000 Kelvins is maximally safe temperature. After exceeded core begins taking damage. Also do note that the core windows begin breaking around ~4300 Kelvins!

Temperature may be dropped by adding more TEG units, expanding the cooling radiator, operating core at lower energy level, or (temporarily) by injecting more coolant. Please note that if you inject too much coolant, pressure will begin negatively affecting coolant flow, which may in fact result in increase of temperature.

Integrity

Integrity is numerical value used to determine core status. When integrity reaches 0% core delamination occurs. Currently, only two ways of damaging crystal integrity exist. Usually, this is caused by too large temperature, however very fast, sharp objects (such as bullets) may cause surface fractures which also result in integrity damage. Supermatter, however, can regenerate itself. This takes some time, and requires temperature to be below 5000 Kelvins. Low temperatures speed up.

To make monitoring easier, Supermatter has an integrated monitoring circuit and emergency transmitter. If integrity drops below 90% automated warnings will be broadcasted on engineering radio channel. If core passes critical point an alert will be sent to main channel. Integrity damage also results in phase shift in emitted light, described by eyewitnesses as “searing light that burns your eyes”. This light intensifies with integrity damage, until integrity reaches zero. Firmware update 1.19.0 changed crystal's monitor software to allow remote monitoring by station AI or other synthetic lifeforms that are in range. This monitoring shows core temperature, pressure and integrity.

Delamination

Supermatter crystal is held together by well balanced tension and gravity forces. Should integrity be damaged too much, these forces will be disbalanced, causing delamination. First, the external gravity force intensifies to massive level, causing almost everything nearby to be pulled to supermatter. This quickly annihilates the outer layer. When outer layer is annihilated (after ~15 seconds) gravitation force disappears. This will allow tension to shatter the crystal, resulting in massive release of all remaining energy (which is approximately 42.9 TJ depending on age of your specific core) This energy will be released in form of:

3% Radiation - Massive radiation pulse, usually large enough to give dangerous dosage of radiation to everyone onboard.

6-8% Psionic Shockwave - This effect isn't completely understood yet. Delamination releases massive amount of multispectral tetra radiation, which is known to have negative effects on neurological tissue. This may cause hallucinations.

0.2% - 0.6% Photons - Delamination results in large flash of light, which may result in eye damage if you stand near it.

90.8% - 88.4% Thermal/Kinetic energy - Crystal shatters, resulting in a massive explosion.

OOC NOTE: Delamination is very laggy, and usually takes up to 1-2 minutes to fully process. During this time server will be completely lagged. Simply wait until it finishes exploding.

diagnostics

Previous section explained effects of engine failure. This section will explain failure diagnostics. The engine consists of a large amount of components that cooperate to generate power. If one of the components fails the whole engine or parts of it may cease to function.

Obtain all protective gear.

Visually check the emitter from engine control room. Wasn't it left online unattended? If yes, immediately disconnect it. If the emitter was left on by malfunctioning computer system it might be worthwhile to cut the cable to it, to prevent reactivation.

Check core monitoring console. If core temperature is very high, but coolant pressure very low (lower than 100-200 kPa) coolant leak may have occured. Verify that both inpump and outpump are enabled (NOT in “on hold” state). If coolant circulation is confirmed while pressure remains low it is suggested to proceed “Coolant Injection” section. Otherwise continue.

Check cameras in engine room. If there is any structural damage present proceed to “Core Breach” section. Otherwise continue.

Enter engine room. Verify piping and power supply. If any pipes were removed/damaged determine if current piping is sufficient to ensure cooling. This usually means core output leads to TEGs, and back into input. If this is not the case, repair pipes in a way which connects input, output and TEGs. If TEGs are damaged connect the cold and hot loops together. Filtering is not mandatory, as the system can operate for a limited amount of time even without it. Begin checking all machinery. Is APC receiving enough power to run circulation? If not, either replace the APC cell, or ensure sufficient amount of power for it to operate (usually done by adjusting SMES settings or, if SMESs are damaged, by installing an emergency PACMAN generator)

Check tags. Are they operating properly? Are they wrenched down properly?

Is all machinery behaving as it should? If machine appears to be malfunctioning, attempt to bypass it or otherwise resolve the situation depending on machine which is causing failure.

OOC NOTE: Remember that bugs exist, if you confirm that machine is working in a very abnormal way, adminhelp it for immediate help, and if possible submit a bug report. thank you.

If you didn't manage to find the issue and core integrity dropped below 30% emergency core ejection is recommended to ensure preservation of station structure. After this, a full investigation is recommended to determine the cause of failure. Appropriate actions (at Heads of Staff discretion) should be taken.

Actions

This list shows a list of possible actions that may be done to resecure overloaded core.

Coolant Injection

Very quick and quite efficient “first aid” method to help stabilize the core. Remember that newly injected coolant will combine with old coolant, so it usually won't drop temperature to normal level. Still, it buys you more time to act and begin working on other methods of core stabilization.

Injection Of Different Coolant (IODC)

With how current filtering works, this may greatly help mitigate overheat depending on amount of coolant used. This is most efficient with N2 as engine coolant. With how gases share heat capacity, you may inject canister of different gas (Phoron works best, CO2 is good too. It has to be different gas than main coolant type!). Gas will pass through chamber, equalizing heat with other gases If gas with high heat capacity is used (such as Phoron or CO2) it will soak up large portion of heat from existing coolant. With how filtering works, this gas will be quickly filtered out into the waste loop, where it may be processed. While this is somewhat harder from logistical point of view, when used properly it helps secure even critically damaged core.

Coolant Replacement

Most efficient yet slightly wasteful method, if given enough time to do it. First obtain two canisters of fresh coolant (pre-cooled is good, but it can be room temperature too). Activate Core Vent button to begin venting all coolant into space. This quickly purges the coolant. Wait until coolant is vented, then close the vent shutters and begin injecting new coolant from prepared canisters. This will almost entirely eliminate any overheat (enough to return the core into safe mode below 5000K). NOTE: This will temporarily increase the rate at which supermatter takes damage, until new coolant is injected. Do not proceed if the core already took severe damage!

Emergency Cooling Valves (EC)

Engine is fitted with two digital EC valves. Opening these valves bypasses the TEGs and connects the engine output directly to the main radiator. This results in rapid cooling, but almost completely shuts down power generation. This also equalizes pressure between cold and hot loop, which may be undesired when specific ratio is used. Yet, it is a very effective measure that resolves almost any overload. It is not advised to use this measure if you used different coolant gases for hot and cold loops!

Emergency Core Ejection

If core integrity drops below 30% activation of emergency core ejection is reccomended. Emergency core ejection is the last resort function that uses mass driver to fire overloaded supermatter core away from station. However, the core remains in station's SOI (Sphere Of Influence) and small probability exists that it will fly around the station and collide with different part of it. alternatively it may impact Telecommunications or another valuable installation. This risk is however better than delamination inside the engine room. Switch for emergency core ejection is located in Chief Engineers office. If necessary, ask the station's AI to let you in, or hack in.

• Break protective glass cover on emergency core ejection button.
• Press core vent button
• Confirm that core vent is open, either by asking AI, other engineer, or checking the camera. There is a telescreen that allows you to check this in the office.
• Press the emergency core ejection button.
• Pray it worked.

NOTE: Please note that if core ejection fails death is inevitable. Your PDA may be used as a portable recorder for your last testament. Have a nice day. NOTE2: If core ejection is activated when vent doors are closed, core will be displaced from mass driver. Manual repositioning will be needed. This is very dangerous and likely to get you killed. You might want to find some poor Cyborg to do it instead of you. good luck.

Other Situations

This last section describes possible situations that may occur during engine operation.

Core Breach

Core breach is a very dangerous situation, during which core room is compromised. We have two kinds of core breach, each is handled in a slightly different way.

Inner Breach

Inner breach occurs when walls, windows or doors between engine core and engine room are breached. This situation is very dangerous as coolant will merge with engine room atmosphere. Also, since the engine room atmosphere contains oxygen, it will begin reacting with supermatter core inducing a possible runaway reaction. First step should be repairing the breach, using any means possible. If repair is not immediately possible it is suggested to close the core shutters to prevent further contact with the engine room atmosphere. If large amount of core coolant was lost it is suggested to use Coolant Replacement procedure or inject appropriate amount of coolant to restore standard levels.

This type of breach is mostly caused by operating the engine at too high temperature levels. While reinforced borosilicate windows are highly resistant to high temperatures, they will, eventually, break. Maximal safe temperature is approximately 4300 Kelvins. Above this temperature you risk damage to the windows.

Outer Breach

Outer breach occurs when walls (or blast doors) between engine core and space are damaged to degree that causes coolant leak. If this occurs, coolant levels very quickly reach zero. However, an emergency solution exists. Immediately disable core input via control console. If you manage to do this in time you may save enough coolant to operate the core until wall is repaired. If more engineers are available (Engineering/Construction Cyborgs are great for this, as they are resistant to both low pressure and radiation) send someone EVA to repair breached core. Notify medbaythat radiation treatment will be needed, engineering hardsuits are partially shielded, but won't offer 100% protection. Until core damage is repaired obtain more coolant. Inject it into coolant loop, but don't enable core input. When core breach is repaired re-enable injecting to ensure core is cooled. Remember that when core remains in low pressure heat builds up rapidly and integrity begins taking damage at much higher rate. Due to this reason you have to act quickly. If the core has already reached dangerous integrity level you may want to briefly enable the core input. This will briefly cool the core, buying a little more time.

This type of breach is mostly caused by operating the engine at extreme temperatures. Reinforced plasteel walls can handle only temperatures up to 6000 Kelvins. Meteors, space dust, and similar things may also cause this type of breach.

NOTE: ALWAYS repair engine core walls with plasteel. Any wall other than reinforced plasteel one will have much lower melting temperature, which will most likely result in another core breach!

cold start

When SMES in engine room is completely depleted emitter won't have enough energy to fire. Therefore you need to do cold start. There are few methods on how to do this. Possible methods (sorted from best to worst):

PACMAN assisted jump start - This is the simplest way. Disable charging on main SMES, and enable charging on engine SMES at full power. Connect PACMAN portable generator with wrench to input cable of engine room SMES. Turn on the PACMAN generator and wait a while. After one minute turn output to Online in UI of engine room SMES. Emitter should briefly regain power, which should be enough to fire at least one blast. After this some energy will be produced, which is enough to charge the SMES normally. Remember that PACMAN generator needs solid Phoron as fuel.

PACMAN out of fuel? Use the Solars . You will need wiring knowledge for this. Connect Engine Room SMES input to main power grid and charge it a bit with solars. Then continue with startup.

Solars gone? Don't worry, other way exists. Ask one of your friendly security officers/heads of staff with access to Energy Gun to come to Engineering with one. While lasers are weaker than emitters they are enough to slightly energize the core. Fire a few laser blasts at supermatter core and it should be enough to start a weak reaction which generates a small amount of power. Do not use ballistic weapons, they would cause core damage!

No weapons on board? You may also use Oxygen. Large enough concentration of oxygen causes runaway chain reaction inside Supermatter, which should be enough to generate a small amount of power. Doing this with Phoron cooling is extremely dangerous, however, due to involved fire risks. This is also somewhat unpredictable and oxygen should be filtered out as soon as possible.

No oxygen on board? (What are you breathing?!) Throw random objects at supermatter to energize it. If no objects are available throw yourself and die knowing you helped restoring station's power supply. good job!