Difference between revisions of "Guide to Atmospherics"
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[[Atmospherics]]. To the ignorant, a mystical art indistinguishable from actual magic. To the (hopefully) educated [[Atmospheric Technician]]s of the station, a glorified network of conveyors for moving gases about. Either way, Atmospherics holds great and terrifying power in the hands of the initiated. | [[Atmospherics]]. To the ignorant, a mystical art indistinguishable from actual magic. To the (hopefully) educated [[Atmospheric Technician]]s of the station, a glorified network of conveyors for moving gases about. Either way, Atmospherics holds great and terrifying power in the hands of the initiated. | ||
Revision as of 04:08, 4 September 2021
Atmospherics. To the ignorant, a mystical art indistinguishable from actual magic. To the (hopefully) educated Atmospheric Technicians of the station, a glorified network of conveyors for moving gases about. Either way, Atmospherics holds great and terrifying power in the hands of the initiated.
Pipes and Gases, the Basics of Atmos
If you aren't working with pipes and gases, you aren't doing atmospherics.
Where to Get Pipes
Meet your two new friends. One never returns the money they borrow, you aren't really sure why you hang out with them. The other one is kind of awesome.
Pipe Dispenser - A static machine that will print out pipes for you. You will never use this.
Rapid Pipe Dispenser - A hand held tool that can print, place and recycle pipes for you. Fits in your backpack and doesn't need ammo.
Beneath are all the things your dispenser can make. Learn them well, for they are the fabric from which atmos is woven.
Items | Name | Description | Details |
Normal Pipes | Generic pipes that can be used for most tasks. | These are airtight pipes that can carry any gas you pump into them. | |
Air Supply Pipe | Used to distribute air all across the station. | Special pipes that are mostly used for the air distribution network. Can be laid in parallel to normal pipes and scrubber pipes. | |
Scrubbers Pipe | Used to move waste or harmful gases. | Special pipes that are mostly used for the waste network. Can be laid in parallel to normal pipes and air supply pipes. | |
Heat Exchange Pipe | Shares heat between the pipe and the environment. | Exchanges heat between any gas in the pipe and any gas in the tile. Think space loop(for cooling) or the Toxins burn chamber(for heating). Connects to normal pipes via junctions. | |
Universal Pipe Adapter | Can be fitted to any pipe type. | Used to interface between normal, air supply, and scrubbers pipes. They cannot connect to each other without this. |
The Gases
The main goal of atmospherics is to manipulate these in a way that benefits the station. Each type of gas has different properties that can help or hinder. Your skill in manipulating these will determine the success of your atmospheric machinations.
Nitrogen (N2) | Nitrogen is an inert gas that makes up 80% of the air on the station. Vox breathe this, but in the station atmosphere, it mostly just takes up space. |
Oxygen (O2) | The other 20% of the air. Most of the crew will be needing at least 16kPa of this stuff in the atmosphere in order to live. Poisonous to Vox and Plasmamen. Necessary for burning plasma. |
Air | You know what this is. The gas mix that is distributed around the station. It is composed of 80% N2 and 20% O2. |
CO2 | An invisible gas that is slightly heavier than air. This is what crewmembers who breathe will be exhaling. Also produced by plasma fires. In high concentrations, will make you pass out, which can quickly lead to suffocation. |
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) | A white-flecked gas that is slightly heavier than CO2. At low concentrations, will cause sporadic laughing. At high concentrations, will put you to sleep. At high temperatures, will decompose into N2 and O2, releasing lots of heat. |
Plasma (Toxins) | The oil of the new world. Purple, highly flammable, and highly toxic(unless you are a Plasmaman). Burns with oxygen and will spontaneously ignite with it at a high enough temperature. Much heavier than all the previous gases. |
??? | Hmmmm... |
Station Systems
While pipes themselves will always work if undamaged, atmospheric devices all have certain prerequisites that must be met for them to operate.
Remember, almost all atmos devices require a powered APC to work.
In addition, there are other pieces of infrastructure that can/must be used when working with specific atmospheric devices.
Air Alarm
Mandatory for the use of non-passive vents and scrubbers. Allows a wide range of control over a blueprinted rooms current gas contents. Where exactly the Air Alarm is in the room does not matter; As long as the room is blueprinted and powered it will function. Cannot be placed in areas that are not blueprinted.
To learn more about Air Alarms and how to use them, click here: Air Alarm
Computers Consoles
- Atmospheric Alert Computer: This computer console will tell you where your attention is needed. Green means everything is alright, yellow signals something is wrong, and red means things have gone wrong enough for an alarm to be triggered (Usually caused when a room's air stops being breathable).
- Central Atmospherics Computer: Allows remote control of any air alarm on the station that has remote access enabled.
- The Distribution Computers: A console to monitor gas storage contents, control air injectors/extraction vents, etc. If you understand how to use these properly, you probably know what you are doing. Air Injectors REQUIRE these to work.
Atmosia Proper - The Beating Heart of the Station
In Atmosia, you will see many different colored pipes. These colors are labels, marking out different systems within atmosia.
The Basic Mathmatical Details
Ideal Gas Law
The magical formula for improving your burn mixes.... and explaining why your coolant pipes have such a low pressure.
Formula: PV=nRT
P - Pressure in kilopascals or kPa
V - Volume in liters
n - is the amount of substance of gas (also known as number of moles)
R - is a constant or 8.31
T - Temperature in Kelvin
Cooling a gas will make it take up less space (volume) for each unit (mole) of said gas. This effect also results in a gas at a lower temperature having a lower pressure. Heating a gas will have the opposite effect, resulting in a larger volume and higher pressure per mole.
Conversion to and from Kelvin
While most things will yield temperature in both Kelvin and Celsius, here is the conversion formula just in case.
Formula: K = C + 273.15
C - Celsius
K - Kelvin
(Temperature in Kelvin minus 273.15 is that same temperature, but in Celsius)
Additional Guides
- Guide to Gas Turbine
- File:TEG.png Guide to Thermoelectric Generator
- Guide to Supermatter Engine
- Guide to Air Alarms