Guide to Atmospherics
Assigned to:Klaus
Atmospherics (or Atmosia) is the land of pipes and air, a peaceful place often left to its automatic work. To the untrained eye, it might appear to be entirely impenetrable and useless, just a mess of pipes that should be left alone to do their own work while the Atmospheric Technicians goof off in the break room. But this is far from the truth. In the hands of a competent technician, Atmosia can just as easily save the station as it can horribly destroy it.
The Basics
The first thing you need to understand is how atmospheric works. Paradise uses the method of the Ideal Gas Law in which pressure and volume remains proportional to each other as long as temperature does not change.
Here are a few things to get you started to become a great Atmospheric Technician:
Air Alarm
An Air Alarm is the main method of control over the Atmospheric System. They enable you to control the vents and scrubbers in rooms, as well as any other Atmospherics Equipment, in addition to accessing a multitude of options regarding Atmospherics duty. There are Air Alarms located in each individual room on the station, in addition to larger, open areas. Where exactly the Air Alarm is in the room does not matter; so long as it is within the confines of the room, and the room itself is powered, it will allow you to control the room's atmospherics.
To learn more about Air Alarms and how to use them, click here: Air Alarm
The Computers
- Atmospheric Alert Computer: This computer console will tell you where your attention is needed. A green indicator signals everything is alright, a yellow indicator signals something went wrong, and a red indicator means an alarm has been triggered by someone or something (Panic Syphon normally causes a red indicator to appear).
- Central Atmospherics Computer: From this computer, you to remotely access air alarms allowing the same access as you would with a normal one. By default, every air alarm has their remote access enabled.
- The Distribution Computers: These computers allow you to see how much of a certain gas you have in storage, in addition to letting you change the rate at which they output.
The Gas Pipe System
The pipes is where the gases travel safely without sudden exposure. Inside Atmospherics, the gases go through a series of checks, before entering and exiting the system. These series follow, what is known as, a loop. The toxic gases come in while the breathable gas goes out to supply the crew with air.
Familiarize yourself with these pipes as they are the default standard pipes (color) for every station:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
Air Supply 
|
The dark blue pipe is the Main Air Supply. It sends breathable air (roughly 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen) to all the vents on the station, and is fed by the cyan pipe in Atmospherics. |
Scrubber 
|
The red pipe is the Scrubber Pipe. This is where all the toxic waste normally ends up by the scrubber system found all around the station. It may contain breathable air, however it is unfiltered and possibly contaminated. |
Air Mix 
|
The cyan pipe is the breathable air or the Air Mix. This pipe feeds into the main air supply. |
Waste 
|
The purple pipe is the Waste Pipe, which retrieves waste air from the scrubber pipe which then leads to the filter. |
Filter 
|
The green pipe is the Filter Pipe, which filters out the various gases in the waste air provided by the water at various filters placed along it. Each filter puts the respect gases back into the gas containers. |
Pure 
|
The yellow pipe is the Mix Pipe, which is internal to Atmospherics and is used for custom air mixes. |
The Gas Containers
Gas Containers (can also be called reservoirs) are typically found in an isolated room/area in which pipes feeds in and out of them. They contain a lot of pressure and only contain one type of gas at a time except for the Air Mix Container and the Mixing Container (Which is normally empty for custom gas mixes). These are generally found either attached or detached from Atmospherics in or at the edge space.
| Gases | Description |
|---|---|
| Nitrogen (N2) | One of the components of the air mix. N2 soaks up heat in the air, and lowers the temperature of a fire. By association, it can very quickly lower the temperature of a fiery rupture to the point where the flames self-extinguish. |
| Oxygen (O2) | You breathe this. Running out of O2 will cause your slow death by suffocation damage. It is also required for a fire to even start, and hold, ending the fire when the O2 or plasma is depleted. Having less than 16 kPa of O2 flowing into your lungs chokes you. |
| Air | The gas mix that is distributed in the station. It is composed of 70% N2 and 30% O2. |
| CO2 | An invisible, heavy gas, CO2 is one of the first and fastest gases the scrubbers suck out of the air. It chokes people effectively and quickly, and if you can be bothered to set the alarms up, will result in a invisible room that kills those in it. Takes some setup and can be very, very annoying. The emote for this at below incapacitating levels is gasping and choking. |
| Nitrous Oxide (N2O) | A white-flecked gas. Makes you laugh at low doses and at higher ones puts you to sleep. Scrubbers don't deal with it too well and portable scrubbers just choke on it. If using this as a sleep gas mix do *not* forget the O2 at at least 16 kPa, or you will kill someone. |
| Plasma | The one truly flammable gas on the station, plasma is purple, and highly toxic. Of note is the fact that in the presence of any oxygen at high pressures, plasma pumped into air can and will spontaneously ignite on turf at high pressures. |
Portable/Rapid Pipe Dispenser
There are a few different pipes and devices that you can get from the portable or rapid part dispenser.
Types of Pipes
| Items | Name | Description | Details |
|
Atmospheric 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 needed to connect to vents. Standard unaltered atmos uses these for air distribution |
|
|
Scrubber Pipe | used to move waste or harmful gases. | Special Pipes that are needed to connect to scrubbers. Standard unaltered atmos uses these for taking in and processing harmful gases like CO2. |
|
Heat Exchange Pipe | Imparts some of the enviroments temperature to it's contents. | Allow you to cool / heat gases based on the ambient temperature of the tile they're on. Think space loop (for cooling) or the Toxins burn chamber (for heating) |
|
Universal Pipe Adapter | Can be fitted to any other pipe type. | Used to bridge between Atmospheric, Scrubber and Supply pipes. Atmospheric, Scrubber and Supply pipes cannot connect to eachother without this. |
Types of Devices
| Items | Name | Description | Details |
|
Unary Vent | The standard vent used to distribute air. | Needs to be inside a blueprinted room with a functional air alarm to operate. Typically used to pump breathable air into a room. |
|
|
Passive Vent | An unpowered vent that relies on pipe pressure to operate. | Will only release it's contents if the pressure of the room it is in is lower than the pressure of the pipes it is hooked up to. |
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Dual-Port Air Vent | Has a valve and pump attached to it. There are two ports. | |
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Air Scrubber | Scrubs the air clean. | Needs to be inside a blueprinted room with a functional air alarm to operate. Used to remove specific gasses from the room it is in. Normally used to remove harmful gases like CO2 from the station's air. |
|
Connector Port | A connection port for tanks of gas | Allows you to remove/add gases into a system directly from a tank. Simply place the tank on the connector and wrench it in place. After it is connected, open it if you want to pump gases out of it. Actually pumping the gases in or out of a connected tank only requires you to set up a pump. |
|
Gas Pump | A Generic Pressure Pump | This Pump is configured to measure how much gas it pumps by pressure. Can be set to only pump a certain amount of pressure through. The maximum pressure this pump can be set to move is 4500 kPa |
|
Volume Pump | The Gas Pump's cool sibling | This Pump is configured to measure how much gas it pumps by volume instead of pressure. Can be set to pump only a specific volume of gas through. The maximum volume this pump can be set to move is 200L/s. |
|
Passive Gate | Basically, a pressure valve | A valve that only lets gas through if it the input pressure reaches a certain threshold. Can be set to activate anywhere between 0 and 4500 kPa. It should be noted that its power status light can be easy to miss, being just a small red / green light, and can be used along side a passive vent in place of a Unary Vent. |
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Gas Filter | Separates out gases | A Scrubber in pipe form. Checks for whatever gas you set it to, then filters it out into another pipe. |
|
Gas Mixer | Mixes Gases together | The opposite of a filter. Takes the contents of it's two inputs and combines them together at whatever ratio you tell it to, then pumps them through the output. Importantly, ratios are measured by pressure, not volume. Maximum output pressure is 4500 kPa |
|
Air Injector | Used to force gases into high pressure areas. | A gas injector that will continue to pump it's contents out regardless of how high the pressure around it is, Measures how much it pumps by volume. Will not operate without being linked to a console. Will display a green light when on. |
|
Manual Valve | A simple hand turned gas valve. | A manually-controlled valve, it requires no power and also no ID authorisation to use. Is arguably better over the digital valve in pipe-networks with possibilities of massive destruction due to the need of ID access on the digital valve. Displays a small green light when open. |
|
Digital Valve | An electronic valve. | An electronically-controlled gas valve. It uses the station-grid's power to be operated but requires sufficient ID access to be allowed use. Can be operated remotely by the AI, and by crew if they have the right tools to access it. Displays a small green light when open. |
|
Meter | Measures temperature and pressure inside the pipe it's on. | Simply place over any flat stretch of pipe and wrench it on. Upon examination, it should now be yielding measurements on what is going on inside the pipe. Does not provide as much information as an analyser, but good for being able to tell what is going on at a glance. |
|
Gas Sensor | Senses Gas. No. Really. | Used to sense the pressure and temperature of the gas surrounding the sensor itself, rather than a pipe. Can be hooked up consoles. |
Disposals
In addition to handling the station's Atmosphere, a secondary job you share with the Engineers is making sure the Disposals network is functioning properly.
Types of Disposal Pipe
| Items | Name | Description |
|
Disposal Pipe | Those pipes are made through the disposal pipe dispenser, use them to fix or expand to the disposal system of the Exodus. |
|
Disposal Bin | Where people put their trash which are then sent to the disposal area via the disposal pipe system. |
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Disposal Outlet | Whenever someone or something has reached this from a disposal pipe, they are thrown out at quite a fair speed and typically end up hitting a wall before stopping. |
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Disposal Intake | If something's been thrown into the intake, it will take it and put it into the attached disposal pipe, sending it off on it's merry way. |
Formulas
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
To further explain, 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.
Celsius to Kelvin
While instances where only Kelvin can be seen may exist and it's good to be prepared, knowing this isn't 100% Vital.
Formula: K = C + 273.15
C - Celsius
K - Kelvin
Advance Guide to Atmospherics
The more you spend your time experimenting with gases and pipe, the more you understand how to become more efficient as an Atmospheric Technician. Do not ever be afraid to deconstruct all of atmospherics just so you can learn (The rounds are only 2 hours long. You'll only get yelled at a few times). One very important thing. Always be willing to learn. Even if you think you know just about everything!
Some things you should experiment on:
- Pressure Pumps and Volume Pumps - See what is different about them. Race them side by side. See how they react with different temperature. You'll be surprised with the results.
- High pressure and Low pressure - What makes high pressure high? What makes low pressure low? Mess with the temperature or examine the temperatures to find out.
- Hot Gas and Cold Gas - Find out ways to get the temperature you want. Try upgrading the freezers or mess with the heat exchanger that are out in space. Just remember that space is not always the coldest method.
- Air Compression - Find out why it takes forever to fill up a canister all the way with cold pressure. Hint: Ideal Gas Law (mol).
- Plasma Fire - What is the best way to put out a plasma fire? Does CO2 really work?
