The Hermit

Wealthy oil tycoon and germaphobe, Harold Hawkes, commissioned Centauri Spaceworks to construct a small ship called the Hermit.  Rumor has it that he plans to live out his life in the far reaches of the solar system away from the bacteria and germs on Earth.

To begin the construction of the Hermit, an ATV was launched with supplies including: water, food, and Harold's personal library of books. It was connected to an oxygen garden to supply atmosphere and additional food.  A transponder module was added on for communication.  Finally an Orion Capsule with Harold was launched and connected to the 3 modules already in Earth orbit.

Harold then left orbit, traveling first to KAT, the heading on to JOR where he plans to stay until Earth is free of germs, or his supplies run out, whichever comes first.

Pylons

The two pylons of Centauri Spaceworks keep the Station Builder Tugs and other vehicles used in the day to day operations supplied with fuel and power.  They also serve as the boundaries of the construction area, at waypoints CS1 and CS2.   While not very impressive by themselves, these two small stations help Centauri Spaceworks create its large ships and stations.

Ppylon with docked vehicles.

More Hubs

Left to right: 120° hub, long hub, and standard hub (for reference)

Centauri Spaceworks has designed two new parts that enable the creation of more varied stations and ships: the 120° hub and the long hub.  Hopefully our part supplier, Nooleus, will manufacture these parts soon.

The 120° hub enables the creation of hexagonal and angled stations.  It has the same dimension as the standard hub.  Instead of four ports at a 90°, it has 3 ports spaced at 120°.  The larger spacing between ports means that it can fit all existing parts without modification.  It consumes 5 power, the same amount as the standard hub.

The long hub provides a way to dock large modules side by side.  Two standard hubs don't quite provide enough separation to dock small modules side by side.  While possible it requires a slight overlap between the modules and docking must be done carefully via the docking auto-alignment glitch.  The second module must be docked at an angle away from the 1st so that the connect before the sides collide.   The process of auto alignment straightens it out, but doesn't do collision detection so the the two small modules end up docked but overlapping slightly.  This also causes them to shoot off wildly or explode when they are undocked.

The long hub it the height (or width depending on how you look at it) of a large station module.  This means that if you connect two long hubs together via port 1 (the port with the white dot), you can dock in two large station modules side by side without any overlap.

The long hub can also be used when a hub is too short, but adding in a standard station module would add too much length.   Due to the extra size, this part consumes 8 power.

Mars Port of Entry

Exterior of Mars Port of Entry

Mars Port of Entry is a customs station for the Martian Empire.  It is home base for a fleet of 3 ATV shuttles.  These shuttles are used to perform inspections on ships entering or leaving Martian space.

The ATV shuttles are ready to leave at a moment's notice to intercept any ships that my try to sneak past.  Two Voyager X bodies provide storage for O2 and CO2 scrubbers.  Storing these in the Voyager X bodies keeps them fully charged and ready to be moved to the ATV's prior to launch without having to top them off in the Oxygen Garden before launch.

Interior view of Mars Port of Entry

Two Orion Capsules are docked as escape vehicles. There is also a LK Lander ready for excursions to the surface of RED.

Crystal Voyager

Centauri Spaceworks announces its latest ship, the Crystal Voyager!  The Crystal Voyager is luxury yacht that can accommodate up to 8 passengers with its 4 habitation modules.

The ship gets its name from the eight cupolas.  These cupolas provide a crystal clear view of the heavens.

Two pods make it easy passengers to take excursions around the nearest planet.

The Crystal Voyager puts safety first with two life boats that can be used in emergencies.  The life boats can be either a crew module or an Orion module depending on the buyer's preference.

The stand-alone laboratory module stocked with batteries provides all the power needed.  The small fuel tank in the lab module is augmented with a larger reserve fuel tank so the Crystal Voyager can take you anywhere in the solar system.

Transponder

The transponder is a new part in 1.6.0 that helps track ships in space and the vehicles list.  Centauri Spaceworks will be including this its on larger ship designs.

No other part can do what the transponder module can.  It adds a dynamic waypoint that moves with the location of the transponder module.  The waypoint is always the location of the transponder module.

Transponder Navi-comp with an option to provide a long name

The transponder also stores a longer name that appears in the vehicles list.  The name can be up to 12 characters long to use instead of the typical 3 for a waypoint name.  The one down side is that there is no space key (despite the screenshot from the transponder information page showing a name with spaces).

Unlike the other parts, the transponder is not unlocked after completing missions in campaign mode.  The only way to unlock it is to purchase it.   It is a good purchase to add some new functionality.  Like the other premium features it isn't something you have to purchase to get the experience of the game, but still is useful for players who may run their own aerospace agencies

The down  side of the transponder module is the size.  it is about the width of a large station module or the refuel silo.  This makes it a large for smaller ships, like the Squirt, or stations that only contain a few modules.  Something the size of the crew capsule would have been a better size to fit on smaller ships.

Since the waypoint moves with the module it isn't helpful for stations that should remain in a fixed location.  As part of its daily operations Centauri Spaceworks ships have often, unintentionally given a stations a little bit of momentum as they dock.  With regular way points it is easy to see how far off the mark the station moved and put it back to the original location.  This isn't possible with a transponder way point since it moves with the station.

Given the transponders large size and what it does, Centauri Spaceworks will only be adding it the larger ships it manufactures.  Stations and smaller ships will not be equipped with a transponder.

Docking Bay Door

Centauri Spaceworks has developed a docking bay door.  The door allows controlled access to an area of space.  This can be used to protect space craft or deny them access to an area.

Door open

Door closed

The doors are operated by undocking one of the two hubs on the bottom of the door.  The force of the undocking provides the energy to move the door without requiring thruster propellent.  However the station or ship should have station keeping engines ready because sometimes the impact from open or closing a door can cause the station to shift slightly.

Undock the hubs circled in red to open or close the door

Interior view showing how hubs are locked into place

The design of this door allows it to be extended to cover any size opening.   It can be adjusted by adding or removing trusses.

Xerces Station

Xerces Station shown with the Squirt departing.

Xerces Station is the largest object, station or ship, constructed by Centauri Spaceworks. It has two control rooms , five oxygen gardens , and the ability to dock multiple ships, including the Shuttle.

It as undergone a series of upgrades since it was first constructed.

• Upgraded station keeping engines from Apollo Command Modules to LK Lander Cores .  The LK Lander Core engine fire up instantly unlike the Apollo Command Modules which take a second or two before igniting.

• Repositoned the station keeping engines to the interior to make more space for ship docking.

• Addition of Voyager-X main bodies to serve as Oxygen/CO2 Scrubber lockers.  These store fully charged Oxygen and CO2 Scrubbers that are used with the station's own ships.  This eliminates the gradual decay of the oxygen and scrubbers due the the atmosphere of the station.

Big Gulp

The Big Gulp is a bigger and better fuel tanker ship.  It has 6 fuel tanks , four more than compared to the Little Gulp.

The Big Gulp is equipped for long range voyages to refuel the most remote stations or ship.  It has an Oxygen Garden to keep the crew supplied with air.  The solar panels provide enough power for the ship (with the exception of the fuel tanks).

It handles remarkably well for a large ship.  The ATV at the rear provides great rotational power.  The LK Lander Core at the front aids with deceleration and can be used in combination with the ATV to make lateral movements.

AX2 Series

The Little Gulp

The Pufferfish

 Today, Centauri Spaceworks released two new ship designs, the Little Gulp, and the Pufferfish.
Both new ships are based on the AX2 platform that uses two ATV vehicles docked to a hub .  A cupola is added for a cockpit and control area on one of the ATV  This base configuration allows easy acceleration and deceleration of the ship.  Cargo modules can be connected to the two other ports of the hub.

In the Little Gulp configuration, two fuel tanks are attached giving the vehicle a very long range and the ability to refuel other vehicles.  The Pufferfish is designed for transporting O2 and CO2 scrubbers.  The Voyager X bodies allow the cargo to be transported without being used by the crew of the Pufferfish.

Interior of the Pufferfish

Centauri Spaceworks is also investigating other variations to support transporting people instead of fuel or supplies.