This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/factorio by /u/Intrepid_Teacher1597 on 2024-10-13 12:22:04+00:00.
[Minor spoilers]
We all know that despite being called "Space Exploration", this mod is truly Factorio Dark Souls with exploration of space locked behind hundreds of hours of gameplay. We can find an easter egg spaceship but it's barely usable as space panels are absolutely insufficient for ion engines, and it cannot land on planets. Duh!
But after building my first "real" astronomic science and seeing its production rate ("I've put two telescopes or each kind, that must be plenty... What do you mean 1 spm?") I thought that stuffing one lab full of free Productivity 9's is the best way to run science right now. I found one prod 9 in the home system, and planet discovery tech was giving me lots of planets with strange structures (maybe because I selected "Task satellites with finding those structures" in Informatron options). But those planets are so far away... How could I get there?
On a spaceship, of course! With a nuclear power plant that you manage to fit into the 300 stress limit. And an extra tank for ion stream fuel; luckily the ion stream production building is an early tech that I already had. Also the rocket capsule can get me to planets for almost free, and lift back up only taking about 10 rocket sections and 150 fuel if I come with an empty inventory.
So behold, the Tin Can. It "Can" fit a full nuclear power plant with 5 turbines, or an alternative version with 4 turbines and a boiler that automatically replenishes water on a long journey. Power is enough for either engines or lasers but it works. Speed is about 105 with 4 turbines or 115 with 5 turbines. Chests at the back store fuel and sections for the capsule to do planet landing. And it can do Space Exploration!
Took me a day but I traveled to 3 other stars (one of them twice because telescopes discovered 2 planets at first and 3 more planets later). The last star was 150000 distance away, that is 1 hour and 10 minutes of real time flight (I emergency burn back from the last planet, and ship on the picture is returning autonomously). Landed on 13 planets in outside systems and found the remaining 5 top productivity modules for the lab.
Behold, the space Exploration is real, and it is a core part of the gameplay. Who would have thought!