Engineering

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The Engineering department is responsible for providing power to the station & performing any maintenance that the station may require. Whether it be patching up holes left by meteorites or rebuilding a department after a bombing, it is the sole purview of the Engineering department to keep the station powered and pressurized. Due to the relatively high priority of engineering tasks, departments will scream at politely and calmly inform engineers on the radio of station damage.

Jobs

The chain of command in Engineering is as follows: Chief Engineer > Station Engineer = Atmospheric Technician > Technical Assistant.

Chief Engineer

The Chief Engineer, or CE, is the head of the Engineering department and works alongside their subordinates on various engineering duties. As a CE, you are expected to have a good level of understanding of both sub-departments of your department and be able to teach skills when necessary. You will also need to be able to properly relegate tasks in times of crisis, monitor material levels, and communicate with other departments and Command.

Station Engineer

Station Engineers work in the Engineering sub-department. Station Engineers often can be found setting up power generation, wiring the power network, and building complex structures like shuttles. Station Engineers share responsibility with Atmospheric Technicians to assist with fixing spaced parts of the station.

Atmospheric Technician

Atmospheric Technicians work in the Atmospherics sub-department. As an Atmospheric Technician, you will find yourself building and repairing pipe networks, setting up the Thermoelectric Generator, fixing spaced sections of the station, and scrubbing hazardous gases from the air. Atmospheric Technicians also may find themselves doubling as Station Engineers to manage power generation on the station.

Technical Assistant

A technical assistant's primary job is to learn as much about engineering as possible. Your Chief Engineer or other department members should assist you in this learning when possible, in order to turn you into an effective member of the team. Study what your superiors do and ask for help!

Responsibilities

Power Generation

Main article: Power

Display of the Power Monitoring Console, which is found in all engineering departments

Generating electricity for the station is the primary concern of the engineering department, as without it, none of the other departments aboard the station are able to work. Luckily, there are a selection of different methods to do so, ranging from immediate plug & play machines to more in-depth setups. The amount of electrical power produced by each machines (excluding the portable generators and solar panels) can power the station by itself, so an exact comparison of the numbers is not necessary.

Only some of these power generation methods are part of the station at the start of the shift, and all of those require additional setup - because of this, engineers need to work quickly at the start of every shift to set up permanent power generation. It is possible to order the parts/machines/fuel for other power sources through Cargo, but at a high price.

Fuel-based power

Generating electricity from fuel is the simplest way to power a space station, and they do not require any input power to run. However, there is nowhere near enough fuel available for any of these machines to power a station for the entire shift, so these two generation methods are primarily used at the start of a shift or when some other emergency disrupts power supply on the station.

• Every station comes equipped with parts to build an Antimatter Engine (AME) can provide power for the entire station, but only so long as anti-matter fuel is available. Generally, each map has enough anti-matter fuel to last long enough to set up another permanent power source. Station engineers are responsible for setting up the AME at round start, as they are not fully assembled at the start of the shift.
• There are two sizes of "P.A.C.M.A.N."-brand portable generators which use various fuels to provide different amounts of power - however, neither of these generators can power the whole station like an AME can. The small J.R.P.A.C.M.A.N. uses welding torch fuel, and can provide enough power to act as an APC temporarily. The larger P.A.C.M.A.N. generators consume plasma or uranium, and can provide emergency power to a whole department or a constructed space shuttle (or in an emergency, to power up a particle accelerator). These generators are usually found in the engineering department so will need to be moved around by station engineers, but you can occasionally find generators in the maintenance tunnels if you're lucky.

Containment-based sources

Most, but not all, stations have a particle accelerator and containment platform (set up in the vacuum near the Engineering department) that can be used to create a gravitational singularity or tesla ball lightning. Each of these phenomena can provide enough power for the entire station without needing any other generation, however they come with significant risks:

• Even when properly contained, engineers can be harmed either by the singularity's radiation or the lightning ball's strikes. The containment field is outside the station in the vacuum of space, so any accidents can be deadly.
• Both the singularity and lightning ball must be kept in a containment field, and if the containment field loses power or is sabotaged then the power-generating phenomena will escape and most likely destroy the station (see yellow alert procedures for this scenario).
• If a "tesloose" or "singuloose" situation occurs but it somehow doesn't destroy significant parts of the station, the evac shuttle still usually needs to be called because setting up another containment-based power generation method will be very difficult to do before the station runs out of power.

Station engineers are responsible for setting up one of these generation methods (unless an Atmos technician will set up the TEG to to generate power), and will move to set this up after turning on the AME. The chief engineer should ultimately decide what power generation to use for the shift.

Other permanent power generation

There are three other significant power sources that are available on different stations. Each of these are more time-consuming or difficult to set up than containment-based power, but don't have a risk of destroying the station if containment is breached.

• Solar power - The station's solar arrays are a passive means of generating power, however they do not provide enough power to run the entire station by themselves. They always require some additional setup (either connecting HV cables or repairing the panels themselves) and take a lot time merely walking to each array. Even though other permanent power sources have enough output to fully power the station, solar panels are still useful in case of emergency situations that temporarily disrupt the power grid.
• Thermoelectric Generator (TEG)- If the station has a TEG it will be in the Atmospherics sub-department, so unlike most other power sources this should be set up by Atmosians instead of station engineers. Sometimes the TEG can be set up quickly (before a singularity or tesla) but often it will take more time to get running - the amount of work needed to construct gas loops varies between stations, and an engineer unfamiliar with TEG setup will need more time to complete it.

Maintaining Atmosphere

Main article: Atmospherics

The main responsibility of Atmosians is maintaining breathable air for all the station's inhabitants. Maintaining atmosphere involves mixing nitrogen and oxygen to create breathable air, filtering hazardous chemicals out of the station's air supply, and patching holes in the station hull to prevent spacing.

Distro and waste

Pipe networks displayed in the Atmospheric Netowrk Monitor, found in all engineering departments

All stations have gas miners in the Atmospherics sub-department that provide an infinite supply of oxygen and nitrogen (and often other gases), and those should be piped into every room of the station to meet these environmental conditions:

• Ratio of 78% nitrogen and 22% oxygen
• Pressure of 101.325 kPa
• Temperature of 293.2K

At the start of the shift, the mixture of breathable air must be set up in Atmospherics and pumped out to the rest of the station in what's typically called the 'distro' loop. Typical activities in the station - breathing, scientific experimentation, unexpected gas leaks, other biological processes - will produce undesirable gases like carbon dioxide and ammonia. A separate loop from distro, called the 'waste' loop, uses air scrubbers set up all over the station to filter those waste gases out of the air and pump them out of the station. The single point where the waste loop vents into space is also in Atmospherics, and typically requires some kind of setup at the start of shift to correctly dispose of these gases.

Spaced rooms

The Atmospheric Alerts computer, found in all engineering departments

Some random events and player actions can damage the station, exposing the interior to the vacuum of space. When this happens, a nearby air sensor will read the drop in pressure and trigger firelocks to close and seal off the spaced section (unless they have been destroyed or sabotaged) which keeps the the rest of the station pressurized. If many sections of the station are spaced at the same time, it becomes very difficult to restore pressure to the whole station and the evac shuttle must be called.

Engineers are responsible for repairing the station when this happens and restoring pressure so other department may continue their work in safety, as low pressure damages players not wearing an EVA suit or hardsuit. These repairs often include rebuilding floors and windows, and also possibly rewiring a room if an explosion damaged the power network. See this guide on Fixing Hull Breaches.

Other responsibilities

The engineering department is responsible for keeping the gravity generator and telecommunication servers (required for radio communication) running, but these do not require any active management. They can however be sabotaged or damaged. Also, the station anchor is sometimes in an area only accessible to engineers, and when the station anchor is powered the station cannot move and thrusters attached to the station cannot fire.

Gravity generator

Station anchor

Telecom server

Equipment

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing; with tools he is still an animal.<ref>The actual quote attributed to Thomas Carlyle is "Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all."</ref>

The tools used by each engineer depend on their sub-department.

• [[Station Engineer#Equipment] - Template:Crowbar, Template:Wirecutter, Template:Screwdriver, Template:Wrench, Template:Multitool, Template:RCD
• Atmosian#Equipment - same as Station Engineer, plus the gas analyzer and holofan projector
• Chief Engineer#Equipment - Template:Jaws (improved crowbar & wirecutter), Template:Power drill (improved screwdriver & wrench), experimental welding tool, Template:Multitool, Template:RCD

Here are other items found in Engineering:

• Tools: Geiger counter, metal foam grenade, t-ray scanner, air grenade
• Suits: radiation suit, engineering hardsuit, atmos fire suit, atmos hardsuit
• Masks: breath mask, gas mask, welding mask, atmospheric gas mask
• Additional equipment: compressed matter, insulated gloves, magboots, oxygen tank, oxygen deprivation treatment kit, atmos fire helmet, Portable generators, Portable air scrubbers, atmos fire axe, Polly, Tropico

Also, here are some vending machines commonly in Engineering departments:

Engineering vending machines

Vending Machine	Available items
YouTool	LV cable coil crowbar welding tool wirecutter wrench screwdriver t-ray scanner network configurator gas analyzer flashlight insulated gloves spray painter compressed paint
Engi-Vend	engineering goggles welding mask crowbar multitool network configurator medium-capacity power cell insulated gloves inflatable wall box warning cone
EngiDrobe	engineering duffel bag engineering satchel engineering backpack engineering jumpsuit engineering jumpskirt hazard jumpsuit black shoes hi-viz vest workboots yellow hard hat orange hard hat engineering headset engineering winter coat striped orange scarf engineering winter boots
AtmosDrobe	atmospherics duffel bag atmospherics satchel atmospherics backpack atmospheric technician jumpsuit atmospheric technician jumpskirt atmospheric technician's casual jumpsuit white shoes engineering headset fire helmet fire suit atmospherics winter coat striped light blue scarf

Most good stations have coffee and snack vending machines in Engineering.

Working with other departments

Everyone on the station requires the power grid and air distribution/waste loops to be fully operational. However beyond those basic requirements, here are a few other interdepartmental activities you can work on:

Department	What engineering needs from them	What they ask engineers for
Cargo	Flatpaks for power generation, gas canisters, construction materials	Selling expensive gases such as tritium and frezon
Science	Researching technologies in the Industrial tree	Provide specific gases for anomaly research
Medical	Medications for radiation damage	Air filtration/refrigeration of Morgue, construction of Cryogenic Pods