Thruster
A Thruster is [1] a small rocket engine on a spacecraft used to make controlled alterations in its flight path or altitude. You may be looking for Thruster Comparison.
For specific thruster blocks, see:
Usage
In Space Engineers, the thruster is the keystone block for all flying craft: airplanes, shuttles, drones, missiles, or spaceships. Build at least one thruster block facing in each cardinal direction (plus a source of Power and a Gyroscope) to be able to stabilize and achieve controlled flight with a mobile grid.[2] Asymmetrical thruster placement is allowed and will not cause tailspinning, as it would in real life or Kerbal Space Program.
The max speed is capped at 100 meters per second (360 km per hour) due to limitations of the physics engine that causes faster objects to phase through obstacles.[3]
Thrusters use up 12 PCU.
Which thrusters should I use where?
Each thruster type has strengths and weaknesses in different environments. As of Space Engineers release 1.205, there are four variations of thrusters in the game, each with two size classes:
- Ion Thruster — best for spaceships in the vacuum of space
- Atmospheric Thruster — best for airplanes in planetary atmospheres
- Hydrogen Thruster — equally strong in vacuum and atmospheres and ideal for shuttles, but requires voluminous hydrogen tanks
- Prototech Thruster — an powerful end-game thruster with similar functionality to Ion Thrusters
You can combine thrusters types to create e.g. hydrogen-atmo or hydrogen-ion hybrids, but consider the added weight.
For technical details, see Thruster mechanics.
Control Panel Actions
- Enable/Disable Thrust Override
- Increase/Decrease/Set Thrust Override - Set a fixed speed. Useful for long flights, or for automatic drones or player-built missiles.
Thruster Damage
In the advanced world settings, there is a checkbox to activate or deactivate Thruster Damage. The ranges of Thruster Damage for thrusters are as follows:
| Thruster | Grid size | Damage Range |
|---|---|---|
| Large Hydrogen Thruster | Small Grid | 7 small grid blocks |
| Hydrogen Thruster | Small Grid | 2 small grid blocks |
| Large Hydrogen Thruster | Large Grid | 7 large grid blocks |
| Hydrogen Thruster | Large Grid | 2 large grid blocks |
| Large Ion Thruster | Small Grid | 4 small grid blocks |
| Ion Thruster | Small Grid | 2 small grid blocks |
| Large Ion Thruster | Large Grid | 5 large grid blocks |
| Ion Thruster | Large Grid | 3 large grid blocks |
| Large Atmospheric Thruster | Small Grid | 4 small grid blocks |
| Atmospheric Thruster | Small Grid | 1 small grid block |
| Large Atmospheric Thruster | Large Grid | 4 large grid blocks |
| Atmospheric Thruster | Large Grid | 1 large grid block |
We assume that Flat Atmospheric Thrusters have the same damage range as their full size counterparts.
Requirements
Important: If you have Progression enabled:
- To unlock Atmospheric Thrusters and Ion Thrusters, you must build a Cockpit or Remote Control first.
- To unlock Hydrogen Thrusters, you must build an O2/H2 Generator and a Hydrogen Tank first.
Thrusters have an implicit progression because they are built with low-, mid-, and high-level materials:
- Atmospheric Thrusters just need a lot of iron and nickel for
Motors - Hydrogen Thrusters additionally need Cobalt for
Metal Grids - Ion thrusters require
Platinum and 
Gold for their 
Thruster Components.
Gallery
A ship with a hybrid set of ion and hydrogen thrusters
SOTF Patrol Bot with SciFi Ion Thrusters
SOTF Shuttle with SciFi Ion Thrusters
Big Blue Ship with Ion Thrusters
Moon Rover "Drop Pod" with Hydrogen Thrusters
B-60 Bulk Freighter with large Atmospheric Thrusters and small Hydrogen Thrusters
Constructor_mk.1 with Atmospheric Thrusters
A small planetary shuttle with atmospheric thrusters
References
- ↑ https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199891580.001.0001/acref-9780199891580-e-8301
- ↑ Though experienced players can use careful gyroscope-manoeuvres to work around missing thruster directions.
- ↑ https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/pc/topic/increase-speed-limit