SS Engine (Civ4)/Civilopedia

The Space Ship Engine is actually a four part launch vehicle, designed to enable the Space Ship to complete its journey both within the high gravity space-time bends surrounding star systems and through the vast emptiness of deep space that separates our star from Alpha Centauri. Its first stage is the external booster rockets, which, much like the terrestrially launched shuttles of the late twentieth century, are solid fuel boosters and are jettisoned when they are no longer needed. They are crucial to build the initial impulse which will carry the Space Ship into Jupiter's gravity well, giving it the energy to slingshot to Uranus and then out into deep space. The second part to the Engine is the Space Ship's solar sail, which was designed both to use the radiation emitted from our sun and Jupiter for propulsion and to collect atomic particles for further future fuel and materials. The third part of the Engine array is the ion drive, which will harness both nuclear power and collected hydrogen to propel the craft through deep space, channeling high energy particles through the Thrusters. The fourth and most externally obvious component is the hydrogen solid fuel rocket, which will be used in the final phases of the Space Ship's travel to place it in orbit around Alpha Centauri's planetary system.