Heat

## Description

**Heat** is one of the three (initial) categories that increases the Terraformation Index score. It also unlocks certain blueprints and removes icy terrain opening up new paths through caves.

Heat can be increased by building machines, which can be sped up by using rockets.

## Units

The units used in the game are the kelvin (standard SI unit of temperature) with SI fractional prefixes:

* picokelvin (pK, 10−12 kelvin, or 0.000000000001 K)
* nanokelvin (nK, 10−9 kelvin, or 0.000000001 K)
* microkelvin (µK, 10−6 kelvin, or 0.000001 K, or a millionth of a K)
* millikelvin (mK, 10−3 kelvin, or 0.001 K, or 1/1000 K)
* kelvin (K)

## Trivia

Kelvin is the fundamental temperature scale for the metric system in real life. Kelvin, unlike the more common Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, is an *absolute* scale, meaning 0 Kelvin is the point of 0 thermal energy (also, unlike Celsius and Fahrenheit, a unit of the Kelvin scale is simply referred to as **kelvins**, rather than **degrees Kelvin**). Due to the laws of thermodynamics, it's actually impossible to reach 0 Kelvin (the energy transfer rate out of the system approaches 0 as the temperature approaches 0 K. In physics experiments, it requires exceptional effort and technology to even approach 0 kelvins. For example, Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle received a Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for their creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate, a substance with a temperature of approximately 170 nanokelvins.

Since the game starts at 0 Kelvin and generally operates the entire time under 1 Kelvin, this is extremely unrealistic. Even with only a trace atmosphere, the surface of the planet would have significant heating from solar radiation, and in fact would likely have extremely high surface temperatures during the day due to lack of heat transfer via atmospheric convection. For example, the surface of Earth's moon can reach as high as 410 K in direct sunlight, and typically has a temperature low of approximately 100 K, or 25-35 K in polar craters in perpetual shadow.

As a reference, the freezing point of water is approximately 273 K, the boiling point approximately 373 K, and the normal temperature of the human body approximately 310 K.

## Machines

### Heaters

* Heater T1
* Heater T2
* Heater T3
* Heater T4
* Heater T5

### Drills

* Drill T2
* Drill T3
* Drill T4
* Drill T5

### Extractors

* Gas Extractor
* Gas Extractor T2
* Ore Extractor T1
* Ore Extractor T2
* Ore Extractor T3

## Blueprint rewards

Attaining a certain amount of Heat will grant the player blueprints.

In order, they are:

1. Vegetube T2 (500 pK)
2. Screen - Progress (2.00 nK)
3. Beacon (5.00 nK)
4. Exoskeleton T2 (10.00 nK)
5. Drill T3 (21.00 nK)
6. Biodome (100.00 nK)
7. Sign (500.00 nK)
8. Algae Generator T1 (2.00 µK)
9. Biodome T2 (12.00 µK)
10. Drill T4 (41.00 µK)
11. Nuclear Fusion Generator (750.00 µK)

## Trivia

Since a temperature of 0K doesn't exist under normal circumstances in the universe (the lowest temperature that occurs naturally is approximately 2K), it can be assumed these numbers are not absolute, but merely measure the difference that Convict GP-8971-L has made from whatever the planet's original temperature was.

The planet's original temperature must have been close to 273K, given that ice melts to water after raising the planet's temperature by only a fraction of a kelvin. Room temperature is roughly 295K.

But If the pressure is below 611.6 Pascal, water can sublimate to gaseous form directly, and this can happen under temperatures ranging roughly from 210K to 273K, proportional to the pressure. In this case, this means ice on the planet would form water vapor by sublimation first, and then rain down back on surface when pressure increases to sufficient levels that could support liquid water.