Hi r/factorio. First thing first, I love the game and the community here. You guys are the best! Today I come to you asking for help with the Space Exploration Mod.
I have my main base in Nauvis. I have launched some satellites into orbit to explore the solar system, and I also have launched 2 cargo rockets and started with the space science stuff in the space platform.
Due to the mod balance there are few resources on Nauvis, while there are moons full to the brim with ore. The issue is transportation, you can either use cargo rockets, delivery cannons or spaceships.
A cargo rocket can hold 500 stacks, so a max of 25k ore. This is not really that much, barely 1k more than 3 4-wagon trains worth of ore, and it requires a lot of fuel, as well as the cargo sections for the rocket. This options seems quite expensive, at least until you can get rocket reusability and reliability quite high. And fuel can't be easily mass produced in planets with not much oil, vulcanite or water.
A delivery cannon can fire 1-stack capsules, but require a non reusable capsule each time, as well as consuming 50 MW for full time use. Not as expensive as the cargo rocket and not reliant on fuel and rocket parts, but with limited throughput.
As for spaceships I'm still very far from that so I can't tell yet if it's worth.
I'm guessing that late game you just can set up a network of launch facilities and cargo rockets that distribute resources where they are needed. But right now it seems a bit far out for me.
It's likely that I am missing something as I'm fairly new to this mod. My question is:
When (and how) is offworld mining worth it?
Sorry for any weird english and thank you in advance
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