Regolith clearing

During the meteor shower, regolith and ore fall. If the regolith is not removed, it will fill up the solar panels and other buildings.

In this article we will discuss 6 schemes for cleaning up regolith and ore:


 * 1) Simple - regolith is destroyed, ore is collected manually by dupes.
 * 2) Pushing - regolith is destroyed, ore is pushed to the right.
 * 3) Ladder - both regolith and ore are gathered. AT is used.
 * 4) Improved Classic - there are dead zones. Buildings of copper/gold.
 * 5) Self-Cooling - the scheme works on self-cooling. Buildings are made of steel.
 * 6) With magma - the circuit does not collect ore. Gives a lot of electricity.

The first circuit will show a scanner. In subsequent circuits, none (for simplicity). Any scheme can be extended to the entire length of the space biome (with some features).

Simple


The best known and simplest scheme. The doors periodically begin to close for a moment, the regolith disappears, and the ore remains in the doors, from which it can be removed by dupes.


 * Timer: 10 sec red; 0.1 sec green.

There is a mesh tile under the doors. It lets in light and does not interfere with the scanner. You can read about the location of the scanners here.

Pushing
After the meteor shower is over and a "1" appears from the meteorite scanner (via NOT-gate), the top row of doors will periodically close destroying the regolith. The lower doors will close in sequence, left to right, for 2 minutes. The ore will be pushed to the right, where it can be picked up by dupes or auto-sweeper.


 * Filter: 120 s (the more doors, the greater its setting)
 * Buffers, s: left to right - 1, 2, 3, etc.
 * Timer: 4s red, 15s green (equal to the number of doors + 5s)

Ladder


The scheme was proposed by Ниваль. Under the auto-sweeper, loaders and robo-miner, crude oil is spilled. There are also radiator pipes in which water circulates.

The turbine and AT should be moved lower or sideways to cram in the solar panels.

The output of the circuit is regolith and ore with a high temperature, which can be used in this circuit.

Improved classic
This is an improved version of many people's favorite regolith removal scheme (last screenshot). Unlike the original version, here the auto-sweeper are made of gold, not thermium.

The regolith will be transferred from one automatic dispenser to another, and eventually, it will drop down. The dispenser have no overheat threshold and are not cooled by anything.

Otherwise, the scheme is similar to the previous one - crude oil drop under the robo-miner, water in the cooling circuit.

Self-Cooling


The robo-miner stand so that either one of them can reach the neighboring one and dig each other out. The bunker doors do not open simultaneously. Above every other miner, the door opens with a delay of 120 seconds. This is necessary so that several miner don't get stuck at once.

The mechanisms are cooled with crude oil spilled over the airflow tiles, in the amount of 10 kg/cell. There should not be a lot of it, because the more of it, the more the light is attenuated. There is crude oil in the cooling circuit.

The turbines work on self-cooling, which is enough for the circuit shown. If you increase the width of the circuit, you will either have to add more turbines or switch to cooling with AT.

The output is 140°C regolith, 160°C ore, and some energy. The solar panels would work under this scheme, but the scanner would not. It will be hampered by oil. Turbines, of course, should be shifted down to fit the solar panels.

With magma


In this scheme, the regolith falls into the magma, increasing its volume and not cooling it much, because its heat capacity is 5 times lower than the magma. As a result, we get a multiple increase in magma.

On the right is a rocket that heats the magma with its exhaust in order to compensate for the loss of magma heat from the fallen regolith.

Magma is pushed upward by the Escher falls. If there is no volcano nearby, you can pump out the magma with a pump and move it to the rocket using the 10% rule.

Overhead bunker doors only over volcano. Tiles and tempshift plate made of diamond.

The circuit is not easy to run. Plus it takes a long time to heat it up. But as a result of its operation we have an almost endless source of thermal energy, which can be used if you complete the circuit with a turbine, as shown in this article.

Blueprints
Simple • Pushing • Ladder • Improved classic • Self-Cooling • With magma