Space Scanner

The Space Scanner is a rocketry utility building used to detect incoming space events, especially meteor showers and rockets. It is part of the colony’s space observation network, and its usefulness depends on how well it can “see” the sky above the asteroid.

Scan quality is determined by the scanner’s exposure to open sky and by nearby obstructions. For maximum quality, the center tile must be exposed, the scanner must have a wide V-shaped opening to the sky on both sides, and it must not be blocked by non-airflow tiles, liquids, or gases. If the center tile is blocked, scan quality is always 0%. Scan quality itself is capped at 100%, but network quality can exceed that threshold; each scanner contributes up to 17% network quality, so six scanners can reach 102%.

A few practical points matter when placing it:

• Airflow Tiles, Mesh Tiles, closed Pneumatic Doors, and opened Airlocks do not block scan quality.
• Window Tiles do block the scanner’s view.
• The scanner cannot have its view obstructed by enough liquid or gas to exceed the element-specific mass limit.
• The amount of exposed sky needed is large: the scanner performs best when there is a clear V-shaped opening above it, with roughly 13 to 15 tiles of exposure on each side.
• Near the edge of the map, scan quality can behave oddly because of the asteroid’s curvature, so a scanner on one side may be affected by Regolith buildup on the opposite side.

At 0% scan network quality, scanners can detect incoming objects anywhere from 1 to 200 seconds early. At 100% quality or higher, they always detect them 200 seconds in advance. Different scanners may detect the same event at different times, so multiple scanners can send signals at different moments.

The scanner is useful in any colony that wants advance warning before space traffic or meteor activity. In the Spaced Out DLC, the Starmap and Rocketry systems are reworked, but the Space Scanner remains part of the broader space infrastructure.

Known issues can affect it as well: rockets may not always appear immediately in the detection list, and when a scanner does detect a rocket, it will send a green signal for a few seconds while the rocket is launching.