Getting Started

A walkthrough from a fresh Create world to your first trip into orbit. You do not have to follow it strictly; it just shows the order in which the pieces depend on each other. Every step links to the page with the details.

Note

Creating Space builds on Create's own progression. You should already have brass, the Mechanical Press, Mechanical Mixer, Blaze Burners, Fluid Tanks and Pipes, Sturdy Sheets and the train-control components. The Rocket Controls block is crafted from Create's electron tubes, redstone link, controls block and sturdy sheets.

The big picture

 NICKEL ─────────► nickel plates ─► backtank, oxygen sealer, cryogenic tank
 BRASS/COPPER/IRON ► engine parts ─► ROCKET ENGINE ─┐
 WATER ► electrolysis ► hydrogen + oxygen            │
 AIR ► air liquefier ► liquid oxygen + CO₂ ─► methane ┴► ROCKET ──► ORBIT ──► MOON / MARS / VENUS

Step 1: Find nickel

Nickel is the first new metal you need. Nickel Ore generates in the Overworld, in stone and in deepslate, anywhere between Y −64 and 120 (most often around the middle). You need an iron pickaxe.

Smelt it, or crush it and wash it (see Resources and Materials). Press nickel ingots into nickel plates in the Mechanical Press. You will use them for the oxygen backtank, the oxygen sealer and the cryogenic tank.

Step 2: Build a Rocket Engineer Table and design your first engine

Craft a Rocket Engineer Table (six wooden slabs and a smooth stone) and open it. You start with the Open Cycle power pack and the Bell Nozzle, burning Metha/LOX.

A good first design is the one in Engine Crafting: 100 kN thrust, 1 000 mB chamber, expansion ratio 50, Brass. Press the check mark to get an Engine Blueprint. See Rocket Engines.

Tip

Cheaper metals are possible with a bigger chamber, but a bigger chamber is a heavier engine, and heavy engines need more thrust. The design pages explain the trade-off.

Step 3: Make the engine

Copy the blueprint with paper, then run the sequenced-assembly chain of walls, ribs, turbine and injectors to produce a Rocket Engine. The full bill of materials is on Engine Crafting: for an Open Cycle + Bell engine that is about 34 ingots' worth of the material, plus 4 Create Sturdy Sheets.

Step 4: Make propellant

Metha/LOX needs equal volumes of Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Methane.

• Liquid Oxygen: an Air Liquefier facing open air in the Overworld, powered by a rotating shaft. (Or an electrolyzer: it makes oxygen too.)
• Liquid Methane: needs Liquid CO₂ and Liquid Hydrogen.
  • CO₂: an Air Liquefier facing a campfire.
  • Hydrogen: a Mechanical Electrolyzer on water.
  • Combine in a Catalyst Carrier over a heated basin with the catalyst slot empty.

Store them in separate Create Fluid Tanks. See Fluids and Propellants.

Step 5: Make a spacesuit

Space has no air. Make the Basic Spacesuit (fabric from copper sheets, gold nuggets and red wool; helmet, leggings, boots; and an oxygen backtank). Fill the backtank with Liquid Oxygen. See Spacesuit and Oxygen Backtank and Life Support.

Step 6: Build the rocket

Controls, engine, two fluid tanks (one per propellant), a seat, all glued together, with clear sky above. Check the weight and thrust: your thrust must beat the weight, and your Δv must beat the trip. See Building a Rocket.

Step 7: Fly

Right-click the Rocket Controls, press Create New Rocket, board, right-click the Controls again, add a Destination: Earth Orbit entry (1 500 m/s), click the pause button off, and close the screen. See Launching and Flight.

Step 8: Build a station, then go further

In Earth Orbit, press Disassemble, and build outward with an Oxygen Sealer so you can work without a suit. From orbit:

Next goal	Cost from Earth Orbit	Why go
The Moon (via Moon Orbit)	900 m/s	Aluminium, cobalt and a lot of nickel; crashed rockets with better engine designs
Mars	1 300 m/s	Nickel sulfate geodes for the catalyst; a buried outpost
Venus	2 200 m/s	The hardest world: heat, fire, lava

The Moon's wrecks hold the designs for the Full Flow, Ox/Fuel Rich power packs and the Aerospike nozzle. See Blueprints and Designs, Structures and Loot and Planets and Travel.

Where to go next

• Read about all five alloys and the material ladder: Resources and Materials.
• Work out better engines: Engine Design Reference.
• Stuck? Troubleshooting and FAQ.