Propulsion (8)
Tier 0
- Chemical Rocket : It's a rocket, it makes a giant trail of flame that moves things forward. It also explodes. Chemical rockets have a significant acceleration, but abysmal fuel efficiency.
- Ion Drive: By magnetically accelerating ionized noble gases, one can create a highly efficient (if low-thrust) propulsion system.
- Solar Sail: Large solar sails prove somewhat complicated by the sheer size required, along with being easily destroyed. However with a new material designed for the job, solar sails are usable.
- Improved Thrust Control: Advanced thruster designs allow standard drives to better control and refine movement, enabling higher maneuverability with ships along with better thrust efficiency.
- Advanced Strike-craft Engine: The design of strike-craft engines has been a bit of a complication sense the start of space, due to the fuel needs. Utilizing advanced thrust control principles though, strike-craft once again are maneuverable nightmares.
- Dual core Engines: Development of engine coupling has come to the point where multiple engines can be linked to each other, enabling "Dual Core" engines, which while taking slightly more space are more economical than two separate engines for production. This however comes at the cost of maneuverability. (Enables Dual Core option)
- Fusion Drive: Your engineers have taken the hot fusion reactors that you had recently developed and put them to a much more interesting use than power. Utilizing what amounts to a funnel they've turned the reactor into an insanely powerful thruster at the cost of all efficiency.
- Gen II Fusion Drive: Modifications to the drive have resulted in a vastly more controlled thrust generation, this results in the ship having vastly more control over its own maneuvering again.