Cold Starting

Cold Starting is a term used to refer to the act of using the Fuel cell or Battery to heat up the Reactor so that it may be able to start reactions to produce energy. The steps to cold starting in the software are below.

The ORBIT Engineering software gives the option to cold start or hot start at run-time where the hot start option puts the software in the state it would be in after a successful cold start.

Cold Start Procedures

Transcribed from: Cold Start (procedures)

Start

1. Open the Engineering Software
2. Select Cold Start	c + Enter

Habitat

1. Activate Fuel Cell Injector	7
2. Connect Fuel Cell to Bus2	n
3. Connect R-CON1 to Bus1	d
4. Connect Bus2 to TRN	o
5. Connect Bus1 to TRN	q
6. Charge Reactor Containment to 2000As
7. Disconnect RCON-1 from Bus1	d
8. Activate Temperature View Mode	Tab
LOOP
9. Connect Reactor Heater	x
10. Continue until Fuel Cell temp >= 110C
11. Connect BAT to Bus2	r
12. Continue until BAT temp >= 80C
13. Disconnect Reactor Heater	x
14. Wait until Fuel Cell Temp <=80C
15. Repeat LOOP until Reactor Temp=80C OR Reactor Containment < 100As
END LOOP
16. Activate Reactor Injectors	5 , 6
17. Disconnect Battery from Bus2	r
18. Disconnect Fuel Cell from Bus2	n
19. Deactivate Fuel Cell Injector	7

AYSE

1. Connect Battery to BusA	F3
2. Connect AYSE Reactor Heater to BusA	0
3. Wait until Reactor Temp=80C
4. Activate Reactor Injectors	[ , ]
5. Disconnect Battery from BusA	F3

Cold Start Races

Shortly after the development of the Engineering Software, members began competing to see who could cold start the Habitat the most quickly. Strategies included running the Fuel Cell to dangerously high temperatures and charging the reactor containment to less than the nominal 2000As.

Through these competitions, many tricks to running engineering were discovered. For example, the Fuel Cell will radiate heat away much more quickly at higher Temperatures, in accordance with normal physics.