Cargo Bay

Cargo Bay is a rocket module used to bring solid resources back from space missions. Duplicants fill it with materials found during flight, and each Cargo Bay returns 1000 kg of solid resources per mission. The exact contents depend on the destination’s resource composition, so a Cargo Bay can be a reliable way to supplement colony stockpiles with many space-only materials and asteroid-specific ores.

Cargo Bays can collect a wide range of common resources from different destinations, including coal, refined carbon, and diamond from the Carbon Asteroid; iron, copper, and obsidian from the Metallic Asteroid; steel, copper, and glass from the Satellite; copper ore, sedimentary rock, and igneous rock from the Rocky Asteroid; ice, solid carbon dioxide, and solid oxygen from the Interstellar Ice; slime and algae from the Organic Mass; regolith, mafic rock, and sedimentary rock from the Dusty Dwarf; igneous rock and abyssalite from the Volcanic Planet; algae and dirt from the Terrestrial Planet; salt and crushed rock from the Arid Planet; solid chlorine and bleach stone from the Chlorine Planet; gold and pyrite from the Gilded Asteroid; tungsten and wolframite from the Glimmering Planet; aluminum ore and solid oxygen from the Living Planet; solid methane and solid carbon dioxide from the Oily Asteroid; rust and solid carbon dioxide from the Oxidized Asteroid; aluminum and fossil from the Red Dwarf; and solid carbon dioxide from the Salty Dwarf.

Rare resources must first be revealed before they can be collected. Destinations marked with ??? require exploration by Research Modules, with one ??? revealed for each research objective marked (!!). Because rocket modules are calculated from top to bottom, a Research Module placed above a Cargo Bay can uncover rare resources and return them in the same launch, as long as the mission completes the required research. This makes module order important when planning a single trip for both discovery and resource recovery.

Cargo Bays can be unloaded automatically by connecting them directly to a conveyor rail. Alternatively, selecting the building and using its unload button will dump the contents onto the ground beneath the rocket.

A few practical points are worth keeping in mind:

• Do not leave valuable materials sitting on the launch pad, since high temperatures can liquefy most metals and cause them to be lost through space exposure.
• Repeated trips to the same asteroid can deplete its resources faster than they regenerate, so rotating between destinations helps maintain long-term yields.

In the base game, Cargo Bay uses a 5x5 footprint, while in Spaced Out it uses a 3x3 footprint. Although its current description still refers to space missions, it is used for travel between planetoids in Spaced Out. It is constructed from 200 kg of refined metal, but its final mass is 300 kg of that metal.