Thruster

Thrusters are the primary source of propulsion for starship cruising.
Thrusters add speed and acceleration in the direction that they are pointing; therefore, applying thrust to one or multiple sides of a ship is possible.
A thruster's exhaust path may not be blocked by any block of the active starship at any distance, with the exception of one glass or glass pane block with no space in between.

Afterburner Thruster

Afterburner
An afterburner thruster, with a magma block for the glow block.
Properties
Acceleration	3.0
Speed	17.5
Weight	5.0
Resource Requirements
Iron Block	1
Sponge	1
Gold Block	1
Thruster Block	1

Afterburners provide plenty of acceleration and speed in a small package but are less efficient than other thrusters. They are typically the best thruster for most applications.

The magma block can be any thruster block.

Ion Thruster

Ion
An ion thruster, with a sea lantern for the glow block.
Properties
Acceleration	0.05
Speed	4.0
Weight	1.0
Resource Requirements
Sponge	1
Thruster Block	1

Ion thrusters accelerate very slowly but can be used to achieve high top speeds. These are typically used on cheaper vessels where acceleration is less of a concern than cost is.

The sea lantern can be any thruster block.

Plasma Thruster

Plasma
A plasma thruster, with a redstone lamp for the glow block.
Properties
Acceleration	0.75
Speed	2.5
Weight	1.0
Resource Requirements
Redstone Block	1
Thruster Block	1

Plasma thrusters have a lower top speed but provide efficient acceleration. These are typically not used on most ships because of their poor overall stats.

The redstone lamp can be any thruster block.

Calculation

The speed and acceleration of a given starship is determined by a number of functions and variables. For this reason, most players simply add thrusters by increment while testing the speed and acceleration values, until either of these values starts going down. That said, the discerning shipwright may still be interested in calculating the optimal thruster count beforehand, to save themselves time and energy.

Speed calculation:

To begin, let t = the total sum speed of all thrusters on a ship (for example, if a ship has 3 ion thrusters, then t = 12).

THIS IS NOT THE ACTUAL SPEED THE SPACESHIP WILL HAVE. Rather, this value is used in two equations to determine the actual ship speed.

The first equation is "calculated speed" c, determined as follows:

<math> e </math>

• code block formatting
• check that it's actually correct (pretty sure the linked spreadsheet is bad)