Name: Nutrient Dispenser Description: Nutrient dispensers are large machines that are capable of breaking down organic matter in many and often toxic or inedible forms, and converting it into edible, ready-to-eat forms. This often entails printing bars, outputting a thick paste, or producing a slurry of sorts. More often than not, these nutrient-rich foods have a dull color. The machines themselves are massive blocks, with a hopper or hatch as an input slot. On the other far end of the machine is a terminal and a dispenser/3D printer (varying on model). The terminal of course is used to interact and interface with the machine. Other than that, and input ports for power, the hull of the machine can vary in appearance depending on the model. Abilities: - Incredibly efficient. Every little bit of nutritional value is squeezed out of inserted matter, and with the right elements inserted, it can and will cover for almost all nutritional needs. Most machines are customizable, allowing a user to change the output to better fit the dietary needs of a specific species. - Eliminates contaminants. Microbes? Toxin? No problem. These machines are designed to break apart and remove hazardous chemicals and outright destroy microbial life inserted into them. Even prions cannot make it through. - Almost any organic matter can be inserted into the machine. Conditional Abilities (Optional): - If the machine is large enough, and you've got absolutely no sense of moral being, it can easily dispose of bodies. - Can turn incredibly disgusting food into bland tasteless food. Limitations: - No matter the outputted form, the food the machine outputs is often odorless and incredibly bland tasting. Almost powdery or sandy in texture. - The machine itself is rather massive, the smallest models being around the size of the average truck. - The process used to make food uses a lot of energy. - Leftover waste not used to create food is often toxic and useless, even if there isn't much of it. - They're not incredibly cheap. They're meant to feed a /lot/ of people, not just a household. Conditional Limitations (Optional): - While not necessarily a limitation, paste and slurry versions obviously require more water, or hydrogen and oxygen. - While they aren't inherently high-maintenance, throwing a lot of inorganic matter into the machine can increase operation time, reduce efficiency, increase waste, and more often than not clog the machine up entirely. Don't put solid metal or rocks in it. It isn't unbreakable, even if it can break many materials apart. - Radioactive materials will ruin a batch of processed food entirely, unless consumers don't mind eating radioactive food. - You're going to miss your mamma's cooking. How does it work: After inserting matter, the large machine breaks it apart in a series of chambers, designed to break down the toughest materials down into liquids, paste, or putty. It is then processed through another series of tiny chambers, using extremely tiny and precise technologies in order to annihilate some unwanted materials (similarly to EtM technology), while extracting others. Similar processes are repeated until the matter is completely broken down, at which point the machine reassembles it into organic molecules and compounds that are edible. These safe materials are then used to make a gel, slurry, or are simply 3D printed into bricks that are dispensed in the output. Many models also include chemical inputs to supplement inserted foods, such as water, vitamins, certain acids, so on. The terminal on the machines are used to set a desired composition of the output, often having templates pre-programmed to fit the dietary needs of most common species. It also displays data, such as contained elements, and ETA times for processing to complete. Flavor text: A very common technology since before the creation of the Hyperdrive. When people couldn't afford to waste food or be picky for incredibly lengthy space ventures, or were settled in lush worlds without a ready supply of edible produce, these machines were the backbone that kept them fed. It is hard to pin where exactly these machines originated, or if varying designs were created at different times by many space-venturing species. What can be said is that the design has been refined and perfected over time, though it has seen less use in more recent years with the invention of the hyperdrive. However, some unfortunate colonies may use upscaled versions of the technology, and it is an important part of any fleet that experiences extended campaigns across the stars in which many mouths need to be consistently fed. Referenced Technologies (Optional): EtM Storage Technology Attainability: Open Tags: [Civilian] Category: Tools
