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The Caterpillar Spaceship (2005)
(Updated January 2005) Pictured at the bottom of this page is the 17c/45 Caterpillar spaceship (click the link to get the full RLE pattern—7MB zipped, expands to 29MB). This spaceship has a period of 270 generations, moving up 102 cells on each cycle. The Caterpillar was automatically assembled by
Pictured at the bottom of this page is the 17c/45 Caterpillar spaceship (click the link to get the full RLE pattern—7MB zipped, expands to 29MB). Therefore, all we need to do is shoot period-6x streams of forward spaceships at the left and right of the Caterpillar, so as to form the helix and the fanout devices. The time delay between the catcher and the thrower can be adjusted by any multiple of 2 generations, and in the meantime, the gliders stand still in the form of blocks.
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