Why hello there! How's it going? I've been fairly absent for a while because I've had some "distractions", but that's going to change rather soon. Then I'll be able to focus back on the wiki and making the guide videos I always wanted to do as well as other projects I'd like to do!
I'm not sure if you're exaggerating on the "8 dimensions", but just in case you are being serious there aren't 8 yet. You can see other planets on the map now, but they don't exist yet. Unless you're looking at an add-on or something.
Just to make sure, which wiki are you looking at? From what I see, you don't need steel for a Coal Generator according to this page:
http://wiki.micdoodle8.com/wiki/Coal_Generator
I verified it in-game (with NEI) and the most recent recipe is still accurate.
I really liked CraftGuide because it works more like a manual or reference book, but it only shows recipes and doesn't show how to use machines.
And no, the cheating part won't work unless you have been given permission/op status because it works the same as if you typed in "/give [player]...
It could be a good way to continuously supply the space station with raw materials. Instead of having to ship it all up from the Overworld, it would get "pumped" straight where you need it.
If you haven't seen it, Yogscast just installed a laser drill on their space station and is essentially...
http://wiki.micdoodle8.com/wiki/Cheese_Ore
"Occurrence
Cheese Ore can be found between layers Y=0 and Y=128 with a frequency of 12 clumps within every chunk"
You could make simple piston doors
You could have 8 thrusters: two on each side, 4 rotating clockwise, 4 rotating counterclockwise. You could write a program on a ComputerCraft terminal that controls redstone signals to the thrusters of the correct direction and the correct number of them to be on which determines the speed.
Yeah I was thinking if they could be controlled by redstone you could wire systems that could achieve the same result. Particularly with ComputerCraft computers and networks.
I agree. It would be nice to simply switch them on and off. Perhaps there could be an option on the thruster (like on the air lock controller) so you could invert whether redstone turns it on or off.