All crafting stations (tables, smelters, ext) require power sources. Limited (can't use all stations and on-board computers at once, choose wisely) at first but you're able to upgrade for more. Until then you need to search for and use surface buildings with desired crafting stations. Also build-able/ buy-able for a home planet base.
Also can be used to power up the engines of the latest tier of the spaceship, to get the ship's engine room working to get to places in space that no one can get, like the last parts of the game (interdimensional places and so on)
