Mind Benders
- Thread starter IPFreely
- Start date
maybe its heat range?
Eh, yes and no.
The distance range to the star where scoop works is quite narrow on class M stars, meaning you'll be more prone hit the exclusion zone accidentally.
Don't really have a problem with this, TBH.
We can currently only classify stars by means of the technology available today.
For all we know, in the 34th century maybe they've discovered that tachyon particles given off by different stars resonate at different frequencies and energise hydrogen molecules in a way that allows only some of them to be collected by a fuel scoop.
Or something.
We can currently only classify stars by means of the technology available today.
For all we know, in the 34th century maybe they've discovered that tachyon particles given off by different stars resonate at different frequencies and energise hydrogen molecules in a way that allows only some of them to be collected by a fuel scoop.
Or something.
Hmm, thanks, I did not realize this! I don't skim so it's not usually an issue for me, when I hit a sweet spot, I cut my throttle and wait to tank up. Do you know if K-class stars have a narrow tolerance also?
In my experience yes, but comfortably wider than class M.
I think it is tied both to star size (solar radii) and type (and/or surface temperature).
I hate the disappearing yellow ring on neutron stars, wish they would fix that. I can get 80ly in my ASPx charging there
As well as those stars that have passed beyond hydrogen fusion (white dwarfs etc)...
T-Tauri and pre-main sequence stars are too early in their development to have temperatures high enough for hydrogen fusion (their heat comes from gravitation as they contract).
Brown Dwarfs are not massive enough for hydrogen fusion.
Hence those types do not have the plasma you require for fuel available for scooping.
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If you remember "KGB Foam", and look at the little popup you get when starting tocharge the jump drive, you will see it tells you the class of the star, current state of the system (war, boom, etc),and your wanted status / hostile power yada yada....
So with KGB Foam in mind the screen telling you what class the ctar is, scooping is relatively easy. You can also set filters in your galaxy map for star class, select the first 7 star types only, and tick the box linking routing to filters, and you'll never jump into a non scoopable star again. You can leave that filter setup but disable it, by changing filter by from star class to none. If you need to scoop again, just change none to star class and the 7 classes you previously selected will still be selected.
So with KGB Foam in mind the screen telling you what class the ctar is, scooping is relatively easy. You can also set filters in your galaxy map for star class, select the first 7 star types only, and tick the box linking routing to filters, and you'll never jump into a non scoopable star again. You can leave that filter setup but disable it, by changing filter by from star class to none. If you need to scoop again, just change none to star class and the 7 classes you previously selected will still be selected.
Good advice about filter usage. I'm kind of a lightweight when it comes to exploration, I've only been out to Gorgon Research and back (3K ly, I think?) and almost got stuck a bunch of times, haha! I'll remember this next time I go outside the Bubble.
Rep for account name.
I was going to say exactly the same thing Stealthie, that's uncanny.
It depends on the star's spectral class. The stars in the scoopable classes - O B A F G K M - are all abundant in hydrogen, the non-scoopable classes aren't. That's either because they've never undergone hydrogen fusion, or because they have expended all their hydrogen.
Going through the list of non-scoopable classes, we have:
Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs, Black Holes - these are stellar remnants; the remains of stellar cores that stopped fusing hydrogen millions of years before they exploded in supernovae (for NS and BH) or shed their outer layers over time (for WD). There's no hydrogen to be found here anymore as it all fused to much heavier elements like iron and so on.
Class Y, T and L Brown Dwarfs - these are sub-stellar objects that are basically gas giant planets that didn't have enough mass to fuse hydrogen and become stars. Y class dwarfs are so small and cold they're really difficult to distinguish from gas giants - there are gas giants larger and hotter than some Y class dwarfs. Generally brown dwarfs can go to to around 70x the mass of Jupiter. Around 70-80 Jupiter masses is when hydrogen fusion is likely to kick in. There's gaseous hydrogen here, but no plasma from fusion, so no fuel.
T-Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be - These are proto-stars, at less than 10 million years old, they're too young to have started fusing hydrogen, but they have the mass for it. T-Tauri stars will become main sequence stars of spectral classes M, G, K, or F. Herbig Ae/Be stars will join the main sequence as A or B class stars and will have a much shorter life.
Carbon Stars - These are typically Red Giant or Supergiant stars that have much more carbon than oxygen in their atmospheres; they're exceedingly rare, and they are reaching the end of their lives. The abundance of carbon is due to helium fusion which dredges all the heavier elements to the surface. This is because these stars alternate between burning hydrogen and helium for long periods (millions of years). You can't scoop a carbon star because it's not currently burning hydrogen.
Wolf-Rayet Stars - These are massive stars that have depleted their hydrogen supply and have more carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, helium and silicon. Most of them will be primarily Nitrogen or Carbon/Oxygen. Very interesting and rare purple glowing stars, but no hydrogen for fuel here.
S-Type stars - These are a type of cool class M carbon star with equal amounts of carbon and oxygen in their atmospheres and an abundance of zirconium oxide. Again, no hydrogen to scoop here.
Hope that helps
Thanks for that very insightful explanation on the star classes.
Exactly how the "Fuel scoop" works has never thoroughly been explained in lore, but here's my take on the head-canon explanation of why some stars "work", and some don't.
The fuel scoop is essentially a modified version of the Bussard ramjet, which collects hydrogen from interstellar space. It has been "modified" so that it works from Supercruise, rather than normal space. In order to be collectable, the hydrogen must be in the form of a hot, dense, ionized plasma - the fuel scoop doesn't work on cold, neutral hydrogen. So, black holes, brown dwarfs, carbon stars and protostars are out.
But it still uses a magnetic field to collect the hydrogen, and is designed to operate within the parameters of a "normal" star's magnetic field. But stars with super-powerful magnetic fields will disrupt the scoop's ability to collect hydrogen. Thus, Wolf-Rayets, neutron stars and white dwarfs are also all disqualified.
The fuel scoop is essentially a modified version of the Bussard ramjet, which collects hydrogen from interstellar space. It has been "modified" so that it works from Supercruise, rather than normal space. In order to be collectable, the hydrogen must be in the form of a hot, dense, ionized plasma - the fuel scoop doesn't work on cold, neutral hydrogen. So, black holes, brown dwarfs, carbon stars and protostars are out.
But it still uses a magnetic field to collect the hydrogen, and is designed to operate within the parameters of a "normal" star's magnetic field. But stars with super-powerful magnetic fields will disrupt the scoop's ability to collect hydrogen. Thus, Wolf-Rayets, neutron stars and white dwarfs are also all disqualified.
.. which leads to the teaser as to what is so special about the plasma in jets that makes it "supercharge" your FSD.
.. which leads to the teaser as to what is so special about the plasma in jets that makes it "supercharge" your FSD.
Well, if we're going to get all logical about things, then there's no particular reason why injecting tiny quantities of vanadium, arsenic, polonium or half a dozen other elements into the hydrogen fuel supercharges your FSD either.
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Why isn't there gas exchange between the parent and close proximity, (within 100Ls), secondary stars in that system, - The gravity well of the parent star should be able to "steal" the resources of the secondary due to mass/gravity - Also planetary entities passing thru that region of effect should not be available for landing during the period of passage, - I postulate that missions deliveries, etc. to those planetary landing locations should not be accessible during passage thru the gas exchange region of the orbit - Making pilots consider mission delivery timing.
Same reason as in all our 400 billion star systems there arent any protosystems, its a limitation of the otherwise admittedly brilliant stellar forge engine.