I'm sorry if this is the wrong section of the forums but there didn't seem to be a "correct" one. Since this has to do with in-world actions (fuel scooping) I figured Lore and Roleplay would be the closest fit.
With that said here's my question: What about Class K,G,B,F,O,A,M Stars allow us to scoop fuel from them?
I get that there was a need to restrict this ability and that a cutoff point would be present even if there is no appreciable difference between these and other stars. What I'm curious about is the in-world reasoning and whether that matches with real world physics.
The only reasoning I could figure is that these stars are young enough to mostly be hydrogen and be spewing the heck out of it while other stars would be older and made of a much higher quantity of heavier elements making anything they spew out much more contaminated if scooped. My problem with that hypothesis is that to my knowledge stars are mainly hydrogen for the entirety of their lifespan with some rare exceptions like neutron stars. Plus since hydrogen is the least dense element it'd be the most outwardly element to scoop. So while contaminants would be present I still think we'd be scooping a vast majority of hydrogen. If I'm wrong in this though I'd be happy to be explained how!
I would probably have assumed the non "KGB FOAM" stars too cold if the term wasn't "Fuel Scooping" and I'd have assumed we were converting the heat or maybe some radiation into energy and these older stars were simply unusable due to them fusing heavier elements like Iron causing them to cool (as far as I know that's how it works, up until it fuses iron atoms stars are producing more heat than they need but iron fusing is endothermic reducing the amount of heat in the star causing it to cool and eventually die)
If it isn't a match to anything from real life physics-wise I won't pay it any more attention, after all I am much more bothered by other issues related to that.
Just a sampling: To move at the speed of light you'd need infinite energy yet we regularly go 100x light speed. Why do we not experience relativistic effects? To terraform a planet would need such an absurd amount of energy it makes FTL seem plausible. GLASS COCKPITS!!! Okay I get that it's probably not glass but it's still a bad idea, monitors and cameras would be way easier, cheaper, and safer than engineering something like 20 feet of acrylic, magic space glass, transparent aluminum, or whatever else it's supposed to be... Sorry that's just a big pet peeve because so many ships have no way to see under them when cameras would be so simple!
Anyway: Thanks to anyone (especially physicists/astrophysicists) willing/able to answer me. Have a nice day and fly safe! o7
With that said here's my question: What about Class K,G,B,F,O,A,M Stars allow us to scoop fuel from them?
I get that there was a need to restrict this ability and that a cutoff point would be present even if there is no appreciable difference between these and other stars. What I'm curious about is the in-world reasoning and whether that matches with real world physics.
The only reasoning I could figure is that these stars are young enough to mostly be hydrogen and be spewing the heck out of it while other stars would be older and made of a much higher quantity of heavier elements making anything they spew out much more contaminated if scooped. My problem with that hypothesis is that to my knowledge stars are mainly hydrogen for the entirety of their lifespan with some rare exceptions like neutron stars. Plus since hydrogen is the least dense element it'd be the most outwardly element to scoop. So while contaminants would be present I still think we'd be scooping a vast majority of hydrogen. If I'm wrong in this though I'd be happy to be explained how!
I would probably have assumed the non "KGB FOAM" stars too cold if the term wasn't "Fuel Scooping" and I'd have assumed we were converting the heat or maybe some radiation into energy and these older stars were simply unusable due to them fusing heavier elements like Iron causing them to cool (as far as I know that's how it works, up until it fuses iron atoms stars are producing more heat than they need but iron fusing is endothermic reducing the amount of heat in the star causing it to cool and eventually die)
If it isn't a match to anything from real life physics-wise I won't pay it any more attention, after all I am much more bothered by other issues related to that.
Just a sampling: To move at the speed of light you'd need infinite energy yet we regularly go 100x light speed. Why do we not experience relativistic effects? To terraform a planet would need such an absurd amount of energy it makes FTL seem plausible. GLASS COCKPITS!!! Okay I get that it's probably not glass but it's still a bad idea, monitors and cameras would be way easier, cheaper, and safer than engineering something like 20 feet of acrylic, magic space glass, transparent aluminum, or whatever else it's supposed to be... Sorry that's just a big pet peeve because so many ships have no way to see under them when cameras would be so simple!
Anyway: Thanks to anyone (especially physicists/astrophysicists) willing/able to answer me. Have a nice day and fly safe! o7
