Star Harvesting Vessel

[TheDragon2001]

The purpose of this ship would be to harvest fuel from stars in large amounts. The ship would have a ‘hidden’ fuel tank which it could not directly draw on for flight. This tank would compress the scooped hydrogen so that this ship could actually carry enough in one load to be worth it (At the very least 100,000 credits worth a load). While fuel scooping, two fuel bars would be displayed, the flight tank and the storage tank. The ship would be able to refuel itself from the storage tank and Fuel Transfer limpets would draw from the storage tank first.
The ship would cost 5-10 million, land on Large pads, have very few hardpoints, and 8-12 utility mounts. It would have at least one class 8 and one class 7 optional internal but not many optional internals overall. The ship would essentially be a huge fuel tank (or maybe two side by side) with a cockpit on the front and thrusters on the back. The ship would also run naturally cool and not be prone to overheating quickly.
It would come with a 7E fuel scoop as a core internal module in a class 8 slot. While scooping, a large majority of the scooped fuel would go to the storage tank.

To go with this ship, I had another thought that I am not sure about. The Tritium Synthesizer.
The tritium synthesizer would open the option to sell normal fuel as tritium BUT only to vessels that use tritium fuel. The tritium synthesizer would take ammunition (probably something expensive for balance), have large mass and power draw, and take a class 8 optional internal compartment. When selling tritium, the amount of the synthesizer’s ammunition consumed would be determined by the amount of tritium sold.

 

[CMDR Deano The Imperial]

What would be the purpose?

Why not just scoop your own fuel or buy it from a station/FC if you haven't got a fuel scoop.

 

[Ettanin]

What's the purpose? Faster travel?

If you can't buy the tritium from stations for your fleet carrier, mine it yourself.

If you believe 70 light years per jump for your exploration vessel isn't enough, you're wrong. People were satisfied with just 30 before engineering came to be.

Power creep makes games easier, yes, but also boring.

 

[Bottom Hat]

It's about 1kT of fuel.

 

[TheDragon2001]

I originally had the idea to answer the question, how do starports replenish their fuel.
I figured this ship could serve as an exploration ship with a jump range of about an Asp Ex. or Conda, but with much better fuel capacity. It would also provide a simply, easy way to make money or make a great attendant for a Fleet Carrier (with the tritium synthesizer).
It might also make an interesting option for the Fuel Rats or other such rescue groups.

 

[varonica]

The purpose of this ship would be to harvest fuel from stars in large amounts. The ship would have a ‘hidden’ fuel tank which it could not directly draw on for flight. This tank would compress the scooped hydrogen so that this ship could actually carry enough in one load to be worth it

You don't really think our ships carry uncompressed hydrogen do you? It's all compressed, and in fact I had a lot of fun long ago delivering Hydrogen to Jaques Station to ready him for his cross galaxy jump to Beagle Point. Stations get supplies with Hydrogen just like everything else they get, all those NPC T9's flying in and out through the letterbox do it!

 

[TheDragon2001]

You don't really think our ships carry uncompressed hydrogen do you?

Not even remotely.
I was assuming that everyone knew that rocket fuel (and presumably the fuel in Elite) is liquid hydrogen (usually with some other stuff). When I say compressed, I mean compress it further, like to solid hydrogen.

Stations get supplies with Hydrogen just like everything else they get, all those NPC T9's flying in and out through the letterbox do it!

I'm not saying T9s aren't sufficient, they are just expensive.
Also having a specifically made, dedicated fuel tender makes more sense to me then outfitting a freighting vessel for the job. That's just me though.

 

[Greasetrap42]

I was assuming that everyone knew that rocket fuel (and presumably the fuel in Elite) is liquid hydrogen (usually with some other stuff). When I say compressed, I mean compress it further, like to solid hydrogen.

Why?

Edit: Why do you think there is an advantage to compressing hydrogen liquid into a solid? And why do you think hauling large volumes of hydrogen fuel would be a profitable activity for a cmdr?

 

[TheDragon2001]

Why do you think there is an advantage to compressing hydrogen liquid into a solid? And why do you think hauling large volumes of hydrogen fuel would be a profitable activity for a cmdr?

Making a profit is just about time, volume, and sale price. The time would be pretty short, but the sale price would be very little so the ship would have to carry a lot of hydrogen. Since the ship can't be beyond a certain size, it has to pack more hydrogen into what space it has. The simplest way to make things smaller is to compress them and so the hydrogen would likely go solid under the pressure.
Really though, I don't care how the game says the hydrogen is stored, just so long as the ship can carry enough of it to be worth while, and yet be small enough to fit through a station airlock and land on a pad.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Makes absolutely no sense. But funny to read.