How to Power a Sci-Fi Spaceship

Spacedock delves into various power sources for sci-fi spaceships, both realistic and fantastical.
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[@kesmeseker9593]

COAL POWERED SPACESHIPS

[@ComfortsSpecter]

The way God Intended Man to Solar Sail the Stars

[@Attaxalotl]

WE GETTING INTO THE GILDED AGE WITH THIS ONE!

[@igncom1]

Yes! Bring steampunk into space! Have giant space steamengines that travel the stars!

[@thebloxxer22]

inb4 Factorio Space Age

[@Ataximander]

Cow And Chicken had the right idea

[@warmachine5835]

To quote the John Aaron in the Apollo 13 movie: "Power is everything... Without it, they don't talk to us, they don't correct their trajectory, they don't turn the heat shield around..."

[@raideurng2508]

Barely enough to run this coffee pot for 12 hours...

[@WPSent]

"We have to turn off the radars, cabin heater, instrument displays, the guidance computer, the whole smash."

[@paulkepshire5056]

Jerry Bostick: “Whoa! Guidance computer. What... what if they need to do another burn? Gene, they won't even know which way they're pointed.” John Aaron: “The more time we talk down here, the more juice they waste up there. I've been looking at the data for the past hour.”

[@riccardogemme]

"I saw perfection" Yeager class on screen Yup, it's a Spacedock video alright

[@RoonMian]

I recognised that and the Gunstar from Last Starfighter but what was the robot?

[@curlybrace314]

​@@RoonMianIt's the Ground Gundam, from "Mobile Suit Gundam: the 08th MS Team." Many fans consider it the best entry in the anime franchise, with really excellent designs for the mecha/giant robots.

[@RoonMian]

@@curlybrace314 Uh, thanks.

[@narutokidtech275]

😊00​@@RoonMian

[@emilsinclair4190]

I rly like how in the books written by evan currie they upgraded their power source during the series. They went from nuclear fusion to having black holes as generators.

[@EGRJ]

You might wanna take a ganger at Lensmen.

[@emilsinclair4190]

@levypanik4086 author evan currie. The series has multiple subseries. But it starts with odyssey and than later switches to odiseus (when the big tech upgrade happens). There are also other stories like archangel that play during this events

[@emilsinclair4190]

@@EGRJ thx. Added it to my list

[@ayubsalim1303]

‘Coaxium! Enough to power a fleet!’

[@MonkeyJedi99]

If they could only harness the energy in explodium and lensflarium!

[@Otterdisappointment]

@@MonkeyJedi99the first one is literally fusion

[@aetherial87]

But what about Unobtainium?

[@Otterdisappointment]

@@aetherial87 It’s made of vibranium and it’s from Wakanda

[@sitoudien9816]

I think you mean copium.

[@kaitlyn__L]

“And you’re screwed if you lose [antimatter] containment completely.” This is a common cool sci-fi event, but not actually much of a problem IRL. CERN today, and for a few decades I believe, has self-powering magnetic bottles as the final layer of backup after grid-power and then batteries. It’s functionally equivalent to a very slow tank leak for any other fuel, since it’s using a small amount of the antimatter to power containment. But at least it’s not letting it touch the walls of the unpowered magnetic bottle all at once! You probably don’t want to be relying on it long-term, unless antimatter is VERY cheap in your setting, but it should pretty much absolutely guarantee you never run into the issue of explosive antimatter fuel tanks. So the real worst-case scenario is basically equivalent to the issues we have with regular old hydrogen tanks ;)

[@henryfleischer404]

Yeah, but generally sci-fi has much more antimatter being stored, and you have to worry about dropping it or getting hit by high-speed projectiles.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@henryfleischer404 I wouldn’t worry about dropping them, there’s so many layers of plating. I wouldn’t be surprised if even larger quantity ones had fairly physically small physical bottles inside what looks like a barrel or something. Now of course if you had one giant tank that might be less plausible, but given the way magnetic field strength drops-off I imagine you’d need many small cells regardless. Now, being hit by a missile or a giant antiproton beam or something… yeah that could do something nasty. I suppose that technically qualifies as “losing containment”, but to me that’s more like “catastrophic high-force breach” haha. I mainly associate that phrase with losing power to the tanks, whereas an attack is straight up destroying the tanks! Now of course, when you have magic handwavium tech like forcefields the option of having an absolutely massive tank of liquid antihydrogen or something which potentially raises other safety questions. But personally I would still suggest a similar self-powering system, tapping a little to power the forcefield instead, could be viable. Which has the added bonus of forcefields often protecting against attacks quite well in softer sci-fi, as well. Now I think possibly an even bigger threat than physical attack could be stuff like computer viruses that just shut everything off, trick the various backup layers, and deliberately release the antimatter into the rest of the ship. Which, much like the other example I’d call that “sabotage” rather than merely “losing” containment. If that makes sense.

[@ImperativeGames]

@@kaitlyn__L Containment can be breached after a hit of containment cell by a missile or an asteroid. So antimatter is still inherently more dangerous than storing some deuterium or helium 3.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@ImperativeGames see my reply to Henry! :)

[@iliketrains0pwned]

"So the real worst-case scenario is basically equivalent to the issues we have with regular old hydrogen tanks..." ...that also has an explosive yield equivalent to *43 megatons of TNT* if just a kilogram of fuel ruptured out of it.

[@davidruark3994]

8th MS teams is indeed perfection

[@Tuning3434]

For Rule of Cool, I agree. But story-wise 0080: War in the Pocket just hits that little bit harder.

[@mbpaintballa]

Peak sci fi mil

[@Gigas0101]

@@Tuning3434 Hits right in the Zaku's cockpit... Agreed though, I love the 08th MS Team anime, but Alex Gundam and the Kampfer were just so much better.

[@timb641]

Probably my favorite series of the franchise.

[@leon-ks9yn]

casually mentions the best star wars series with a dad level joke*

[@Vinemaple]

As I groaned, my actual Dad looked over my shoulder and laughed even though he's never heard of Andor

[@jameswoods8843]

the comment at the end of the crew getting their energy of food gave me the idea of a ship being fueled by food too. Its definitely a softer idea but I like the idea of a otherwise mechanical ship having that incongruous organic element. can do fun stuff with ships having preferences on what they eat too. definitely changes the meaning of ship's rations lol

[@erwin101]

I for my part am quite interested in organic plant ships that are able to photosynthesize to get some extra power. All organic ships I know of are animal inspired and thus fleshy and gross and only used by bad guys. Where are the good-guy-plant ships? Wood is incredibly strong and since it's not yucky tissue it's more comfortable for the crew. Such a ship yould grow its own food, generate its own air and would repair itself over time. Photosynthesis might supplement fuel tanks of classic organic energy storage like fat, sugar or starch that both the ship and crew can use. Of course such a ship probably won't be self sustaining, maybe fuel mix can be grown and processed on different planets/stations? A plant hero ship would be an interesting thing to design.

[@AuthorDodgeMerrin]

This could also be a story element involving what they feed the ship if it can run on any organic matter. Do they harvest plants and animals to feed the ship, or even sapients in extreme circumstances?

[@jeffmeyer9587]

I'm not sure where this piece of trivia came from, but I remember someone giving a talk on energy conversion. If the human body could use food truly efficiently, one peanut butter sandwich could power that human for a week. I can imagine your ship with a hydroponic section for air, and fuel

[@erwin101]

@@AuthorDodgeMerrin indeed, although organic matter is rare in space and you would need to do a massive harvest of lifeforms to justify spending energy to land on a planet and later get back into orbit. Imagine a giant ship landing in an ocean and starting to decimate the local fish population.

[@RorikH]

@@erwin101 Saga has spaceship-trees, though they run on magic and don't really pretend to follow any kind of scientific design principle.

[@Tutel0093]

I wish someday Spacedock talks about Barotrauma ships (even though they are "submarines" and the game is about making your own design)

[@RorikH]

Well, we've got Planetside episodes, so that still seems viable. I don't think we've ever had a "Top Ten Sci-Fi Submarines" video either. I'd like the Cyclops from Subnautica to get a mention at some point as well. Addition: I would also put the Ulysses from Atlantis on there

[@Blurns]

Something about this is like looking at an 1800's explanation for how ornithopters work.

[@Tallacus]

Suggestions on future video topics: military ranks (I make up mine since it's aliens) provisions on Starships (could include alternative meats like lab grown meats or the new making protein from the air, or even talks about creating an actual star trek replicator)

[@RorikH]

I second the video on provisions!

[@KamikazeWombat]

I'm not a writer, I'm a reader of scifi. I love these videos

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

I think any good ship needs multiple methods of producing power. In my setting, most ships have a matter-antimatter generator as their primary means of powering warp drive, a fusion reactor as a secondary that is used to power everything except the warp engines, and some gas powered maneuvering thrusters that can be used if you're really desperate.

[@Tallacus]

Or use NASA's physics defying propellant less thruster

[@andyf4292]

ah antimatter... hope the other guys dont have a neutrino laser

[@cmbaz1140]

My dream ship is modular and that modularity exist also in the "energy core" the central part of any ship in my setting all ships are always build around this core. The core itself is also modular either cylindrical But segmented like ina cake or 6 pyramids combined to a cube you can have multiple energy generating technologies installed in the core with each segment housing one of each "generators".

[@sonwig5186]

You would need to have another generator with an antimatter generator in order to start it up, and in a warship help keep it running even if the power plant itself is damaged. In my setting later ships have black hole drives which also produce power, but have fusion as a backup.

[@igncom1]

Multi-Power sources are nice for when you at least want the ability to slowly limp home, if nothing else.

[@henryfleischer404]

I like how most ships and mechs in UC Gundam are powered by fusion rectors, and their power output, particularly in the original series, is small enough that the mechs would not melt (although they would probably glow a bit). And early Zeonic mechs with beam weapons also tend to be aquatic, because, well, water is a good heat sync. And then there's Char's Counterattack, where funnels also have radiators on them. It's that way because the Gundam needed a cape, and cylinders are boring, but it does look very good, and is a good nod to realism.

[@FearlessSon]

They do in fact "glow", just not in the visible spectrum. It's all the Minovsky particles they give off, blinding low frequency sensors and disrupting unshielded electronics.

[@rorythomas9469]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="196">3:16</a> that’s how we do it in Space engineers! Don’t ask how it complies with Thermodynamics

[@VoxAstra-qk4jz]

Better than a ship pushing itself with a gravity drive.

[@RoonMian]

@@VoxAstra-qk4jz The troll physics are real.

[@RoonMian]

Well, it does. You need power to split Ice into oxygen and hydrogen to use the hydrogen in thrusters. That power can come from solar, fission... Or burning hydrogen in a generator.

[@VoxAstra-qk4jz]

@@RoonMian they are saying that there would be a bunch of waste heat that needs to be dealt with.

[@Runkiee]

I appreciate the space engineers music for a video about powering a spaceship XD

[@rakaydosdraj8405]

One think I remember from the old Independance war game is that the hero ship's size is mostly tokomak ring. There's engineering spaces inside the ring, and engine on the back, a cockpit on the front, and a pair of weapon pylons to either side. But reactor to mass, that thing's CRAZY.

[@adriansue8955]

Glad someone remembers. Yeah, nice to see a sci-fi where the powerplant (realistically) dominates the ship's structure. Wasn't a Tokomak afaik tho, the concept was a particle accelerator ring that fires a stream of fuel (probably deuterium) into a neutronium (theoretical super dense matter) catalyst where it would fuse.

[@RoonMian]

Those games were hard as nails, didn't finish either of them :(

[@markhackett2302]

I also liked that the LDS was used both for "faster than light" travel, but also for shielding, the LDS being used there to intercept and create an area of space that the laser is about to go through all wibbly wobbly, scattering a laser. But if there were more lasers than LDS shields, then unless some went through the same space, it would disrupt the superstructure of the ship.

[@Vinemaple]

That sounds more like a ship in an HFY story

[@adriansue8955]

@@markhackett2302 Absolutely! and it totally makes sense. If you have the technology to displace your own ship's position, the next logical step is to use it to displace incoming missiles so they miss. So much sci-fi is guilty of introducing a tech, but not exploring its rammifications. Happy that I-War was an exception.

[@GunRunner106]

battletechs jumpship using gigantic solar sails to collect power to spin up their jumpdrives - take anything between 6 to 9 days to be fully charged, and the jump, which can be up to around 30 lightyears in distance, is essentially instantaneously. the ships itself remain at fixed points in any given solar system while leaving the delivery of materials to and from that system to small ship that can dock to the giant jumpship, itself. its one of the more and most realistic ways to space travel in any sci-fi setting to this day, probably....

[@ImperativeGames]

Only at a first glance. The amount of energy you can collect with solar panels far away from the star is negligible comparing to fission or fusion. And their jumps should use some insanely smart technology for that small amount of energy to warping them through 30 light years.

[@GunRunner106]

@@ImperativeGames its not rly clear how far away they are from a star as far as i know but it also takes like as said 6 to 9 days to collect all the energy to make the jump at minimum we also have instances where it can take up to a month or more, right?

[@red_cosplay]

PSA: Various hypothecized/proposed methods for nuclear propulsion in space are portrayed in Terra Invicta

[@ImperativeGames]

Every somewhat realistic one, I think.

[@ashero2092]

Have you heard about Terra Invicta? The amount of ship modules (power sources, radiators, drive systems, heatsinks, weapons, energy storage etc) is staggering. You need a massive chart just to list all the available drives and theen good luck figuring out which one to pursue. Would be nice to see you use some visuals from it to showcase the things you're talking about in a lot of those videos. Just fission alone has like Solid Core, Liquid Core, Gas Core, Vapor Core, Molten Salt. And fusion is a nightmare.

[@comicalzink5]

We must power our ships with the Force of Love!!!!

[@robinporter8481]

In my Sci-Fi. fuels are classified as followed: Type 1: Gatherable/Renewable (Solar, Gasses collected from where the ship is flying) Type 2: Quick Burn fuels (Fossil Fuels, Coal). Sometimes considered dirty fuels, but mostly used in atmosphere conditions. Type 3: Chemical Reaction Fuels. Hydrogen Fuel Cells would qualify here. Type 4 (and most common): Solid Decay fuels. Radioactive make up the majority of this. Type 5 and 6: Each government has different identification for these, and often fuels not available to the public at large. Anti-Matter would be classified in these types Each government has bans on certain fuels of each type that sometimes make traveling annoying for captains.

[@ObeyWannTK6960]

This is an excellent way to classify them!

[@GoodOldGamer]

Seven must've been watching a Soacedock video before the subspace comms went out. 😏

[@beskamir5977]

For an exhaustive list. I recommend Isaac Arthur's channel. He's got an Advanced Spaceship Drive Compendium that covers like 50 drives and many of those can double for power generation too.

[@SinisterSlay1]

In the story I am working on, the ship is powered by the crew itself while the crew sleeps. The ship effectively has a huge battery and when the ship sleeps it uses solar and crew energy to recharge. Over several hundred years if needed after a battle. It also has power generators that use fuel for emergencies or when crossing the void between galaxies. They are not human.

[@Croz89]

Is this the matrix style "human battery" method?

[@Winghelm]

You do realize that's pure space fantasy, right? What's this "crew energy" - the human body heat? Well it's really pathetically negligible for any kind of industrial application. Also if your crew is "sleeping" for hundreds of years without aging as I reckon - isn't that supposed to be some cryostasis-like "cold storage" thing where they have almost zero metabolism and thus body heat, lol? Everything in that makes zero sense.

[@SinisterSlay1]

They aren't human. They are just sleeping. They park in orbit of stars and sleep. Their biology is so slow they sleep 100s of years and live billions of years. And yes it's basically the heat energy. They store instead of expelling. Waste is also converted. The ship is mostly AI controlled. And there is usually a few insomniacs on the ship, which is when my story takes place.

[@ImperativeGames]

@@Winghelm Unless the crew consists of fusion powered robots ^^ -)

[@SinisterSlay1]

​@@Winghelm They aren't human. They are a race from another galaxy, from what is almost an alternate reality. They, through genetic manipulation and technology over trillions of years, have extended their lives to billions of years. And at that level, sleeping 100 or so is a short nap to them. The ships are huge, housing multiple generations of a family. Because if you think about it, if you live billions of years, so do your parents, grand parents, kids, their kids. While they sleep, the ship is mostly run by AI and a few crew keeping an eye on things. But there are insomniacs, which is where my story takes place following a character that basically can't sleep. So they spend time following human history for fun.

[@crgkevin6542]

An important aspect of many of these is to make sure you have a cool set to go with it, lol me a good engine room set with like catwalks and banks of controls!

[@dantetre]

Good to see, that you already using footage from S2 of ST Prodigy, even so it dropped 1st of July.

[@attila535]

*Supreme Executor Admiral Philip Andrada has entered the chat.*

[@caktitaqiwicaksana6018]

Starsector mentioned 🗣

[@Arbiterjim]

The real answer is hyper advanced energy storage techniques. Even if your method of power generation is slow like solar sails, if you can store a year's worth of energy then you're good

[@Jdne199311]

Im so happy to see Space Oddyssey Voayge to the Planets mentions, its been mostly forgotten...

[@davidrobertson5700]

Otherwise known as a TEG which is a thermocouple which relies on the Seebeck effect. Temperature difference makes the electrons flow in an RTG which is made from the same stuff as a TEG or a TEC . All of which use the Seebeck effect to make the juice. So an RTG a TEG and a TEC are all the same type of thing which rely on the very same effect to make power. If you stuff power into any of the above you will make a hot side of the Peltier module and a cold side (about minus 5ish) which cools your little bedside fridge. The modules from a bedside fridge can also be used to power a stove fan. (Magic battery) In fact a TEG lives in every 02 sensor which tells your engine if it's burn cycle is correct. Unless it is a VW . Signed, the Pikachu who uses electrons to feed himself every day and fix others electron conductance issues. Brilliant vids Mr Jawana. Keep it up . Forever.

[@wilhufftarkin5852]

I imagine antimatter in a multisolar system setting could be generated by a dyson swarm and then transported in something like oil tankers to other ships.

[@Catalyst375]

I might have missed it in the video, but there is also how the energy generated from a power source is converted into usable electricity to consider. Photovoltaics is one way, but magnetic induction is how the majority of electricity is generated in our society.

[@RoonMian]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="5">0:05</a> Okay, I recognised the terrible Yaegar class kitbash that Spacedock once did a video on and the Gunstar from Last Starfighter but what was the robot?

[@TheTb2364]

That was Gundam RX-78[g] Ground Type.

[@lapiswolf2780]

​@@TheTb2364 I thought that was Optimus Prime.

[@deanlawson6880]

Great video! The power systems are what makes spaceflight possible. You need ALOT of it!!

[@kinexxona06]

I love that you use space engineers soundtrack in your videos 😊

[@robertdrexel2043]

This video is a great help to me as I have been trying to figure out a suitable power source for a fanfiction story that I am planning on writing in the near future. So thanks!!

[@BeunT_]

that's the space engineers theme in the background... nice great game

[@snowts]

Needed that clip from stargate with the destiny just scooping out matter from a star, that was wild

[@jamescameron1861]

Recognised some old but gold ships. A Space Eagle! Takes me back...

[@TheMegamaster44]

favorite one i have seen is algae tanks. it also provides multiple other valuable resources so despite it's lack of efficiency it still allows a ship or station to function more or less indefinitely

[@PurpleRhymesWithOrange]

Thanks for including the superconducting magnetic energy storage. I had been looking for something that would serve as a gigantic capacitor. I need something that will charge up and then release an incredible amount of power in a fraction of a second.

[@scp2539]

clearly we just capture suns and build our ships around them >= 3

[@skykeeper2216]

*happy Shkadov thruster noises*

[@CarFreeSegnitz]

Caplan thruster

[@Xenoray1]

protostar 😅

[@SystemBD]

Most star systems are binary anyway. Nobody is going to miss one of the stars.

[@couchpotatoe91]

This reminds me of old antique ships that had both sails for when there was wind and rowers for when there was not or you wanted to go extra fast. I imagine a spacecraft designed to explore would have multiple potential energy sources for whether it was close to a star (foldable solar panels) or could mine frozen oxygen and hydrogen for fuel and would have an "iron reserve" of dense nuclear cells for when things got dire.

[@Comicsluvr]

Kudos for using the Garage Gamer's footage from Space Engineers! It's a great game and I love you for showing it, even briefly!

[@HailHydra27]

I was looking away when you said "radiators" and found exactly what I expected on screen when I turned back

[@arisakathedappergoose4796]

E-710- the only democratic way to power your fleets!

[@Tallacus]

And it's all organic!

[@tyrreloneal5178]

FOR SUPER EARTH!!! 😂💪🏿💪🏿

[@owensimpson7895]

Indeed! Any other method is TREASON to Super Earth!

[@maxpower3990]

Is that just dead Terminids?

[@arisakathedappergoose4796]

@@maxpower3990 organic AND renewable

[@aikrichter5403]

small addition to conserving energy in rotating wheels. we use those at Work in the Datacenter,it is supposed to cover the few seconds gap when switching to emergency generator on a powerline out. our datacenter eats up about 80 MW,so must be some proper wheel rotating there.

[@lightspeedvictory]

Requesting a video on some of the more exotic/theoretical power sources such as zero point energy plz

[@scifirealism5943]

Zero point energy can't work.

[@Numba003]

Thank you for these real-life tech videos. I generally appreciate good realism in my sci-fi. Having said that, I love Star Trek and enjoyed the Voyager clip in the intro, lol. God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)

[@Tallacus]

Nano Fusion and anti matter is how I do it, excess interior heat is reused for additional power albeit it's minute compared to the main source but waste not in space

[@emilsinclair4190]

Nano fusions unlikely. Black holes and there tradition as a power source can be extremly good

[@YaBoiNicho]

​@@emilsinclair4190look up lattice fusion

[@Fire-Bound]

the Space Engineers' song is perfect.

[@ethangonzales8230]

Spacedock! Y’all make my day every time you post! Live and Breathe sci-fi!!!

[@tyrreloneal5178]

For my stories, I personally went with Fusion and Antimatter primarily for ships (with Metallic Hydrogen and solar power as supplements) and solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, fission (Thorium Reactors) and fusion for planets, asteroids, and moons!

[@aceofspadesguy4913]

“Another storage device is the electric eel” This gave me flashbacks to that one part of Lego Ninjago where evil nindroids were powered by electric eels.

[@retluoc]

Even as I was watching The Force Awakens in the theater, I thought, "What the heck could power a planet killer like that... it would have to be a star." It's like directing a supernova where you want it. We still haven't been able to create things like fusion reactors, antimatter reactors, or artificial singularity reactors.

[@EbenezerEibenhardt]

Okay, so first you've got to find a wizard. Then you sit him down in this fancy chair that used to be like... the brain of a giant space-faring stingray fish...

[@realitypoet]

the best power source for a spaceship: imagination!

[@torenwikberg]

excellent and/or edit

[@tearstoneactual9773]

I needed this video like two or three weeks ago, working on a ship for my sci-fi story "Hard Contact"

[@sterlingdennett]

Starfleet in Star Trek should really look into the Artificial Quantum Singularity power sources that the Romulans use. 1.) Nearly inexhaustible power 2.) ALL waste matter and energy can be fed into it, and recycled into more power 3.) You can grow it larger by feeding it, and then extract MORE power from it

[@scifirealism5943]

Yep

[@scifirealism5943]

#3 can't happen because the micro black hole is too hot.

[@sterlingdennett]

@@scifirealism5943 I'm sure they can come up with some Treknobabble that fixes it. I'm still pissed that Voyager didn't look into this, especially after Seven of Nine joined the crew. The Borg have assimilated Romulans before (and plenty of others) I'm sure she could design a better AQS power core than the Romulans have, and it would have permanently fixed Voyager's fuel problems to boot!

[@scifirealism5943]

@@sterlingdennett epic.

[@sitoudien9816]

Magic space spores. 🌸🌼🌸

[@JusticeGamingChannel]

I would have mentioned black holes, or singularity drives, also used in SCIFI ships.

[@MeepChangeling]

I have a few diffrent power sources in my setting, but the one I am the most proud of involves the farming of special quazi-stable crystals which will undergo fusion if exposed to the right wavelength of gamma radiation. So you get a gamma laser, a crystal, and put them in a minimally shielded box (this specific reaction doesn't produce all that much ionizing radiation) and the crystal will undergo fusion, converting 93% of its mass into energy at a rate dependent on how much energy is being pumped into it by the laser. TLDR; easily replaceable crystals are used to make tiny stars on starships and many other things to tap them for power.

[@SlinkyTWF]

Gotta tap into that 0-point vacuum energy.

[@hectorrubio7141]

Very nice video, I only miss "Artificial nano black holes" in the list, Thanks for the video.

[@user-vg1pp8ko8i]

Don't remember exactly where i have read this, probably some parody sci-fi novel, where a spaceship's reactor was basically a heavily armoured container, in which was nothing. "More specifically, it contains zero f...s that were given by author about realistic depiction" (c)

[@fireball75677]

we have too admit that the way the electric eel produces power is quite fascinating, if we can copy that using organic materials as well then that's another good source of potentially renewable power

[@Skyben2]

This is the first video, I noticed you using Spaceengineers footage. Nice!

[@keilerbie7469]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="323">5:23</a> fuse fusion fuels fuse fusion fuels fuse fusion fuels fuse fusion fuels fuse fusion fuels that's a tough one

[@andyf4292]

obviously the Grid

[@patrick_j_lee]

A man of The Culture, I see.

[@JohnSmith-yc6uv]

The morphin grid?

[@reaganmonkey8]

I think we need a sci-fi world with a AA battery powered ship.

[@44R0Ndin]

I think Futurama did that as a bit once?

[@Zamun]

Thanks for the content.

[@spannerwindslayer]

I will create a new fuel, Plotnium, it has the ability to power an starship for a convenient amount of time, usefull for long 75 years travels on the delta quadrant

[@Paveway-chan]

There is one tier of power source even more ridiculous than antimatter: the Penrose process. If you confine a black hole inside a mirror and then shoot light in there, a large portion of said light will bounce around and be amplified by the black hole’s ergosphere, coming out with much more energy.

[@izzy-wt9sr]

Note that the black hole must be rotating, and every time you use it some of the light is absorbed, making the black hole larger, causing it to spin more slowly due to conservation of angular momentum.

[@scifirealism5943]

And a micro black hole.

[@PaulCashman]

We sci-fi geeks also know of a way to avoid having to bring your fuel with you: the hydrogen fusion ramscoop, where interstellar hydrogen is gathered or scooped while in flight and used to power a fusion generator and/or motor. Technically there might not be an upper limit to the max speed achieved, aside from lightspeed. There's also ion drive, which is within our capabilities today...just with very, very slow accel.

[@coreymay918]

This is very helpful

[@sir_slimestone3797]

EVE Online has taught me the importance of a power source, you'd learn too after running out of capacitor for any myriad of reasons and being unable to use your guns or other modules.

[@yodaslovetoy]

Space magic, pixie dust and unicorn farts.....

[@latso10]

Can confirm

[@sitoudien9816]

USS Discovery approves!

[@davidjordan697]

@@sitoudien9816a trip though space and time fuelled by fungi sounds more like a good weekend in Amsterdam then a believable plot device in a sci fi show.

[@IzzyTheEditor]

Unicorn farts? AOC disapproves lol

[@marcellinma6169]

...the tormented souls of the Damned...

[@padawanmage71]

I read ‘The Songs of Distant Earth’ by Clarke where Vacuum Energy (Quantum Energy/ ZPM) were used to power a ship from an earth that was close to destruction from a sun about to go nova

[@adriansue8955]

Antimatter Mining. Story Plot, an entire star system (with planets) is discovered which is made entirely of naturally occurring anti-matter. Created naturally in the big bang and by chance having escaped recombinant annihilation over the eons. Specialized magnetic ramscoops are used to harvest hydrogen from it's gas giants to use as fuel. (parallels to Arrakis/Spice in terms of importance to space travel)

As for your last point, there is - or should be - a corollary to the Kzinti lesson: "The effectiveness of a shipboard power source as a bomb is directly proportional to its effectiveness as a power source." You want your shipboard power source to be as energy-dense as possible to minimize launch mass, and capable of releasing that energy quickly, which are the exact same characteristics you want from an explosive. (And it's not even only for sci-fi ships; the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history was caused by the failure of the second N-1 rocket shortly after launch, and it wasn't even the worst-case scenario because only a sixth of the propellant ignited.)

[@PaHDoMNblu_4ell]

Hamster rotary generator

[@jsnap1]

And here was I hoping he would touch on the TARDIS's power source. A freaking star on the edge of going super nova

[@theoc6150]

One energy source I think could work would be some kind of standalone thermoelectric generator. Not only is this more power, but it's also less heat and so fewer required radiators. There is a limit on what you can do and you can't remove all the heat, I think it could be helpful for a long range expedition or something

[@SargeRho]

A note on Fuel Cells: Early spaceflight used fuel cells a lot as power sources. Apollo, the Space Shuttle....

[@rottenmeat5934]

I've had the idea of a thermal battery made from an oily phase change material bouncing around in my head lately. Just imagining the "refueling," as running the oil through a suped up AC compressor tickles me to no end.

[@thomashiggins9320]

Plot! Plot fuels sci-fi spacecraft.

[@casbot71]

What? No quantum singularities ? 🖖 And then there's the Galifreian step up from that.

[@earnestbrown6524]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="4">0:04</a> I agree with two of those.

[@billyheaning]

My favorite is the stealth ship from Doc Smith’s Lensman saga. It ran on diesel fuel!

[@hanzzel6086]

Damn, I'm getting to a lot of videos early today!

[@veezerrscharnhorst]

And/or gets me every time

[@LS-001]

Something to keep in mind for thermodynamic cycles. There is an absolute upper bound for the acieveable efficiency η, given by both the temperature of the "hot" and "cold" side. T_h and T_c respectively η = 1 - T_c / T_h. On the one side you are limited by how cold you can get the radiators, while still being of reasonable size (radiated power per area is proportional to the fourth power of Temperature) On the other side you are limited how hot the the hot side can get, before the materials begin to melt, or start to thermaly decompose. Assuming you can achieve T_c = 300 K (26.85 °C) and T_h = 3000 K (2726.85 °C) your maximum achievable efficiency is η = 1 - T_c/T_h = 0.9 = 90% Which sounds good, but at this point the radiators a very inefficient, only able to reject about 400 W/m² of heat. If you need for example to get rid of 400 MW of waste heat. This wold require already 1 km² of radiator surface. So basically a 1000m by 500m panel (since you can use both sides)

[@1juanvasquez]

Then there’s the Farscape option if sticking some tech on an alien organism that lives in the vacuums of space to fly around on

[@tyrannicpuppy]

Oh lord... can you imagine... a spaceship with Mehdi as Chief Engineer... so many explosions.

[@peachypietro9980]

What about ZPMs?! I gotta have mah Stargate Atlantis!!

[@stargatecommand714]

Now we're talking!

[@gmartuch]

For any that doesn't know what Zpm is Zero Point Module, zpm use Zero-point energy, The device itself serves as an enclosure for an artificially created pocket of subspace-time. Zero point energy is extracted from this pocket until it reaches maximum entropy, at which point the pocket collapses, leaving behind a useless shell. from Stargate fandom wiki

[@tyrannicpuppy]

Don't forget Project Arcturus. And the idea that they could make better faster ships than with ZPMs by fitting each one with a reactor the size of a multi-story building that pulls zero-point energy from our own spacetime. So long as we're good with crazy unpredictable nonsense constantly happening in the reactor. Maybe that was the precursor tech to the Infinite Improbability Drive... As far as energy density goes in sci-fi, I think the ZPM is the holy grail unless McKay is involved. He'll drain that sucker faster than you can blink. But a foot long crystal that can be plugged into anything that runs off of electricity... pretty compact for how powerful they are.

[@Prich319]

Xenosaga had the weirdest power source I've seen in sci fi. One ship in particular, the Dammerung had a mech as it's power source. The mech, called Joshua, was said to be a part of it's creator Wilhelm, the greater scope villain of the series. Basically, a starship the size of Lebanon, powered by a 10m tall mech, which is itself powered by the will of a Demiurge. On that note, the gears of Xenogears were all powered by the Zohar, which itself has been described as a relic of god and possessing infinite power.

[@Mr_Waffle.]

No mention of the power of faith of the heart? That single handedly made humanity the most powerful race in Star Trek