What Exactly Do Starships/Starfighters Run On?

What makes them go? Fuel, Battery, or Solar? Or a combination of the 3, or something totaly diferent. It has to be somthing pretty powerful, because it has to support hyperdrive, and extremely long space flights, unless it is possible to refuel during flight...

Discuss

-Yoda

 

My guess is that the majority it would be some kind of large energy cell or onboard generator.

TIE Fighter are literally "Twin Ion Engines" although I've seen in various tech journals that the large panels are indeed solar panels.

The exception would obviously be Count Dooku's Solar Sailor vessel, which rides along on the waves of photon energy released from a star (although would it catch enough to enter hyperspace? ? )

 

Dylithiam Crystals? *Gets pelted by rocks* AAAAH I'M SORRY!!!

 

don't they use reactors? ?

 

Darth Attorney is right.

TIE does indeed stand for Twin Ion Engine. However, all sorts of "sources" (ie. non-canon ones) say that the wings are solar pannels.

As for Dooku's solar sailer, that's one of the dumbest physics blunders they've made yet in Star Wars. The acceleration gained from those photons would be tiny and it would take something on the order of thousands of years to make it between stars.

Also, in ANH in the hangar scene you can see a fuel hose connected to some of the X-Wings.

 

Most are powered by fuel. The TIE fighter is powered by solar. Dooku's ship is not powered by solar winds, but uses them with the sail to go faster.

 

Doesn't Qui-Gon give ani some sort of powercell in TPM for his podracer?

 

A solar sail could actually get up to very high percentages of lightspeed and get to the nearest stars within years or decades, to the core in about 50,000 years or so. This of course would not help Dooku too well.

Dooku's sail, according to the Incredible Crosssections, is not really a solar sailer, but instead interacts with hyperspace in some way to get across the galaxy.

I think that in some of the early concepts and later in the RPG suplements they mention fusion quite a bit. This could be any kind of annihilation technology, from the type we oursleves are hard at work on, to some exotic particles "unknown" to us that produce greater energies than even antimatter.
The ICS once again says many starships, especially the big ones, use hypermatter reactions.

A few science and psuedo-science answers for ya.

 

They run on Dreams and Starlight!!!

 

They use Mr. Fusion!

(Someone had better catch this reference, or I will be SAD.)



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Back To THe Future.

Thats kind of funny too since it also says in the Incredible Cross Sections that many normal, every day items and equipment run on small fission or fusion power plants.

 

Tie fighter panels arent there to get power. Their there to radiate heat. I mean think about it. The power gained from the solar panels woudn't be much of a boost, and those ion engines are tiny, generating a lot of heat. Wheres it to go? The radiator panels! As for what starships run on, TIEs run on radioactive gas, and the Falcon runs on highly unstable liquid metal. But thats all I know.

 

I thought that the ships ran on power cells as well.

 

Jefferson Starship ran on "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll." The "Last Starfighter" ran on soda and videogames.

I think Jabbas space craft run on "hot farts," powered by "Bean dip."

 

run on "hot farts," powered by "Bean dip."

This gives new meaning to the "repulsorlift" technology.

 

Some use Fuel, Some have their own Reactors

 

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