Thought On Destiny's Reactors.

[Lantien84]

While watching "Light" I noticed that Destiny passes through the upper atmosphere of a gas giant right before entering the sun to refuel itself. Given that the upper atmospheres of gas giants hold a significant amount of helium and hydrogen, could it be possible that the Destiny purposely traveled through the planet to scoop up helium-3 for backup power and hydrogen for engine propellant? As for the ship dipping into the sun, my best guess is that Destiny's form of F.T.L. propulsion requires an enormous amount of power, hence the need for anti-matter fuel. Any thoughts on this?

[Lantien84]

Now that I think about it, it makes sense that the Lucien Alliance would want to figure out how Destiny's refueling systems and reactors work. A more modern ship with that type of anti-matter fueled power source might give a Z.P.M. enhanced ship a run for it's money + it would be re-fuelable, something that's impossible for a Z.P.M. to do.

[Coremae]

Now that I think about it, it makes sense that the Lucien Alliance would want to figure out how Destiny's refueling systems and reactors work. A more modern ship with that type of anti-matter fueled power source might give a Z.P.M. enhanced ship a run for it's money + it would be re-fuelable, something that's impossible for a Z.P.M. to do.

Sweet Mercy man, why the hell didn't I see that connection? It makes perfect sense in hind sight. Imagine a ship with the power that Destiny no doubt has, and all it needs is a star to refuel, and it doesn't use hyperspace but FTL. I'm guessing the FTL was intentional for some reason.

[Quadhelix]

As for the ship dipping into the sun, my best guess is that Destiny's form of F.T.L. propulsion requires an enormous amount of power, hence the need for anti-matter fuel.

...anti-matter?

I'm sorry, but what does anti-matter have to do with anything?

[Lantien84]

Destiny refueled itself in the sun, the sun produces and enormous amount of anti-matter. It makes sense that if the Destiny were to refuel itself in the atmosphere of a star it would collect the most powerful fuel in that environment: anti-matter. Theoretically an anti-matter fueled fusion reactor would be ten times as powerful as a conventional reactor. The type of power core Destiny uses could be a technology the Ancients lost during their history and the advantages of a reactor that powerful capable of infinitely refueling itself could be used to create ships that could match or exceed the power and capabilities of Ori ships or even Atlantis.

[ColdZero]

Destiny refueled itself in the sun, the sun produces and enormous amount of anti-matter. It makes sense that if the Destiny were to refuel itself in the atmosphere of a star it would collect the most powerful fuel in that environment: anti-matter. Theoretically an anti-matter fueled fusion reactor would be ten times as powerful as a conventional reactor. The type of power core Destiny uses could be a technology the Ancients lost during their history and the advantages of a reactor that powerful capable of infinitely refueling itself could be used to create ships that could match or exceed the power and capabilities of Ori ships or even Atlantis.

No the sun doesn't make antimatter. Also, antimatter has nothing to do with fusion at all.

You're also talking about a technology we've seen refueled twice already in 1/2 a season because ~80 people? were on the ship v.s. a ZPM which powered a shield the size of a city for over 3,000 years. Sure you can refill it, but I'm guessing ZPMs weren't hard for the Ancients to make considering they were used as a primary means of power generation for anything of size.

[Lantien84]

Stars do produce anti-matter.http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...903rhessi.html
Through out SGA it has always been implied that ZPMs were difficult and dangerous to make and no one in three galaxies has any idea how to make more.

[Quadhelix]

Theoretically an anti-matter fueled fusion reactor would be ten times as powerful as a conventional reactor.

If it used antimatter as fuel, it wouldn't be a Fusion Reactor, it would be an Annihilation Reactor. Fusion is when you combine two atoms to get a heavier atom; this is not what you do with matter and antimatter. Instead, when matter comes into contact with antimatter, they mutually annihilate, resulting in the full release of their rest energy.

Stars do produce anti-matter.http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...903rhessi.html

Unfortunately, what this article tells us is that, unless there is a solar flare in progress and unless the Destiny flies through that solar flare, there will not be any anti-matter for the Destiny to collect.

At all other times, any antimatter created in the star would be destroyed as soon as it was created.

Through out SGA it has always been implied that ZPMs were difficult and dangerous to make.

Not really. In fact, it is only the SGC that has had trouble with making ZPMs. For example, the Asurans had "more than enough" ZPMs to meet their needs.

[Lantien84]

My bad. The reactors would be annhilation reactors not fusion, but regarding ZPMs, who knows how many the Asurans had or how long it took to make them.

[Quadhelix]

regarding ZPMs, who knows how many the Asurans had or how long it took to make them.

How many? "Many" ("Progeny") and "More than enough to suit our needs" (Ibid).

How quickly can they make new ones? Faster than they use the old ones.

[Sqrl]

Stars do produce anti-matter.http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...903rhessi.html
Through out SGA it has always been implied that ZPMs were difficult and dangerous to make and no one in three galaxies has any idea how to make more.

Yeah, I think Quadhelix has this one right.

Anti-matter annihilates matter when they come in contact with one another, so any antimatter produced in a solar flare is destroyed in less than the blink of an eye. Additionally storing anti-matter would require heavily shielded and power-hungry containment vessel to prevent it from contacting any matter and annihilating itself before the reactor was ready to utilize it.

As for ZPMs, we already know that the ancients abandoned fusion power generation in favor of ZPMs, so they are definitely a better power source. With that said I think the idea that the Lucian alliance is interested in ancient fusion technology makes a fair bit of sense by itself, especially the parts on how to make the ship survive scooping up fuel from a star. So your basic idea still works, just a bit different on what they are after is all.

Finally, if you consider how quickly Atlantis uses a ZPM for takeoff/landing, using shields, hyper-drive, etc...and compare it to the carefree way the Asurans use those features it definitely indicates that they can make them fairly readily. With that said, it's obvious that Atlantis and Earth have yet to reproduce that feat so its not just a simple matter by any stretch. But we know it can be done because both the Ancients and the Asurans practically had ZPM pez dispensers with how many they left laying about the place.

[thekillman]

the destiny probably has fusion reactors. since they're not clearly visible, it must be some shield-enforced fusion.

[mirdin1992]

Maybe the Destiny uses a matter Annihilation Reactor that seems so popular in other sci-fi shows like the Minbari quantum singularity or Romulan ship core.

P.S. Reactors that I have seen in sci-fi:

• Chemical engine(petrolium)
• Solar power
• Nuclear fission(today's nuclear reactors)
• Fusion reactor
• Cold fusion(Lynea's cold fusion plant yes a real plant I would imagine that would make the eco-freaks happy)
• Matter/Antimatter reactor(not seen on the show)
• Quantum singularity reactor(not seen in the show)
• Naquadah reactor(yes. it defies the laws of physics)
• Naquadriah reactor(instability increases with the energy drawn from it)
• Neutrino_ion generator(Asgard)
• Hyperspace drain
• Z.P.M.
• Arcturus reactor(the power of the universe at you finger tips)

[Crazy Tom]

Sorry to put a damper on things, but calculations on the yield of naqudah actually give value greater than annihilation, making Amat reactors both more dangerous, and less powerful than naqudah reactors.

[Lantien84]

Okay then. Maybe Destiny doesn't use antimatter, but then why would it need to refuel itself in a star when it could have just scooped up fuel in a gas giant? Plus I doubt the Ancients used ZPMs to power everything, its more likely they used some sort of fusion or naquada reactors for most technology and ZPMs for power hungry things like city ships, defense stations, super-grids, and war ships. Anyway my main point was that Destiny's power source and its refueling ability makes it very valuable and powerful. If applied to Earth or Lucien Alliance ships it could boost their power generating abilities. That's my thinking as to why the Lucien Alliance wants the ship so badly.

[Control_Chair]

Okay then. Maybe Destiny doesn't use antimatter, but then why would it need to refuel itself in a star when it could have just scooped up fuel in a gas giant? Plus I doubt the Ancients used ZPMs to power everything, its more likely they used some sort of fusion or naquada reactors for most technology and ZPMs for power hungry things like city ships, defense stations, super-grids, and war ships. Anyway my main point was that Destiny's power source and its refueling ability makes it very valuable and powerful.

I think DHD are powered by some sort of cold fusion reactor core. I suppose that when harvesting hydrogen fuel from a gas giant the hydrogen then has to be heated and compressed to reach the super hot temperatures needed for fusion to occur, harvesting hydrogen directly from the upper atmosphere of a star negates this problem somewhat. It depends on what type of fusion Destiny uses, (I’ll admit I am no physicist and other people could probably do a better job explaining this but I’ll have a go anyway).

The main type of fusion that goes on in the sun is the Proton-Proton chain, (better explained in the link below better than I could ever do )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton%...he_pp_I_branch

Now the most difficult stage in the Proton-Proton chain is the initial reaction to form deuterium, but if Destiny primarily harvests deuterium or even helium 3 from the atmosphere of a star (which are both quite rare and difficult to extract outside of stellar atmospheres) then fusion can take place in the ships rectors at lower temperatures than the core of the sun.

If applied to Earth or Lucien Alliance ships it could boost their power generating abilities. That's my thinking as to why the Lucien Alliance wants the ship so badly.

Probably, but that begs the question how do they know about Destiny and its power systems???

[Quadhelix]

Okay then. Maybe Destiny doesn't use antimatter, but then why would it need to refuel itself in a star when it could have just scooped up fuel in a gas giant?

Well, we don't really know what the Destiny is collecting in the star. For all we know, it collects energy directly from the heat of the star and then stores that energy in capacitors, or something along those lines.

[mirdin1992]

I GOT IT!!!

STELLAR DUST MI..... no I'm wrong their tribbles....SOLAR TRIBBLES!!!

It makes so much sense...we are all made of tribble dust...

[mickhhh]

Well, we don't really know what the Destiny is collecting in the star. For all we know, it collects energy directly from the heat of the star and then stores that energy in capacitors, or something along those lines.

thats just what i thought. maybe those scooping looking things we see pop out when it going ino a star are like super conductors like stargates.

[thekillman]

and how would sticking superconductors into a star collect energy????


they look like scoops, and appear to have holes. i'd say they directly scoop up hot fuel and divert it to their Fusion reactors. no need to heat up the fuel, instead, it probably has to be cooled first.