I wonder

[Salas1]

the old baliskner ship was powered by 4 ion neutrino generators, but its never said what the o'neill class was powered by, its likly they using a more advanced form of power

o'neills seem alot bigger than the baliskner

Yes but like I said it isn't whether these races could give us the power technology, it is about whether they are willing to give it to us. And the Asgard don't want us to become equivalent to them in tech.

[Hatcheter]

As long as it's not under constant Wriath bombardment, the ZPM will power the city and the shields for hundreds of years. It's only the incredible strain of continues cannon fire that can run it down.

We don't know what the Earth ships are using for fuel sources at this time. Naquadria was used to power the Human designed generator, but they now have Asgard systems. It's safe to assume they have it tied in to an Asgard power system as well.

There's a whole lot of speculation in this thread that can't be backed by canon.

[Eoin]

The Daedalus has quite a big power source as it has a Naquadria reactor, this would allow them to explore more parts of the city and not drain the ZPM at all, the Naquadah generators would be used only to power the systems in the city and the ZPM would then only be used for shields or cloak if the Wraith come again.
And seeing as we cannot make or find any more ZPMs then we should at least try and compromise with our power resources. Why drain the ZPM at all unless it is really needed, we should use renewable sources to power the city until we have the ability to create more ZPMs.

I thought the asgard ion engines powered the deadulas??

[Salas1]

I thought the asgard ion engines powered the deadulas??

I'm not so sure now, but if they are powered by Asgard ion engines then that just furthers my point that they should go some way to power Atlantis by landing ships on it to interface with its powergrid. The rate they are being produced at seems to indicate that we will have a large enough fleet to just leave a few ships at Atlantis to defend that and just have whatevers left to defend earth.
Also if we can build Ion generators then if they don't want to leave ships in Atlantis then they could just make a few Ion generators and leave them on Atlantis. Have 1 or two of them for each of the 6 piers of the city and we can power the whole city, maybe not the shields but then the ZPM can be left just for that purpose.
I mean if the Asgard ships are a mile long then there shields must consume nearly as much power as the Ancients shield does, and the Beliskner used 4 of the Ion generators to power it, so preumably with 12 or more Ion generators the would be able to support the shields with them.
And there has been a big plot device left in as they have not said there are not any more ships on Atlantis, which means if they are then we now have a means to power them unless they are smallish ships and have their own power source.

[aAnubiSs]

Ion Drives are engines and just that, engines. You know, technology which makes the vehicle move forward

[Salas1]

Ion Drives are engines and just that, engines. You know, technology which makes the vehicle move forward

I meant generators, and there is a fair point that if we can make power sources powerful enough for Asgard ships then surely with enough of those then they would power Atlantis.

[Eoin]

Ion Drives are engines and just that, engines. You know, technology which makes the vehicle move forward

I think that the asgards form of engine is much more advanced than our crappy diesel engines which only move the vehicle, the ion drives have to create alot of power to open a hyperspace window, so i would presume that if the engines on your ship where really just big generaters(sp?) you would use them to power the rest of the ship, after all when thor jumps into hyperspace he says that there is not enough power to power the shields or weapons and other stuff

[Gateboy13]

Why don't they get the Asguard that is aboard the Daedalus to help build a power source for Atlantis? They are advanced enough and should be able to help.

I agree, the Asgard could at least help us build a power source capable of opening a wormhole from Atlantis to Earth whenever needed, and even one to the Asgard home world so Hermiod can check in once and a while. The Asgard obviously have such devices, as they have dialed an eight chevron address before.

[captain keys]

well its been said that the chair device and the sheild of atlantis can only be run by a zedpm but im shure weather thats right

[Salas1]

well its been said that the chair device and the sheild of atlantis can only be run by a zedpm but im shure weather thats right

The chair device can be powered by a markII Naquadah reactor, the shield can only be powered by the ZPM because that is the only thing powerful enough to power it on its own, but add a few asgard generators and we would be able to save some of the energy from the ZPM. And if the Daedalus class ships are powered by the Asgard Ion generators then surely Earth would be wise to send a few of these generators on board the Daedalus so we could power the city more and speed up the rate at which we find technology. We might not be able to power the shields with them but we could make the whole city available to explore. They could then use the Naquadah generators to increase the power of the Puddle jumpers as they do not have enough power to fire while cloaked, the extra power from the NR would be able to keep the ship cloaked while the pjs original power supply fired the drone.

[captain keys]

yeah thats true but we only have so much space in atlantis