How does Destiny go so far on low fuel?

[knowles2]

How do we know it low on fuel.

We know Destiny was built with huge redundencies with in it systems. I would not be surprise if Ancient design her to function on only a fraction of the power she capable of collecting from stars.

I thought it was sabotage which bought her up short, and I am pretty sure she can cut down a lot more systems when she has not got a crew.

[QueteshRuled]

it still takes a lot of energy for ftl travel. especially out of hyperspace. so 25 nuclear plants still isnt that much

[garhkal]

given the general power levels of SG weaponry, it's better calculated in tactical nukes per second

I like that..

Though it does make you wonder, how many times it has 'fallen short' and drifted from one galaxy to the next.

[Hal_S]

this. destiny doesn't use hyperspace, it travels at faster than light speeds through our own space/time so there would certainly be inertia but to answer your question.

A late thought added to the discussion.

Here's my take - Destiny is a bussard ram jet-

Fuel for the fusion drive comes from scooping up the hydrogen floating in interstellar space.
Guess there's less hydrogen in intergalactic space, so the hydrogen collection system is running close to the limit.

Would also figure there's a "regenerative mode" that runs fusion like the shells of a red giant star.
You'd like to burn hydrogen to helium. If you run out of hydrogen, you can burn helium to neon.
Then neon to oxygen, then oxygen to silicon. IIRC, last option is silicon to iron. Iron won't fuse.
So, intergalactic flight relies on the less-efficient 2nd and 3rd generation fusion of heavy nuclei.

[Hal_S]

I like that..

Though it does make you wonder, how many times it has 'fallen short' and drifted from one galaxy to the next.

Interesting aside, there are stars in intergalactic space.


Interstellar space is 1 atom per cubic centimeter, intergalactic is 1 atom per cubit meter.
Not sure about density of inter-planetary space, density of the corona.

Eh, roughly figure, 1 gram of hydrogen is 6 x 10^23 atoms.

But, good about a FTL starship, you could simply keep accelerating until you
reach your optimum fuel needs.

[Energizer_Vs_ZPM]

How does the destiny go so far witout fueling up? You cant make a hyperspace jump then use inertia to get the rest of the way.

Destiny doesn't use hyperspace. It uses FTL - Faster Than Light. In other words it has one seriously bad kick from it's engines at the back.

Secondly there is no drag in space. No air = no resistance. In theory you could shut down the engines and keep travelling as long as the shields were kept on to deflect any debris in its path.

[garhkal]

Which is why it can drift from galaxy to galaxy if it was not able to refuel..

[destiny khan]

I don't think they ever told us how destiny goes about its bussiness... they told us that it recharges through a star but how is that? is it antimatter ? as you would need the hydrogen for antimatter reaction... does it use fusion? i don't think hydrogen fusion is controllable so cold fusion of heavier elements is more likely but i don't really know much about that mumbo jumbo... the other alternative is storing pure energy in the form of heat, e.g the stargate could not only run from electricity but it could absorb all types of energy like heat and use it... fusion is the most likely i think but antimatter is not out of the question but i don't know how would destiny be getting antiprotons....

now how does it travel faster than light? there was no speculation on that... does it do the crazy thing like "the space is moving and not the ship itself" etc? don't really think so... the ship is traveling at hundreds of times faster than the speed of light(maybe thousands) rather than just 2-3 times as it is an intergalactic ship rather than a simple goauld interstellar one... how could traveling that fast in the normal space time be even possible? could it be using dark energy or something? as the universe is expanding and accelerating at faster than the speed of light, much much faster since the big bang...
but the most accurate guess is that it is using a field of theoretical particles called tachyons by immersing itself in a field of it and taking it out of normal space time, as i heard some astrophysicist saying that it might be a possible way of achieving interstellar travel... the method he said looks like to be the same as the one destiny uses