Fuel Scoop

[m_robber]

Not sure if this has already been suggested, but I couldn't find it while skimming the "already suggested" section.

I remember the good old Amiga days of playing Frontier Elite II, where one of the nifty things you could do if you were running low on fuel was skim through the atmosphere of a gas giant, using a fuel scoop to collect hydrogen fuel. I imagine diving through the upper layers of Jools atmosphere, harvesting fuel while mooning the kraken, might be a fun gameplay addition.

While this might be of less use for regular rocket-powered spaceships, rather than FE2's fusion-powered hyperdrive ships (I don't imagine you could extract an oxidizer), perhaps it could be a potential fuel source for the nuclear engine?

Anyway, just a thought. What do you think?

[Guest]

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Edited January 20, 2020 by Guest

[neistridlar]

this should be quite easy to mod in the current game, just change some parameters in the cfg for airintakes. as for having it in vanilla, I'm not shure it'd å good idea. currently the game only uses technology that has been proven to work IRL I think.

[lajoswinkler]

Yes, you need an oxidizer, LOX being the most common one. NERVA could use pure hydrogen, so you need a purification module, which could take time and resources like electricity.

It's an interesting idea.

[TwoHedWlf]

Definitely workable. If we assume the atmosphere is roughly similar to Jupiter then the atmosphere would be about 90% fuel/10% other gasses. 0% oxidizer, so almost perfect for a nuclear rocket. Not much good for a fuel/oxidizer rocket.

Being able to combine aerobraking and refueling would be nice.

[team.leit]

This sounds like a really cool idea, but whats to stop it from being OP?

Kaos

[Chrisd857]

Hydro- and aeroscoops are coming, probably, maybe, if we ever get resources. See planning chart: