Lore/science question: what element do fuel scoops collect as fuel for the ship? And how?

[TheWishGranter]

I've heard in an interview with David Braben that ships are powered by hydrogen fusion reactors, so i just assumed that a fuel scoop scooped hydrogen from stars.
The problem is: among the scoopable stars are M-type brown dwarfs who do not burn hydrogen, but instead rely on lithium (i think)

Now feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, i am by no means an astronomer or anything, but this seems rather odd to me and maybe there is a better explanation: afaik all other scoopable stars are main sequence star that do use hydrogen fusion, so it would make sense if not for M-types...

[TiberiuS]

Yes, it's hydrogen.

Spectral class M is of red color... hence there are Red dwarfs, Red giant and Red Supergiant stars in that category.

The brown dwarfs should be more class L (not scoopable).
Some of the class L stars are large enough to support hydrogen fusion... so there is some overlap.

Maybe the star you encountered falls in that category.

[Logicon]

I think it's a simplified system without needing to compensate for gasses which were not intended to be moddeled. In game play systems, you can have a single fuel source and cater to that universally(lol) but adding another source would mean extra moddeling. Since the galaxy is pretty complex as it is, I'm sure the devs just made it mid range orange/yellow for simplicity sake and to perhaps add a sense of drama on not knowing when you will be able to refuel again.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

I think some stars should have other gases in their compositions, that make their hydrogen less scoopable or even not scoopable. Interesting, if different scoopable classes have a different scooping mechanics, like you need to get much closer for scooping to begin?

[TheWishGranter]

Originally posted by TiberiuS:

Yes, it's hydrogen.

Spectral class M is of red color... hence there are Red dwarfs, Red giant and Red Supergiant stars in that category.

The brown dwarfs should be more class L (not scoopable).
Some of the class L stars are large enough to support hydrogen fusion... so there is some overlap.

Maybe the star you encountered falls in that category.

So the M classification has more to do with temperature/mass, and it contains a range of stuff instead of just red dwarves?

[TheWishGranter]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

I think some stars should have other gases in their compositions, that make their hydrogen less scoopable or even not scoopable. Interesting, if different scoopable classes have a different scooping mechanics, like you need to get much closer for scooping to begin?

That's a very good question actually, i think there is some sort of difference in distance: not sure if its based on mass or hotness though

[Ottomic]

Elite's ship work on a very specific fuel only found in KGB's Foam, which happened to be found in certain stars.

Simple, really.

[TiberiuS]

Originally posted by TheWishGranter:

Originally posted by TiberiuS:

Yes, it's hydrogen.

Spectral class M is of red color... hence there are Red dwarfs, Red giant and Red Supergiant stars in that category.

The brown dwarfs should be more class L (not scoopable).
Some of the class L stars are large enough to support hydrogen fusion... so there is some overlap.

Maybe the star you encountered falls in that category.

So the M classification has more to do with temperature/mass, and it contains a range of stuff instead of just red dwarves?

It's a spectral classification. So the actual color (temperature) of the star is what classifies it with the letter.

Stars of classes O B A F G K M use hydrogen for the fusion reaction and those are scoopable.

There are also other stars whith similar colors (Wolf Rayet, T-Tauri (which can have very different colors, too) which are not scoopable.

If you really saw a brown dwarf of the class M then maybe FDev takes the mass of the star into account and said: over x mass the star is scoopable because it can support the hydrogen to helium reaction. For simplicity reasons they may have put it in the M classification then insteand of the L classification.

[TiberiuS]

Originally posted by Ottomic:

Elite's ship work on a very specific fuel only found in KGB's Foam, which happened to be found in certain stars.

Simple, really.

Damn you KGB!

[Ray Robertson]

Where is this M-type brown dwarf? M-types are main sequence.

[TheWishGranter]

Originally posted by TiberiuS:

Originally posted by TheWishGranter:

So the M classification has more to do with temperature/mass, and it contains a range of stuff instead of just red dwarves?

It's a spectral classification. So the actual color (temperature) of the star is what classifies it with the letter.

Stars of classes O B A F G K M use hydrogen for the fusion reaction and those are scoopable.

There are also other stars whith similar colors (Wolf Rayet, T-Tauri (which can have very different colors, too) which are not scoopable.

If you really saw a brown dwarf of the class M then maybe FDev takes the mass of the star into account and said: over x mass the star is scoopable because it can support the hydrogen to helium reaction. For simplicity reasons they may have put it in the M classification then insteand of the L classification.

Thank you man, very interesting!
I didn't actually find a brown dwarf, i was reading about star classification and i wondered about this (apparent) discrepancy with E:D's fuel scoops.
I just started reading about this stuff, i thought it would be useful to know alittle bit of astronomy before trying out exploration XD if nothing else to give me a sense of appreciation for the care put in the universe simulation :D

[superjunk]

I always figured the luminous flux of brown dwarfs wasn't sufficient to blow hydrogen far enough away in opposition to the stars gravity so you could scoop without being within the exclusion zone. Or something.

[Delfino]

Originally posted by TheWishGranter:

I've heard in an interview with David Braben that ships are powered by hydrogen fusion reactors, so i just assumed that a fuel scoop scooped hydrogen from stars.
The problem is: among the scoopable stars are M-type brown dwarfs who do not burn hydrogen, but instead rely on lithium (i think)

You are wrong. First of all type of a star doesnt mean what it burns. It's just color and temperature. M-class might be main sequence star which burns hydrogen or red giant burning helium. That doesn't matter. In the atmosphere, where you scoop, there is always vast majority of hydrogen.

I'm not sure why can't one scoop from T Tauri stars or carbon stars etc. They all have hydrogen in their atmospheres.

[Sapyx]

FD's decision to alow only scooping from OBAFGKM stars and not others is somewhat arbitrary; there should be just as much, if not more, hydrogen to be scooped from the disallowed stars. It is in effect just a game mechanic, to create a false sense of crisis if a long-range pilot accidentally or carelessly jumps into a dead end. But there's nothing in real-world physics that says the hydrogen from disallowed stars is somehow of inferior, non-fusable quality. The scooping range is also somewhat arbitrary; in the real world, a magnetic "fuel scoop" would scoop almost as much hydrogen from near-Earth space, 500 Ls from the sun, than it would from the Sun's corona.

In one of the previous incarnations of the game, I think it was FE2/FFE, it was gas giant planets that were safer to scoop from; you could scoop from stars, but it was considered more dangerous. And since the old FE2 hyperdrives dumped you 5000 Ls from the star instead of right next to it, gas giant planets were often more convenient scoop points than going all the way in to the central star.

[optimal_909]

@Sapyx

No it isn't arbitrary.
Dwarfes (below M class) do not sustain fusion therefore there is no stellar wind to scoop from. In other words, you'd need to dive into the 'atmosphere' to scoop. As for the rest, the density of the wind thins out as get further out.

[Delfino]

If that was the case then Wolf-Rayet would give the most fuel while it is still unscoopable...