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Rarst
Rarst
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The answer to a quantity of fuel question is quite defined in the series — very little.

Fuel

The fuel is described as "pellets" for fusion reactors. Pellets are small enough to have a "crate" of them just lying around on the ship and transported by a person grabbing the crate. So not something loaded by the ton.

The reactor is described as making small mass of fuel fuse and release large quantities of energy.

In first book Rocinante is described having enough fuel pellets loaded for "thirty years" of reactor use.

Drives

The torch drives, described in the series as older technology with current use limited to very small craft, also need significant quantities of propellant (which typically seems to be water in the setting). They seem to work on principle of fusion drive heating up and ejecting propellant to generate thrust.

The current Epstein drives seem to need either very little or none propellant. They are described as being a variation of fusion drive that can somehow convert energy into thrust highly efficiently. The details are purposely omitted, it's one magical thing that setting hinges on.

Economics

The price of fuel in the book is loosely compared to be less than imported cheese in outer planets region.

Whenever restocking of Rocinante comes up it seems to be distant third: repairs and ammunition, then human consumables, then tech consumables like propellant and fuel.

While ships are mentioned to be expensive themselves, the fact of viable space piracy in the setting seems to indicate that running the ship if you already have one is affordable and doesn't depend on any controlled supply of fuel.

Travel

The adopted model of space travel seems to hold humans as limiting factor.

Ships are described to be able to easily generate accelerations which will simply kill any human crew. So the limiting factor of travel speed is crew training — military is trained to (and can be ordered to) sustain high acceleration for prolonged time, civilians not so much.

Still it seems to be sufficient enough for ships to "just go" where they need to, rather than consider/use gravitation of planets for acceleration and care about their convenient position.

Overall

Setting states that Epstein drives used for space propulsion are incredibly efficient at convertingusing tiny fuel mass intofor thrust, without. (?) use ofwithout (?) use of propellant Later books seem to say that Epstein drives still do need propellant and occasional resupply of it, just much much less than torch drives.

The answer to a quantity of fuel question is quite defined in the series — very little.

Fuel

The fuel is described as "pellets" for fusion reactors. Pellets are small enough to have a "crate" of them just lying around on the ship and transported by a person grabbing the crate. So not something loaded by the ton.

The reactor is described as making small mass of fuel fuse and release large quantities of energy.

In first book Rocinante is described having enough fuel pellets loaded for "thirty years" of reactor use.

Drives

The torch drives, described in the series as older technology with current use limited to very small craft, also need significant quantities of propellant (which typically seems to be water in the setting). They seem to work on principle of fusion drive heating up and ejecting propellant to generate thrust.

The current Epstein drives seem to need either very little or none propellant. They are described as being a variation of fusion drive that can somehow convert energy into thrust highly efficiently. The details are purposely omitted, it's one magical thing that setting hinges on.

Economics

The price of fuel in the book is loosely compared to be less than imported cheese in outer planets region.

Whenever restocking of Rocinante comes up it seems to be distant third: repairs and ammunition, then human consumables, then tech consumables like propellant and fuel.

While ships are mentioned to be expensive themselves, the fact of viable space piracy in the setting seems to indicate that running the ship if you already have one is affordable and doesn't depend on any controlled supply of fuel.

Travel

The adopted model of space travel seems to hold humans as limiting factor.

Ships are described to be able to easily generate accelerations which will simply kill any human crew. So the limiting factor of travel speed is crew training — military is trained to (and can be ordered to) sustain high acceleration for prolonged time, civilians not so much.

Still it seems to be sufficient enough for ships to "just go" where they need to, rather than consider/use gravitation of planets for acceleration and care about their convenient position.

Overall

Setting states that Epstein drives used for space propulsion are incredibly efficient at converting tiny fuel mass into thrust, without (?) use of propellant.

The answer to a quantity of fuel question is quite defined in the series — very little.

Fuel

The fuel is described as "pellets" for fusion reactors. Pellets are small enough to have a "crate" of them just lying around on the ship and transported by a person grabbing the crate. So not something loaded by the ton.

The reactor is described as making small mass of fuel fuse and release large quantities of energy.

In first book Rocinante is described having enough fuel pellets loaded for "thirty years" of reactor use.

Drives

The torch drives, described in the series as older technology with current use limited to very small craft, also need significant quantities of propellant (which typically seems to be water in the setting). They seem to work on principle of fusion drive heating up and ejecting propellant to generate thrust.

The current Epstein drives seem to need either very little or none propellant. They are described as being a variation of fusion drive that can somehow convert energy into thrust highly efficiently. The details are purposely omitted, it's one magical thing that setting hinges on.

Economics

The price of fuel in the book is loosely compared to be less than imported cheese in outer planets region.

Whenever restocking of Rocinante comes up it seems to be distant third: repairs and ammunition, then human consumables, then tech consumables like propellant and fuel.

While ships are mentioned to be expensive themselves, the fact of viable space piracy in the setting seems to indicate that running the ship if you already have one is affordable and doesn't depend on any controlled supply of fuel.

Travel

The adopted model of space travel seems to hold humans as limiting factor.

Ships are described to be able to easily generate accelerations which will simply kill any human crew. So the limiting factor of travel speed is crew training — military is trained to (and can be ordered to) sustain high acceleration for prolonged time, civilians not so much.

Still it seems to be sufficient enough for ships to "just go" where they need to, rather than consider/use gravitation of planets for acceleration and care about their convenient position.

Overall

Setting states that Epstein drives used for space propulsion are incredibly efficient at using tiny fuel mass for thrust. without (?) use of propellant Later books seem to say that Epstein drives still do need propellant and occasional resupply of it, just much much less than torch drives.

Source Link
Rarst
Rarst
  • 416
  • 2
  • 11

The answer to a quantity of fuel question is quite defined in the series — very little.

Fuel

The fuel is described as "pellets" for fusion reactors. Pellets are small enough to have a "crate" of them just lying around on the ship and transported by a person grabbing the crate. So not something loaded by the ton.

The reactor is described as making small mass of fuel fuse and release large quantities of energy.

In first book Rocinante is described having enough fuel pellets loaded for "thirty years" of reactor use.

Drives

The torch drives, described in the series as older technology with current use limited to very small craft, also need significant quantities of propellant (which typically seems to be water in the setting). They seem to work on principle of fusion drive heating up and ejecting propellant to generate thrust.

The current Epstein drives seem to need either very little or none propellant. They are described as being a variation of fusion drive that can somehow convert energy into thrust highly efficiently. The details are purposely omitted, it's one magical thing that setting hinges on.

Economics

The price of fuel in the book is loosely compared to be less than imported cheese in outer planets region.

Whenever restocking of Rocinante comes up it seems to be distant third: repairs and ammunition, then human consumables, then tech consumables like propellant and fuel.

While ships are mentioned to be expensive themselves, the fact of viable space piracy in the setting seems to indicate that running the ship if you already have one is affordable and doesn't depend on any controlled supply of fuel.

Travel

The adopted model of space travel seems to hold humans as limiting factor.

Ships are described to be able to easily generate accelerations which will simply kill any human crew. So the limiting factor of travel speed is crew training — military is trained to (and can be ordered to) sustain high acceleration for prolonged time, civilians not so much.

Still it seems to be sufficient enough for ships to "just go" where they need to, rather than consider/use gravitation of planets for acceleration and care about their convenient position.

Overall

Setting states that Epstein drives used for space propulsion are incredibly efficient at converting tiny fuel mass into thrust, without (?) use of propellant.