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how do the big imperial cruisers refuel? do they have hundreds of thunder hawks dock with fuel supply's or is there some kind of psyker related fuel thingy?

Psyker related fuel?
Now that would be entertaining...

I assume they have refueling stations in orbit of a planet. Dock with them and then send over the fuel in a big ass pipe...
Otherwise they could use a tanker if there aren't any around...

Sidenote: Space Marines use thunder hawks AFAIK the rest of the Imperium doesn't.

They have huge-arse reactors that get refuelled once ever-when-the-plot-demands-it. If it's a fusion type, then you can refuel it by scooping hydrogen from interstellar space (like every other SF trope).

When and if they need replacing and or refitting, that's what the big spacedockfortresscastle things are for.

They refule them once in a while with the remains of purged Xenos and heretics, but back on topic. As others have sid fusion is the way things are done, and massive space docks can servivce usch vessels I imagien

There are tens of thousands of massive orbital platforms scattered throughout the galaxy, some run by the Navy, others by the AdMech, and still others by private concerns, that have the capability to refuel the plasma reactors in starships with hydrogen peroxide, which is what the reactors run off of.

Smaller ships capable of atmospheric flight can refuel at whatever docking yards or landing platforms the planet may have, or may land aboard the larger void-faring vessels.

Probably the same way ships do in real life?



http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Battlefleet-Gothic/FUEL-TRANSPORTS.html

Psienesis wrote:hydrogen peroxide, .

Theres no way that imperial fleets can refuel at pharmacies.

In "Rocks Cost Thrones" or whatever that short story is called where they explain why the IN uses torpedoes and orbital bombardment rather than shooting rocks at planets, they list the fuel cost of the ships involved, and notate that the fuel is hydrogen peroxide.

While this is, yes, readily available in the local pharmacy, it is, in fact, a hydrogen atom paired with two oxygen atoms (HO2). This makes it unstable and prime for fuel. You would need an awful lot of 12oz bottles of hydrogen peroxide to fill a Naval cruiser.

The Imperial Navy operates many Spacestations, ports, and docks throughout the galaxy. Ships go to those whenever they need to refuel or refit.

Though my guess is basic supplies is the reason they most often dock. I imagine giant plasma reactors can last quite a well.

Yup, just like normal ships. They dock and take on tons of fuel.

It probably lasts them for several months, if not years, before they need to refuel.


Thunderhawks have their own onboard reactors in addition to Hydrocarbon engines AFAICT. The same probably goes for the various types of Imperial strike craft.

In "Flight of the Eisenstein" they make a reference about before their current energy source was developed, pilots needed to make careful calculations to make spaceflight possible. The implication I took from that was that whatever energy source the Imperial ships were using was both incredibly high-output, and incredibly long lasting, allowing ships to simply use brute force to get where they need to go without worrying about whether they'll burn all their fuel in the process.

Which would indicate to me that they only need to refuel very infrequently, and perhaps even simply skim the necessary fuel from the void as they travel.

Plasma reactors need to refine the fuel from other sources. They have Goliath factory ships for that (Space fleet, Battlefleet Koronous IIRC, and Warriors of Ultramar mention such orbital or starship based refineries.)

Kaldor wrote:In "Flight of the Eisenstein" they make a reference about before their current energy source was developed, pilots needed to make careful calculations to make spaceflight possible. The implication I took from that was that whatever energy source the Imperial ships were using was both incredibly high-output, and incredibly long lasting, allowing ships to simply use brute force to get where they need to go without worrying about whether they'll burn all their fuel in the process.

Which would indicate to me that they only need to refuel very infrequently, and perhaps even simply skim the necessary fuel from the void as they travel.

I took that as a reference to plasma drives basically being a torchship to borrow a phrase: Rather, its a ship whose engines are so powerful that thrust/fuel considerations are basically irrelevant. Something more akin to real life (or hard sci fi 'realism') tend to require alot of calculations and planning nad paying attention to stuff like Hohmann orbits and delta-vee and all those confusing-sounding words. James Swallow tends to inject a more 'science fictiony' attitude into his writing like that, I've noticed.

Connor MacLeod wrote:Plasma reactors need to refine the fuel from other sources. They have Goliath factory ships for that (Space fleet, Battlefleet Koronous IIRC, and Warriors of Ultramar mention such orbital or starship based refineries.)

Kaldor wrote:In "Flight of the Eisenstein" they make a reference about before their current energy source was developed, pilots needed to make careful calculations to make spaceflight possible. The implication I took from that was that whatever energy source the Imperial ships were using was both incredibly high-output, and incredibly long lasting, allowing ships to simply use brute force to get where they need to go without worrying about whether they'll burn all their fuel in the process.

Which would indicate to me that they only need to refuel very infrequently, and perhaps even simply skim the necessary fuel from the void as they travel.

I took that as a reference to plasma drives basically being a torchship to borrow a phrase: Rather, its a ship whose engines are so powerful that thrust/fuel considerations are basically irrelevant. Something more akin to real life (or hard sci fi 'realism') tend to require alot of calculations and planning nad paying attention to stuff like Hohmann orbits and delta-vee and all those confusing-sounding words. James Swallow tends to inject a more 'science fictiony' attitude into his writing like that, I've noticed.

Excellent link! I was unaware of the term, but yes that's pretty much what I took it to mean.