Sun scoop

Destiny approaches a blue supergiant to refuel, in the Stargate Universe episode "Blockade".

A Sun scoop or sunscoop is a refueling technique for starships seen in science fiction. While it is theoretically plausible, most science fiction is concerned with stars as places to be explored, rather than as refueling stops.

Method

It involves a literal scooping, in which a ship draws plasma directly from the outer surface of a star to use as fuel. Doing so would be extremely dangerous and only used in emergency situations.

In fiction

• Ray Bradbury's 1953 short story "The Golden Apples of the Sun".^[1]
• In the final novel of Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, an alien race, inhabiting massive "cities" orbiting a red giant, uses ships equipped with electromagnetic ramscoops as an alternative to planetary mining.^[2]
• "42", a 2007 episode of Doctor Who
• Elite
• "Light", a first-season episode of Stargate Universe^[3] and others, including Blockade.
• Rendezvous with Rama, an Arthur C. Clarke novella.

References