<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=157589.msg7266538#msg7266538">Quote from: Caela on 23-11-2012, 13:11:11</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">What are we fueling the ship with precisely?<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Ships in the Verse fly on 'fuel cells', though the exact technology is never revealed. Clearly, it can't just be the cold hydrogen-oxygen burning that we call 'fuel cells' today, as this reaction has a far too low power density. In the series, we see Wash returning from a refueling run with a pair of large shipping boxes to Serenity, so we know its not much in volume. This is also confirmed by the fact that none of the official deckplans contain large fuel tanks.<br/><br/>So I am guessings its a kind of fusion reaction and, because we know that the fuel is not free as 'H+H' fusion would be, I am assuming it to be the technologically simpler He<sub>3</sub>+De<sub>2</sub>reaction.<br/><br/>As a result, the fuel for The Line consists of (relatively) small amounts of gasses, namely Helium 3 and Deuterium (heavy hydrogen). Both are not common in nature, though He<sub>3</sub>is by far the pricier of the components. It has a tendency to escape to space if there is soil erosion as you will find on any terraformed planet or moon. Consequently, it has to be mined in vacuum, on asteroids and other smaller celestial bodies.<br/><br/>You can probably fit both tanks on the back of the cargo mule when making the fuel run. The stuff is not cheap and easy to fence due to the large number of potential buyers, so you might want to look out for bandits...<br/><br/>Satan_Klaus