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Capsuleer "supplies"
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Darsena Izuma
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2015-04-24 12:55:08 UTC
I understand that most ships are crewed, and so the maximum amount of time a ship can be away from a station or other port is going to necessarily limited by the amount of food/water/air it can carry.

However, what about ships that are smaller, like the smallest frigates that, theoretically, might be able to be flown without crew (or heck, let's say a shuttle.) I'm assuming capsuleers, floating as they are in pod-goo, don't "eat" in the traditional sense, but get nourishment through IV (or some similar) means. How much "food" does a capsuleer in a pod really need, what else would he/she need? What would run out first, the food, or the fuel? (Do EVE ships even use consumable fuel, or is it there some other means of propulsion?)

In other words: how long could a ship with only a capsuleer aboard stay away from port without needing to resupply? What's the maximum time that such a ship might be able to stay away from port before the threat or starvation (or stranding) would force it to return?

Fedo are not what they seem to be.  Welcome to Night Vale.
Balthasar Dorian
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#2 - 2015-04-27 04:34:23 UTC  |  Edited by: Balthasar Dorian
Darsena Izuma wrote:
I understand that most ships are crewed, and so the maximum amount of time a ship can be away from a station or other port is going to necessarily limited by the amount of food/water/air it can carry.

However, what about ships that are smaller, like the smallest frigates that, theoretically, might be able to be flown without crew (or heck, let's say a shuttle.) I'm assuming capsuleers, floating as they are in pod-goo, don't "eat" in the traditional sense, but get nourishment through IV (or some similar) means. How much "food" does a capsuleer in a pod really need, what else would he/she need? What would run out first, the food, or the fuel? (Do EVE ships even use consumable fuel, or is it there some other means of propulsion?)

In other words: how long could a ship with only a capsuleer aboard stay away from port without needing to resupply? What's the maximum time that such a ship might be able to stay away from port before the threat or starvation (or stranding) would force it to return?


It is not necessarily true that food/water/air are contained in storage centers and will run out. Even in the 21st century we have stations experimenting with self-contained micro ecosystems that recycle carbon dioxide and waste matter. I would imagine that a 24th millennium starship would have a hydroponics and recycling system nearing 99% efficiency and maybe higher! The same rules would apply to a capsuleer in his 'pod goo' but likely at an even higher degree of efficiency. That's got to be hundreds of years of supplies for all on-board so long as they can stomach the horrible tasting food. So I guess the only resource that is limited is the sanity of the crew! haha ;P

EVE starship propulsion lore is completely up in the air at this point. It is theoretically possible using today's knowledge of physics to use zero point energy generators to draw infinite amounts of energy out of systems as a result of a quirk in quantum mechanics. Energy fluctuates around absolute zero of the energy well no matter how much energy (albeit in very small amounts at a time) is 'pulled' from that energy well. This energy could then be converted to particle form and ejected from the thruster muzzle.
Teinyhr
Ourumur
#3 - 2015-04-27 23:04:34 UTC
AFAIK the only noteworthy limiting operational factor would be the amount of reactor fuel, which in all four reactor types the different empires use, would last tens if not hundreds of years. The only system I don't have even the rudimentary understanding of is the graviton reactors of the Caldari.

Most if not all ships in eve propel themselves by ejecting plasma or ions, if the pyres of doom behind our ships are anything to go by.
Balthasar Dorian
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#4 - 2015-04-28 04:23:23 UTC  |  Edited by: Balthasar Dorian
Teinyhr wrote:
AFAIK the only noteworthy limiting operational factor would be the amount of reactor fuel, which in all four reactor types the different empires use, would last tens if not hundreds of years. The only system I don't have even the rudimentary understanding of is the graviton reactors of the Caldari.

Most if not all ships in eve propel themselves by ejecting plasma or ions, if the pyres of doom behind our ships are anything to go by.



You are correct that those reactors are mentioned in the item description. New Eden must be a very backwards and barbaric place to not even utilize physics that was discovered 21,000 years ago....

The Graviton reactor for the Caldari ships sounds more futuristic but the total lack of an in-game scientific explanation leaves it up to major interpretation.

I suppose that the reactor could be "grabbing" gravitons that are "leaking" out of higher dimensional space. Alternatively, they may be an alternative (in the sense of quantum gravity) to dark matter in which case the reactor would be gobbling them up from the vacuum of space.

The problem is that this would make Caldari engines far superior to Amarr, Gallente, and Minmatar vessels with regards to long term space travel. Why have the other races not caught up? Especially considering that the Amarr are usually the first to re-invent lost tech? Straight
Lost Greybeard
Drunken Yordles
#5 - 2015-04-28 23:02:30 UTC
Eve ships have some mechanism of harvesting energy (and, in cases of actual rockets, reaction mass) in interplanetary space. Some Gallente designs have visible ramscoops, even, and a lot of Minmatar have obvious solar elements.

So the answer is, so long as their systems are intact... basically forever, since they appear to be able to find whatever fuel is used to recharge the capacitor pretty much everywhere, and the energy required to get the sub-light propulsion they all have is more than enough to grow food and recycle water.

This actually might be part of why capsuleer and Empire ships don't mess around in actual interstellar space if they can help it-- insufficient concentration of materials in space outside the solar envelopes.