Ok, so lets assume we have a normal ISD, fully loaded and combat ready.
Can someone tell me how much fuel it carries and also what sort of other armaments it carries (such as missiles or bombs)? What is the typical fuel used to power the ship and how does it compare to antimatter?
Also, how long can an ISD last before it needs refueling?
thanks
According to some ASVS fanfics an ISD carries five year's worth of fuel. Not sure if there is a canon basis for this. But considering the energy density achieved by the Death Star this might be true.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
Thanks for the info. 5 years is huge! Hypermatter must be some sort of "hyper" fuel
Anyway, I was just wondering about how hypermatter interacts with its surroundings. Does it explode when the ships reactor is breached (like antimatter) or is it like some sort of nuclear material that breaks up after exploding?
I'm guessing from the DS explosion that it is unsafe once the reactor has been damaged, but does it need to be in contact with anything specific for it to blow?
Technically the ship has "six years" worth of consumables IIRC WEG data correctly. And while its reasonable to assume the ship's reactor can operate at least as long.. the problem there is.. at what energy level? Is it at peak operating levels, or something much lower? (and what constitutes peak? How high an acceleration is "normal", etc..)
On the other hand, we can derive an estimate based on what we know of the Acclamator. According to the AOTC ICS, the Acclmaator stores its fuel supply in silos at a density that is orders of magnitude greater than the bulk of the ship itself. In general, this means that the fuel of a ship is around 100 times (at least) more massive than the ship itself.
So, if we assume around 20 million tons for a standard ISD (which is a figure that has been tossed around before, IIRC).. that means the ISD carries about... 2 billion tons of fuel (2e12 kg) at a minimum. 1 kg of matter is equal to roughly 9e16 joules of energy, meaning an ISD (assuming 100% efficiency) carries at least 1.8e27 joules in fuel, total. If we assumed a peak sustained reactor output of around e24 watts, it could maintain this output for about 15-20 minutes.
As for hypermatter.. we dont know much about its properties. We know its produces its energy by annihilation (much along the lines of a matter-antimatter reaction, although the mechanics by which the matter-to-energy conversion occurs are different from a M/A-M reaction - hypermatter doesn't require normal matter to produce energy AFAIK.) Its also extremely compact and exceptionally dense (as mentioned above.) - much more so than more conventionla fusion or antimatter could be capable of (hence why SW ships tend to have small or almost nonexistent fuel supplies.)