sun scoop
{{Short description|Fictional refueling technique for spaceships}}
{{Notability|date=December 2023}}
A Sun scoop or sunscoop is a refueling technique for starships seen in science fiction. It involves a literal scooping of 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"{{cite web|url=http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~jmcd/book/revs3/gaos.html|title=John's Book Reviews: The Golden Apples of the Sun|last=McDonald|first=John Q.|date=12 June 2006|accessdate=2009-10-27|quote=Finally, the title story, The Golden Apples of the Sun, shows us a fiery trip to the surface of the Sun to scoop up a bit of its luminous surface...}}
- 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.{{cite book|last=Hamilton|first=Peter F.|title=The Naked God|year=2000|isbn=0-446-52567-7|pages=787–788|publisher=Warner Books }}
- "42", a 2007 episode of Doctor Who
- Elite (1984) – space trading video game
- Elite Dangerous (2015) – multiplayer space flight simulation game
- "Light", a first-season episode of Stargate Universe{{cite web|url=http://www.gateworld.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-301032|title=Home > Stargate Universe – Season One Images > Screen Captures > Light (105)|date=Oct 25, 2009|publisher=GateWorld.net|accessdate=2009-10-27}} Screenshot of Destiny extending scoops. and others, including "Blockade"
- Rendezvous with Rama, an Arthur C. Clarke novella