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Author Topic: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?  (Read 266 times)

Maximum7

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Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« on: October 02, 2019, 01:48:28 am »
Coaxium is a very valuable and rare fuel in Star Wars that enables ships to go to Hyperspace. It appeared in the Solo movie as the main thing that they needed to steal. It’s rarity made it expensive but if it’s so rare; I don’t understand how ships can go to Hyperspace all the time. It would make sense of hyperfuel could be created artificially but their is no evidence to suggest that. It has to be mined. What do you think? Don’t you think scientists have tried to make synthetic coaxium? Is it too volatile to create?
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StevenO

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2019, 07:58:26 am »
If I'm honest it's one of those things many people would rather ignore and perhaps the bit about Solo that threw people the most after the casting of Han.  The nature of "fuel" also didn't help opinions of the Last Jedi.  When you ask about its rarity leading to a very high price and wondering how hyperspace travel can be as common as it seems to be you pretty much have some of the reasons people hate talk of the stuff.

As far as I'm concerned it was the McGuffin of those movies and may be best ignored.
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sienn_sconn

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2019, 09:07:24 am »
Maybe some types of hyperfuel can be synthesized, but coaxium cannot.  Perhaps a better MacGuffin for coaxium would have been for it to allow a ship to travel at twice it's normal speed (so x1 hyperdrive does x.5, x2 becomes x1, etc).  Now that is something I think fans could have understood and liked.
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StevenO

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2019, 12:36:51 pm »
Quote from: sienn_sconn on October 02, 2019, 09:07:24 am
Maybe some types of hyperfuel can be synthesized, but coaxium cannot.  Perhaps a better MacGuffin for coaxium would have been for it to allow a ship to travel at twice it's normal speed (so x1 hyperdrive does x.5, x2 becomes x1, etc).  Now that is something I think fans could have understood and liked.

Sounds like "spice" for starships :)

I guess that looking along those lines it might be possible to say that Coaxium is used/needed to power some specific types of hyperdrive to maximum effect.  With out that as a fuel the hyperdrive would be less efficient resulting in a slow hyperdrive.

While it may be possible to have some rare/valuable material go into very common objects having that material be consumed at a rapid pace seems to me like it could make it economically unfeasible.
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MERC_1

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2019, 03:59:51 pm »
Quote from: StevenO on October 02, 2019, 12:36:51 pm
While it may be possible to have some rare/valuable material go into very common objects having that material be consumed at a rapid pace seems to me like it could make it economically unfeasible.
If it is needed for all hyper space travel, trading between systems and sectors would not likely be feasible.

Military aplications are still possible, but even they would be rare. Most ships would have to travel in real-space.
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StevenO

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #5 on: October 02, 2019, 04:47:41 pm »
Quote from: MERC_1 on October 02, 2019, 03:59:51 pm
If it is needed for all hyper space travel, trading between systems and sectors would not likely be feasible.

Military aplications are still possible, but even they would be rare. Most ships would have to travel in real-space.

Exactly.

I'm not entirely sure what examples we might use on Earth but part of me is thinking of things like gold which is can be used in many things but usually doesn't have large quantities of it and generally aren't things that aren't consumed with normal operation.  Then again I could be wrong about things that run on gold which destroy the gold in the process.
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MERC_1

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2019, 06:05:13 pm »
Quote from: StevenO on October 02, 2019, 04:47:41 pm
I'm not entirely sure what examples we might use on Earth but part of me is thinking of things like gold which is can be used in many things but usually doesn't have large quantities of it and generally aren't things that aren't consumed with normal operation.  Then again I could be wrong about things that run on gold which destroy the gold in the process.
I have not heard of anything that run on Gold, but Uranium and Plutonium can be used in reactors to generate huge amounts of power. As those are not readiely available on the open maket I can't give you a spot price. But I think it would be reasonable to expect at least the rarer isotopes to cost a lot more than Gold! How that would compare to Coaxium and how to apply that in Star Wars, that is a different question...
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StevenO

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Re: Why can’t coaxium (hyperfuel) be synthesized?
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2019, 06:19:15 pm »
I'd thought about the comparison to Uranium and Plutonium as well but somehow expect them to be even more "common" than coaxium.

Now for what it's worth there must be some level of plans on how to build a spaceship that runs on plutonium and may even be the only way we have to reach a "significant" portion of lightspeed.  Of course that idea is basically having the spaceship sitting on bomb and getting pushed away from it.
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