Sun scoop

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"^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• "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^[3] and others, including "Blockade"
• Rendezvous with Rama, an Arthur C. Clarke novella