History Main / RamScoop

** The earlier novel ''Literature/AWorldOutOfTime'', itself an expansion of the short story "Rammer", has this as a central plot point.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Spaceships'' features the Azrael, a Ram-Scoop powered (unmanned) relativistic kill vehicle that delivers 42,000,000 megatons on its target (for the record, this is less than half the [https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/ energy released by the dinosaur-killer asteroid] and as a bonus its missiles impact with a force of 700 megatons thanks to the Azrael's kinetic speed.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has [[https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/493d916fe8faf multiple types of ramscoop]], including ones not listed in the summary at the top of the page, such as a type where the fuel gathered is converted directly to energy to propel the ship, and another type that's used to sweep away dust instead of propelling ships.

* Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/TauZero'' takes place entirely on a ramscoop ship. Anderson had clearly not received the news about the maximum speed, because the ship accelerates to a very large fraction of the speed of light.
* Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep'' mentions ramscoops, particularly for use in the Lower Beyond. ''Literature/ADeepnessInTheSky'', set in the Slow Zone, features ramscoops exclusively. They use force fields to make big enough ramscoops.

* Hydrogen fusion ramscoops are mentioned, but never shown, in Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/GaeaTrilogy''.

* Creator/AlastairReynolds' novel, ''Literature/ThePrefect'', shows a mothballed Ramscoop powered interstellar ship, designed to allow interstellar travel without the [[TransHuman Conjoiner's]] conjoiner drive. The ramscoop's massive magnetic fields are used to horrific effect as a weapon. The Conjoiner Drive has a built in ramscoop, but [[ReactionlessDrive it is not required for thrust]], as the drive shuts down the ramscoop in-system yet continues to produce thrust.
** The Conjoiner drives are of the RAIR type described above: they use the material gathered with the ramscoop as remass, and accelerate it with energy drawn from [[spoiler:a pair of wormholes to the very early, hot universe.]]
* In Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/EarthUnaware'' prequel novel, the kilometer-wide Bugger/Formic/Hormiga starship has an opening at the front designed to collect interstellar hydrogen (it's even mentioned that it would only really work when going at a high percentage of the speed of light) and use the collected "gamma plasma" as both reaction mass (i.e. expel it out the back) and fuel. Additionally, the ship actually collects ''more'' than it can use, and dumps excess "gamma plasma" periodically through "pores" all over the ship's hull. In a pinch, this system can also be used to destroy any meteors or asteroids in the ship's path or destroy enemy ships/stations within several a range of several hundred thousand kilometers. As a byproduct, the periodic bursts end up scrambling human communications ([[spoiler:which the Buggers don't know, as they don't have radio]]).
** It's never stated how the human ships in ''Literature/EndersGame'' work, but considering that they were reverse-engineered from Formic technology it can be assumed that they use ramscoops as well. By ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'' (3,000 years later) they seem to have switched to a ReactionlessDrive though.

* In ''The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' it is stated that the Death Star fueled itself with a Ram Scoop for self sufficiency.

* The eponymous ''Literature/{{Chindi}}'' in the novel by Creator/JackMcDevitt is a 16 kilometer alien spaceship (apparently automated) that when the protagonists encounter it is 'tanking up' from a gas giant. It does this by lowering a free-standing nozzle into the gas giant's atmosphere that pumps hydrogen into outer space like a fountain, and all the spacecraft does is orbit the planet regularly scooping up the hydrogen until it's fully fueled. The spacecraft then retrieves the nozzle and accelerates up to a quarter light speed to the next planetary system.

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** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "The Cloud", Janeway attempts to collect particles from a {{space cloud|s}} to use for replicator reaction mass. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the cloud is ''alive'', and doesn't take kindly to ''Voyager'' collecting its particles.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Stars}} Stars!]]'' has two types of engines: conventional and ramscoop. When traveling slowly, scoop-type engines produce surplus fuel, but have lesser optimal (and combat) warp speed than normal engines of the same TechLevels and when exceeding it eat even more than normal ones. There's also the "[[http://wiki.starsautohost.org/wiki/No_Ram_Scoop_Engines No Ram Scoop Engines]]" trait -- unless paired with Improved Fuel Efficiency, this means dependence on big starbases and fragile fuel plants. Radiating Hydro-Ram Scoop, the lowest commonly available on the TechTree, gradually kills transported colonists in the same fleet unless the race has a very high radiation optimum value. This means not only are ships with rad-scoop limited to hauling minerals, but armed escorts would have to dance around a transport or colonizer as a separate fleet without merging. Ships with scoops also suffer 1/4 more damage per engine from SpaceMines.

* In ''Webcomics/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob,'' the Nemesites use these for interstellar travel.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "42", the Doctor ends up on a ship that uses "energy scoops". The ship scoops hydrogen from a star with [[GeniusLoci diasaterous consequences]].

* Exist in ''Franchise/StarTrek''. The red glowy things on the fronts of the ''Enterprise'''s warp nacelles are called "Bussard collectors", and were mentioned once a season.

* Ramscoops also get a brief mention in Creator/GregoryBenford's ''The Stars in Shroud'', although FTL jump-drive technology is the main means of interstellar travel in that universe.

** ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' also features ramscoops, but alleviates the need to fly forever to the star from the jump-in point of a system by putting jump-in points right next to the system's parent star (or, in the case of binary/multiple star systems, right next to its primary star).