Future spaceships have to sustain numerous power-consuming subsystems as they fly through space. While the idea of using nuclear power in the form of fission and fusion reactor systems is rather straightforward from today's viewpoint, science-fiction authors have anticipated extremely complex and futuristic energy-generation systems to fulfil the power needs of their spaceships. The power system list found in the literature encompasses fission and fusion reactors, tylium reactors, matter/anti-matter reactors, singularity converters, hyperspace taps and various other systems.

The "Perry Rhodan" series of books, for example, features the use of singularity and anti-matter generators, which use a strong gravity field to generate a miniature black hole. While the matter collapses into the black hole, 50% of its mass is converted into pure energy, released in the form of gamma-rays. The singularity generator is superseded by the anti-matter generator, which uses the same principle but cracks the black hole open again (by using a pulsating gravity field). Assuming that the released matter has been converted into anti-matter, the other 50% of the matter, which had been left over in the earlier engine, can also be converted to energy.

The "Battlestar Galactica" series utilises both fusion and tylium reactors, the latter using the exotic material tylium, which contains so much energy that a single reactor can unleash an energy of 1.8 Exawatts. The "Star Trek" series, on the other hand, makes use of a classical matter/anti-matter annihilation process to generate the required energy in the spaceship, while the "Star Wars" spaceships utilise fusion reactors (sometimes with tremendous dimensions, as for example within the "Death Star").

| Index | Computers and Communications |