The Nostromo was a transport tug. How much capacity did it have given in was a multi year mission?
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2I thought it was transporting iron ore. – Jan Johannsen Mar 14 '17 at 14:03
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Not according to the novelisation – Doctor Two Mar 14 '17 at 14:06
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4Enough to vaporize an entire franchise... – Machavity Mar 14 '17 at 16:33
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2@Machavity - Aliens was the superior film. It was so good, it's still convincing the studio that they can make a worthy sequel, all evidence to the contrary. – Valorum Mar 14 '17 at 16:51
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@Valorum "a worthy sequel" -- or six, heh. "If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six..." – Jason C Mar 14 '17 at 17:25
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1A tug doesn't typically carry cargo itself, it tugs other vessels which may carry cargo. – einpoklum Mar 15 '17 at 13:39
3 Answers
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The original script indicates that the Nostromo was acting as a tug, pulling a refinery that contains two billion tons of "mineral ore". During the journey, that ore would be processed by the refinery into oil products such as petroleum.
EXT. NOSTROMO
The Factory Starship lumbering with the depths of inter-stellar space.
Function: Petroleum tanker and Refinery.
Capacity: 2000,000,000 tons.
Length: One and one half kilometers.Battered exterior encrusted with dark sludge.
Interestingly, in the novelisation, "Two billion tons" is described as the total tonnage of the refinery and its cargo.
Her gaze rose to the rear-facing screen. A small point of light silently turned into a majestic, expanding fireball sending out tentacles of torn metal and shredded plastic. It faded, was followed by a much larger fireball as the refinery went up. Two billion tons of gas and vaporized machinery filled the cosmos, obscured her vision until it, too, began to fade.
This tallies better with the opening of the film in which the cargo is described as "20,000,000 tons of mineral ore". Presumably the refinery itself weighs rather more.
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a much larger fireball as the refinery went up. A refinery explosion in outer space sadly will be a damp squib. Better not be nearby or your ship will see its exterior ruined with ugly oil and tar spots rapidly freezing and hardening on your well-maintained outer hull. Removing those could cost lots of galactocreds at the nearest W-Y drydocks. Unless you have W-Y "antioil" insurance. – David Tonhofer Mar 14 '17 at 21:33
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@DavidTonhofer Except, surely the oil and tar spots would sublime away over time? – Aron Mar 15 '17 at 04:31
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More likely errors, sorry. It is possible the 2 billion tons are right - and the weight of the Nostromo is a rounding error. – TomTom Mar 15 '17 at 11:37
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The problem with 2 billion tons of oil is that its density is about 1, for a volume of 2E9 m^3, and the length is only 1.5km ... for a frontal area approaching 1.5e6 m^2, say 1 x 1.5km x 1.5km long, practically a cube. At the other extreme, a density of about 10 (uranium ore?) would still give a frontal area of 1.5e5m, or about 400m x 400m (x 1.5km long). All of which allows nothing for interior space, where action can happen. 20 million tons is much more in line with a current oil tanker, scaled up 4-fold in each dimension. – user_1818839 Mar 15 '17 at 12:15
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@BrianDrummond - All of the action in the film takes place in the tiny ship at the front, not the refinery behind. – Valorum Mar 15 '17 at 12:50
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From the novelisation (which I read about 30 years ago...) I recall something like "they no longer needed the oil for fuel, but humanity could live without energy more easily than they could live without plastics." – Mike Harris Jul 11 '18 at 22:19
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1@MikeHarris - "Fusion and solar power ran all of man's machines. But they couldn't substitute for petrochemicals. A fusion engine could not produce plastics, for example. The modern worlds could exist without power sooner than they could without plastics. Hence the presence of the Nostromo's commercially viable, if historically incongruous, cargo of machinery and the noisome black liquid it patiently processed." – Valorum Jul 11 '18 at 22:24
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The Nostromo has the following capacity according to the script of Alien:
CAPACITY. 200 000 000 TONNES
As the other answer says, in the movie this is changed to "cargo" and 20 000 000 tonnes, implying the actual cargo is that heavy.
That said, it's not transporting crude oil per se. Ripley, from the script:
This is commercial towing vehicle Nostromo out of the Solomons, registration number one-eight-oh-niner-two-four-six-oh-niner.
The Nostromo is a towing vehicle, or hauler, which is transporting an oil refinery. The Nostromo itself is the small ship that lands on LV-426:
This huge thing is the refinery it's towing:
We don't know how much oil it holds.
tobiasvl
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3"This huge thing is the refinery it's towing:" Phew, I finally understand (and I can rest in peace): all these years I was wondering "How the hell the (remaining) crew intended to seek and capture the Xenomorph on such big ship???" – Matemáticos Chibchas Mar 14 '17 at 18:00
