The cargo that a ship may carry includes supplies, colonists, tritanium, duranium, molybdenum and MegaCredits. Ships also carry fuel in specially designed tanks that can hold nothing else. If a vessel has one or more torpedo launchers, it may carry torpedoes; if it has one or more fighter bays, the ship may carry fighters.
A starship can transfer cargo to a planet it's orbiting. After one or more colonist clans are transferred to an unowned planet, that planet becomes yours the following turn. Colonists from other players, inhospitable climates, amorphous natives, or fighting natives can kill colonists, even on the same turn they're first dropped.
Starships can transfer cargo to any other starship at the same location. Cargo transfers become more complex when ships of two or more races are involved (see the cargo transfers page for more details). Transfers to a cloaking vessel require that the receiving ship remain uncloaked throughout the entire transfer (one turn to request the transfer and one turn to receive the transfer). A ship can only transfer cargo to one foreign target in any given turn.
Most cargo can be jettisoned into deep space (see Out of Fuel ). MegaCredits may not be jettisoned due to the regulations of the Nuniversal Reserve Bank. As an orbital safety measure, cargo may not be jettisoned while a spaceship is in planetary orbit.
Starships can repair damage in space using supplies , which might make it useful to transfer supplies between starships. Repairs in space DO NOT add mission crew to the ship.