Why...

[ClaysGhost]

(If you don't want to go over the "parsec as apparent measure of time" thing from ANH, change the channel now. Otherwise, I have this question...)

I have seen several figures for the length of time that species in the SW galaxy have been in space, but they all agree that the length of time involved is very long.

I have also seen that the best in-context explanation for Solo apparently using parsecs as a measure of time in ANH is that the route he mentions is a sort of obstacle course of natural hazards, and the challenge is in finding the shortest route. I have two thoughts about this:

First, finding the shortest route is surely down to the skill of the pilot, not the ship. A route is a route is a route. Is Solo boasting about his ship, or his skill? He seems to be boasting about the ship, but why?

Second, what are the chances that nobody found that particular route before Solo in 250,000 years of Glorious Space Travel? Pretty poor, aren't they? I can see two alternatives, neither of them satisfactory:

a) The Kessel run (I think that was the name) was discovered very recently. This is quite suprising, in that given the age of space travel in SW I'd expect them to have explored the galaxy and found this "obstacle course" long ago.

b) The Kessel run involves time-variable phenomena, or the shortest route changes with time. If there are time-variable hazards, then this is not a good boast; how could Solo guarantee that he could navigate the route twice in 12 parsecs or whatever it was? If the shortest route changes with time, it's also not a good boast, because it's not a good test. Maybe Solo could wait five years and do the run in 5 parsecs. Maybe someone could have done that before him.

What's the solution? Any help?

[Mr Bean]

I see your mistaken allow me to sort you out

The *obstucle course you think exists does not

Rather the *Kessel Run refers to the location of the planet KESSEL in relation to a huge natural navigation hazard called the Maw

The Maw is a semi-stable configuration of Black Holes which is not natural(How it came about is unknow but its quiet impossible to have formed naturaly as its over fifty black holes in a small area less than twenty light seconds large)


Due to the natural of Hyperspace one must avoid large constraitions of graivty such as those around Planets or BLACK HOLES, falure to do this can cause the hyperdrive to melt down and the ship pop back into real-space

Normaly in a rather nasty position like half in a planet or otherwise hurtling towards destruction


Anyway because of this most pilots on the way back from and on the way towards Kessel take large safe paths around the Maw on the way to Kessel, However the paths are watch by Imperal Patrols and if one is doing somthing illeagle(Such as smuggling spice) its best to avoid them and travel closer to the Maw, Even then Imperal's often catch many of the smugglers so only the best with the fastest ships(The faster a ship travels in hyperspace the closer it can scirt to gravtional fields)

Well thats just what Solo did is when being chased by Imperals he scrited increably close to the Maw nearly destroyed the Falcon and thus made it in Five Parsecs,

It should be noted shorty afterwords he had to dumb the spice as a Imperal Fleet ship caught up with him but he generaly leaves that part out

[ClaysGhost]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense

[Spanky The Dolphin]

(If you don't want to go over the "parsec as apparent measure of time" thing from ANH, change the channel now. Otherwise, I have this question...)

I have seen several figures for the length of time that species in the SW galaxy have been in space, but they all agree that the length of time involved is very long.

I have also seen that the best in-context explanation for Solo apparently using parsecs as a measure of time in ANH is that the route he mentions is a sort of obstacle course of natural hazards, and the challenge is in finding the shortest route. I have two thoughts about this:

First, finding the shortest route is surely down to the skill of the pilot, not the ship. A route is a route is a route. Is Solo boasting about his ship, or his skill? He seems to be boasting about the ship, but why?

What's your point? Han has a lot of pride in the MF, so it makes sense that he would do something like that.

Second, what are the chances that nobody found that particular route before Solo in 250,000 years of Glorious Space Travel? Pretty poor, aren't they? I can see two alternatives, neither of them satisfactory:

You are assuming (without evidence) that Han claimed he was the first to do so. This is false. Han made no such claim that he was the first to make the Kessel Run in <12 parsecs: just that he's done it.

a) The Kessel run (I think that was the name) was discovered very recently. This is quite suprising, in that given the age of space travel in SW I'd expect them to have explored the galaxy and found this "obstacle course" long ago.

Not so. Based on your previous false assumption.

b) The Kessel run involves time-variable phenomena, or the shortest route changes with time. If there are time-variable hazards, then this is not a good boast; how could Solo guarantee that he could navigate the route twice in 12 parsecs or whatever it was? If the shortest route changes with time, it's also not a good boast, because it's not a good test. Maybe Solo could wait five years and do the run in 5 parsecs. Maybe someone could have done that before him.

Of course someone's done it before him. Shit, there are probably a few whose made it in less distance than that. Again, your hypothesis is based on your false assumption.

What's the solution? Any help?

[Mr Bean]

See above Spanky

Oh and may I point out Solo distance was beat barley a year later but a guy whos name I forget but he's the first person Obi talks with(The guy who looks like an Apollo-13 extra)

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Sorry, Bean. I took too long typing.

The guy was BoShek, BTW.

[David]

As far as I can tell, space travel has only been around 20,000 - 40,000 years. That does not mean that there has been any coordinated effort to map out the galaxy in that time. There has also been no centralized government that spans the whole galaxy in all that time except for the Old Republic. The Old Republic did not appear to have any stabalizing factors that would tend to a great amount of exploration. If you look at the Sith Era comic books, none of the old, founding members of the Republic still exist except for the humans and a few other, smaller species. Most of the species represented just before the fall of the Old Republic and all of the major ones in the New Republic have recently discovered the interstellar community. You might think of the species of the SW galaxy like the human species, although we have been exploring our world for thousands of years, we have only recently accuratelymapped our world.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

I was thinking it was only recently that some people decided to risk tearing a ship apart through the Kessel Run. It's an obstacle course, and only the most daring pilots would try it. So far, this all seems to make sense.