TIE Solar Panels

[PainRack]

This was a previous post made on Robert Brown board by me.It got off to a flying start,then diverged into opposite camps between supporters of the EU and not.

Anyway,here's a possible rationalisation between the EU TIE solar panel wings and the other explaination of heat radiators.


Solar Panels are a colloquial term for either solar powered water heaters,or photovoltic cells.It is the later which is present in the SW EU.

A photovoltic cell operates by directly absorbing electromagnetic radiation,uses them to pry open electrons from atoms and then using that as electricity.

Now,we all know electromagnetic radiation needs not come from the sun,it could similarly comes from the ultraviolet radiation emitted from the coolant present in the TIE wings.This makes the most complete sense in merging both EU and logic.The wing main purpose is to radiate waste heat away.The main mechanism is through radiation.Someone decided to use the radiation as a source of power.

What could the power be used for?Well,it could be used to charge capacitors and batteries,for the use of the coolant system and other instruments when the reactor is offline.Alternatively,it could also be providing the power to jump start the reactor,allowing for a cold start like the Apache and IIRC,Hind.

[Lord Pounder]

Well the Tie ball is way to small to carry much fuel so it must get it's propulsion from somewhere. I also seem to remember that in the Black Fleet Crisis Ties where deployed from a Partol Destroyer but couldn't function to catch the Lady Luck because they were in a Dark Nebula or something.

[PainRack]

Well the Tie ball is way to small to carry much fuel so it must get it's propulsion from somewhere. I also seem to remember that in the Black Fleet Crisis Ties where deployed from a Partol Destroyer but couldn't function to catch the Lady Luck because they were in a Dark Nebula or something.

I don't recall this.

[Illuminatus Primus]

They don't call it "short-range" for nothing.

TIEs must have abysmal STL range/endurance.

[Captain Jack]

Anyway here's a possible rationalisation between the EU TIE solar panel wings and the other explaination of heat radiators

No.
Check this out: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/tie.html#wings

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

They don't call it "short-range" for nothing.

TIEs must have abysmal STL range/endurance.

EGTVV says a few hours in combat, a few days cruising endurance.

[SPOOFE]

Well the Tie ball is way to small to carry much fuel so it must get it's propulsion from somewhere.

The original ICS mentions that it carries its fuel in a small, disk-shaped container in lower part of the ball cockpit, and that it's highly pressurized. If the panels do function as solar energy harvesters, then they're not the only source of power that the TIE has.

Think of it this way... if the solar panels were a signifcant source of power for the TIE class of ships, wouldn't the standard TIE Fighter have access to MORE power - and thus more speed - than an Interceptor?

[Boba Fett]

Well the Tie ball is way to small to carry much fuel so it must get it's propulsion from somewhere.

The original ICS mentions that it carries its fuel in a small, disk-shaped container in lower part of the ball cockpit, and that it's highly pressurized. If the panels do function as solar energy harvesters, then they're not the only source of power that the TIE has.

Think of it this way... if the solar panels were a signifcant source of power for the TIE class of ships, wouldn't the standard TIE Fighter have access to MORE power - and thus more speed - than an Interceptor?

I read somewhere that the solar panels are just a secondary charger for the laser cannons.

[PainRack]

You guys do realise that this is a rationalisation of the wing purpose{radiators} and the EU term{solar panels},right?

In other words,the solar radiation isn't coming from the sun,its coming from the TIE fighter itself.Its not the main source of energy,just a recycler,probably for cold-starts,allowing for independent take-off,instrumentation or cooling system.AFter all,it takes energy to move the heat around.

[Connor MacLeod]

Well the Tie ball is way to small to carry much fuel so it must get it's propulsion from somewhere. I also seem to remember that in the Black Fleet Crisis Ties where deployed from a Partol Destroyer but couldn't function to catch the Lady Luck because they were in a Dark Nebula or something.

It was an Adz-class patrol destroyer (little larger than a Corellian Corvette.) and the TIEs couldn't get much speed because they were in deep space - too far away from any decent source of light, supposedly.

You do realize just how much energy one can absorb from sunlight, dont you? And how problematic this is?

[Connor MacLeod]

Lets keep something in mind. We know TIE fighters can reach escape velocity to escape planets (Bespin in TESB at least.) And other fighters can likewise do this (so its not unreasonable for fighters to be capable of this as well. ) That places a definite lower limit on the power requirements of a TIE fighter (MJ range IIRC - Mike goes into it on one of his other pages.)

[Patrick Ogaard]

Here's yet another attempt to rationalize the TIE solar panels as solar panels instead of the more logical radiator panels:

What if Star Wars solar panels make use of more than the ordinary light put out by a star or other suitable source of radiation? For one thing, what about the TIE panels also being able to effectively convert electromagnetic radiation beyond normal visible light? Absorbing and converting infrared radiation should be trivially easy, and adding in UV and even shading into soft X-rays might considerably increase the effective yield of the panels. Then let's add in the tubing inside the panels. And this is where the tech gets admittedly bogus (but kind of cool if you don't think about it too hard).

Let's say that the tubing in the panels contains a suitable circulating liquid doped with microscopic pellets enclosing even more of that wonderful neutronium. Neutrinos and other exotic particles that do not normally interact with normal matter should interact with neutronium, since each neutronium pellet is essentially an oversized nucleus. A few hundred kilograms of neutronium, divided into billions of flecks and circulated through the tubing, would heat up from collisions with exotic particles, possibly yielding usable levels of heat, which would then be harvested for use or radiated harmlessly away as appropriate. This would explain why the panels are normally well away from the TIE ball, to avoid themal trouble for the TIE's machinery and pilot. The reactors of capital ships might also produce usable levels of exotic particles as byproducts of their operation, justifying the use of such a limited power system on the small fighters and bombers carried by Imperial capital ships. Even in deep space operations the fighters could still operate in the immediate vicinity of their carrier.

Of course, this is seriously reaching...

[Illuminatus Primus]

I doubt it.

[Kazeite]

Assuming this is real-life neutronium, it would require some pretty fancy machinery to keep neutronium in place, plus it would provide _serious_ increase in mass of whole fighter...

Plus we haven't seen any unusual side effects during explosions of any T/Fs in the movies. Those panels didn't behave like they were ultra heavy.

[Illuminatus Primus]

The neutronium itself fucks the theory.

It weighs so much any extra heat it gathers will REALLY make it impossible for mere absorbed energy to power the craft.

[Patrick Ogaard]

Assuming this is real-life neutronium, it would require some pretty fancy machinery to keep neutronium in place, plus it would provide _serious_ increase in mass of whole fighter...

Plus we haven't seen any unusual side effects during explosions of any T/Fs in the movies. Those panels didn't behave like they were ultra heavy.

The panels would not have to be ultra heavy as such. For that matter, the neutronium should not add more mass than a lightweight layer of armor would.

Basically, the idea is the following:

The basic element of the design is the neutronium fleck. The neutronium fleck is enormous compared to any ordinary atomic nucleus, but not so huge that it masses more than some arbitrarily low number of uranium nucleai, say a dozen to twenty or so.

This oversized nucleus (the fleck) has a neutral charge, so magnetic fields won't help at all to keep the fleck where it's supposed to be. However, the fleck lacks the mass and volume to be able to create more of itself, or even to overcome the repulsion between nuclei. Given Imperial nanotechnology, however, a solution can be found, that being a carefully engineered molecular lattice that keeps the fleck soundly balanced at the center of a hollow ball.

The lattices containing the flecks are then incorporated into nanospheroids, like those produce by Kuat Drive Yards, and the nanospheroids themselves bob merrily about in the fluid circulating through the tubes in the panels. With an array of lattice structures layered carefully inside a nanospheroid, a given nanospheroid might present a virtually seamless circular wall of neutronium if the nanospheroid is at the right angle, or be more or less transparent at all other angles. The exotic particles, which would normally zip right through a planet's worth of atoms without running any significant risk of hitting a nucleus and losing energy, suddenly find themselves dumping energy into the neutronium, which translates into heat.

Given the tiny size of the flecks, their capacity for heat storage should be relatively small, and an overheating fleck would dump heat into the surrounding lattice too quickly for it to be transported safely away. Thus, the nanospheroids are constantly pumped through the network of tubes, each nanospheroid's travels making it tumble merrily along, picking up heat but not overheating.

Blasting apart a TIE fighter so equipped should not actually be any different in visual terms from taking out a fighter without that system. The total mass of the system should not be appreciably greater than if the panel tubes were filled with some high-density coolant fluid.