Questions about the Death Star.

Bug-Eyed Earl · Post by **Bug-Eyed Earl** » 2003-12-14 09:22pm

Basic shit:

1. It's so big. How does the crew cross the huge distances if necessary? Or is it designed so that the crew members never need to leave a certain area?

2. Does it have a self-destruct mechanism? If so, who has authorization? BTW- I doubt it does, but I wanted my suspicions confirmed.

3. In terms of internal defense, what do they have besides stormtroopers?

I don't read the EU; getting a specific bit of info like these is surprisingly difficult when you actually need it. Thanks in advance.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-12-14 09:28pm

Bug-Eyed Earl wrote:Basic shit:

1. It's so big. How does the crew cross the huge distances if necessary? Or is it designed so that the crew members never need to leave a certain area?

Really fast elevators/shuttle trains

2. Does it have a self-destruct mechanism? If so, who has authorization? BTW- I doubt it does, but I wanted my suspicions confirmed.

No idea, though that would be Palpys MO to have an ability ot trigger its destruction if someone tried to use it against him

3. In terms of internal defense, what do they have besides stormtroopers?

Blast doors and the ability to remove walkways, lots of naval troopers, basic internal defenses (ISDs could flood sections of themselves with gas). But I'd imagne the fact that its external defenses were such that you only came on board if the Imperials wanted you to is the big thing.

I don't read the EU; getting a specific bit of info like these is surprisingly difficult when you actually need it. Thanks in advance.

Might be more in the Death Star Technical Journal, which I don't have.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2003-12-14 09:37pm

1. No idea, Ender's probably right.
2. If it does, Palpy is almost certainly the only one who can trigger the thing.
3. All the stuff Ender said, plus laser turrents in the walls in certain areas. These shoot at Luke, Han, and Chewie in the cell block in ANH when they go to rescue Leia.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-12-15 05:20am

Really? I always wondered what the hell they were shooting at in there.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-12-15 05:23am

Bug-Eyed Earl wrote:1. It's so big. How does the crew cross the huge distances if necessary? Or is it designed so that the crew members never need to leave a certain area?

It's possible that large parts of it might be used for power generation. What you'd need so many people for on a station like that is beyond me.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2003-12-15 05:27am

Vympel wrote:Really? I always wondered what the hell they were shooting at in there.

Same with me. However, if they were laser turrets, would that mean the DS's internal defences weren't up to the job? I'm just saying this because there were quite a few of them and neither Han, Luke or Chewie got hit. Is it possible they were a mix of devices? Some being surveillance cameras, some being autoturrets, some being... uh... can't think of anything else. Or were they all wall-mounted laser-turrets?

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-12-15 07:43am

perhaps the stormtrooper suits they were wearing had some kind of IFF device in them, and they didn't want the turrets roasting chewie?

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2003-12-15 08:04am

Stofsk wrote:
Vympel wrote:Really? I always wondered what the hell they were shooting at in there.
Same with me. However, if they were laser turrets, would that mean the DS's internal defences weren't up to the job? I'm just saying this because there were quite a few of them and neither Han, Luke or Chewie got hit. Is it possible they were a mix of devices? Some being surveillance cameras, some being autoturrets, some being... uh... can't think of anything else. Or were they all wall-mounted laser-turrets?

There was a mixture of turrets as well as cams(cams were 6-8 block black glass panels, arranged in a two by three,four arrangement.)

I can't really recall, but I remember there were at least 2 laser turrets. We didn't see any of it fire, and its probable that the laser turrets never fired off a single shot because it wasn't turned on

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2003-12-15 09:52am

I think they also use the small AT-PT for defense.
That small one-man walker would be a deadly, moving barricade, which can close an entire corridor.

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2003-12-15 10:01am

Gandalf wrote:
Bug-Eyed Earl wrote:1. It's so big. How does the crew cross the huge distances if necessary? Or is it designed so that the crew members never need to leave a certain area?
It's possible that large parts of it might be used for power generation. What you'd need so many people for on a station like that is beyond me.

The power generator is big, but not THAT big. The rest of the Death Star is mostly used for something. Look at this picture, to see it:

And here for a more detailled picture:

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-12-15 10:04am

So how much is inhabited?

Also, a station of that size must generate some sort of gravity field, is this ever addressed?

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2003-12-15 10:21am

Gandalf wrote:So how much is inhabited?

Also, a station of that size must generate some sort of gravity field, is this ever addressed?

In the pictures, you should hae no problem, seeing the inhabited areas. And as you see, thats roughly 2/3 of the whole Death Star.

Concerning the gravity fiel, Saxton has wrote something concerning this point Here.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-12-15 08:26pm

Does anyone know what that little black thing that the stormtroopers would follow around was for?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-12-15 08:37pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:Does anyone know what that little black thing that the stormtroopers would follow around was for?

The mouse droid?

It's a courier droid. It also does minor maintenance and guides the troops through the Death Star.

Bug-Eyed Earl · Post by **Bug-Eyed Earl** » 2003-12-15 08:53pm

Is the Star Destroyer in that pic to scale?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-15 08:55pm

No, it's in the distance.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-12-15 09:22pm

Vympel wrote:Really? I always wondered what the hell they were shooting at in there.

To me they looked like security cameras.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2003-12-15 10:49pm

They did look a lot like cameras, but I'm reasonably sure I saw at least some of them shooting at Luke, Han, and Chewie. Perhaps they missed because they were designed to shoot people busting out of the cell block, not busting in. Besides, I find it rather unlikely that they're cameras, since the DS's security people seemed rather clueless as to what (if anything) was going on down there. I still remember Han talking into that little intercom, repeatedly telling the guy on the other end that everything was fine and then blasting it when the guy asked for his number. Granted, it's unlikely that the guy talking to Han was watching the camera readouts (if there were any) for that one room, but it does make sense to have laser turrents in areas like the cell block.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-12-16 05:04pm

Well it also made sense that they blow up all their cameras if they wanted to keep their cover, somewhat. Maybe security guards don't have their eyes permanently glued to every single monitor in their room

I've watched the scene several times and I'm pretty sure not a single shot came from any of those devices.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2003-12-16 06:49pm

According to the Essential Guide to Weapons and Tech. there was both Security Scanners and Automated Laser Traps. The reason the ALT's didn't fire may be because according to the EGTWAT the ALT's need to be activated by an alarm:

"The complete class VI laser projector unit consists of a control computer, a sensor suite, and a small blaster cannon. When responding to an alarm, security guards may control and fire the blaster manually or activate the unit's onboard combat computer, which can track up to two dozen targets simultaneously"

Fat Carlos · Post by **Fat Carlos** » 2003-12-16 08:52pm

Bug-Eyed Earl wrote:Basic shit:

1. It's so big. How does the crew cross the huge distances if necessary? Or is it designed so that the crew members never need to leave a certain area?

On an aircraft carrier a man has a station and he doesn't leave that station for more than sleep and food. Many of the vets I've talked to on the carrier I work on have never even seen most of their ship.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-12-16 10:46pm

If they have guide droids leading troops around, then they are moving a fair bit around the station.

Mitth`raw`nuruodo · Post by **Mitth`raw`nuruodo** » 2003-12-16 11:11pm

Slartibartfast wrote:Well it also made sense that they blow up all their cameras if they wanted to keep their cover, somewhat. Maybe security guards don't have their eyes permanently glued to every single monitor in their room

I've watched the scene several times and I'm pretty sure not a single shot came from any of those devices.

As I remember it, in the radio drama they are all cameras.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-16 11:30pm

Just because everything that the radio drama saw shot were cameras do not mean there were not other "off screen" shootings of the automated blaster traps--this is exactly why things in novelisations/radio dramas/screenplays/comic depictions are still true even if they're not directly shown in the movie itself.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-12-16 11:50pm

2000AD wrote:According to the Essential Guide to Weapons and Tech. there was both Security Scanners and Automated Laser Traps. The reason the ALT's didn't fire may be because according to the EGTWAT the ALT's need to be activated by an alarm:

"The complete class VI laser projector unit consists of a control computer, a sensor suite, and a small blaster cannon. When responding to an alarm, security guards may control and fire the blaster manually or activate the unit's onboard combat computer, which can track up to two dozen targets simultaneously"

Well, yeah, there were two different kind of devices, and one of them really looked like a camera... the other was just weird, couldn't possibly be a camera, so I suppose that was the Laser.

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