Purpose of the trench

Enola Straight · Post by **Enola Straight** » 2003-12-17 01:56pm

Not the Death Star equitorial trench, but the trench Luke and co. flew down in order to destroy the Death Star.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-12-17 02:55pm

Probaly more docking, more efficient to have multiple areas then have them all land at the center and then transport it up internally

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-17 03:03pm

Could also add more physical protection for more delicate external components.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-17 03:08pm

Ender wrote:Probaly more docking, more efficient to have multiple areas then have them all land at the center and then transport it up internally

Lambda-class Shuttles, Sentinel-class Landing Craft, and Stormtrooper Transports look like they could land in there and the fit would be about right for them.

Death Star probably has hundreds or thousands of such trenches for the same reason, and they'd all be well-defended with many more turbolasers than the average plain of hull surface--the exhaust port was probably placed there as an afterthought with all the defenses and protection alread dense in that area. Hell, for all we know, a super-huge, super-hot reactor like the Death Star's had many such exhaust ports throughout the station, and the Rebels chose this one because it gave them cover in the trench and this one wasn't located in a super-protected trench, like the Equatorial band.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2003-12-17 11:08pm

The Death Star had more than one trench? And all this time I thought Luke was flying along the DS's equator.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-17 11:14pm

The Rebel attack was targeted on the exhaust port in DSI's polar trench. The equatorial docking trench is much too wide in comparison.

I'm also one to think that Death Star I might of had several such exhaust ports over its surface. I'd assume at least a few dozen.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2003-12-17 11:28pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:I'm also one to think that Death Star I might of had several such exhaust ports over its surface. I'd assume at least a few dozen.

Is that where all the other Y-wings were going? Making runs on other exhaust ports?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-17 11:28pm

No. The Y-wing is inferior in combat compared to the X-wing, so they were avoiding it, I think.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-12-17 11:38pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:No. The Y-wing is inferior in combat compared to the X-wing, so they were avoiding it, I think.

They Y-wings are bombers. They were the ones trying to hit it, X-wings were there to support.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-18 12:14am

Ender's right. The T-65 (A?) is a space-superiority fighter and the Rebels equipped only some of them with a single pair of relatively low-yield torpedoes. According to ICS they have inferior targeting systems for anti-surface missiles, which makes sense, given that the Y-Wing is a strike ship.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-12-18 02:29am

I always figured that the miridian trenches were more or less seams in the outer shell or armor or what ever. On the model, there seems to be around eight or so lines that go pole to pole or atleast that direction but are smaller than the equatorial trench.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-12-18 02:31am

I think they're a horrid design flaw. You shield your enemy from the majority of your weapons fire- sure, guns can fire down the trench but it'll never be as many, or from as many angles, as if you didn't have trenches at all. Totally unecessary.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-12-18 11:59am

If they were indeed landing bays, walls inside every few hundred meters would solve the problem nicely.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2003-12-18 01:04pm

Can someone give some evidence that the DS had more than one trench?

This is the first I've ever heard of any other trench apart from the equator one.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-12-18 02:21pm

Here's a picture from Saxton's site. Its a pic showing the rebel briefing with the computer model. It is showing the top of the Death Star and highlighting a series of poloar trenches. You can plainly see three such trenches with the middle one being highlighted and a portion of it begaining to be enlarged.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2003-12-18 07:58pm

I look at that picture and think more along that lines of "Where's Waldo?" than "Where's the Death Star trench?"
Er anyway OT, I'm still kinda skeptical. I always thought that the equator trench was the trench they flew down. The lines I think you're syaing are trenches look more to me like "detail" on the DS with it towers and alike, or maybe the interal shafts, etc. I'll watch ANH later and look a bit more closely, reserve flaming till then!

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-18 11:55pm

Vympel wrote:I think they're a horrid design flaw. You shield your enemy from the majority of your weapons fire- sure, guns can fire down the trench but it'll never be as many, or from as many angles, as if you didn't have trenches at all. Totally unecessary.

If the trenches were just basically long rows of landing/docking pits and possibly access to maintence for special components, and only fighters can get down in there, what's it matter? They could've been very necessary.

I agree though, with the exhaust ports existing as they did, it was almost a worst design flaw (its arguable whether the Rebels could've hit an exhaust port without the cover provided by the trench). Without those ports like on the DS II, the trench is hardly a problem.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2003-12-18 11:58pm

On the number of exhaust ports, doesn't the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels say something about how the design flaws of the original Death Star were corrected in that: The Death Star II had numerous tiny exhaust ports versus the one huge one of the original Death Star?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-18 11:59pm

Lazy Raptor wrote:On the number of exhaust ports, doesn't the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels say something about how the design flaws of the original Death Star were corrected in that: The Death Star II had numerous tiny exhaust ports versus the one huge one of the original Death Star?

The DS II apparently had countless "millimeter-diameter dispersion ports" rather than the larger exhaust ports of the DS I.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2003-12-19 12:02am

Ah, that's right (I can't seem to find my copy). It stands to reason that a two meter hole can't vent all the heat from a hypermatter reactor, even in the vacuum of space.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-12-19 02:36pm

Dorsk 81 wrote:I look at that picture and think more along that lines of "Where's Waldo?" than "Where's the Death Star trench?"
Er anyway OT, I'm still kinda skeptical. I always thought that the equator trench was the trench they flew down. The lines I think you're syaing are trenches look more to me like "detail" on the DS with it towers and alike, or maybe the interal shafts, etc. I'll watch ANH later and look a bit more closely, reserve flaming till then!

Um. Thats a picture of the technical readouts used durring the briefing. In the movie, the small box shape on the center trench, expands into the trench showing the approach to the vent.

The pic clearly shows at the minimum, three polor trenchs on the Death Star.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-12-19 06:40pm

Knife wrote:
Dorsk 81 wrote:I look at that picture and think more along that lines of "Where's Waldo?" than "Where's the Death Star trench?"
Er anyway OT, I'm still kinda skeptical. I always thought that the equator trench was the trench they flew down. The lines I think you're syaing are trenches look more to me like "detail" on the DS with it towers and alike, or maybe the interal shafts, etc. I'll watch ANH later and look a bit more closely, reserve flaming till then!
Um. Thats a picture of the technical readouts used durring the briefing. In the movie, the small box shape on the center trench, expands into the trench showing the approach to the vent.

The pic clearly shows at the minimum, three polor trenchs on the Death Star.

That map is not correct to the final Death Star model--the superlaser dish is in the Equatorial Trench.

SW ICS shows a correct Death Star model, and the polar trench in question ran East-West, not North-South as in the incorrect schematic-model.

Sidious · Post by **Sidious** » 2003-12-19 09:48pm

Dorsk 81 wrote:Can someone give some evidence that the DS had more than one trench?
This is the first I've ever heard of any other trench apart from the equator one.

You dont even need a map to determine that the trench the rebels are making their run on is clearly not the equatorial trench.

Pure observation will suffice. Look at the scale of the equatorial trench when the Millenium Falcon is being tractored in to the hangar bay.

Then compare it to the width of the trench the rebels are flying down. The equitorial trench is clearly MUCH larger.

I've always read that the rebels were making their run on the trench north of the equator.

Axis Kast · Post by **Axis Kast** » 2003-12-19 09:54pm

The trenches are probably for ease-of-access by EVA-suited technicians attempting to do routine maintenance on any one of millions of systems.

First of all, how many strategists originally expected to deal with starfighter insertion? Even after the original disaster over Yavin, the Second Death Star was still considered impregnable.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2003-12-19 10:31pm

Illuminatus Primus wrote:
Knife wrote:Um. Thats a picture of the technical readouts used durring the briefing. In the movie, the small box shape on the center trench, expands into the trench showing the approach to the vent.

The pic clearly shows at the minimum, three polor trenchs on the Death Star.
That map is not correct to the final Death Star model--the superlaser dish is in the Equatorial Trench.

SW ICS shows a correct Death Star model, and the polar trench in question ran East-West, not North-South as in the incorrect schematic-model.

I don't suppose you could provide a pic could you?
I'm in no way questioning that these trenches are there, it's just I'd never really given it much thought and always asumed that it was the equatoral trench and would lke to see the other trenches in a bit more detail.

knife wrote:Um. Thats a picture of the technical readouts used durring the briefing. In the movie, the small box shape on the center trench, expands into the trench showing the approach to the vent.

No question there, that much is obvious.

The pic clearly shows at the minimum, three polor trenchs on the Death Star.

As I said before, those lines look like meer detail as is shown in the trench on the plans. Again, give me some time to watch ANH and see for myself, I've only just got back from work, so give me around 48 hours to have alook (I'm on a drinking binge tomorrow! lol). It's not a debate on whether they're there, it's just that I wanna see them for myself in the film, apart from the DS plans bit, are there any scenes during the battle that show the polar trenches?