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Anyone care to guess what purpose it has?

I've been thinking that maybe it's used in the same way, or a similar way, that Xenon and Argon or whatever are used in lasers.

I thought it was stated to be a holding medium for the energy that gives the bolt its power.

Heres what I've got,
The spin-sealing process greatly compresses the Tibanna molecule at the atomic level, storing a tremendous amont of energy and making the gas an outstanding fuel for tubolasers and other energy weapons.
So from that I would guess it's like what you said sea skimmer

molecular compression energy storage? is that even possible?

Sea Skimmer wrote:I thought it was stated to be a holding medium for the energy that gives the bolt its power.

Hmm, you have a source?

How does it do that I wonder, nuclear/exotic reaction perhaps that generates intense amounts of light/radiation that powers a laser system perhaps?

To maximize destructive potential, the gas would have to have high energy. But high energy-gas is hard to compress/store. But I think the raw power-producing capabities of the SW universe is up to the task

Could anyone give me a RL idea of high-energy gas storage in RL then, to show that it's hard that is.

Even if the power generation capabilities are up to the task, getting an extra punch from Tibanna gas would not be bad, if that would be the case, but I am not sure if something like that is even possible.

I'd still like to see some quotes and sources on Tibanna gas properties.

Gas compressibility relies on making the gas cooler, i.e. taking energy away from it. That's not what we want to happen.

Well, if we consider natural, or propane, gas to have high energy, then they are usually handled in cryogenic conditions, usually in the -100's C. It's not dificult to do it, and there are special vessels able to mantain the gas in a liquified form for an extended period of time, also the propelants for the Space Shuttle are also in a liquified form, and THOSE certainly are high-energy!
So, no, it's not hard to compress and mantain a high-energy gas, just take enough energy from it to cool down from gas to liquid/slush, or even solid form.

Thats rather counter productive though, though what about high-pressure storage?

Oh wait, see this:

Pg. 80: A laser cannon is supplied by a power generator or fed from the ship's main reactor, while volatile blaster gas must be stored and carried in supercooled, puncture-proof chambers.

(ref: The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology)

Durandal wrote:Gas compressibility relies on making the gas cooler, i.e. taking energy away from it. That's not what we want to happen.

This is incorrect. Gas condensing relies on cooling, compression however naturally heats up gas. This is why tires heat up when you fill them with air. The confined motion gives rise to increased temperature. Heating a gas will reduce its pressure, but compression can be done by confining gas.

His Divine Shadow wrote:Anyone care to guess what purpose it has?

I've been thinking that maybe it's used in the same way, or a similar way, that Xenon and Argon or whatever are used in lasers.

I still take the Visual Dictionary take on it wherin the gas holds a goodly portion of the energy from a TL. Yes I know the ICS states that the visible portion is a tracer however tracers in real life are still bullets carrying KE. In other words ICS doesn't rule out energy beingstored in the bolt and WOTC, the VisDic, and observation lead me to conclude that the Tibanna Gas is the medium in which much of the punch of a TL is stored.

CmdrWilkens wrote:I still take the Visual Dictionary take on it wherin the gas holds a goodly portion of the energy from a TL. Yes I know the ICS states that the visible portion is a tracer however tracers in real life are still bullets carrying KE. In other words ICS doesn't rule out energy beingstored in the bolt and WOTC, the VisDic, and observation lead me to conclude that the Tibanna Gas is the medium in which much of the punch of a TL is stored.

Are you speaking of.... the plasma brainbug? Or just something like it?

I've found the VD's seem to think of them as pure plasma weapons(atleast blasters), the problem with that is that they don't arc, they don't glow hot as the sun, they don't expand a few thousand times as soon as they exit the pipe and so on :p

Unless tibanna gas is some exotic gas thats not affected by gravity.

Generally I believe the energy of a TL is a laser, real life one, stored in some weird medium, possibly a stasis field and when it hits something opaque, the field plops away and releases seconds of laser fire in an instant.

His Divine Shadow wrote:

CmdrWilkens wrote:I still take the Visual Dictionary take on it wherin the gas holds a goodly portion of the energy from a TL. Yes I know the ICS states that the visible portion is a tracer however tracers in real life are still bullets carrying KE. In other words ICS doesn't rule out energy beingstored in the bolt and WOTC, the VisDic, and observation lead me to conclude that the Tibanna Gas is the medium in which much of the punch of a TL is stored.

Are you speaking of.... the plasma brainbug? Or just something like it?

I've found the VD's seem to think of them as pure plasma weapons(atleast blasters), the problem with that is that they don't arc, they don't glow hot as the sun, they don't expand a few thousand times as soon as they exit the pipe and so on :p

Unless tibanna gas is some exotic gas thats not affected by gravity.

Generally I believe the energy of a TL is a laser, real life one, stored in some weird medium, possibly a stasis field and when it hits something opaque, the field plops away and releases seconds of laser fire in an instant.

1) If its energy is, for the majority, in the non-visible portion of the beam then we should ALWAYS see heating effects before the visible portion reaches the target...this is only the case in a few instances.

2) The VD just like the ICS state that blasters, Lasers, and Tls are compound weapons. WOTC agrees basically stating that the plasma bleeds off depending on how well it is magnetically, I believe magnetically, spun. Tibanna Gas, apparetnly, seals up very well and can maintain coherence at great ranges.

In other words TLs are compound weapons whose energy is split between visible and non-visible portions wih the visible carrying the bulk of the energy and the range determined by how well the plasma bolt can be magnetically locked up or spun.

1) If its energy is, for the majority, in the non-visible portion of the beam then we should ALWAYS see heating effects before the visible portion reaches the target...this is only the case in a few instances.

That doesn't mean the visible bolt is damaging, the visible glow is probably just the invisible part(a third part if you will that does not have to move at C) thats degenerating, I think there is a third invisible damaging bolt thats roughly where the visible bolt is, that is just the invisible bolt itself degenerating.

2) The VD just like the ICS state that blasters, Lasers, and Tls are compound weapons. WOTC agrees basically stating that the plasma bleeds off depending on how well it is magnetically, I believe magnetically, spun. Tibanna Gas, apparetnly, seals up very well and can maintain coherence at great ranges.

Well I don't buy that since it's really bad science thats somehow gotten a life of it's own, and a hopelessly complex system without any benefits, not to mention the absurdity of 200GT plasma bolts.

I, like Saxton, disagree on the plasma idea being viable.

Visual contradictions are actually just a secondary factor, but they are solid enough on their own, especially where we see impacts without any bolt at all, or arcing or anything.

In other words TLs are compound weapons whose energy is split between visible and non-visible portions wih the visible carrying the bulk of the energy and the range determined by how well the plasma bolt can be magnetically locked up or spun.

Well I don't think that, my theory is more that the Tibanna gas is used more for energy and it's being converted into radiation(thankfully the VD quotes are not specific enough that we have to taken them literally), possibly for powering a real laser, that then fires into a force-field of some kind, to quote something I said on the effects of bolts:

If the quanta of the bolt degenerates into light and/or plasma and it might be so that the degenration is not always at a constant rate, say if the bolt comes too close to the weak outer edges of a shield boundary, maybe there's some destabilzation that increases the rate enough for it to release enough light/plasma to act like a flakburst, though it would only be a small fraction of the bolt(which would fit with visuals since those flak bursts are definitly not KT ranged).

I suppose that sometimes it might even be possible to get a bolt that has so little degradation that it doesn't show, this is likey random, as is bolt/shield interactions.

The AOTC ICS referred to blaster gas as a "coolant" on the Geonosian fighter page.

Connor MacLeod wrote:The AOTC ICS referred to blaster gas as a "coolant" on the Geonosian fighter page.

Ahh yes, I see it, also on the page for the Aetherspite it says "Tibanna coolant gas hose"

...and other sources say Tibanna gas is a power boost for blasters and turbolasers.

I support the idea that Tibanna gas gives the SW energy weapons a longer range and a bigger punch.

Heavier handheld SW weapons have gas cells also. (E-11, DL-44 etc.)

Then it's more like fuel than ammo, the EGWT would agree with this too.

Exactly!

Handheld SW weapons both have gas cells and "power" cells...

Power cells contains the "ammo" while the gas cells contains the "fuel".

While I could see the ups in this for hand weapons and single-digit KT weapons, that is if is able to release energies with the efficenc of say fission, like laser-cannons I don't see a use for it in the larger weapons where the energies yielded by fission, or fusion, would be infitesimal compared to the weapons output, it'd require antimatter efficency levels before it was workable, I gather such weapons would get their energies straight from the reactor if so.

My take:

Tibana = tritium (the same way Midi-chlorians = mitochondria)

This isotope of hydrogen is compressed and fusion takes place in the firing chamber; this plasma is fired down the barrel using a "laser" beam as a carrier vehicle to keep the plasma bolt from dispersing, until it impacts the target.

The greatest concentrations of tibana is where you can find large amounts of hydrogen...in gas giant planets, where Lando Calrissian had his Cloud City mining operation.

Enola Straight wrote:This isotope of hydrogen is compressed and fusion takes place in the firing chamber; this plasma is fired down the barrel using a "laser" beam as a carrier vehicle to keep the plasma bolt from dispersing, until it impacts the target.

The problem, it's plasma, it's:
1) a brainbug
2) unrealistic(for reasons 3-5)
3) plasma does not hold together, plasma is not just something hot and glowy, it would EXPLODE the moment it left the barrel
4) bolts are massless(no arcing)
5) bolts are red, not white hot like a mini-sun

I'm not an engineer so treat my ideas with patience!

Thanks in advance!

What if the Tibanna is used in the TLs and even in blasters as part of the focusing of the "laser" beam instead of lenses?

But I doubt it would be laser... It bolt has a visible beginning and an end, quite strange for a laser beam...

Oh the bolt is something, we just don't know what beyond that it's massless and still travels slower than light, or that is to say it can do that, we've seen the superlasers which are based on the same tech travel at C in ANH and below C in ROTJ, clearly related to range the propagation speed is, and in Destiny's Way we have laser-cannons propagating at lightspeed in a fight that takes place at light second ranges.