TIE bomber bombs from TESB

Kane Starkiller · Post by **Kane Starkiller** » 2006-09-11 11:26am

I was thinking about those blue bombs that TIE bombers dropped on various asteroids in TESB and as to what they really are. I mean they caused no appreciable damage to the asteroid so what was their purpose?
Could those bombs actually be some kind of powerful radiation sources that would illuminate the innards of an asteroid like an X-ray? Then TIE's sensors could pick up wathever is inside the asteroid and determine wether MF is hiding there.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2006-09-11 11:31am

its possible. After all they were suppose to be finding the Falcon intact. if they used full ordinence to light up the craters and indentations of the asteroids, which is what it looked like they were doing, and opps...blew up the Falcon they would not be very happy when Darth Vader finds out.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-09-11 11:44am

I think that's a good idea as any, though I'm not sure about the actual mechanics.

seanrobertson · Post by **seanrobertson** » 2006-09-11 04:55pm

Kane Starkiller wrote: Could those bombs actually be some kind of powerful radiation sources that would illuminate the innards of an asteroid like an X-ray?

Damned good idea.

I always figured the bombs were either low-yield devices meant to smoke the Falcon out (especially if she were hiding in a shallow crater), or that they were something that'd help the fleet's sensors better "see" through the asteriod's interior. I never considered your mechanism, though!

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2006-09-11 04:59pm

seanrobertson wrote:
Kane Starkiller wrote: Could those bombs actually be some kind of powerful radiation sources that would illuminate the innards of an asteroid like an X-ray?
Damned good idea.

I always figured the bombs were either low-yield devices meant to smoke the Falcon out (especially if she were hiding in a shallow crater), or that they were something that'd help the fleet's sensors better "see" through the asteriod's interior. I never considered your mechanism, though!

could also be using them to create mini asteroidquakes to be monitored by Probes placed on the surface. That way they could get an idea where cavities in the structure of the rock might be located.

Ziggy Stardust · Post by **Ziggy Stardust** » 2006-09-11 05:40pm

As I do not own the DVDs, would anyone who does like to check to see if their are any similarites between those bombs and the "seismic charges" of AOTC fame? Perhaps they operate on a similar mechanism.

Kane Starkiller · Post by **Kane Starkiller** » 2006-09-11 06:07pm

Not even close. They both produce a blue colored flash but the similarities end there. Seismic charge produces a planar shockwave that pulverizes asteroids on at least several km radius while the bombs from TESB produce only a "blue flash" with no discernible damage.

Ziggy Stardust · Post by **Ziggy Stardust** » 2006-09-11 06:49pm

Hm. My mistake it seems. Is it at all possible that they are "dummed down" seismic charges? Or am I starting to clutch at straws?

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2006-09-11 07:16pm

Ziggy Stardust wrote:Hm. My mistake it seems. Is it at all possible that they are "dummed down" seismic charges? Or am I starting to clutch at straws?

You are

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2006-09-12 01:00am

Master of Cards wrote:
Ziggy Stardust wrote:Hm. My mistake it seems. Is it at all possible that they are "dummed down" seismic charges? Or am I starting to clutch at straws?
You are

There's nothing all that wrong with the dial-a-yield/low-yield seismic charge idea. Keep in mind they wanted the Falcon alive; using seismic charges as powerful as those in AotC would be counterproductive to that goal.

Zac Naloen · Post by **Zac Naloen** » 2006-09-12 02:29am

I assumed they were EMP bombs. Although yours is a good idea.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2006-09-12 02:33am

For the record, according to the TESB novel, they DID know which asteriod the Falcon was hiding in, just not where. I presumed they were trying to flush the Falcon out with the attacks on surface craters and such, spook them into trying to run.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2006-09-12 02:36am

Erm... as much as I would like to agree, such x-ray sources must be incredibly strong, else, you won't be able to detect anything. The asteroids themselves will introduce a fair bit of noise in the spectrum.

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2006-09-12 05:52am

Zac Naloen wrote:I assumed they were EMP bombs. Although yours is a good idea.

Wouldn't that short out their life support systems?

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2006-09-12 06:12am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Erm... as much as I would like to agree, such x-ray sources must be incredibly strong, else, you won't be able to detect anything. The asteroids themselves will introduce a fair bit of noise in the spectrum.

He said like x-rays. Could be in the radio wave range or, more likely, some exotic form of radiation.

Post by **Vympel** » 2006-09-12 08:07am

Chris OFarrell wrote:For the record, according to the TESB novel, they DID know which asteriod the Falcon was hiding in, just not where.

The novel and movie would indicate that they suspected that if the Millennium Falcon hadn't been destroyed, it was probably hiding in that asteroid- while it says:

Two Imperial cruisers slowly moved across the surface of the great asteroid. The Millennium Falcon had to be hidden somewhere within- but where?

The earlier part where Captain Needa says "that was the last time they appeared on any of our scopes ... they must've been destroyed" and Vader said "I want every ship available to sweep the asteroid field until they are found" still applies. They didn't know for sure.

In any event, the novel does say that the bombs these Imperial cruisers were dropping were meant to scare the Falcon out. Of course, the passage differs from the movie in this respect, where it's TIEs doing the dropping.

Tychu · Post by **Tychu** » 2006-09-13 05:36pm

Ziggy Stardust wrote:Hm. My mistake it seems. Is it at all possible that they are "dummed down" seismic charges? Or am I starting to clutch at straws?

I always assumed they were bombs that would short out any electrical equipment nearby ie the Falcon

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-09-13 06:29pm

Tychu wrote: I always assumed they were bombs that would short out any electrical equipment nearby ie the Falcon

Bad idea. If you want the crew alive killing the life support of the ship they're on when you DON'T know exactly where they are and thus can't be sure to get to them before they asphyxiate or freeze to death is moderately counterproductive.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2006-09-20 06:06pm

Would these just be the Star Wars equivalent to dialed down photon torpedoes? It seems silly that they'd only be able to go "down" in space.

Or are they just supposed to energy, rather than a physical projectile?

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2006-09-20 06:36pm

Kurgan wrote:Would these just be the Star Wars equivalent to dialed down photon torpedoes?

What leads you to that conclusion?

It seems silly that they'd only be able to go "down" in space.

Who says they can only go 'down'? Given that 'down' was where the target happened to be, them being ejected in that direction was prudent, don't you think? And what makes you think they can go anywhere on their own power? They're bombs, not missiles.

Or are they just supposed to energy, rather than a physical projectile?

IIRC those were proton bombs so like proton torpedoes, they're physical.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2006-09-20 08:09pm

Kurgan wrote:Would these just be the Star Wars equivalent to dialed down photon torpedoes? It seems silly that they'd only be able to go "down" in space.

Bear in mind that directions in free space are wholly arbitrary. The likeliest explanation is that the charges were ejected by an impeller and of course followed the trajectory they were pushed toward; in this case toward the surface of the asteroid.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2006-09-21 05:17am

Batman wrote:
Kurgan wrote:Would these just be the Star Wars equivalent to dialed down photon torpedoes?
What leads you to that conclusion?

The implication should be obvious. I'm asking why ought to assume they are an arbitrary weapon that functions like a real world "bomb" that is simply dumb dropped on a target, when in space it would have to have a guidance system of some sort (or else could be fired in any arbitrary direction.. even if the launcher was fixed, tilting the craft could fire it just like a photon torpedo). I'm not accusing people of being misleading, merely voicing something that occured to me while reading the thread.

It seems silly that they'd only be able to go "down" in space.

Who says they can only go 'down'?[/quote]

I don't know. But if they did, I would question them.

It seems they only go "down" in relation to the ship. We've only seen them precisely once in the entire six movies, and in the video games, they only fire downward (relative to the ship).

Given that 'down' was where the target happened to be, them being ejected in that direction was prudent, don't you think? And what makes you think they can go anywhere on their own power? They're bombs, not missiles.

How do we know they aren't missiles?

I'm saying that since they could be a guided projectile, they wouldn't need to be fired "downward" at all. And fact they could be fired in any direction. Much like photon torpedoes fired by the Enterprise.

Or are they just supposed to energy, rather than a physical projectile?

IIRC those were proton bombs so like proton torpedoes, they're physical.[/quote]

Oh, so they are similar after all, since Photon torpedoes are also physical, glowy, projectiles with low yield potential.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2006-09-21 07:58pm

Hm...I know this is game mechanics, but in all of the various Star Wars flightsims, even the "Space Bombs" moved under their own power, albeit very, veeeery slowly.

There really isn't much sense in labelling something a bomb in the same sense as the terrestrial variety when there's no 'down' to work with...

nightmare · Post by **nightmare** » 2006-09-22 12:57am

Kurgan wrote:I don't know. But if they did, I would question them. It seems they only go "down" in relation to the ship. We've only seen them precisely once in the entire six movies, and in the video games, they only fire downward (relative to the ship).

TIE Bombers have vertical launch bomb tubes as well as horizontal missile tubes. For planetary surface bomb rounds, that makes perfect sense... and in space it's rather irrelevant what facing they have. Then there's the above mention that space bombs actually have propulsion, if rather miminal. 20 MGLT, IIRC.

D.Turtle · Post by **D.Turtle** » 2006-09-22 08:01am

As Tie Bombers can also be used in an atmosphere it would be sensible for them to have the capability to simply drop bombs downward. Maybe they simply adapted these atmospheric bombs in order to use them in [EDIT] space [/EDIT] (by simply adding a little push when releasing the bombs).

A lot cheaper than using fully functional guided missiles/torpedoes.

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TIE bomber bombs from TESB

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