Death Star Architect speaks out

[FaxModem1]

Dorkly



Obviously a humor video, but I found it funny.

[Adam Reynolds]

That is a fairly good point, but it is still a foolish design for not having a simple grate over it. Or by using several smaller exhaust ports(which was supposedly the case on the Second Death Star).

I rather liked the point at the end with the Emperor "Don't you think it should be Millennium Falcon sized."

He also makes a good point about Anakin Skywalker --> Vader. I wonder if anyone wondered about that connection. I know that Tarkin realized the connection in his titular novel, but I wonder if anyone else did. In any case, had Anakin not been nearly killed on Mustafar, it would have made sense that he would have been recognized as the former Jedi. Dooku was clearly recognizable as the former Jedi and it was never held against him.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Oh that is priceless. Thanks for sharing!

As for the Anakin/Vader link, IIRC in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (now non-canon, but hey) Bail Organa did suspect something fishy about Vader suddenly being the Emperor's new enforcer. He initially thought he was a new type of clone but began to suspect otherwise. This also faetured Vader nearly meeting baby Leia, which would have been...interesting.

[Lord Revan]

I understand it was for the sake of the joke but the vid treats protontorps like they're dumb bombs opposed to (self-)guided missiles which they are.

as for the Anakin/Luke connection, it assumes that "Skywalker" is an ultra-rare last name so that pretty much everyone with that last name must be related. However if Skywalker is only somewhat uncommon it would be far less likely for random imperial officer to link the semi-mythical hero of the Clone Wars and some random farmboy from middle of nowhere.

[bilateralrope]

One thing to remember about the Anakin/Vader link in the eyes of the public is that we are talking something that happened shortly after Order 66. A very public extermination of the Jedi. Imagine you get hold of a list of Jedi that the Empire knows are dead because they have identified the bodies. You check the list and find a few Jedi that you know of who aren't on the list. Would you assume that they are still alive ?

Or would you assume that they are dead along with all the other Jedi ?

[The Romulan Republic]

Oh that is priceless. Thanks for sharing!

As for the Anakin/Vader link, IIRC in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (now non-canon, but hey) Bail Organa did suspect something fishy about Vader suddenly being the Emperor's new enforcer. He initially thought he was a new type of clone but began to suspect otherwise. This also faetured Vader nearly meeting baby Leia, which would have been...interesting.

As I recall, Bail Organa actually did realize that Vader was Skywalker in Dark Lord.

That is a fairly good point, but it is still a foolish design for not having a simple grate over it. Or by using several smaller exhaust ports(which was supposedly the case on the Second Death Star).

I rather liked the point at the end with the Emperor "Don't you think it should be Millennium Falcon sized."

He also makes a good point about Anakin Skywalker --> Vader. I wonder if anyone wondered about that connection. I know that Tarkin realized the connection in his titular novel, but I wonder if anyone else did. In any case, had Anakin not been nearly killed on Mustafar, it would have made sense that he would have been recognized as the former Jedi. Dooku was clearly recognizable as the former Jedi and it was never held against him.

As to putting a grate over the entrance, might that have somehow impeded the exhaust leaving?

[Batman]

I don't see how a grate would've made the shaft all that much safer. Use one torpedo to blow away the grating, then do exactly what happened in the movie.

[Adam Reynolds]

I understand it was for the sake of the joke but the vid treats protontorps like they're dumb bombs opposed to (self-)guided missiles which they are.

This is true, but he is still right that the timing of the launch was almost impossible. Though the vid shows a cover over the port that does not exist in the movie.

As to putting a grate over the entrance, might that have somehow impeded the exhaust leaving?

Possibly. But there are ways to do this beyond a simple grate. This is something that real life naval architects have known for nearly a century. Battleships had better protection against biplanes. If it were a true emergency exhaust system than it should have used a hatch fitted with explosive bolts. If it were a less critical exhaust system, then it should have had either a grate or tight curves that would be difficult for a missile to enter.

I wonder if the idea by the Empire was that missile weapons lacked the precision for such a strike. Notice that the Rebel pilots only stated that it was impossible once proton torpedoes were mentioned. Before it was mentioned that it was ray shielded, they didn't seem to be as concerned that it was impossible.

I don't see how a grate would've made the shaft all that much safer. Use one torpedo to blow away the grating, then do exactly what happened in the movie.

So put two grates.

[biostem]

So put two grates.

Assuming that there is some sort of force/pressure exerted when something is actually being exhausted out, then they could have also fitted some sort of 1-way valve, so the port is closed unless something is actively being expelled.

[Batman]

Only increases the number of missiles required and almost inevitably increases the problem they cause with the exhaust.

[Soontir C'boath]

Oh please, if Tarkin had sent a wing of fighters to take down the rebels instead of Vader taking his one squadron, those fighters would have never had a chance to make any attack runs...

[The Romulan Republic]

While its certainly believable given the station's size, there's no way of knowing that the Death Star had that many fighters in the new canon if its based on old EU information.

However, Tarkin still screwed up. He was arrogant, he failed to launch fighters immediately (even if he figured the surface gun turrets were sufficient to prevent the Rebels from destroying the Death Star, doing so risked prolonging the battle and the damage/casualties the Rebels could inflict on the surface of the Death Star), and he failed to take the severity of the situation seriously when his own subordinate tried to warn him.

[Adam Reynolds]

While its certainly believable given the station's size, there's no way of knowing that the Death Star had that many fighters in the new canon if its based on old EU information.

However, Tarkin still screwed up. He was arrogant, he failed to launch fighters immediately (even if he figured the surface gun turrets were sufficient to prevent the Rebels from destroying the Death Star, doing so risked prolonging the battle and the damage/casualties the Rebels could inflict on the surface of the Death Star), and he failed to take the severity of the situation seriously when his own subordinate tried to warn him.

This is of course true. As for numbers, we can assume that it at least has hundreds of fighters as a low end estimate given its raw size. That would easily be enough to sweep aside the Rebel fighters that attacked the Death Star.

[Nephtys]

The number of fighters wasn't really an issue. For how 'cannon fodder' TIE Fighters seem to get talked up as, 8 TIE fighters sure did a great job wrecking some 30-odd Rebels.

No, it was just time taken to take out each target on the trench run. The only completely 'WTF' bit is how the Milennium Falcon got even remotely close enough to take a shot on Vader, when the Death Star's cannons had better well be able to shoot THAT down. It is substantially larger and less agile than an X-Wing after all.

[The Romulan Republic]

Was the number of TIE fighters ever mentioned in the film? If not, then going by just the film, I'd be inclined to think more than eight fighters were launched and we just never saw them all on screen at once because of special effects/budget limitations.

As for the Falcon, maybe it dropped out of hyperspace really close to the Death Star because Han is just good enough to pull off a maneuver that precise, so the guns didn't have much time to target it? Or maybe its just fast enough to quickly close with and then withdraw from the Death Star (after all, it wasn't shot down fleeing the station the first time). Also, maybe the guns on that part of the station were focussing on the fighters, which were a more obvious threat? And the Falcon has shields, even though I wouldn't expect them to do much against the amount of firepower the Death Star's various turrets could theoretically direct against it (the Falcon was seriously threatened by TIEs at times).

[Eternal_Freedom]

On screen we see six TIE's moving in to engage the X-Wings and then two more plus Vader gunning down the fighters in the trench run. I would be inclined to think that additional fighters launched to engage the y-wings, as we see Vader kill 2 or 3 of them (can't recall exactly) and one survived. I'm pretty sure there were more than four Y-Wings in the attack.

[Lord Revan]

Was the number of TIE fighters ever mentioned in the film? If not, then going by just the film, I'd be inclined to think more than eight fighters were launched and we just never saw them all on screen at once because of special effects/budget limitations.

As for the Falcon, maybe it dropped out of hyperspace really close to the Death Star because Han is just good enough to pull off a maneuver that precise, so the guns didn't have much time to target it? Or maybe its just fast enough to quickly close with and then withdraw from the Death Star (after all, it wasn't shot down fleeing the station the first time). Also, maybe the guns on that part of the station were focussing on the fighters, which were a more obvious threat? And the Falcon has shields, even though I wouldn't expect them to do much against the amount of firepower the Death Star's various turrets could theoretically direct against it (the Falcon was seriously threatened by TIEs at times).

we know the Falcon is fast enough to avoid the turrets on DS2

[The Romulan Republic]

I'll note I did make at least one error here, so I'll correct it. The Falcon escaped the Death Star the first time because the Empire let it. However, I should note that Han, at least, seemed to believe that they got away on their own, so unless he's an imbecile, it must be at least within plausibility for the Falcon to be able to avoid being targeted by the gun turrets.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well the Falcon isn't vastly larger than an X-Wing is, and since we know the fighters were small enough to evade the turbolasers, it's quite possible the Falcon is as well. THE DS1's defences were built around "a direct, large-scale attack" after all.

[RogueIce]

The turrets may have stopped firing period by then, for whatever reason. Maybe they figured Vader could handle it. Luke seemed to be cruising along pretty easy while Red Leader made his run. I can't remember if they were fired on before Vader dropped in behind them, though. It's possible they just didn't fire only when Vader was in direct pursuit.

[Adam Reynolds]

The turrets may have stopped firing period by then, for whatever reason. Maybe they figured Vader could handle it. Luke seemed to be cruising along pretty easy while Red Leader made his run. I can't remember if they were fired on before Vader dropped in behind them, though. It's possible they just didn't fire only when Vader was in direct pursuit.

A better question is why wasn't Vader warned of the Falcon's approach? While earlier in the film we saw that the Falcon had radio jammers, it could not be strong enough to overcome the Death Star's transmitters that close.

As a side note, this almost reminds me of the Death Star conspiracy as a parody of 911 conspiracies.

[Zixinus]

What does the Death Star ventilate to? Cold vacuum. So the Death Star is continuously venting atmosphere from whatever power core it has, erm why and how? Couldn't the heat be transferred more efficiently away with radiators? You have a planet-sized surface to work on that after all.

As for Skywalker, how do we know that it isn't a common Tatootine name? It would make sense as to how Anakin got the name in first place.

[Adam Reynolds]

What does the Death Star ventilate to? Cold vacuum. So the Death Star is continuously venting atmosphere from whatever power core it has, erm why and how? Couldn't the heat be transferred more efficiently away with radiators? You have a planet-sized surface to work on that after all.

It should emit particles of some kind, given Dodonna's specific comment that it was ray shielded.

Given that hypermatter is an exotic means of transporting mass without the penalty of the rocket equation, the reactor would effectively creates mass and that mass would have to have a means to leave the station.

[Elheru Aran]

It's fairly obvious that Star Wars engines don't operate in conventional physical fashion. It's possible that the exhaust port may have been for a fairly specific purpose or mechanism that, while vital to the safety of the battle station's systems, was not necessarily the main reactor itself-- but once torpedoes went down the port and took out whatever it was, reactor goes boom. The schematics Dodonna displays at his briefing are highly simplified and bare bones, so it may be that a Rebel a/v nerd decided to make a easy PowerPoint or something with minimal extraneous information. It's not necessary for the pilots to know that torpedoing the XXYY control mechanism of Block Aleph-Eta governing reactor overloads is how it works, just show them that they have to hit the port and things go boom.

[Eternal_Freedom]

In fairness, it was never said (IIRC) that the torpedoes would fly down the shaft and hit the reactor. It was that getting the torpedoes into the exhaust port would start a chain reaction that destroyed the station.