Why does the Death Star need to be so BIG?
Jonathan Badger
in the movie's words "as big as a small moon", which I take to mean at least
100 km in diameter. Surely not all that space is needed for just a big laser
gun? (although someone could point out that I have no idea in hell how big
a laser gun big enough to destroy a planet would need to be). And this whole
thing apparently hyperspaces around as well as has impulse engines ( okay,
wrong pseudo-techno jargon -- I don't know the SW jargon for normal engines).
It seems like it would be better to make it as small as possible. And why
have totally unrelated things like the prison they put Leia in on the Death
Star?
The Evil One
>I was just thinking about the Death Star, and wondering why it had to be
>in the movie's words "as big as a small moon", which I take to mean at least
>100 km in diameter. Surely not all that space is needed for just a big laser
>gun?
Well, it's more than just a big laser gun. It's a "battle station." So
its duties would include more than just blowing up planets. Take the
DeathStar from ROTJ, that one had a throne room for the emperor.
A big laser gun wouldn't need one of those.
>And why have totally unrelated things like the prison they put Leia
>in on the Death Star?
To hold prisoners is probably one of its other functions.
The Evil One
COX, BRENT ANDREW
>aba...@jarthur.claremont.edu (The Evil One) writes:
>
>>Well, it's more than just a big laser gun. It's a "battle station...
>
>I guess I wasn't clear on my question -- yes, I *know* from the movies it
>had many functions besides the gun - as a prison, as a spacedock, etc. I
>guess what I don't understand is why the other functions wouldn't be more
>efficently handeled by a stationary installation. I mean it takes energy to
>push a huge thing like the DS around, [...]
Psycological effect? I know _I'd_ be pretty demoralized if I saw that
thing come up over the horizon.
-Squealer
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I
like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
- Bilbo
(email BAC...@SUMMA.TAMU.EDU)
Omnipotent One
(COX, BRENT ANDREW) writes:
>>>Well, it's more than just a big laser gun. It's a "battle station...
That laser gun is quite big, too. Remember the scenes of the laser beginning
to fire in the tubes that seem to stretch on forever. I believe that their
length would dictate the size of the space station. And since the
station is round, you have a lot of empty space for other things, such
as prison's, throne rooms, and fighter squads.
> Psycological effect? I know _I'd_ be pretty demoralized if I saw that
>thing come up over the horizon.
Just another bonus for the Empire.
>-Squealer (email BAC...@SUMMA.TAMU.EDU)
--
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|Dan Traut a.k.a. | You do not realize that what you fear most should |
|smi...@seal.wpi.edu | be what you look forward to all your life, death. |
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Jonathan Badger
>Well, it's more than just a big laser gun. It's a "battle station." So
>its duties would include more than just blowing up planets. Take the
>DeathStar from ROTJ, that one had a throne room for the emperor.
>A big laser gun wouldn't need one of those.
I guess I wasn't clear on my question -- yes, I *know* from the movies it
had many functions besides the gun - as a prison, as a spacedock, etc. I
guess what I don't understand is why the other functions wouldn't be more
efficently handeled by a stationary installation. I mean it takes energy to
push a huge thing like the DS around, and why pay money merely to move
prisoners around every time you want to destroy a planet with the gun?
Phil L.
The most probable explanation for that is probably that it is ONE large
base and not multiple small ones. It would be hard to dock a star
destroyer on a planet, where as the death star would not be so bad.
The death star is mobil which means that if it would not have been
destroyed then its location would be easy to change if the rebellion
were to take over a certain area.
tlittle
Aaron Michael Severson
a similar thought... in #51-52 of the series (around early
1982 or so), in a story called "Resurrection of Evil" the
Rebels are called upon to destroy a second space station
which is only the massive cannon, engines, and shield
generators of the Death Star. The station was called
the INS "Grand Moff Tarkin."
I don't recall who wrote this story, since my SW comics
are boxed up 500 miles from here, but I thought it was pretty good.
It was rather truncated, given the subject, and the ending was
more than a little bit abrupt, but it had some good moments.
Incidentally, I think the Marvel SW series is worth checking out
for all you non-comic reader Star Wars fans. It had its silly
moments, and the art in the first two years or so was pretty awful
(no offense to any Carmine Infantino fans in the audience, but
Carmine just didn't have the knack for Star Wars), but it was good
fun throughout. A lot of the issues can be had for a dollar or so
a piece in a decent comics shop. Recommended issues:
#16 "The Hunter" introduction of a bounty hunter called Valance,
several years before ESB.
#38 "Riders in the Void" Luke and Leia discover an intelligent
starship. With great Michael Golden artwork.
#51-52 "Resurrection of Evil" The aforementioned TARKIN story.
#59-#65 A plot by Darth Vader to tempt Luke to the Dark Side
by turning the Rebels against him. Good stuff.
#77 "The Chanteuse of the Stars" Luke and Leia in a rather
comic caper of an undercover mission gone wrong
#79 "The Big Con" Lando and Chewbacca on the loose.
Japanese anime fans will note that Lando is wearing a
purple version of Space Pirate Captain Harlock's outfit
throughout...
#81 "Elie" The last issue before ROTJ. Well drawn, moody
end to a long storyline about the plans for the Second
Death Star
Annual #3 "The Apprentice" and its sequel, SW #92
"the Dream", about some ordinary people who get mixed up
in the war and end up on different sides.
#94-#107, the last year of the series, which went quite
far afield from the movies, but still managed to be true
to the characters. Often hilarious, with cartoony but
pleasant artwork. Written by Julia Duffy, drawn by
Cynthia Martin, if memory serves.
If anybody remembers who wrote some of the middle years of the
Marvel series, from Archie Goodwin's departure in #50 to the
Jo Duffy era, please let me know. I feel guilty that I don't
recall... Send me email on this, if you know.
Jeffrey Jon Kabbe
The Death Star had to be round (because round is cool) and it was the smallest
round object that the big laser would fit in.
Jeff
CHA...@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu
people that would inhabit the Death Star, think about how much room all
those bathrooms would take up!!
BRETT ANDREW MCINDOE
) writes:
>I was just thinking about the Death Star, and wondering why it had to be
>in the movie's words "as big as a small moon", which I take to mean at least
>100 km in diameter. Surely not all that space is needed for just a big laser
>a laser gun big enough to destroy a planet would need to be). And this whole
>thing apparently hyperspaces around as well as has impulse engines ( okay,
>wrong pseudo-techno jargon -- I don't know the SW jargon for normal engines).
>have totally unrelated things like the prison they put Leia in on the Death
>Star?
>
what the Empire seemed to thrive on. Wouldn't it be easier for a planet to
attack something which they felt that they had a chance of destroying rather
than the huge monstrosity that the Death Star was? Also, I think that the
Death Star had other purposes besides being a REALLY big gun. It had to carry
all of the fighters and such needed to defend it and it might also have served
as a command center or space station of sorts. The prison block was probably
for rebel spies or maybe imperials that have been bad.
Mac
Steve Stelter
Y'know, I think we've finally unearthed why the Empire only admits humans
into its ranks: otherwise every Imperial base would have to have a Little
Boys' Room, a Little Wookiees' Room, a Little Twi'leks' Room, a Little Mon
Calamari's Room, etc. :-)
--Steve Stelter
sjs2...@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
It's Alain with a A
Also in ANH when Han, Luke, etc... get to the remains of Alderan Han comments
that Alderane isn't there and I think Luke says that it would take more than
half the fleet to do that (or someone says that). Thinking how large the
Correlian
ship is, it is no wonder why the Death Star would have to large. It also
would have to hold any number of ships and and other vehicles.
bra...@cc.usu.edu
> In article <1993Mar29.1...@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> ba...@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (BRETT ANDREW MCINDOE) writes:
>>In article <badger.733289860@phylo>, bad...@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (Jonathan Badger
>>) writes:
>>>I was just thinking about the Death Star, and wondering why it had to be
>>>in the movie's words "as big as a small moon", which I take to mean at least
>>>100 km in diameter.
Because, as somebody noted before, Starwars is built on a Large scale,
you think of Ice planets/desert planets etc, rather than just different planets
with different ecologies. Everything is done on a gigantic scale, so it would
have been sheer idiocy to make the deathstar a little tiny orb that was dwarfed
by the nearest imperial class star destroyer.
-Brandon
John Guilfoyle
Harrigan
Tim Vannaman
> In article <badger.733289860@phylo> bad...@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (Jonathan Badger) writes:
> >I was just thinking about the Death Star, and wondering why it had to be
> >in the movie's words "as big as a small moon", which I take to mean at least
> >100 km in diameter. Surely not all that space is needed for just a big laser
> >gun?
If it wasn't so big, they'd have to call in "The Death Dot" :)
Not so terrifying, is it?
Tim.
Pentti Lajunen
Its simply because the designer of that thingy had so small dick.
"No Good without Evil.
No Love without Hate.
No Innocence without Lust.
I am Darkness."
me...@husc3.harvard.edu
The Empir can destroy planets, but in most cases that kinda defeats the
purpose. But if you think how big a troop ship you would need to
move around an occupational army for an entire world it makes sense. The
ability to destroy a planet could even be a side-effect. A power source
big enough to move a small moon faster then light should be able to blow up
a plantet, too.
>he
Becky
(email BAC...@SUMMA.TAMU.EDU)
James Gordon Currie
>In article <badger.733289860@phylo> bad...@phylo.life.uiuc.edu (Jonathan Badger) writes:
>>I was just thinking about the Death Star, and wondering why it had to be
>>in the movie's words "as big as a small moon", which I take to mean at least
>>100 km in diameter. Surely not all that space is needed for just a big laser
>>gun?
>Well, it's more than just a big laser gun. It's a "battle station." So
>its duties would include more than just blowing up planets. Take the
>DeathStar from ROTJ, that one had a throne room for the emperor.
>A big laser gun wouldn't need one of those.
Simple... It needs to be that big because the "cannon" NEEDS a *REACTOR*
that big. (likely about 50% of the DS's mass was power plants (for the cannon
*and* for the sub- and supralight drives) Besides... A gun that big requires
*alot* of power. Ergo, a *real* large power system... A power system of that
magnitude *requires* a large number of techs. That many people all in one
concentrated area need life-support, and security... Ergo, larger power
system to run everything, AND a contingent of 10:1 in techs to security (call
'em police officers... that's what they are!). Something that big, makes for
a *very* juicy sitting duck for the Alliance... Ergo, a few thousand pilots,
more techs, more officers, ships, anti-fighter weapons, and *real* troopers.
That much extra stuff needs more power... Ergo, the station get larger...
ETCETERA.....
So, the Death Star *isn't* large... It's as SMALL as it can become, and still
defend itself.
>>And why have totally unrelated things like the prison they put Leia
>>in on the Death Star?
>To hold prisoners is probably one of its other functions.
Hey... *EVERY* military ship or base/post/outpost has a brig... Ergo, the
Death Star has a brig. Besides... It means there's somewhere to put the
remains of last weekend's bar brawl on deck 147 Gamma-5. ;)
>The Evil One
James G Currie
Scott Krehbiel
Imagine, if you will, being captured on the Tantive IV.
Imagine being imprisoned on a craft no bigger than an
imperial shuttle. In contrast, imagine being taken
prisoner on a Star Destroyer. There's so much
more opportunity for imprisonment and torture in a big
system, like a Star Dest. or a Death Star. I'd be much
more afraid of being thrown into the cogs of a large ship
like the Death Star.
I'll tell you - I've heard bad stories about that place.
They have some horrible torture devices in the bowels of
those Tie Fighters (gimme a break)
I think that's part of the intimidation factor.
Scott Krehbiel - Nerfherder extroardinaire