Question About The Death Star

[silenus]

The hyperdrive is plainly shown in the schematics the Bothans stole. #25, to be precise.

[Lemmytheseal2]

@Miller

In fairness, “space” in the Star Wars universe does not appear to be a vacuum.

I like to think that luminferous aether turned out to be a real thing after all.

@DataX

Don’t you mean used to be a real thing :)?

I join the other poster who seem relatively undisturbed about this - if the Idea of the Death Star moving is what made you think “hey this seems a little unrealistic” - then - oh - I don’t really have a rest of that sentence.

@Red_Barchetta

Well, there’s sound, and all the spacecraft bank as if there were air…

@MrDibble

Guess the TIE fighter pilots won’t need that oxygen, then…

The sound is not in space per se, it’s in the pilots’ headphones, and/or the ships’ computers’ speakers. There are radar systems today that do that, in order to give audio feedback to the user. Brian Daley, who wrote the A New Hope Radio Drama, inserted a line about that sort of thing as Han and Luke were manning the guns on the Falcon.

As for the banked turns, it is explained here.

The Death Star destroyed at least two of the Rebel cruisers, and that’s just what we see on screen. Yes, it’s technically a starship, in that it uses hyperdrive to get anywhere, but once in a system it appears to be just looming outside of a targeted world.

[terentii]

Light spacecraft like TIE fighters bank when they turn in order to evenly distribute the G-forces on their pilots. Aerodynamics have nothing to do with it.

[Miller]

@MrDibble

Guess the TIE fighter pilots won’t need that oxygen, then…

Air and oxygen aren’t necessarily the same thing.

[Robot_Arm]

@terentii

Light spacecraft like TIE fighters bank when they turn in order to evenly distribute the G-forces on their pilots. Aerodynamics have nothing to do with it.

In that case, you’d fly every turn with 90 degrees of bank; that is, you’d roll until your desired new course is directly above your current one (from your point of view) and then pull up. I’m not sure if that conforms to what’s seen in the films.

[muldoonthief]

You can leave your ship for several minutes to shoot Mynocks, wearing only an air mask and not suffer any vacuum-induced injury, so there’s some kind of pressure out there.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Yes, the physiology (not to mention the diet) of giant asteroid-dwelling worms is still rather poorly understood.

[Lemmytheseal2]

@muldoonthief

You can leave your ship for several minutes to shoot Mynocks, wearing only an air mask and not suffer any vacuum-induced injury, so there’s some kind of pressure out there.

@Elendil_s_Heir

Yes, the physiology (not to mention the diet) of giant asteroid-dwelling worms is still rather poorly understood.

I would have left out that sequence if I was the director. It’s not impossible to explain, but in any case it doesn’t make-or-break the plot.

[Valgard]

@AncientHumanoid

Maybe it got towed.

I just had an image of some kind of Interstellar Parking Enforcement tow truck hitching up the Death Star to haul it off to the impound lot. The Emperor is arguing with an unsympathetic IPE meter maid (complete with itty bitty spaceship and a bike helmet).

“Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t care who you are, sir. You can’t leave that thing in orbit all day long without feeding the meter.”
“Oh come on. I was just going to be here long enough to vaporize that planet!”
“Well I put chalk marks all over it, you’ve been here a lot longer than that. Besides, if I let you do it then the whole L4 will be full of battlestations while somebody zips over to Starbucks.”
“You know I could Force Choke you.”
“Don’t threaten me, sir. You can pick your vehicle up at the impound lot on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. Here’s your parking ticket. Pay it plus storage fees at the front counter. Have a nice day.”
“Storage fees for a battle station? That’ll be billions of credits!”
“Well then perhaps next time you should just pay to park like everyone else.”
(Zips off in her space scooter, leaving the Emperor floating there speechless)

[Ethilrist]

@Elendil_s_Heir

Yes, the physiology (not to mention the diet) of giant asteroid-dwelling worms is still rather poorly understood.

Oh, the diet’s pretty obvious… they eat small freighters.

[AncientHumanoid]

@Lemmytheseal2

As for the banked turns, it is explained here.

.

I liked this answer:

Lucas, when making the original Star Wars series, used combat footage from WWII air combat as the basis from which they derived all the space battles between small ships. They knew full well that such movement as banking was not necessary in a space battle. But at the time that Star Wars was made, the science fiction genre was still in it’s infancy as far as the public at large was concerned. They thought that most people who went to see the movie would think that it looked weird that these ships were maneuvering in a manner that was not familiar and comfortable to them. It’s much the same reason that on Star Trek you always see ships moving on the same “plane” relative to each other in a special effects shot even though there is no up or down in space.

They were also under a great deal of pressure to get the effects shots done, so in many cases they just took that WWII combat footage and translated those exact shots straight across. There were some extras included in the special edition VHS and the DVD editions of the original trilogy that went into this in some depth, even showing side by side comparisons of the WWII footage and the Star Wars footage together and you could see where an exact WWII shot was replicated into the Star Wars shot.

[The_Tooth]

@AncientHumanoid

Maybe it got towed.

Or someone used Spice and just folded space.

Or something very improbable happened.

It’s Somebody Else’s Problem as far as I’m concerned.

[terentii]

@Robot_Arm

In that case, you’d fly every turn with 90 degrees of bank; that is, you’d roll until your desired new course is directly above your current one (from your point of view) and then pull up. I’m not sure if that conforms to what’s seen in the films.

Let’s get an RC model and try it out sometime!

[Dale_Sams]

The Death Star wasn’t firing at full power in ROTJ. It was firing with just enough power to blow up a ship, which takes considerably less time to charge than a planet smashing blow.

[Boyo_Jim]

I just had an image of some kind of Interstellar Parking Enforcement tow truck hitching up the Death Star to haul it off to the impound lot. The Emperor is arguing with an unsympathetic IPE meter maid (complete with itty bitty spaceship and a bike helmet).

Reminded me of the Simpsons:

Minion: “Emperor, you’ve received several messages from Intergalactic Traffic Enforcement.”
Message 1: Your Death Star is parked illegally. You have 20 minutes to move it.
Message 2: Your Death Star is parked illegally. You have 10 minutes to move it.
Message 3: Your Death Star has been crushed into a Death Cube. You have 20 minutes to move your Death Cube.

[Intergalactic_Gladiator]

@AncientHumanoid

I liked this answer:

Lucas, when making the original Star Wars series, used combat footage from WWII air combat as the basis from which they derived all the space battles between small ships. They knew full well that such movement as banking was not necessary in a space battle. But at the time that Star Wars was made, the science fiction genre was still in it’s infancy as far as the public at large was concerned. They thought that most people who went to see the movie would think that it looked weird that these ships were maneuvering in a manner that was not familiar and comfortable to them. It’s much the same reason that on Star Trek you always see ships moving on the same “plane” relative to each other in a special effects shot even though there is no up or down in space.

They were also under a great deal of pressure to get the effects shots done, so in many cases they just took that WWII combat footage and translated those exact shots straight across. There were some extras included in the special edition VHS and the DVD editions of the original trilogy that went into this in some depth, even showing side by side comparisons of the WWII footage and the Star Wars footage together and you could see where an exact WWII shot was replicated into the Star Wars shot.

This makes sense to me in-universe as well. I would imagine people learning to fly in atmospheric conditions and the banking and turning would feel natural in flight even while in space. Banking also pushes the pilot into the seat where a flat turn would push them off to the side. I would imagine that’s easier to endure.

Helicopter pilots don’t necessarily have to bank but I know they do.

[terentii]

@Intergalactic_Gladiator

This makes sense to me in-universe as well. I would imagine people learning to fly in atmospheric conditions and the banking and turning would feel natural in flight even while in space. Banking also pushes the pilot into the seat where a flat turn would push them off to the side. I would imagine that’s easier to endure.

Helicopter pilots don’t necessarily have to bank but I know they do.

My point exactly!

[Kent_Clark]

@The_Winkler

Or perhaps just more evidence that Lucas was clueless.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

[Kenm]

@Miller

In fairness, “space” in the Star Wars universe does not appear to be a vacuum.

@MrDibble

It doesn’t? What gives you that idea?

Han Solo alleges he did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, so Star Wars’ space folds like a cheap suit.

[Guinastasia]

@Kenm

Han Solo alleges he did the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, so Star Wars’ space folds like a cheap suit.

Technically, he did.