Question About The Death Star

[Deeg]

@Alessan

As usual, Palpatine was full of shit.

Or his minion told him it was fully operational and Palpatine, being the trusting manager that he is, believed him.

[eschereal]

Most likely, the emperor swishes his lightsaber (i.e., electric wand) and apparates the whole death star.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

By the end of ROTJ, I was pretty sure the Emperor DID swish.

[Lemmytheseal2]

@AncientHumanoid

I liked this answer:

Sure, but there are other, in-universe answers on the page.

@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.

Yeah, I should have mentioned that.

@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.

Good point. Plus, space is so vast, ships would only encounter one another close to a planet anyway, when they’re within the gravity well and traveling in realspace. Starfighters and the like would probably operate in-atmosphere more often than out of it.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Ethilrist

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

It’s not that simple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s0MqYcOOjY

[Patch]

@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.

Much more economical when you’re doing your energy allocation step at the start of the turn.

[MrDibble]

@Miller

Air and oxygen aren’t necessarily the same thing.

If it doesn’t have oxygen, it isn’t air (since air is Earth’s atmosphere). Now, it could be very low-pressure air, I grant you. But then the sound wouldn’t carry as well, would it

[Miller]

@MrDibble

If it doesn’t have oxygen, it isn’t air (since air is Earth’s atmosphere).

Huh. I’ve always thought air was basically interchangeable with “gas.” Looks like I was wrong about that.

[Aquadementia]

It was taken on rail by the Galaxy Express.

[Chronos]

Quoth 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.

It’s been addressed.

[oft_wears_hats]

@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.

I’m mildly annoyed that I know this, but this is partially addressed in one of the X-Wing books. It’s mentioned that X-Wings are equipped with an inertial dampener that limits or eliminates inertia felt by the pilot. The reason given is so they can make extremely fast turns without the blood draining from their head and rendering them unconscious.

Granted, I don’t recall seeing any maneuvers like that in the movies, and since this is in the Expanded Universe, it deserves a large grain of salt.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Star Trek has made reference to inertial dampers, as well: Inertial damping system | Memory Alpha | Fandom

[Lemmytheseal2]

@oft_wears_hats

I’m mildly annoyed that I know this, but this is partially addressed in one of the X-Wing books. It’s mentioned that X-Wings are equipped with an inertial dampener that limits or eliminates inertia felt by the pilot. The reason given is so they can make extremely fast turns without the blood draining from their head and rendering them unconscious.

Granted, I don’t recall seeing any maneuvers like that in the movies, and since this is in the Expanded Universe, it deserves a large grain of salt.

Plus, that part of the EU is now non-canon.

[Boyo_Jim]

@oft_wears_hats

I’m mildly annoyed that I know this, but this is partially addressed in one of the X-Wing books. …

I’m mildly disturbed that anyone knows this. Something like a third of the entire sci-fi collection of the state elibrary that I use consists of Star Wars Books. I am hoping that someone is donating them, but if not then the purchasing of the library’s collection is being grossly mismanaged.

[Intergalactic_Gladiator]

@Lemmytheseal2

Plus, that part of the EU is now non-canon.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[msmith537]

@Alessan

That’s one thing that bugged me about ROTJ: the Emperor may have said that the station was “fully operational”, but it wasn’t, really - it certainly couldn’t generate its own shields, and we can pretty much assume that its hyperdrive wasn’t working yet, either. The sole fully operational part of it was the main gun, and even there, the only thing we saw it destroy was a cruiser. There was nothing to indicate that it was capable yet of taking out a planet.

As usual, Palpatine was full of shit.

Also the railings around the bottomless pits hadn’t been installed.

[Chimera]

Details, details. As long as the big gun goes pew pew pew, it’s “operational” enough for the purposes of that battle.

[muldoonthief]

@msmith537

Also the railings around the bottomless pits hadn’t been installed.

If they installed railings, people would be leaning all day.

[kaylasdad99]

@burpo_the_wonder_mutt

By the end of ROTJ, I was pretty sure the Emperor DID swish.

Huh. The SFX reminded me more of a FWOOOSSHH!