# Questions about Death Star MKII **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891 "2013-08-10T19:35:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/21 "2013-08-11T01:08:49Z")
[Death Star One, for comparison.](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/DS-1_Orbital_Battle_Station) ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/22 "2013-08-11T01:15:02Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > What I meant was why wasn’t the Death Star built as concentric spheres with decks parallel to the surface? It’s a lot easier to make, transport, and install flat decks than curved ones? Granted, that’s a rare insight for an architect of the Imperial School… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/23 "2013-08-11T02:35:51Z")
“Mon Calamari?” You mean the entire Star Wars saga was just an elaborate excuse to make that horrible, horrible joke? I have to approve of anything as single-minded and forward-thinking as that. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/24 "2013-08-11T03:10:17Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > _“These gravity boosters changed orientation as easily as flipping a switch”_ Something that confused me at first, but I managed to figure out on later watches, is in the first _Star Wars: A New Hope_, when Han and Luke climb up and down the centre column of the Millennium Falcon to the gun turrets, by the time they reach their seats the gravity has reoriented 90° so that they can comfortably face outward. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/25 "2013-08-11T13:33:35Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > It’s a lot easier to make, transport, and install flat decks than curved ones? > Granted, that’s a rare insight for an architect of the Imperial School… A curved deck with a radius of 450 km might as well be flat. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/26 "2013-08-11T14:57:33Z")
So, to answer the OP: 1. The Expanded Universe 2. Bigger super-weapon 3. It isn’t designed that way, and I don’t know what ever gave you the idea that it was. 4. All that “patterning” is equipment, living quarters, defensive weaponry, sensors, restaurants with a view, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/27 "2013-08-11T16:29:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > So, to answer the OP: > 3. It isn’t designed that way, and I don’t know what ever gave you the idea that it was. [THIS maybe?](http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/death_star_from_rotj_Wallpaper_JxHy.jpg) > [@](#): > > 1. All that “patterning” is equipment, living quarters, defensive weaponry, sensors, restaurants with a view, etc. Obviously, but what I meant was why isn’t the surface homogeneous at large scales- why is there a pattern of darker rectangles separated by lighter straight lines. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/28 "2013-08-11T17:32:13Z")
OK, that might give you that idea, I’ll grant. But the straight lines aren’t decks. They are pieces of the outer skin of the Death Star. As for #4 - got me. The lighter lines could show where the transport areas are, where the defensive arcs stop, where the Boulevard of Broken Dreams lies, you name it. They are too large to be single pieces of armor, that’s for sure. My out-of-universe explanation is that it gives visual texture to the image, and that’s what movie goers are expecting, not just a big smooth ball, which is what such a structure would really look like at any distance. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/29 "2013-08-11T18:44:02Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > not just a big smooth ball, which is what such a structure would really look like at any distance. How close would you have to be to say “That’s no big smooth ball, that’s a space station!” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/30 "2013-08-11T19:01:12Z")
To differentiate structures maybe a mile wide? Too close. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/31 "2013-08-11T20:02:43Z")
Well, how is a thing that huge built, anyway? It’s got to be at least somewhat modular, with sections built by a whole bunch of different contractors. Which means slightly different alloys, different conditions of wear, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/32 "2013-08-11T21:19:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, how is a thing that huge built, anyway? It’s got to be at least somewhat modular, with sections built by a whole bunch of different contractors. Which means slightly different alloys, different conditions of wear, and so on. Slave labor played a major role in the construction of Version 1.0 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/33 "2013-08-12T01:50:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > OK, that might give you that idea, I’ll grant. But the straight lines aren’t decks. They are pieces of the outer skin of the Death Star. . . . Doesn’t look like it to me. There is definitely a sense of depth, of seeing into the inner workings. And the linear pattern hints at flat decks along “lines of latitude.” Notice how some of them are darker in shade, as they get nearer the center. Nothing anybody can prove, but that’s what the picture looks like to me. (I’d want most of my gravity generators to work in the same line, to prevent interference fringes, which could lead to instability. I hate it when gravity generator heterodyning makes me spill my coffee.) ETA: someone asked me if the Death Star is massive enough for satellites to orbit it. Back-of-the-envelope estimate was, yeah, orbital period of about an hour or two. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/34 "2013-08-12T01:55:40Z")
I’m sorry but I missed the link to the picture you are talking about. Must have been blocked by the Imperial firewall. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/35 "2013-08-12T02:14:18Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Nothing anybody can prove, but that’s what the picture looks like to me. [Looks can be deceiving](http://m100group.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/deathstarii_egvv.jpg). 😛 Check the tech manuals and you can see that the lateral decking idea is a non-starter, if for no other reason than the fact thay the planet-killer occupies most of the volume of the ship. Check the [pathways](http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130404034941/starwars/images/7/77/DS2plans-ROTJ.png) - no way that could go through a laterally-decked ship. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/36 "2013-08-12T03:30:36Z")
Heck, these are the engineers who put a bottomless pit in the Emperor’s office. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/37 "2013-08-12T03:43:43Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [Looks can be deceiving](http://m100group.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/deathstarii_egvv.jpg). 😛 Um…the diagram doesn’t really answer the question. The lines are horizontal. I can only interpret them as planes seen edge-on. > [@](#): > > Check the tech manuals and you can see that the lateral decking idea is a non-starter, if for no other reason than the fact thay the planet-killer occupies most of the volume of the ship. Check the [pathways](http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130404034941/starwars/images/7/77/DS2plans-ROTJ.png) - no way that could go through a laterally-decked ship. Why not? There’s no objection whatever. The upper half and lower half are built of latitudinal decks. Then there are the pathways in the plane of the equator, with lots of room in between 'em. (Also…odd! The pathways don’t lead to the dish! The merged beams are depicted as issuing from the dish, yet the subsidiary beams don’t go to it. This may be the diagram for some other set of pathways, such as the ducts through which Lando flew the M.F.) ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/38 "2013-08-12T03:46:37Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, these are the engineers who put a bottomless pit in the Emperor’s office. I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. I believe that was a requested feature. Just lifting underlings by the throat with the Force is no longer enough. Now you need to hang them over a bottomless pit to really focus their attention. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/39 "2013-08-12T04:09:24Z")
How much of the sucker is [laser.](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090224141147/starwars/images/3/3f/Deathstar_blueprint.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2013, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891/40 "2013-08-12T04:55:07Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > [LIST=1] > (well, except for that little oversight with the emergency reactor vent). > > ] Ironically, the one realistic thing about the Death Star was its penchant for blowing up after having received comparatively little punishment. I am presuming, from all the Brit accents, the Empire had Jackie Fisher in their employ? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-death-star-mkii/665891.md?page=3)