Death Star Spaceship

[Hide]

So, from what you say. Are you implying that the energy sources in the book cannot match the DS power as seen in the movies?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Hide

So, from what you say. Are you implying that the energy sources in the book cannot match the DS power as seen in the movies?

Originally Posted by Agemegos

The authors of Star Wars ignored physics, and perhaps you should too.

Looks like a "yes".

[AlexanderHowl]

Even the Cosmic Power lens is insufficient. A 10^33 J surge would be required (given the fact that a significant amount of energy will be wasted), and the waste heat alone would vaporize the station. You would need something on the order of 6×10^19 grams of matter and antimatter (30 trillion metric tons of each). It would actually make more sense to drop the antimatter on the planet and not even worry about a laser, as it would be less dangerous to the station.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Even the Cosmic Power lens is insufficient. A 10^33 J surge would be required (given the fact that a significant amount of energy will be wasted), and the waste heat alone would vaporize the station. You would need something on the order of 6×10^19 grams of matter and antimatter (30 trillion metric tons of each). It would actually make more sense to drop the antimatter on the planet and not even worry about a laser, as it would be less dangerous to the station.

I would assume the DS turbolaser actually somehow converted a large portion of Alderaan's core into antimatter via [magic physics].

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Hide

So, from what you say. Are you implying that the energy sources in the book cannot match the DS power as seen in the movies?

Neither the weapons nor the power plants can, at least not at the size of the Death Star. As I noted, using Cosmic Power, a 10-system (50% of the spacecraft's mass) Spinal Laser requires a space station that's a bit larger than Luna (Earth's moon). Such a weapon requires 10 Cosmic Power Points, which can be provided by 2 Cosmic Total Conversion systems (which seem appropriate for Star Wars' hypermatter reactors). So long as the Death Star's various turbolasers and force shield (if it even has one; I don't recall it being mentioned for DS1, and DS2 used a shield located on Endor) don't require Cosmic Power, that should be enough (the stardrive and possibly thrusters might require Cosmic Power, but those aren't used at the same time as the superlaser so we're fine there). That leaves 8 systems for the stardrive, thrusters, armor, defenses, hangar, and living areas.

Originally Posted by cptbutton

I would assume the DS turbolaser actually somehow converted a large portion of Alderaan's core into antimatter via [magic physics].

Yeah, that's the interpretation I often go with.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

d force shield (if it even has one; I don't recall it being mentioned for DS1, and DS2 used a shield located on Endor)

Yes, it had one. It was just too porous to keep out starfighters. It would ahve ben invulnerable to capital ships.

Force screens in SW are oddly limited. The screen at Hoth was flat and 2 dimensional. There were some original graphics in A New Hope (back in '77 when it was just "Star Wars") that showed the Millenium Flacons screens as being 2 flat plates above and below the ship. It made a little more sense out of "angling the deflectors" and it may ahve msolty meant tilting the ship.

On the other hand, screens seem to be pretty powerful. Vader's whole division of Star Destroyers were apparently inadequate to knocking down the Rebel screen at Hoth. Then in the third movie Admiral Ackbar concentrated all of the Rebel fleet's fire on one Super Star Destroyer and got a mobility kill rather than space dust.