The Star Wars vs Star Trek Thread; because it's been awhile.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by GePap
DD: you are arguing againt a "scifi" universe made up by George Lucas! The 'science of SW" is just a bunch of stuff mader up by fans after the movies ina desperate attempt to turn a space western into real sci fi. There is no way to win, specially given how much Star trek was screwed up by stupid writing as it went along.

Yeah? I'm sorry if SW tech isn't "realistic" enough for you. Course, neither is ST by your standards.

[Ben Kenobi]

Obviously, turbolasers cannot possibly be lasers...
they are visible in vacuum.

There are dust particles in space. Therefore, you should be able to see these laser beams.

As for the interaction, where the two lasers constructively interfere, could explain the combination power of the Death Star.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Lonestar
As opposed to ships moving in to within a few kilometers and beaming people on board?

Let me say this very slowly. Han...attached...his...ship...to...the...hull...of ...his...pursuer. That alone seems to imply that Federation tech is better than the Empire's.

[raghar]

George Lucas is obcessed by WWII. It isn't a western, it is rather fairy tale with WWII battles background.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by DinoDoc

Let me say this very slowly. Han...attached...his...ship...to...the...hull...of ...his...pursuer. That alone seems to imply that Federation tech is better than the Empire's.

He also did it right below the blind spot of the sensor globe, so?

[GePap]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Yeah? I'm sorry if SW tech isn't "realistic" enough for you. Course, neither is ST by your standards.

ST is not "hard sci fi" either, but it is better than SW at at least looking "scientific". People here complain that warp is so slow it would take a ship 7 decade to travel accross one quadrat of a galaxy: well, DUH! Even FTL travel would not be instanteneous.

Here is one quesiton: what kind of power source drives these ships in SW? It has to be something to deliver the amounts of energy people talk about here.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Lonestar
He also did it right below the blind spot of the sensor globe, so?

Thank you for the admission.

[raghar]

Well from my view they are plasma canons. Damage propagation looks like that.

There are dust particles in space. Therefore, you should be able to see these laser beams.

I was for several years astronom amateur and I could tell you that amount of "dust particles" in space isn't big enought. I viewed that animations as view models generated by FTL sensors for better control of battle. Or for nice efects for bored movie fans.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by GePap


Here is one quesiton: what kind of power source drives these ships in SW? It has to be something to deliver the amounts of energy people talk about here.

The official term is "Hypermatter", which can ce taken to mean many things. (from neutron store course to "WTF is Hypermatter?") One of the more accepted possibilities is discussed at stardestroyer.net (which, to be fair, is as realistic as anti-matter being used as fuel)
--------
"The fuel is ultra-dense." This would explain the apparent absence of fuel tanks, but it would require an exotic type of matter such as neutronium or perhaps even a black hole. It should be noted that this is a distinct possibility, and in fact, one might surmise that since matter, antimatter, and energy become indistinguishable inside a black hole, a black hole could potentially be referred to as "hypermatter".
The Death Star's vast supply of energy
The Death Star's lack of fuel tanks
However, the obvious question remains: what happens to this ultra-dense energy source? If it explodes when the Death Star explodes, then one would imagine that the blast should have devastated or destroyed Endor immediately (irrespective of any long-term "nuclear winter" holocaust scenarios). If it continues to move through space after the Death Star explodes, one would tend to imagine that it would have been observed. However, it is important to note that this cannot entirely be ruled out. In fact, the ANH novelization contains the following description of the immediate aftermath of DS1's destruction:
"The collapsed residue of the battle station would continue to consume itself for several days, forming for that brief span of time the most impressive tombstone in this corner of the cosmos."

This suggests that in spite of the violence of the explosion, a significant quantity of the Death Star's mass was gravitationally attracted back to its original location. This is what one might expect if there was an ultra-dense object inside the Death Star, thus lending credence to the theory that a singularity or other ultra-dense object was contained in the Death Star's hypermatter reactor. However, the fate of the Endor sanctuary moon demands explanation, since such a large mass in such a low orbit would have created tremendous tidal forces in the planet's crust. Han Solo's strike team should have felt as if they were a small fraction of their normal weight (if not actually flying up into the air).
This brings us to the fourth theory: the theory that the Death Star is drawing energy from a source external to itself. This theory is certainly not without its flaws: the ZPE theory requires a high cosmological constant, which would be incompatible with the observed expansion rate of the universe. The "hyperspace tap" theory requires that hyperspace is filled with mass/energy, which may or may not be true. The wormhole theory requires that an artificial wormhole can be created which is anchored at one end and moved freely about at the other end, and this may not be strictly impossible but it definitely stretches credibility. However, the theory seems to suffer from fewer flaws than competing theories, and if true, it would explain the following:

The Death Star's vast energy production capabilities
The Death Star's lack of fuel tanks
The absence of side-effects from massive onboard mass/energy storage, such as gravitational effects on the Endor sanctuary moon.

The theory requires that the reactor be capable of drawing as much as 1E38 joules out of its mass/energy source to fire its weapon without having to store the energy beforehand (hence the lack of gravitational effects upon the Endor sanctuary moon), which begs the question of why it requires a long delay between firings. The theory has been advanced, as described in numerous official texts, that it was "recharging". However, this seems bizarre: in what sort of batteries or capacitors is this "charge" being contained? An alternate, and perhaps more realistic possibility is that the refire delay was due to the need to vent enormous amounts of waste heat from reactor subsystems, coolant systems, superlaser subsystems, etc. before firing again. Upper limits on the rate of heat dissipation may have dictated the refire delays rather than any energy generation restriction.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Lonestar


He also did it right below the blind spot of the sensor globe, so?

Well, if he flew into the blindspot, but didn't fly out again, it should be pretty easy for their computers to pinpoint his position, right? Wrong!

The only person who knew was Boba Fett, and it's his job to know stuff like this...

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by raghar
George Lucas is obcessed by WWII. It isn't a western, it is rather fairy tale with WWII battles background.

It's a hot rod movie too.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Static Universe


Well, if he flew into the blindspot, but didn't fly out again, it should be pretty easy for their computers to pinpoint his position, right? Wrong!

The only person who knew was Boba Fett, and it's his job to know stuff like this...

That's right. Imperials jobs to fight rebels, not smugglers. That's a local problem.

No one has yet remarked how the Federation would repel an Imperial invasion yet.

[Drake Tungsten]

Ahaha! But they do need to drink the melange syrup stuff to do calcs!

No they don't. You're thinking of that one stimulant that stains their lips red, but even that isn't required for calculations. It contains no melange.

Dune!!!

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Ahaha! But they do need to drink the melange syrup stuff to do calcs!

No they don't. You're thinking of that one stimulant that stains their lips red, but even that isn't required for calculations. It contains no melange.

Dune!!!

You're wrong! wrong!

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by obiwan18


There are dust particles in space. Therefore, you should be able to see these laser beams.

As for the interaction, where the two lasers constructively interfere, could explain the combination power of the Death Star.

There isn't near enough dust particles in space to account for the crisp visibility of the the turbolaser fire. There's far more dust in the air in my room, yet I can't see the beam of the laser from my laser pointer doohickey. Even if I turn out the light.

Also you ignore, among other things, that lasers travel at light speed, so even if there were loads of dust, the blast would be going to fast to see. Turbolaser blasts are much slower than a laser could be.