Ship of the Week: The Death Star

[Captain Seafort]

It's been a while since we've had one of these, so...





160km across for the first one, 900km for the second

24,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 megatons per shot.

The ultimate Big Fucking Gun.

Discuss.

[Sionnach Glic]

I still say the Planet Killer has more style.

[Mark]

What can you really say about the Death Star, aside from IT ROCKS. The only thing I would have added were some mid-range anti capatil ship guns. That way, the main weapon isn't restricted to "one shot-one kill" like in RotJ

[Captain Seafort]

I still say the Planet Killer has more style.

Pfft. That glorified earthworm? Besides, what did we see it do, hmm? It barely singled the E-nil.

This is style.

[Sionnach Glic]

The DSI did have millions of anti-ship guns all over it, hence why they attacked with fighters only.
The DS2 was planned to have millions of such guns as well, but I don't think they were built by then (they probably foccused on getting the superlaser operational).

Pfft. That glorified earthworm? Besides, what did we see it do, hmm? It barely singled the E-nil.

I was talking about Warmaster Abaddon's Planet Killer. I'll try find that cool bit of artwork with it blasting Savaven apart.

[Tsukiyumi]

Didn't Palpatine say the DSII was "fully operational"? Maybe he was just exaggerating.

[Captain Seafort]

Didn't Palpatine say the DSII was "fully operational"? Maybe he was just exaggerating.

Given that it was only half finished, I'd say he was either exaggerating a tad, or he was referring specifically to the superlaser, which was working fine.

[Sonic Glitch]

Didn't Palpatine say the DSII was "fully operational"? Maybe he was just exaggerating.

Given that it was only half finished, I'd say he was either exaggerating a tad, or he was referring specifically to the superlaser, which was working fine.

Or the half that was finished was fully operational.

[stitch626]

Here's what I say about the Death Star. It had the stupidest design flaw ever! The first one got blown up by little fighter (lucky shot, but still, it shouldn't have been able to happen). And the second one got blown up by an outdated (and modded) freighter. And it is ugly.

That said, it is an amazing engineering feat.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Here's what I say about the Death Star. It had the stupidest design flaw ever! The first one got blown up by little fighter (lucky shot, but still, it shouldn't have been able to happen). And the second one got blown up by an outdated (and modded) freighter. And it is ugly.

That said, it is an amazing engineering feat.

Particularly since the first one, at least, clearly traveled interstellar distances. Something Han originally thought to be a moon due to its size could go to hyperspace, which we can presume to have been an impressive feat of engineering also (though of course the whole science behind it is fictional). How many years were there between ANH and ROTJ? It would seem that they were able to build the second Death Star pretty damned fast, considering that it would have been 900km across when completed!

[Lazar]

Here's what I say about the Death Star. It had the stupidest design flaw ever! The first one got blown up by little fighter (lucky shot, but still, it shouldn't have been able to happen). And the second one got blown up by an outdated (and modded) freighter. And it is ugly.

So it was obviously designed by the same people who made the GCS.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Here's what I say about the Death Star. It had the stupidest design flaw ever! The first one got blown up by little fighter (lucky shot, but still, it shouldn't have been able to happen). And the second one got blown up by an outdated (and modded) freighter. And it is ugly.

So it was obviously designed by the same people who made the GCS.

Be fair now: at least Luke had to shoot at the Death Star before it went boom!

[Mark]

Of course, I'm still not sure why you needed a big hole as an exaust vent, as opposed to a bunch of tiny ones, OR if you ray shield the trench, why you wouldn't particle shield it as well.

[Captain Seafort]

Of course, I'm still not sure why you needed a big hole as an exaust vent as opposed to a bunch of tiny ones

Possibly one large hole was more efficient than a bunch of small ones, and too be fair it wasn't that big - there were expressions of disbelief when the size of the target was mentioned, and I believe Lucas has gone on record as saying the shot was impossible for anyone but Luke.

OR if you ray shield the trench, why you wouldn't particle shield it as well.

If it were particle-shielded, how exactly is is meant to disperse heat?

[Graham Kennedy]

Meh, never was impressed especially. It can blow up a planet, which seems a rather pointless exercise. Ignoring the pointless supergun and looking only at conventional armament, presumably it's got a lot of guns, but it's shape is the worst one possible in those terms - for one the field of fire of any gun is restricted to 50% of the sky at most. For another the sphere is the most efficient shape in terms of having the lowest surface area to volume ratio, but that also means it's the worst possible shape if want you want is the largest possible area to place guns on. Somebody said the first was 160 km across; a cube of equal volume would have a quarter again as much surface area, though it would still be limited in its fields of fire - slightly more so, actually.

In volume terms a 160 km Death Star has a volume of around 2,144,400 km^3, whilst a Star Destroyer has a volume of something like half a km^3. Even assuming build ease doesn't scale directly with volume one must surely assume that half a million or so SDs could be built for the cost of the original Death Star. That seems like a far more useful force.

Vulnerability to attack is hard to assess really since there's only been two types, each of different design. But no example of the type has survived combat with the enemy, ever. And every example of the type has been destroyed by damage to its reactor. People who deride the GCS for its fragile warp core should hate Death Stars with a passion. Given that the first one especially took something like 17 years to build at minimum, possibly a good deal longer, to have it destroyed the very first time it entered combat with an enemy is rather humiliating.

It's a nice enough plot device, though.