How does the Death Star move?

[LRT]

The way I see it there's a group of Ewoks shoveling coal into a furnace somewhere inside the Death Star.

 

[Buizel91]

...It doesn't. It's a space station that can fire a laser beam across the galaxy. It's just in an orbit.

Yet it moved from Alderaan to Yavin 4??

Unless you were being sarcastic =P

 

[w-Jinksy]

Uh...orbit? The force?

Fuck if I know, just go with it, man.

It's the same with the whole "Why didn't Gandalf send Frodo on the Eagles rather than walking" thing. Don't question it.

because the eagles refused to carry the ring or have it in their presence film doesn't really explain that for some reason.

OT: it moves because it does this a is a space opera not a scifi it works because it does basically.

 

[RadiusXd]

Uh...orbit? The force?

Fuck if I know, just go with it, man.

It's the same with the whole "Why didn't Gandalf send Frodo on the Eagles rather than walking" thing. Don't question it.

sauron had lasers!

 

[RadiusXd]

how about its laser is also its source of propulsion, just much less focused?

 

[Vrach]

...It doesn't. It's a space station that can fire a laser beam across the galaxy. It's just in an orbit.

This. Space stations are immobile and they just stay where they are. Perhaps there are some propulsion systems to it (certainly not a hyperdrive though), but afaik, it always just stood still in one place and targeted planets from there.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

One drawback of the original design was the power systems. Twenty-four hours were required to fully charge the laser. However, even low power shots were capable of massive destruction on a planetary scale. The second Death Star had redesigned systems and was capable of firing the superlaser once every three minutes. It also had improved targeting computers, allowing it to fire the weapon accurately at capital ships.

There were small gaps in the shields of the first Death Star; the Empire believed that this was harmless since only small ships could wiggle through the gaps. The shields of the second Death Star would have had no such gaps.

The second Death Star also corrected several other flaws in the original design. The two-meter exhaust vent that doomed the first station was replaced with millions of millimeter wide tubes, each designed to seal if excess energy was detected. The second station also boasted far more turbolaser batteries with redesigned targeting systems, allowing them to target starfighters more easily. The greatest concentration of turbolasers was located near the Emperor's throne tower.


- Wookipedia: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Star

So what your saying is that Death Star 2 would rape everyone.

Yeah, pretty much.

Thank goodness it wasn't complete amirte?

At lest they were probably making good time building it, though (I mean, it should take YEARS to build something like that.

Good time?

Two years! From year aby2 to aby2 I say that good enough time!

I'm just sayin' it seems like the emperor should've died of old age long before something of that size is done.

The force can keep you alive even long after you dies, if you used it correctly.

Dark side- Still alive is ugly/or in great pain
Light side: You retained youthful looks but is dead and a force ghost.

 

[RadiusXd]

Uh...orbit? The force?

Fuck if I know, just go with it, man.

It's the same with the whole "Why didn't Gandalf send Frodo on the Eagles rather than walking" thing. Don't question it.

that settles it then, the death star moves using gandalf power!

 

[RadioActiveChimp]

The giant Laser beam seconds as a propulsion device.

no

 

[The Ambrosian]

Hyperspace [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperspace_%28science_fiction%29#Star_Wars] and planetary gravity (aka slingshot) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingshot_effect] (the Death Star used a slingshot in 'A New Hope' to get into a targeting position for the rebel base).

+1 internets for this guy.

 

[Souplex]

...It doesn't. It's a space station that can fire a laser beam across the galaxy. It's just in an orbit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't a major plot point that it needed to move into range?

 

[DSK-]

It moved via a small thermal exhaust port that was only 2 metres wide.

 

[Tharwen]

I think a better question would be 'how does the Death Star (hypothetically) exist?'

There are so many physical paradoxes in its (hypothetical) existence that it's pointless to question the minor ones like movement.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Let's quote the Star Wars wiki, shall we?

Facilitating the Death Star's realspace propulsion were a network of powerful ion engines that transformed reactor power into needed thrust. In order for the Death Star to be a deadly threat, it needed to be mobile. Using linked banks of 123 hyperdrive field generators tied into a single navigational matrix, the Death Star could travel across the Galaxy at superluminal velocities. The incredible energies harnessed by the station combined with its great mass gave the Death Star magnetic and artificial gravitational fields equal to those found on orbital bodies many times greater in size.

There you have it. Not only can the Death Star move, it can travel at lightspeed as well.

 

[Doclector]

Well, obviously, it's in orbit...Oh wait, that's a moon. Always get those mixed up...

 

[hazabaza1]

It's the same with the whole "Why didn't Gandalf send Frodo on the Eagles rather than walking" thing. Don't question it.

Don't know if you've been told this, but I was told that the eagles couldn't touch the person holding the ring, or something. I can't confirm that though.

OT: Magic.

 

[kannibus]

It gets pulled along by invisible space monkeys.

 

[cheese_wizington]

I thought The Emperor used the Force to do it...

If the Emporer can move moons at light speed with the force then why would he need a battlestation, He could just smash a moon into a planet to destroy it or was he just trying to show off.

The death star was a symbol more than a weapon. Also, that's probably from the EU.

 

[gigastrike]

Facilitating the Death Star's realspace propulsion were a network of powerful ion engines that transformed reactor power into needed thrust. In order for the Death Star to be a deadly threat, it needed to be mobile. Using linked banks of 123 hyperdrive field generators tied into a single navigational matrix, the Death Star could travel across the Galaxy at superluminal velocities. The incredible energies harnessed by the station combined with its great mass gave the Death Star magnetic and artificial gravitational fields equal to those found on orbital bodies many times greater in size.

I might have been ninja'd, but I'm too lazy to check.

Edit: But I'm not too lazy to look half-way up the page. Damn you, Macgyvercas (sp?)!