How does the Death Star move?

[VonBrewskie]

They didn't WANT to destroy Alderaan. They were just like, "Oh hey, Alderaan, I guess that'll do. Shame we have to destroy it now, they seemed like such nice people. Oh well."

I think they blew it up because Princess Leah lived there and they wanted to intimidate her

OT: It doesn't move! it moves everything in the universe around it

Just like the Planet Express ship! Woot! New Futuramas FTW! Old Futuramas FTCW!

 

[Anomynous 167]

It used lightspeed to get around the galaxy and planets gravitational field to travel small distances I think. Oh and the Eagles didn't fly the fellowship to mount doom because they wanted to remain neutral or something.
Man I really wish I didn't know this stuff

Problem:
How can something go to "Light speed" if it can't move on itself?

Remember, the question is "how does it move", and not "how fast does it move"

 

[Kouen]

Chuck Norris Roundhouse kick with the right amount of force to just get it where it needed to go rather than Destroying it and the 30 planets closest to the death star in one hit

 

[ThatDudeThere]

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

The reason, my good sir, why the eagles didn't take Frodo to Mount Doom is because Gandalf does not have any control over them. And chances are that the Ring would have corrupted them if they had taken Frodo with them. There are some other reasons for it as well, but my memory is a shitty one indeed.
/nerdrage off

Also, i think the hamster is the most plausible answer.

 

[CheeseSandwichCake]

Who cares, both of them got blown up. One before even being completed, in fact.

If I was the emperor I'd have made a few more fleets of star destroyers instead of a second Death Star.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

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

It does.
It quite clearly moves in Episode IV.

Maybe it's just called a space station, because noone ever built a moon-sized spheriacal spaceship before?

 

[bob-2000]

What I always assumed was that there was a single, giant engine that is only used to give the ship momentum at the beginning of the journey (which is why it's not glowing blue or anything), and the snip can keep that momentum due to the fact that there is no resistance of any kind in space.

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

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

I second this.

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).

But thanks for clearing it up!

 

[The_ModeRazor]

What I always assumed was that there was a single, giant engine that is only used to give the ship momentum at the beginning of the journey (which is why it's not glowing blue or anything), and the snip can keep that momentum due to the fact that there is no resistance of any kind in space.

OBJECTION! (hehe, it's funny to shout that out loud)

Actually, there is resistance in space.
Not the kinda that could possibly make a significant difference in actual travel, even if the distance is many, many lightyears, but it is there. You just have to go for a very long time without propulsion (which is a problem in itself - sooner or later you come across planets & stars & shit with gravitation and have to correct for it somehow).

 

[Olorune]

I'm glad I'm not the only person that always wondered that!

 

[tetron]

The giant Laser beam seconds as a propulsion device.

Brilliant ! It can destroy a planet to propel itself to the next one, the cunning of the dark side knows no bounds.

 

[Anomynous 167]

Also, i think the hamster is the most plausible answer.

I disagree: A hamster on a wheel would be the most plausible answer to what ever powered the engines which made the titular Star move.

It would take at least 48 flying hamsters to move the Star. This is ofcoarse, not using the wheel theory and just using flying hamsters.

 

[Antwerp Caveman]

Maybe it's like the Tardis, can disappear in one place and reappear in the other.
Stromtroopers just aren't imaginative enough to then go to the Rebel Base in the past
---
And yeah, since you only need a little thrust to start it moving, just execute someone with an airlock now and again. (if you have a newbie pilot, he'd need to make a lot of course corrections though)

I second the blueprint from earlier, it's clearly the answer.

 

[Mr. Gency]

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.

 

[Tallim]

I'm going to borrow from Douglas Adams here and say Bad News, as nothing travels faster than bad news and let's face it, the Death Star turning up in your system is very bad news indeed.

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

The reason, my good sir, why the eagles didn't take Frodo to Mount Doom is because Gandalf does not have any control over them. And chances are that the Ring would have corrupted them if they had taken Frodo with them. There are some other reasons for it as well, but my memory is a shitty one indeed.
/nerdrage off

Also, i think the hamster is the most plausible answer.

Also I think the giant eye might spot massive eagles from quite a way away especially carrying the ring, hordes of archers below and the wyverns(or whatever) the Nazgul ride would probably still be effective without the Nazgul(assuming they are off on horseback somewhere)

 

[Lasharus]

I'm going to go with:

The same way Dr. Robotnik's Death Egg moves through space. By use of infinitesimally small thrusters!

(I love the Death Egg. Yay for taking the piss out of Star Wars - add an extra 'eye' and a moustache to the daft thing and done!)

 

[Treblaine]

I'm thinking gravity-surfing.

That thing moves quite fast, and to prevent everyone being thrown around I'd think it lassos itself from massive planet to planet and flings itself from there out into space and perhaps it does have a hyperspace drive though likely it is a job to get it going so no deus-ex machina suddenly zooming away into hyperspace.

Also anyone notice the prophetic words of Darth Vader after the imperial general brags about the Death Star's power:

"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the POWER of the Force."

And how is the Death Star destroyed in the end? Luke Skywalker with a Force-Guided munition scythed through all their mightiest defences and struck right at their heart destroying it in one blow. It's like the difference between a nuclear bomb and precision guided munitions.

 

[fgdfgdgd]

The Death Star.You know, the massive battle station from Star Wars. Its the size of a small moon. It would need some massive engines to get around. But half the thing is taken up by the laser and it doesn't have the glowing blue engines like every other ship in star wars. So how does it get around?

from the Star Wars Data Bank:
"acilitating 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 viable 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."
source: http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/deathstar/?id=eu