You know I never thought about it.

Check out the Death Star entry in the databank-especially the EU tab. The thing had 123 hyperspace generators and a bunch of ion engines for sub-light travel. Because of its size, scale becomes an issue in resolving the engine ports. They're there, just not big enough to see in the shots in the movie.

But how does it turn? Or move BACKWARDS!

It did have a hyperdrive.

The situation with Yavin IV is that the actual planet Yavin was in the way of the Superlaser, and it probably would have taken more time to recharge the superlaser after destroying the other planet in front of it.

When Tarkin asked Leia to give the location of the Rebel base, he wasn't packing his walkman and Mad magazines for a 3 week road trip.

When a tank turns around in place, it has one set of treads turn forward and one backward. The Death Star could do something similar by having certain engines thrusting and some not, or combinations to produce different manuevers. Since it's a sphere, it would make sense that it had engine ports distributed all around the surface, not just on one side. So it didn't really have a "front". It just moved where you needed it, and certainly had the thrusters needed to aim the big gun.

kind of like the Hubble Space telescope, except with a superlaser instead of a lens.

Obviously whilst out of Hyperspace though, the Death Star would have travelled at a low velocity when in the vicinity of other gravitational fields to minimise the chances of crashing or loss of navigational control

glaben

Just imagine how many people never even thought about that! Good topic! I also like the answers already given. The tank analogy rocked. Rando 1138... actual facts given, cool!

Johnnage, you are cracking me up tonight...

It talks about this in Rogue Planet. And Johnnage, if Yavin is a gas giant, wouldn't the laser go through the planet? Unless it had a solid core and the gases ignited.

I think the DS was so big it had its own gravitational pull. Look at what happened to Porkins.

I dont understand how it survived at such a velocity. Capital ships and such are aerodynamic. I understand a ball could survive, but the compression would make the laser implode while in lightspeed. You think they put up a metal shield to protect it in hyperspace? o and how strange it must have looked in Hyperspace! Or at...LUDICROUS SPEED!

aye, poor porkins LOL

hey if they can break the laws of physics and travel past lightspeed, then I'm sure they can maintain a Superlaser at high speed.

If the DS had travelled at ludicrous speed, it would have ended up looking plaid.

I think the DS would be polka dotted at Ludicrous speed. Think about it.

And Jedi Jake, why are you worried about whether or not the DS is aerodynamic? There's very little air in space. That's why we call it space. While some ships (like Victory-class Destroyers or Accumulators) might enter atmospheres, I don't think anyone ever thought of doing that with the DS. It might break.

By the way, if you haven't seen this gallery of alternate movie endings, do so! Ep.4 is hilarious.

http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/movie%20list.html

dude areodynamics don't realy matter in things that never enter atmosphers
there is no friction in space
just gravity
and i don't think being triangular helps you slice through gravity

Look at the Slave 1!

It flies like Powdered Toast Man!

While there may not be any significant amount, there acually is some air in space. How else would you account for the high level of Hydrogen.
It would be impossible to move the DS, or any other ship for that matter through conventional means of acceleration. I mean at such a hugh accelleration rate, the crew would be squshed onto the bulkheads.
So in this case it seems logical to me that Hyperspace travel is actually based on Metric Engineering. By changing the metric of the ship to where the natural state of it is accelerration, you would bypass the huge amount of G forces.

I know that the Death Star 1 had hyperdrive and most likely 2's wasn't installed yet. My questions are, why didn't the rebels start evacuating the planet? Why didn't the Falcon stop by another planet first and drop off the droids and the princess?

The Imperial Starfleet would probably have used their tractor beams on the rebel capital ships if they had've known about them (A large group leaving they would have noticed)

An I'm sure princess Leia as a rebel leader would do the honourable thing like she was doing on Hoth, by standing by her forces and being the last to leave

LOL awe man that Ren & Stimpy referrence brings back the memories. I need to buy those DVD's.

I just wrot a blog on one of the ways hyperspace engines might work, I hope you enjoy.

cling tenaciously to my buttocks!

Both of them?

there are things you must understand and alot of it i just can not spell watch discover when put on the alien shows some real some fact they pick apart albertinstiean on e =mc

"It would be impossible to move the DS, or any other ship for that matter through conventional means of acceleration. I mean at such a hugh accelleration rate, the crew would be squshed onto the bulkheads."

Two words: inertial dampeners

The slowest terror the galaxy has ever seen!
Let's look at it more locally... Imagine someone told you a bulldozer sanctioned by the government was coming to knock down your home in 3-weeks, would you be stressed? Sure, you have enough time to move, but do you want to (by the way, you're not being compensated)? Knowing about a pending disaster you can't stop could be more terrifying than the actual event (maybe). It's the asteroid collision scenario...it's coming, there's nothing you can do, except maybe move out of the country (or world). Imagine the hardship and stress that would accompany such a decision. I've moved many times; even under the best of scenarios, it's often very tough.

talks about this in Rogue Planet. And Johnnage, if Yavin is a gas giant, wouldn't the laser go through the planet? Unless it had a solid core and the gases ignited.

I think the DS was so big it had its own gravitational pull. Look at what happened to Porkins.
Gas Giants have solid cores. It is the spinning of the core that allows a planet to have gravity, much like the Discovery in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

HAL: Dave, although you took thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.

I read somewhere that the Death Star does have a hyperdrive. I think it was in [i}Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide.

yah thats wat they just said like 3 times up there...

In space, things obviously float. I'd have to study this more, and I'm sure there is an explanation. If it hs controls to blst objects, i'm sure it hs controls to move.

Even if the gas giant had no solid core (debateable) the gases should refract/scatter the beam

SPACEBALLS rocks! BTW i heard that Spaceballs 2: Da Search for more Money is being made

Okay, I'm sorry, but you need to do your research a little better. The Death Star DOES have a hyperdrive, and sublight engines. as is stated in the Essential guide to Ships and Vehicles and in the NEW Essential Guide to Ships and Vehicles. I dont mean to be critical, but its called common sence. of course it has engines, it just wasn't stated because it should have been self-explainitory.

Inertial dampers? Why didn't I think of that.

im tired

but think about it like this:

The Empire spent 20+ years designing the DS. As we see in the end of AOTC, they atleast had a general idea of what they were going to do, and, as i just read about 45 minutes ago in the new Insider (issue85) :the empire ran many secret tests and had a few cheaper prototypes of the DS. Obviously when your testing a huge space station that your planning on using to destroy things, you have ppl finding the little errors that can cost many lives *cough* exhaust ports *cough*. In those twenty years between ROTS and ANH the Empire wasnt just fooling around

I didn't even realize that something of that compacity could enter lightspeed. And wasn't it still incomplete? Wouldn't it have fallen apart? I dunno. And I would love to see a SpaceBalls II. That would be hilarious...well maybe. LOL!

i always wondered about that too

5 words: Star Wars Incredible Cross-Sections. It says this: "Ion engine's hyperdrives and hanger bays ring the stations equatorial trench". Now that means 160 kilometers worth of engines and hyperdrives. Plus what did the rebels target: an exhaust port, exhaust ports get rid of the left over gases from: wait for it engines! So the Death Star DID have engines.

Well that is more then abvious dont you think. And thaks for the explanation jedimaster. Now I think he got it lol

Let me ask you a question. How can you call youself a starwars fan and NOT KNOW THIS? I mean even I know that.

The officers on the Death Star positioned it that way. Yeah it's slow, but it is intimidating.

Part 1

Just a quick note about traveling through hyperspace. It's not traveling through real space. Therefore, the miniscule amounts of hydrogen particles and what-not are not a factor.

It's a bit like being out of phase with reality. So you can pass through objects of negligible gravity. That negates any resistance, hence why you can travel ####her and faster with the same amount of effort.

Part 2

Analogy: you want to get from your car to your front porch on an extremely windy day. It would take you a little more effort than if you had no wind. For this analogy to work, you have to assume that all interstellar travel is equated to walking on a windy day. When you engage the hyperdrive, you simply remove the resistance of that wind. However, you loose the ability to steer and do not remove solid obstacles, hence why you have to come out of hyperspace for vector changes and why gravity wells of stellar objects like planets, supernovas, etc. have to be avoided.

Part 3

Imagine you have to walk around a tree when you're walking from your car to the porch. You have to let the wind come back when you get to the tree so you can walk around it.

Obviously this is not a 1 to 1 analogy since traveling in hyperdrive's decrease in travel time is a FAR greater ratio than if you removed wind form a windy day... if the Death Star traveled from Alderaan to Yavin IV in sublight, it would take years. LOTS of years.

Of course, this all about observations based on dialogue and visual evidence from the films. There is no attempt to make a corollary to real world physics since George Lucas has repeatedly said Star Wars physics and real world physics do not operate the same way.

lolalalalalalalalalalalaldsbgn;abgn;adb

okay...

If you think the Death Star is slow, well the planets it has the ability to destroy as it's tactic are much much slower, eh.
And any-sized ships that come in it's highly guarded range get blown away by that
supa-lasa, whther or not after being caught by the tractor beam.

It's pretty darn effective regardless of speed. It's objective was destroying planets suspiciously home to rebel bases or any other form of opposition to the Empire. Even if many could evacuate by the time it arrived, still it would "spell certain doom...."

Let's just say it was magic, the magic of make-believe.

Also, the manuvering systems of the ships is never explained. Sometimes manuvering jets are mentioned, but if so, they are tiny. Providence class cruisers have fins. The etheric rudder allows spaceships to act like atmospheric fighters. don't ask.

Maybe it had the thrusters all over not just in the back of it. That way it could move in all directions.

Personnally, I think the Death Star Prototype sounded like it was moving pretty fast in Champions of the Force in the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

But, then again, it wasn't carrying thousands of Tie Fighters, scores of Star Destroyers, and more than a million personnel.