StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Elheru Aran wrote:What about a U-bend though? Or even a *series* of them. Frankly, that one exhaust port that just happens to lead directly to the reactor is fucking stupid and highly contrived.

What if a U-bend causes the superhot gases to deposit the heat at that point and starts melting the shaft?

It's an exhaust port from the most gigantic power system to ever exist. This thing is moon sized and the port is only 2 meters. Stuff that affects the flow of exhaust may be an issue. Complex plumbing is plumbing more likely to break, as a plumber or electrician can tell you.


It may be like the old, "Villains in underground lair decide to put covers on the airvents to prevent heroes from climbing through. Hero arrives to discover everyone dead from lack of oxygen."

Again, it's really convenient to just assume that there's no engineering complications when talking about a system that's got to have great needs and is there for a vital practical purpose.

Crazedwraith wrote:

Elheru Aran wrote:What about a U-bend though? Or even a *series* of them. Frankly, that one exhaust port that just happens to lead directly to the reactor is fucking stupid and highly contrived.

I never got why people thought there was a pipe directly to the reactor. Dodanna said ' A direct hit will start a chain reaction'. Torpedeo into a reactor blowing up a whole station isn't much of a chain to me.

It is probably based on the simplistic diagram we saw that showed exactly this. The best evidence against it comes from the fact that Dodonna indicated that it was ray shielded as a reason why they had to use torpedoes, indicating that a gun attack would do enough damage. That indicates that just damaging it would have been enough to destroy the station.

So going by this, there are essentially two reasonable conclusions, either the shaft is a straight line for engineering regions or it is not and the damage merely overloaded the station.

This sort of issue is often similar to that of assuming that you have a clever simple solution to a common problem in a fantasy story. It then begs the question of why no one had ever thought of it before. Unless you have some specialized knowledge that there is no way for the characters to know*, it is far more likely that they know something you don't.

* Which admittedly is the case in most such stories because they take place in a setting without much science.

Crazedwraith wrote:

Elheru Aran wrote:What about a U-bend though? Or even a *series* of them. Frankly, that one exhaust port that just happens to lead directly to the reactor is fucking stupid and highly contrived.

I never got why people thought there was a pipe directly to the reactor. Dodanna said ' A direct hit will start a chain reaction'. Torpedeo into a reactor blowing up a whole station isn't much of a chain to me.

Well, the graphics used during the briefing basically showed the torpedo going right to the reactor, then the reactor exploding, thus taking out the station - that last part is what I thought he meant by a "chain reaction".

Regardless, my point is really that there should have been some sort of additional physical protection - Star Wars makes generous use of blast doors and shields, so I'd figure such design practices would/should extend to even immense structures like the Death Star.

biostem wrote: Well, the graphics used during the briefing basically showed the torpedo going right to the reactor, then the reactor exploding, thus taking out the station - that last part is what I thought he meant by a "chain reaction".

Or just something nearby. Since it's an exhaust port, it has to end on something that makes exhaust.

And consider the scale of the graphic. If the vent pipe weaves a kilometer back and forth around obstacles, it wouldn't even show up on that scale. If it stops 5 kilometers from the reactor, it also likely wouldn't show up.

Regardless, my point is really that there should have been some sort of additional physical protection - Star Wars makes generous use of blast doors and shields, so I'd figure such design practices would/should extend to even immense structures like the Death Star.

But- can it do so while still allowing exhaust to flow?

I always read the lack of particle shielding being for exactly that reason- stopping up the exhaust is BadTM.

Um-'exhaust vent'. Those generally don't take kindly to you complicating the path of the stuff you're exhausting. Engineering concerns (as has been mentioned numerous times in this thread). Besides, the main problem wasn't the shaft, it was the near complete absence of TIEs thanks to Tarkin's arrogance.

Rebels on Yavin:

"Why'd it just blow up like that?"

"I don't know, I thought we were dead! We tried our assault, but it's not like there was a weak point to hit. Then we detected their weapon charging and-- boom. It's like they didn't design the thing with an exhaust port!"

And consider the scale of the graphic. If the vent pipe weaves a kilometer back and forth around obstacles, it wouldn't even show up on that scale. If it stops 5 kilometers from the reactor, it also likely wouldn't show up.

The graphics were heavily simplified for the briefing. Look at the location of the Death Star's superlaser dish. It's in the northern hemisphere on the actual station but in the diagram it's squarely on the equator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agcRwGDKulw

BTW the surface guns did nail a few ships in the fight.