WEBVTT - Death Star Support Systems 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.840 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.400 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.040 how Stuff Works and I love all things tech and 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:24.280 May the Fourth be with you. This episode is originally 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:29.520 airing on May fourthen sometimes known as Star Wars Day 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.360 for the whole May the fourth pun and on May 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:37.360 nineteen seventy seven, Star Wars later known as Star Wars 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.559 Episode for a New Hope hit the theaters, and that 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:45.720 movie introduced a massive weapon capable of destroying planets, and 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.159 it was no moon. It was a space station and 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.360 it was called the Death Star. So in honor of 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.120 May the four, we are going to take a look 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.920 at the Star Wars mythos around the Death Star and 0:00:58.000 --> 0:00:59.880 compare it to what it would take to make some 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.120 thing like that for real, Zase. And this is part 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.039 one of a two parter on the Death Star. Because 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.160 there are a lot of different systems to cover in 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.600 this episode, I'm gonna be looking mainly at support systems 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.080 aboard the Death Star, and in part two we're gonna 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.280 look at the bim Bam boom bang Bangs, also known 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:22.319 as the weapons aboard the Death Star, not to mention 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.600 a particular flaw that for a long time people said 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:31.800 was the result of Imperial oversight, and later on as 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.200 the movies came out, it was revealed to have been 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.880 a planned vulnerability in the Death Star design. We'll also 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:43.000 talk a little bit about the Death Star to sequel 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.319 to Death Star, and of course Star Killer Base. So 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.320 for those of you who aren't Star Wars fans, first 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:52.120 of all, this episode is probably not gonna mean a 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.240 whole lot to you, but if you want to listen, 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.280 I would love to have you along for the ride. 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.880 But the original Death Star appears in three films as 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:06.160 an actual thing in progress. Those three films would be 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.760 in chronological order of release, Star Wars For a New Hope, 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.800 Star Wars three, Revenge of the Sith, which of course 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:17.640 came out decades after Star Wars four did, and Rogue One, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.200 a Star Wars story. But there's also a hologram of 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.080 the Death Star that appears briefly in Star Wars two 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.600 Attack of the Clones. Then there's also the second Death 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.240 Star that one appears in Star Wars six Return of 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.880 the Jedi, And there's the Big Brother to the Death 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.320 Star a k a. The Star Killer Bass, which shows 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.160 up in Star Wars seven The Force Awakens, and I'll 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.400 chat about all of them in these episodes. Now, before 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.560 I jump into this, I need to talk a little 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:49.239 bit about cannon versus expanded universe. So Star Wars is 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.960 a peculiar thing. There are movies, There are television specials, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:59.200 there are cartoons, there are comic books, there are novels. 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.480 There ton of different forms of media that all tie 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.080 into the Star Wars universe. However, if you want to 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.400 go with absolute canon, as in the stuff that is 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.080 the only really concrete cannon in the Star Wars universe, 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.200 you have to go with just the films, which means 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.200 that stories, characters, and even established facts created and other 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:26.600 Star Wars media can be contradicted by the films and 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.880 that's that. So you could have a very popular novel 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:34.200 series that creates a whole mythology around Star Wars and 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.800 then the next movie comes out and contradicts that. Well, 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.360 the movies trump everything else, So just keep that in mind. 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.880 Now that being said, we're gonna look at some expanded 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:49.320 universe sources because the movies, while they are canon, do 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.640 not go into exhaustive detail about how stuff works, because 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:54.760 that's not what the movie is about. The movies are 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.120 adventure stories. They're really they're more like epic fantasy set 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.800 in a science fiction setting. Then they are a hard 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:07.720 science fiction film. So they concerned themselves with the story elements, 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:12.000 the hero's journey, that kind of stuff, not the particulars 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.680 of how the technology works. So a lot of the 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.560 stuff I'm gonna talk about comes from expanded universe sources. 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.800 Just know that a future Star Wars movie could come 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:22.919 out and they say, well, it turns out that the 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.279 Star Wars Death Stars laser was powered by elves. Well, 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.320 that's gonna contradict everything else. But if that's what the 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:31.960 movie says, that's what that's what it means. I don't 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:33.800 think that will happen, but just need to say it. 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.400 Within the canon of Star Wars, the design of the 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.279 Death Star came from a race of creatures called the Genosians, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.520 who were working on behalf of a separatist group attempting 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.880 to splinter off from the Galactic Republic, or at least 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.719 appearing to. These are the events that happened in the 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.479 prequel trilogies. So Star Wars one, two, and three, and 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.920 the Genosans were working on what they dubbed the Ultimate 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.880 Weapon Project, and they entrusted their plans to Count Dooku, 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.760 who appeared to be the leader of the separatists. Dooku 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.200 was in reality Darth Tyrannis, a Sith lord a k a. 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.120 A big bad guy who passed the plans along to 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.520 his boss, Darth Sidious, also known as Chancellor and then 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:20.599 later on Emperor Palpatine. Palpatine was essentially controlling both sides 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:25.120 of this galactic conflict, both the Galactic Republic and the 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.760 separatist group. He was manipulating both sides, and he was 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.719 orchestrating the whole thing in an attempt to grab power. 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.560 He was able to use that conflict to convince the 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:38.000 Republic side to fund the construction of this space station. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.680 He was able to play on fears that the Separatists, 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.480 who you got to remember he was also controlling, they 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.240 were just a puppet group. But he was trying to 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.360 convince the republic people, but the folks who were in 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.200 charge of the purse strings for the Galactic Republic, that 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.359 the Separatists were already working on building a space station 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.480 of similar capability, so there was gonna be a space 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.200 station app so it's kind of like an arms race 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.760 in a way, and so that was kind of the 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.920 selling point. Palpatine goes to the Galactic Republic with he says, 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:09.640 we need to build this thing. You need to be 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:13.120 able to give me the funds do it. And that's 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.520 where the initial funding for the Death Starter took off 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.320 before the Chancellor became the Emperor, and once he became 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.920 the Emperor, he pretty much had to. Boy, he got 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.880 the right to boss everybody around and get the money 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.840 no matter what. Now, by the time of the Revenge 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.240 of the Sixth storyline, construction had progressed to the point 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.599 that the basic form of the Death Star was taking shape. 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.400 Is kind of the framework for the Death Star. It 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.320 would apparently take nearly twenty more years to finish, as 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.919 Rogue One takes place nineteen years after the Revenge of 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.599 the Sith, and it's in Rogue one that a group 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.159 of spies attempt to steal the plans for the space 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.560 station so that the rebellion can look for a possible weakness, 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.680 and then in a new hope, the rebellion blows it 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.040 all up. Specifically, Luke sky eye Walker blows it up 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.160 by firing a weapon called a you know or torpedo 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.000 weapon down a ventilation shaft that sets off a chain 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:12.720 reaction within the station's reactor core, leading to catastrophic failure. Now, 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.920 one thing I should mention that's a conflict between Cannon 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.840 and the former Expanded Universe is that some works had 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.960 established that the Death Star was constructed in orbit around 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:28.680 a planet called Despair. Because Star Wars is subtle, Despair 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.520 is spelled d E s p A y r E 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.920 because that's how clever people writing for Star Wars can be. 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:40.120 But Despare was populated by slave labor and criminals. They 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.400 were all working for the Empire. And further, the Expanded 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.000 Universe goes on to explain that the Death Stars Commander 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.680 Grand mof Tarkan chose to test a not yet fully 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:54.720 capable super laser against this planet Despair, blowing it up 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.720 after hitting it with three blasts from the super laser, 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.800 which conflicts with other accounts of the Death Star's history. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.000 Rogue one tells us the Death Star was moved from 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.400 Genosia to our Genosis rather, I should say, to a 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:13.239 planet called Scariff, rather than to despair. So the whole 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.200 despair backstory that was created for the Death Star appears 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.920 to have been contradicted by later films, And that's an 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.000 example of what I was talking about earlier. So there 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:27.120 there are branching pathways of the history of the Death Star, 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.240 and they do can contradict one another in some versions. 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:35.560 The Genosis version of the Death Star was actually a 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:39.760 prototype space station and not the actual first death Star. 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.280 But there's no official Cannon explanation that really lays it 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:50.280 out and says definitively this it's this version, not that version. Anyway, 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.520 let's talk about what it actually is. The Death Star 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.960 is a space station. It's spherical in shape, and it's 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.360 called the size of a moon. People refer to it 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.160 as I mean, that's the big line from a New 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.760 Hope is that's no moon, that's a space station. That 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:13.120 particular detail is not terribly handy, however, because moons do 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.480 not come in a standard size. They vary in size. 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:20.880 So for example, the moon around Earth, our moon is 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.520 three point seven times smaller than the Earth. It has 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.360 an equatorial circumference of six thousand, seven hundred eighty three 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.520 and a half miles or ten thousand, nine d seventeen kilometers, 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.400 and it's also not as dense as the Earth. The 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.000 surface gravity on our moon has an acceleration of one 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.720 point six to four meters per second squared, compared to 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:46.400 Earth's surface gravitational acceleration of nine point eight zero six 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.439 six five, or we usually say nine point eight one 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.839 per second squared. But the Earth's moon is only the 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:57.160 fifth largest in our solar system. The largest moon in 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.960 our system is gay Mead, which is one of jupiter 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.560 As moons. It's just two point four times smaller than 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.120 the Earth, so it's equatorial circumference is ten thousand, two 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:12.000 hundred seventy three miles or about sixteen five thirty three kilometers. 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.360 It's actually larger than the planet Mercury. So the only 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.840 reason it's a moon and not a dwarf planet is 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.400 because it's in orbit around Jupiter rather than orbit around 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.200 the Sun. So saying the Death Star is the size 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.160 of a moon is not super helpful. The films don't 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.959 really give any details about the Death Star space station 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.079 or the star Killer base. We don't really learn about 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.360 the specs from them. From the movies. Necessarily, we see 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.600 they're huge, but we don't really get much of a 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.160 frame of reference as to how huge they are, but 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.760 there have been plenty of books and supplemental materials that 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.280 have attempted to fill in the gaps of our knowledge. 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.880 So while it may not be pure canon, we have 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.160 to have some reference for our discussions. So we're gonna 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.959 go with some information supplied by official Star Wars supplemental sources, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.160 such as the Ultimate Visual Guide for Star Wars Rogue 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.640 one that comes in pretty handy for the Death Star 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.240 in particular. According to that guide, the Death Star is 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.520 a hundred sixty kilometers wide. Now that also is a 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.360 discrepancy with other sources. Some of them put the death 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.000 stars diameter at a hundred twenty kilometers and some say 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.680 a hundred forty kilometers, But the most recent response I 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:23.320 could see was a hundred and sixties. So that's what 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.840 I'm going with. Hundred sixty kilometers is about nine miles, 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:30.320 all right. So if we use the handy formula that 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:34.680 circumference equals two times pie times the radius, not the 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.360 diameter as I initially calculated this figure, we get a 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:41.680 figure of about five two kilometers of circumference, or three 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:46.320 hundred twelve miles around the equator of this sphere. So 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:51.040 in other words, that's less than one the circumference of 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:54.760 Earth's moon, and that's going with the larger of the 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.960 measurements for the Death Star, so it's the size of 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.520 a moon, but a pretty small one. The original Death 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.720 Star had three D fifty seven levels as in floors 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:08.640 and it according to at least one source book, the 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.839 number of people aboard the space station varies depending upon 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.040 the source you're looking at. One suggested that there were 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:18.400 around two point twenty five million people aboard, and another 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.720 set it was more like one point one six million people. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:24.320 So I guess the answer ultimately is there were a 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:28.360 lot of fictional people aboard that space station. And uh 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.600 some say that even up to a billion people could 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:36.199 have technically fit on the station. I don't know if 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.600 that's true or not. I haven't actually run the geometric 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.360 calculations to find out how packed it would be if 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.240 that were happening. I also don't know the full density 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.200 of the Death Star, so it would be hard to do. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.880 But there you go. According to the house Stuff Works 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.280 article on how the Death Star works, the interior sections 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.480 of the space station consists of twenty four zones, with 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.600 half of them in the northern hemisphere of the station 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.040 and the other half in the southern hemisphere. And each 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:07.400 zone has six sectors which include General Command, Military Security, Service, 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:12.920 and technical sectors, Officers overseas sectors, and Zone captain's overseas officers. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.440 And the Death Star commander is at the top of 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.760 the food chain on the station unless the Emperor himself 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.840 is on board, and in the case of the original 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.400 Death Star, that would be the Grand mof Tarken. And 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.320 because this wasn't just a weapon, but also a battle 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.280 station and a movable base of operations, there need to 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.760 be plenty of space for crew quarters, vehicle bays, and 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.880 recreational facilities. As it turns out, it also had a 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.760 detention block as seen in a New Hope, because that's 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.440 where they put Princess Leiah after Darth Vader catches her. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.440 Spoiler in a Moment will look at some of the 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.520 basic systems aboard the Death Star, will explore how they 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.000 work within the mythology of Star Wars, and we'll talk 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.960 about if there's any connection to what we call reality 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.240 a figure. We can start by talking about the death 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:00.480 Stars artificial gravity, how do that do well find out 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:10.679 right after we take this quick break to thank our sponsor. Now, 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.920 most sources I find try to reconcile the discrepancies we 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.240 see in the Star Wars movies by explaining that the 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.960 Death Star actually has two different artificial gravity systems aboard it. 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:24.760 So imagine that the Death Star is a big old 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.040 orange and the peel part of the orange is a 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.720 layer that has artificial gravity pulling down towards the center 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.320 of the station. It would be like surface gravity like 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.040 you would experience if you were on a normal planet 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.960 or moon, except it's also artificial gravity because it's meant 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.360 to give you the sense of gravity you would have 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.360 on a planet like Earth. We we assume that it's 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:52.640 about one G of gravitational force on the Death Star 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.760 because people move around like it's on Earth because that's 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.800 where they shot the movie. But we're assuming it's one G. So, uh, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.360 everything is being pulled in towards the center. But because 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.200 of the size of the Death Star it's mass, there's 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.400 no way it has enough mass to generate one G 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:12.400 of gravity on its own, so it has to be 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:17.760 artificially boosted just logically speaking, So the way we feel 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.000 when we're on Earth is technically the surface we are 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.920 on pushing back against us essentially. So if you are 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.000 in one of those levels that's in this outer layer 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.320 of the Death Star, the peel of the Orange, you 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.400 would stand as if you were on the surface of 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.640 a planet, so your feet would be pointing towards the 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:42.520 core of the plant, your head would be pointing towards space, essentially, 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.240 except that doesn't seem to work based upon what we've 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.400 actually seen in the movies, because if you watch a 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.360 New Hope, when the Millennium Falcon gets captured by a 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.080 tractor beam and pulled in toward the Death Star, it 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:59.920 enters the equatorial trench that separates the station into northern 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:04.000 and southern hemispheres. So it's like a belt right around 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.160 the middle of the Death Stars this trench, and the 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.160 Millennium Falcon is clearly coming into the trench into a 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.640 vehicle bay, and in that sequence you see people standing 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.600 in an orientation that's in line with the north and 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.640 south poles of the Death Star, where the north pole 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.880 would be up and the south pole would be down. So, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.320 in other words, imagine that the Death Star is a 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.920 ball that has a top and a bottom and corresponding gravity. Now, 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:35.160 the sources I looked at suggests that below this outermost layer, 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.840 below the peel of the Orange, the Death Star is 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.920 made up of floors that are in that orientation, this 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:45.480 top bottom orientation, with north pole being the top and 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.560 south pole being the bottom, and gravity just pointing towards 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.520 the south pole side of the station. This would mean 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:55.240 that once you get past that outermost layer with the 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.320 UH the orange peel section, the orientation of gravity would 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.320 change unless you were standing at the very north pole 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.679 of the Death Star, in which case the two fields 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.359 would be aligned. I imagine transitioning between one field of 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.760 gravity and another would be really disorienting to go from 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.960 where your feet are essentially facing out or are facing 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.160 the core of the planet, to where your feet are 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:23.040 facing down with respect to the south pole UH. I 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.040 don't know how you would make that transition in a 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.359 way that wouldn't totally mess you up in the process. 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.040 I think it would be very disorienting. However, a lot 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.000 of sources suggest that this is the way it has 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.760 to work based upon the design of the Death Star 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.600 as we see it in the films. The contradiction doesn't 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.399 really matter in context with the story of Star Wars, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.440 but it does make it darn tricky to explain how 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.680 stuff actually works aboard this space station. The movies again 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.439 don't concern themselves with this, that's not what the purpose 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.560 of the movies are for. It falls to fanboys like 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.960 myself to try and justify it. So we see gunners 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.480 manning cannons that are mounted on the surf of the 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.080 station itself, and they appear to be oriented in such 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.160 a way that it's similar to a normal planet's surface gravity, 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.919 and yet everything else seems to suggest gravity has that 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:14.080 specific north south orientation. So how would we create artificial 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.160 gravity if we wanted to do it in real life? Well, 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:19.639 since we still don't have a full understanding of the 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.600 nature of gravity, we can't harness it in any meaningful way. 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.840 But we can create a system that simulates gravity through rotation, 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.280 except it would manifest as something very different than what 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.399 you see in the Star Wars movies. So imagine you 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.159 have a death Star sized hollow sphere, So it's the 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.600 exact same size of the Death Star, but there's nothing 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.280 inside it. It's just a big hollow ball, and you 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.800 are inside that hollow ball. You're standing on the inside 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.320 of that sphere. If we rotate the sphere, it will 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.600 create a velocity that will curve around in a line 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.399 along that rotation. It's a rotational velocity. This, in turn 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.600 will create an acceleration pointing inwards a nine degree angle 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.920 from the velocity at any given moment toward the death 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:11.240 stars center. Your mass and the acceleration into the center 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.439 of the death star creates a virtual force, which we 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.080 refer to as a centrifugal force. Now, remember I say 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.959 it's a virtual force, it's what would feel like weight. 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.879 This is what would hold you to the interior wall 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.800 of the hollow death star, so your feet would be 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.440 closer to outer space and your head would be closer 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.440 to the core of the death star. So the opposite 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:38.120 of what the various sources suggest for the death Star. 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.800 Because again this is just one way we could simulate 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.280 gravity is through this rotation and the creation of a 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.679 virtual force and centrifugal force. Now, to create enough of 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.960 that virtual force to simulate the gravity that you would 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.680 experience on a planet like Earth, you need to spin 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.080 to create an acceleration of one g. Now we'd use 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:02.440 the formula to that would be acceleration equals velocity square 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.400 divided by the radius, and the radius in this case 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:07.639 is the radius of the Death Star. Now, we know 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.199 that the radius of the death Star is eighty kilometers 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.320 if we're working off the most recent version of the 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.600 Death Star spec since others suggest it could be seventy 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.240 or sixty kilometers, but we're going with eighty. And we 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.280 know the acceleration that we want is nine point eight 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.639 one per second squared, because that's the gravitational acceleration we 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.119 have here on Earth and that's what we want to simulate. 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.680 So using that formula, we know it's nine point eight 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:37.800 one equals velocity square divided by eighty thousand meters. Right, 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:40.320 we take eighty kilometers, We multiply it by a thousand 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.119 meters because that's a thousand meters to a kilometer. We 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.400 get eighty thousand meters. We multiply both sides by eighty 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.240 thousand meters, and we get seven eighty four thousand, eight 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.280 hundred meters squared by second squared. We take the square 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.239 root of that to get the velocity, and we end 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.360 up with approximately eight hundred eighty six meters per second. 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:01.600 So within a minute in i'd this sphere. You're traveling 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:05.720 fifty three thou sis in a circular motion on the 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.680 inside of this death star. Now, in order to figure 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.760 out how many revolutions per minute we need, we take 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.240 the circumference of the death Star. That's that five kilometers 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.439 or five two thousand meters, and that means that we 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.320 would need point eleven rotations per minute to simulate one 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.400 g of gravity on the inside surface of the death Star, 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:27.800 which means the death Star would have to rotate one 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.040 full time every ten minutes or so. So a day 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.840 on the Death Star would be around ten minutes long 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.840 if it were a body orbiting star with that speed 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:42.359 of rotation. Now, that would only really apply along the equator, 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:44.760 I should add, because it's a right angle to the 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:47.760 axis of rotation. As you would move away from the equator, 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:52.399 things would get really wonky and along the outermost layer 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.919 as well, because as you go up or inward in 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.920 the death Star, you'd be on the floor that's technically 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.320 moving at a slower of a locity than the floor 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:04.800 that was below you or outer on the death Star. 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:08.199 Because you're in a concentric circle, each circle makes the 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.160 same number of revolutions per unit of time. Right, if 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.200 you're doing ten revolutions in a minute on the outside, 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:17.240 you're still doing ten revolutions of a minute on the inside. 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:22.240 But if the circle is smaller, you are traveling less 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.080 distance but in the same amount of time, so your 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.640 velocity is lower. This would also mean that your acceleration 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:31.280 that you would experience, and therefore the centrifugal force you 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.240 would experience, would also be lower. So as you move 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:37.960 towards the core, you would experience lower gravitational acceleration, and 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:40.840 you'd feel lighter as you move towards the middle. So 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.080 for a space station the size of the Death Star, 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:45.800 this could work out pretty well if you had the 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:49.320 means to rotate the station that way. With smaller space stations, 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:52.520 you would run into other problems because smaller scales, this 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.400 method of simulating gravity presents other challenges. For example, once 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.080 you get really small, different parts of your body are 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:03.760