The unanswered Star Wars question

Assuming that the Death Star (from episode 4) was constructed in space, and also assuming that all day to day requirements are shipped in, my question is: where did the giant snake from the trash compactor come from?

Couple of ideas:

1) Given the vast size of the DeathStar, some eco-systems were introduced to aid waste processing functions. Perhaps the snake was a vaulable part of the presumably vast system that helped breakdown trash into useful (or at least easier to transport) components

2) Stowaways - Human history is littered with stories of unintentionaly introduced species making transcontinental migrations. Witness Fire-ants in Australia - not native, not deliberately introduced - but now well and truly established. Perhaps the "trash snake" somehow was intentionaly introduced into the Death Star environment and miraculously found an environment in which it could thrive.

All Death Stars starting with the -06 series come with trash snakes. They're put in there to eat rebels, and also wolverines (which are a big problem on the -06s.)

Seriously, I've always had a related issue: how do the trash snakes survive the compaction cycle? When they compact the trash, why don't the snakes get squashed? Maybe there are special Snake Grooves in the walls that the snakes can hide in during compaction, like the famous Toad Tunnel in Davis, California.

Clearly giant snake eggs were bought in the rations of some contractor. When the wookie decided that the eggs didn't smell fresh anymore, the remainder was thrown down the trash chute.

Two points:
1) there are so many contractors working on the project (since the specs change all the time) that there are always some snake eggs in the system.

2) you don't know it was a snake. It could have been just one tendril of a squid or octopus.

Parasites in the food. One of the Xandavian Omelets was undercooked and the parasite, well, went on a journey that ended up in the waste system.

With regards to compacting.... Remember that the overgrown parasite let go of Luke and vamoosed as soon as the compactor cycle began. It knows its way around the system and hides in one of the access tubes while the compacting takes place.

Didn't the "snake" come from somewhere else at first. I remember there was a sound first, or was that the sound of the compactor starting. Anyway, I think there are more than one trash compactor, and the snake can go to all of them. And it was put there deliberately.

Mark

Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
...how do the trash snakes survive the compaction cycle? ...

I've survived the compaction cycle several times. I don't know how.

Originally posted by David O'Meara:
Assuming that the Death Star (from episode 4) was constructed in space...

I think the bigger question is where they got the building materials. "Yeah, the Empire just faxed this order in. They'll be here this afternoon to pick it up. Let's see... 3.1 x 10^22 kg of titanium girders. Check. 6.7 x 10^84 rivets. Check. 5.9 x 10^113 liters of gray paint. Check. 2.3 x 10^19 kg of Lexan plates. Uh... We might be short on those. Better check in back..."

Originally posted by marc weber:

I think the bigger question is where they got the building materials. "Yeah, the Empire just faxed this order in. They'll be here this afternoon to pick it up. Let's see... 3.1 x 10^22 kg of titanium girders. Check. 6.7 x 10^84 rivets. Check. 5.9 x 10^113 liters of gray paint. Check. 2.3 x 10^19 kg of Lexan plates. Uh... We might be short on those. Better check in back..."

Along those lines, what was the actual first piece, and how did it sit on its own out there in space. Did the workers take break right after that first piece to admire what they started?

If the first death star waited till it was 100% compeleted, why didn't they wait that long for the second death star. And wouldn't they have made it more difficult to destroy than the first one? I mean now instead of just a 2 meter whole, an entire Millenium Falcon can now fly through it to a big whomping target to shoot and destroy it. You would think they learned their lesson from the 1st death star.

Also where the heck did they get all that money to build it, and it is so huge, how were they able to keep the first one so secret.

Mark

Originally posted by Mark Spritzler:
... Along those lines, what was the actual first piece, and how did it sit on its own out there in space...

You mean after the ground-breaking ceremony?

Mostly they were assembled at a plant in Pontiac, Michigan, using mainly parts imported from Mexico.

Nah, just kidding. If I were going to build a Death Star, I think the first thing I'd build would be the power source. Whattaya think was powering that thing, anyway? Nuclear reactor? Warp core? Big honking Wankel? I'm thinking probably not geothermal, wind, or hydroelectric.

Originally posted by marc weber:

You mean after the ground-breaking ceremony?

Don't they just use a StarTrek object replicator? or was star wars long ago before StarTrek?

In later Star Wars (or rather earlier ones) they had the infamous Glactic Senate. Clearly they could power the Death Star with politicians' hot air

It was put there to organically eat trash.

There is the point that the senate was dissolved at the time Leia was captured at the start of episode 4 (mentioned in the movie). So presumably the senate was paying for the Death Star before they got fired.

Yes, but if the Emperor had the ability to dissolve them at any time, one has to wonder how much they were able to really scrutinize the budget before approving it. I tend to think there was probably a big chunk of the budget that was marked "Imperial Security - Top Secret". Or perhaps its purpose was obfuscated and hidden under a myriad of more benign-sounding names. The latter seems more probable to me, but who knows? Either way, there's ample opportunity for the Empire to fund a major secret weapons program.

[Mark Spritzler]:
... Along those lines, what was the actual first piece, and how did it sit on its own out there in space...

Well, Marc already addressed this implicitly. But to spell it out: the station is in outer space. It doesn't have to be attached to anything. As long as the station's creators put it on an orbit that doesn't intersect a planet or star (or other celestial body), it doesn't have to do anything - it can just sit there in orbit, not bothering anyone. Doesn't need to be attached to anything. Why should it?

[Darth Spritzler]: If the first death star waited till it was 100% compeleted, why didn't they wait that long for the second death star. And wouldn't they have made it more difficult to destroy than the first one? I mean now instead of just a 2 meter whole, an entire Millenium Falcon can now fly through it to a big whomping target to shoot and destroy it. You would think they learned their lesson from the 1st death star.

The second Death Star was designed with a ruse/trap in mind - the idea was that it would be "fully functional" (at least, able to raise its shields and fire its big planet-destroying main gun) well before it looked complete. At least, that was the impression I always had from the Emperor's big "fully operational battle station" reveal. The Emperor wanted to lure the Rebels into an attack, at a time and place of his choosing. And the Rebels fell for it.

i always thought it strange that the first Death Star used it's big gun to DESTROY A PLANET. The second one used it's big gun to blow up rebel ships. isn't that like using a tactical nuke to swat a fly? or is the new Death Star's main gun that much more wimpy?

Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
[Darth Spritzler]: If the first death star waited till it was 100% compeleted, why didn't they wait that long for the second death star. And wouldn't they have made it more difficult to destroy than the first one? I mean now instead of just a 2 meter whole, an entire Millenium Falcon can now fly through it to a big whomping target to shoot and destroy it. You would think they learned their lesson from the 1st death star.

The second Death Star was designed with a ruse/trap in mind - the idea was that it would be "fully functional" (at least, able to raise its shields and fire its big planet-destroying main gun) well before it looked complete. At least, that was the impression I always had from the Emperor's big "fully operational battle station" reveal. The Emperor wanted to lure the Rebels into an attack, at a time and place of his choosing. And the Rebels fell for it.

Yea, the whole thing was a plot to get the rebels on the planet with the little fuzzy critters and blow it to smithereens. In doing so Luke would get so pissed off he'd kill his father and become the Emperor's new apprentice by giving in to the Dark Side of the force.

If you're going to build a Death Star, there's one detail that can't be overemphasized: Location, location, location. Sure, it's designed to be "mobile," but once you've gotten over the novelty of cruising into a remote system just to blow up a planet, you'll realize what a hassle this is and probably decide to park it. Yeah, it looks cool approaching a defenseless world, but that's only when it's running. (Are you really going to change the oil every 5,000 miles? It's kind of embarrassing to have your Death Star break down in the middle of nowhere.) The fact is, most Death Stars are either sitting on blocks rusting, or they've been converted to high-priced condos. So before you build one of these things from scratch, consider staking out some space near a thriving constellation.

Originally posted by marc weber:
If you're going to build a Death Star, there's one detail that can't be overemphasized: Location, location, location.

Hmmm, can death stars go to hyperspace using a warp drive? Or are they stuck with below speed of light travel? That would really make loc^3 really important.

No point in being able to blow up planets here and there if you quickly clear out all of them in the system and it takes 300 years to get to the next system. I didn't see any good looking Empire groupies on the Death Star, so you will need to breed some replacement storm troopers, officers, and even cooks.

Originally posted by Pat Farrell:
... can death stars go to hyperspace using a warp drive? ...

Absolutely! But it's not something you do on a whim. For an object of that mass, the fuel cost for a jump to light speed is astronomical. If you can line up the investors, great. Otherwise...

Originally posted by Pat Farrell:
I didn't see any good looking Empire groupies on the Death Star, so you will need to breed some replacement storm troopers, officers, and even cooks.

Continued here:
https://coderanch.com/t/45405/md/Where-do-Episode-Storm-Troopers
[ June 05, 2008: Message edited by: David O'Meara ]

Originally posted by marc weber:

Absolutely! But it's not something you do on a whim. For an object of that mass, the fuel cost for a jump to light speed is astronomical. If you can line up the investors, great. Otherwise...

Well, with the appropriate display of firepower, most investors can be easily "convinced" of giving to the cause.

Originally posted by Gabriel Claramunt:
... Well, with the appropriate display of firepower, most investors can be easily "convinced" of giving to the cause.