Why Did The Death Star Orbit The Planet?

[femurphy77]

I'm nerding out right now watching the original Star Wars; the Death Star is currently orbiting the planet until the moon where the rebel base is located comes into range. Why didn't they just blast the planet which probably would have destroyed the moon either thru direct action or cataclysmic failure due to the planets debris or the sudden loss of the gravitational field from the planet?

For the record I don't care for the "added" footage.

 

[T.Lex]

Wouldn't that also necessarily have impacted (pardon the pun) the Death Star's own orbit? Perhaps not catastrophically, but if they were in geosync above the main planet and only had to wait for the moon, why risk it?

I mean, that's a significant capital investment. If there was any damage (heaven forbid any workers' comp claims) due to losing the host planet's gravitational pull, there'd be a metric force-load of paperwork.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Drama. George Lucas is a hack writer, and much in the movie doesn't make too much sense.

 

[saleen4971]

perhaps because Endor itself is a gas giant, and firing at it could ignite said gasses, causing catastrophic damage or destruction of teh death star?

 

[printcraft]

You know what grinds my gears? An exposed thermal exhaust port that goes directly to the main reactor!
And to then not disguise it in ANY way and just put it at the end of a long trench pointing directly to it!

I mean, what kind of Nerfherder designs something like that!?

 

[femurphy77]

Wouldn't that also necessarily have impacted (pardon the pun) the Death Star's own orbit? Perhaps not catastrophically, but if they were in geosync above the main planet and only had to wait for the moon, why risk it?

I mean, that's a significant capital investment. If there was any damage (heaven forbid any workers' comp claims) due to losing the host planet's gravitational pull, there'd be a metric force-load of paperwork.

That's my point, why even bother to geo-sync? They didn't when they blasted Alderan (or maybe I didn't pay close enough attention)

 

[femurphy77]

You know what grinds my gears? An exposed thermal exhaust port that goes directly to the main reactor!
And to then not disguise it in ANY way and just put it at the end of a long trench pointing directly to it!

I mean, what kind of Nerfherder designs something like that!?

And that's another thing; why make your attack run thru a heavily defended trench to try and drop a torpedo down a port 90 degrees to your path of travel. The port is unshielded, fire a laser cannon at the damn thing from the next parsec and be done with it!!!!

 

[tatic05]

You know what grinds my gears? An exposed thermal exhaust port that goes directly to the main reactor!
And to then not disguise it in ANY way and just put it at the end of a long trench pointing directly to it!

I mean, what kind of Nerfherder designs something like that!?

Probably a scruffy looking one...

I'm nerding out right now watching the original Star Wars; the Death Star is currently orbiting the planet until the moon where the rebel base is located comes into range. Why didn't they just blast the planet which probably would have destroyed the moon either thru direct action or cataclysmic failure due to the planets debris or the sudden loss of the gravitational field from the planet?

For the record I don't care for the "added" footage.

A little Google-Fu says...

"They didn't make a microjump because Hyperdrive doesn't work in a gravity well. They probably didn't jump directly to a spot where they could target the moon immediately because they didn't know the precise location of the moon within Yavin's orbit, and they happened to come out of hyperspace on the wrong side of the planet. Besides, they were (at least Tarkin was) very overconfident, so what if it takes them a little bit to get around the planet?"


http://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceF...hy_did_the_death_star_wait_to_shoot_yavin_iv/

 

[T.Lex]

See, I think there's a more practical explanation - fuel consumption. If you don't need to waste fuel to get from point A to point B, but rather wait for your target that will inevitably arrive, just wait. The savings will look good on the annual performance review.

 

[printcraft]

Wait wait wait...... the title is a trick question!

The answer of course is "to get to the other side!"

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

The run down the trench was a [strike]ripoff of[/strike] tribute to that WWII movie "633 Squadron" based on the mission to take out a dam by rolling bombs into the bottom of it.

 

[rhino]

You Star Wars nerds are tedious.

Fire-up the netflix and watch episodes of the orginal Star Trek to improve your life.

 

[femurphy77]

You Star Wars nerds are tedious.

Fire-up the netflix and watch episodes of the orginal Star Trek to improve your life.

Too much sex in that series, there's got to be little Kirks on every planet they visited during their 5 year mission.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I'm nerding out right now watching the original Star Wars; the Death Star is currently orbiting the planet until the moon where the rebel base is located comes into range. Why didn't they just blast the planet which probably would have destroyed the moon either thru direct action or cataclysmic failure due to the planets debris or the sudden loss of the gravitational field from the planet?

For the record I don't care for the "added" footage.

Because it was long ago, in a galaxy far away...

They didn't have the Federation's technology. Otherwise they'd simply send Spock, in a one man, warp speed capable, intersystem ship, with some of the red matter, and poof!...no more planet.

 

[Rocket]

Cause it is in the script. Duh!! And if they just blasted thru there wouldn't be time for the fighter run down the trench. And Luke's time shooting womp rats back home would have been wasted, of course.

 

[bobbittle]

perhaps because Endor itself is a gas giant, and firing at it could ignite said gasses, causing catastrophic damage or destruction of teh death star?

Endor was the moon orbiting the gas giant Endor in Return of the Jedi. This topic focuses on the gas giant Yavin.

 

[printcraft]

Wouldn't that also necessarily have impacted (pardon the pun) the Death Star's own orbit? Perhaps not catastrophically, but if they were in geosync above the main planet and only had to wait for the moon, why risk it?

I mean, that's a significant capital investment. If there was any damage (heaven forbid any workers' comp claims) due to losing the host planet's gravitational pull, there'd be a metric force-load of paperwork.

Workers comp claims have already be pretty high with this project.

[video=youtube;9bSZXucTH4A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bSZXucTH4A[/video]