AboutBrack Valmar Expertise I am an expert on everything Star Wars, having thorough knowledge of nearly all aspects of the Star Wars phenomenon and having read the Star Wars encyclopedia and other reference materials cover to cover several times each. I am particularly adept at answering "in universe" questions related to plots, places, and people though I can also answer the vast majority of "making of" questions as well. I am very dedicated to Star Wars and I guarantee an answer to every question I recieve. If I don`t personnaly know the answer I will either find the answer for you or tell you where you can find it. I am also a "comprehensivist" in the sense that I accept all published stories and articles coming from an official source as being a part of the Star Wars mythos, and am adept at reconciling conflicting accounts, facts, and stories. You name it, I'll explain how it all fits together.
Experience I am a star Wars fanatic myself and I can tell you almost anything you want to know. I've read the Star Wars Encyclopedia cover to cover several times, and have an extensive knowleadge of all things Star Wars. If I don't know off hand, I'll do everything in my power to find out for you.
Question QUESTION: Hi, I have a technical Star Wars question I hope you can help me with. Where exactly on the first Death Star are the sublight engines located? According to the literature I've read, my best guess is that there are two sublight engines located on the Death Star's equator, one on the outer edge of the left side and the other on the outer edge of the right side of the station (left and right if you consider the superlaser dish the front of the Death Side). Is this correct? And from what I gather, the two engines power a network of thrusters ringing the equator, but the thrusters themselves are not the actual engines, just the outlets for the two real engines. Can you please confirm this for me? Thank you very much for your help!
ANSWER: Hi there!
In order to better answer your question, I've done some research on my own and found the majority of my sources to be in agreement. None of these sources point to there being only two sublight engines. I'm curious as to what literature suggested this idea as I'd be very interested in reading it as well. None of my sources give a specific number of ion engines present on the station, but ALL of them refer to a "network of powerful ion engines". As you pointed out in your question, these were indeed located around the station's "equator". Also present onboard was a system of 123 Hyperdrive field generators for superluminal travel. I suppose it's certainly possible that two extremely high powered ion-engines could provide power to the individual thrusters located around the station, but I have two problems with the idea. First, the death star's trench is said to have been 503km long. If there are two engines located along the trench (on opposite sides), then in order to power the thrusters furthest from either engine, radioactive ions travelling at nearly the speed of light would have to travel approximately 126km along the trench before being emitted. Controlling a stream of ions like that would not only be much more dangerous than using a large number of smaller engines spaced more evenly around the station, but it would ultimately probably be more expensive and technologically less likely. My second issue is that, as I've mentioned, I haven't seen any proof or mention of two engines.
I hope this has cleared things up!
Please let me know if you can what your source was for the two engines idea! I'd love to look at it more closely. I hope you'll remember to rate my response and that you won't hesitate to come to me with any future Star Wars queries.
May the Force be With You!
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QUESTION: I very much appreciate your in-depth response, and I see your point as to the impracticality of just two big engines as opposed to many small ones spaced out. The two-engine theory came from the Wookieepedia article on the Death Star <http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/DS-1_Orbital_Battle_Station>, which cites "Star Wars: Complete Cross-Sections" as its source. I don't own this book, so I couldn't be sure as to where these two engines were supposedly located, but I suspected on the sides based on the drawing in "Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections" (for Ep 4-6). The "Complete" book is a compilation of this book and the individual "Incredible" books for Ep 1, 2, and 3, but the "Complete" is supposed to have more information. Perhaps there are two big engines/drives (I don't know the difference between these terms) which convert the energy from the core into a form the numerous sublight engines can use, rather than shooting ions a quarter of the way around the equator. Do you think that's what the "Complete" book is referring to? Thank you kindly for your help.
Answer Hello again!
Thank you very much for the new info! It seems that you're absolutely right. Wookiepedia's citations are all in order (as they tend to be most of the time). When I checked for information there earlier, I looked under the heading "Death Star", which (oddly) turned up a much more generalized version of the page you included a link to. I don't own the Complete Cross-Sections book either, and so am having difficulty verifying the placement of the drives. (In SW terms, "drive" is pretty much synonymous with "engine", by the way.) Despite my lack of source material, I have made a few inferences that may clear this up once and for all. First, let me briefly explain how an Ion drive would work. According to Wookiepedia, "Ion engines were fueled by power cells, liquid chemical reactants, onboard generators, or virtually any other device capable of providing sufficient power. The engine utilized internal fusion reactions to produce a stream of highly-charged particles that were forced through the engine's exhaust port at nearly the speed of light." The Ion engines draw power from the reactor core in order to cause the fusion reactions resulting in the emission of charged ions and causing thrust in the opposite direction. Since they aren't really capable of converting energy for use by smaller drives, that seems to indicate that your initial assumption was correct and that these two engines have exhaust ports all around the station's equator which are utilized strategically to create thrust in the desired direction. Although I pointed out the dangers of firing the charged particles around such a large section of the station, the following quote suggests that not only did Imperial Technicians find ways to make such a feat safe (at least within operable levels) but that this is exactly what they did:
"All engineers working near the highly radioactive engines were forced to wear radiation suits in order to keep harmful exposure to a minimum. Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin once likened walking inside the Death Star's interior as walking inside the Caves of Corips, but with illuminated tubing and plastisteel replacing the natural surroundings."
Based on this new information, I'm forced to admit that my initial skepticism was unfounded and say that you were absolutely correct the first time. The Incredible Cross Sections drawings, when connected with the Wookiepedia information (originally printed in the Complete Cross Sections and in The Star Wars Technical Journal) DO seem to verify your theoretical placement of the TWO sublight engines aboard the first Death Star.
I apologize profusely for my initially uninformed answer, I thank you for the new information, and I hope that any confusion has been cleared up now. As before, please remember to rate my answer and don't hesitate to ask another question in the future!
May the Force Be With You!
