Star Wars and faster than light travel

[JesterFace]

Has this been talked over and over already....?

Was it ever mentioned on screen that the Death Star was capable of faster than light travel, I don't remember it being mentioned. It has to be, what would be the point on such a thing if it can't travel fast?

I wonder, why did Tarkin say that Dantooine was "too remote to make an effective demonstration"? Too remote to reach it? Too far away for anyone to notice that it blew up and disappeared? I must have been in another galaxy or something....

Also, Han Solo bragged to Luke that the Millennium Falcon could go ,5 past light speed. So that's 1,5 lightspeed? Isn't that kind of slow compared to the size of galaxies which apparently they travel from one side to the other frequently?

 

[Mage]

It has been talked over a lot, but there will always be people that are ok with talking about again. That's the fun part of boards like these. You're going to get some people being whinymacwhinewhine now that we don't need to dicus this again. Ignore that. Focus on the people enjoying the convo, we'll have a grand time.

So, Rogue One makes it very clear that the Death Star is in fact capable of FTL. She comes out of hyperspace at some point.
However, A New Hope states that the Falcon is capable of speeds .5 beyond light speed, like you said. So it's not simply a factor of just one speed, there are variables. Star Wars has always been a bit iffy and unclear about distances and how long it takes to travel certain distances.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The Death Star could not have gone from Alderaan to Yavin without hyperdrive.

 

[The Wormhole]

So, Rogue One makes it very clear that the Death Star is in fact capable of FTL. She comes out of hyperspace at some point.

Yep, at the end someone mentions "massive object coming out of hyperspace." We then see the Death Star in orbit of Scarif.

 

[Christopher]

Was it ever mentioned on screen that the Death Star was capable of faster than light travel, I don't remember it being mentioned. It has to be, what would be the point on such a thing if it can't travel fast?

Does it need to be mentioned in dialogue, when it's explicitly demonstrated by the simple fact that the Death Star is able to travel between different star systems at will? You don't need to say it when you literally show it happening.

It's also made implicit when Vader reports that the Falcon has "just made the jump to hyperspace" and the Death Star then follows it to its destination. You don't need to hear the words, because it's self-evident from context.

Of course, that means that when Obi-Wan said "That's no moon, it's a space station," he was incorrect, due to speaking from insufficient knowledge. A station, by definition, stays in one place (or in a fixed orbit for a space station). The fact that the DS could move under its own power made it a ship, not a station.

I wonder, why did Tarkin say that Dantooine was "too remote to make an effective demonstration"? Too remote to reach it? Too far away for anyone to notice that it blew up and disappeared?

Too far from the major concentrations of civilization, too obscure for people to pay much attention to. Too remote from their lives and their attention. Like Tatooine itself, a remote, obscure world on the rim, far from the bright center of civilization. Destroying Dantooine would've been like attacking a small rural town, while destroying Alderaan was like attacking New York or London. The Death Star was a weapon of terror, and destroying an important, heavily populated world would strike far more terror than destroying a minor one.

Also, Han Solo bragged to Luke that the Millennium Falcon could go ,5 past light speed. So that's 1,5 lightspeed? Isn't that kind of slow compared to the size of galaxies which apparently they travel from one side to the other frequently?

It's a fantasy franchise, not attempting to make any kind of scientific sense. Even so, that line always did stand out to me as kind of silly.

Still, Star Wars deserves some credit for even acknowledging the speed of light and the need for a hyperdrive to surpass it. A lot of screen sci-fi franchises from that era ignored such things, like how the Moon in Space: 1999 was able to drift from planet to planet on a weekly basis (though there were a couple of token references to space warps).

 

[CorporalClegg]

It would be like blowing up Rochester instead of New York. But since New York wasn't a feelable option, Tarkin settled for the Hamptons.

 

[Timo]

The Death Star could not have gone from Alderaan to Yavin without hyperdrive.

Why not? The Falcon did not have a hyperdrive in ESB, and yet went from Hoth to Bespin. Ditto with the Razor Crest when hauling the frog lady and her eggs.

There's more to star travel in SW than just hyperdrive. And even with hyperdrive, you apparently have routes and lanes that give you an advantage. And perhaps no-fly zones aplenty, too. It's a complex little world where complexity probably eliminates the possibility of a "contradiction" altogether... Much like with warp in ST.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[publiusr]

Space lanes can even work for non FTL craft. The variable speed of light theory seems to thing cosmic strings can be superhighways.

 

[matthunter]

The RPGs took the .5 past lightspeed to mean it cut the journey in half compared to the average hyperdrive speed (which includes military-grade drives). So a Star Destroyer or X-Wing both have a x1 hyperdrive. A hyperspace route listed as 6 days takes just that. A normal YT-1300 stock freighter has a x2 drive, so it takes 12 days to traverse the same route. But the Falcon's upgrades mean she's four times faster than the stock model.

They also had ships being equipped (beyond fighters) with a backup hyperdrive with modifiers of x10 or higher, the Falcon having had to limp to Bespin using such a drive.

 

[Ithekro]

Which would make sense to have a backup hyperdrive so you can survive the main drive dying in deep space or in a system with no civilization.

However, there is the Mandalorian episode were Dinn has the take a passenger someplace from Tatooine at sub-light (or at the very least not through hyperspace) due to her eggs not up to the stress (though many were eaten by a local predator). Unless the watery world Dinn was heading was in the same system as Tatooine (if so, why are water prices so high when there is a mass of it just next door?), than something is weird about space travel in Star Wars, or the backup hyperdrive uses some other means of FTL travel that is not hyperspace (like say a warp drive).

 

[Christopher]

However, there is the Mandalorian episode were Dinn has the take a passenger someplace from Tatooine at sub-light (or at the very least not through hyperspace) due to her eggs not up to the stress (though many were eaten by a local predator). Unless the watery world Dinn was heading was in the same system as Tatooine (if so, why are water prices so high when there is a mass of it just next door?), than something is weird about space travel in Star Wars, or the backup hyperdrive uses some other means of FTL travel that is not hyperspace (like say a warp drive).

But they specifically said "sublight," which is the opposite of faster-than-light (FTL). It can't be both.

Between that and the Falcon getting to Bespin, obviously the sublight drive in the Star Wars universe is a Speed-of-Plot Drive.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Rogue One was the only SW film which actually showed the Death Star moving from one place to another.

Even though it's fairly obvious that it was always capable of movement - otherwise the Empire could not have used it to carry out its will - R1 was the only time in which the Death Star actually is SEEN to move.

(I've never seen any of the SW TV series, so I don't know if the DS ever moved in any of them. All i know is the movies.)

 

[The Wormhole]

Rogue One was the only SW film which actually showed the Death Star moving from one place to another.

Even though it's fairly obvious that it was always capable of movement - otherwise the Empire could not have used it to carry out its will - R1 was the only time in which the Death Star actually is SEEN to move.

(I've never seen any of the SW TV series, so I don't know if the DS ever moved in any of them. All i know is the movies.)

Eh? We see it moving towards Yavin in the final battle in ANH. Not to mention the fact that it's seen in both the Alderaan and Yavin systems clearly indicates there was some manner of movement involved.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Eh? We see it moving towards Yavin in the final battle in ANH.

Really? Hmm. I don't remember that. I admit it's been awhile since I've seen any of the original trilogy. Will have to check it again. Much apologizings.

 

[fireproof78]

Really? Hmm. I don't remember that. I admit it's been awhile since I've seen any of the original trilogy. Will have to check it again. Much apologizings.

Here you go: at 1:08

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[fireproof78]

I'm pretty sure FTL or hyperdrive travel in Star Wars has no, or very little, techplanations given. It's all fantasy magic, right?

And that's ok, it works fine for them.

Well, without precise calculations things can go very very badly. Some solo guy said that.

Funny enough, looking up at scene above brought up a couple of other videos from Echkarts Ladder, who does an OK job as far as tech break down. One is about the horrors of hyperspace, and he pulls from Legends material primarily. The other is the the more tech nerd style of how hyperspace makes no sense.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[publiusr]

Hyperspace does seem faster than warp.

As a kid, I thought there was a network of black holes or something ships could use…not being much faster than light speed in free space.

 

[Christopher]

Hyperspace does seem faster than warp.

Or rather, Star Wars's specific version of hyperspace seems faster than Star Trek's version of warp. Or else Star Wars's "galaxy" is much smaller, which often seems to be the case.

 

[Tuskin38]

Or rather, Star Wars's specific version of hyperspace seems faster than Star Trek's version of warp. Or else Star Wars's "galaxy" is much smaller, which often seems to be the case.

It's around 120,000ly in diameter according to canon and legend sources.