Rogue One Tech Discussion

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Mike DiCenso
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Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mike DiCenso » Sun Dec 25, 2016 2:14 am

What it states in the subject header! Let's talk about the tech shown in Rogue One.


REMEMBER... SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN IT!

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I'm going to open this up with the Scarif planetary shield. Impressive to see that much coverage for once in the Galactic Empire-era of Star Wars, but the shield definitely has some serious weaknesses, namely the gate, which if attacked sufficiently brings down the entire thing.

What was most interesting was how the shield was brought down. A disabled Imperial Star Destroyer is pushed into another still operative ISD by a Rebel ship, causing both ships to smash into the ring-shaped gate facility. Not only does this imply weak shielding (Rough calcs suggest no more than 6,555 terajoules of KE), but that the Gate facility is what allows the full planetary coverage in the first place. This weakness may explain why no other full-coverage planetary shields are seen from this point onward since it wouldn't take much to destroy them. The only purpose of such a full-coverage shield is to prevent small ships from landing and to stave off attacks by them, not fend off capital ships that could have one ram into it and leave the whole planet wide open to attack by the rest of the fleet.

Thus the limited coverage shields of Hoth and Endor, which cannot be taken out, except by destroying the planetside generators and are much harder to get to.

The shields only other purpose as demonstrated in the movie seems to be to prevent espionage by blocking unauthorized ground-to-space and vice versa transmissions.
-Mike

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 359 » Sun Dec 25, 2016 8:41 am

Oddly enough it appeared to me that the destruction of the station did not in fact take down the shield. We see, or at least I saw, the shield still intact with the Stardestroyers poking through it and still visible from the Death Star's viewing screen.

It seems that the facility is just there to open the hole in the shield and may in fact rest upon the shield. And any strike of sufficient magnitude simply pierces the shield and continues on, i.e. the Stardestroyers and super laser.

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mike DiCenso » Sun Dec 25, 2016 1:36 pm

359 wrote:Oddly enough it appeared to me that the destruction of the station did not in fact take down the shield. We see, or at least I saw, the shield still intact with the Stardestroyers poking through it and still visible from the Death Star's viewing screen.
If that were the case, then the shield should have closed up or started closing up the moment the Gate was destroyed. We don't see that and it is because there is no shield that Jyn and Cassian are able to transmit the Death Star plans to the Rebel command ship.
-Mike

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 359 » Sun Dec 25, 2016 6:00 pm

This is true, however upon reviewing the relevant scenes, albeit in low quality, it does appear that the shield is still there. I would posit that the Stardestroyers created a hole similar to the gate's hole through which the transmission could be sent. But of course we will have to wait for DVD release to be certain.

And either way, it doesn't make too much of a difference to anyone possessing stronger weapons than turbo lasers. The shield is resilient enough to resist at least short term bombardment from proton torpedoes and turbo lasers, but not strong enough to repel anything much more energetic and fairly "easy" to open a hole in /bring down.

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 359 » Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:54 am

Just watched it with family. 95% certain the shield is still up after the collision, at least over most of the planet.

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mike DiCenso » Mon Dec 26, 2016 5:55 pm

Having watched the movie twice now myself, I did not see any obvious sign of the shield still being up and I noticed that ,since the Death Star fired at the base from an oblique angle (missing a direct hit), it should have hit any part of the shield still up, but there is a curious lack of shield flare, like what we see when the various starfighters bombard the Gate portion of the shield.
-Mike

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 359 » Mon Dec 26, 2016 7:05 pm

Then the wait for HD screen caps begins.

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:35 pm

So SW really does not fancy collisions much, right?

If the shield is still up, then the gate is just that, a gate. A door. Smash the door and you get a constant hole. The gate, just like any gate, is there to actually open and close a local shield.
It it got down, then the ring is the generator and caster too. It's probably considerably bigger than the station seen in ROTJ, which was already capable to cover a small moon. Maybe we still have that very old thread wherein I counted the number of ROTJ-type shielding stations would have been needed to cover the entire moon of Endor, based on the surface area of the shield cast orbitwards and around the DSII.

Oh, and what about that?

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 2046 » Sat Dec 31, 2016 5:37 am

Is that seriously in the movie?

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 359 » Sat Dec 31, 2016 8:26 pm

Mr. Oragahn wrote:Oh, and what about that?
Looks like a cargo transport version of the troop transports we see in Rebels.

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mike DiCenso » Sun Jan 01, 2017 3:43 am

Given there are a lot of references made back to TCW and Rebels, it's not surprising. Also, FYI for folks who haven't seen the movie, some of what you see in the trailers did not make it to the final film.
-Mike

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:45 pm

SPOILERS
















































At the end of the movie, the Rebels manage to get the plans of the Death Star!
I didn't see it coming!!!!

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Mike DiCenso » Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:27 am

2046, you might get some satisfaction out of the fact that we see finally get a confirmation in this movie that Star Wars ship accelerations are nothing at all on the order of what some people have been claiming. After the Death Star fires its superlaser for the first time, our heroes attempt to abandon a rebel outpost several kilometers away from the city that was the battlestation's target before the rapidly expanding shockwave reaches them. It takes a couple minutes, and everyone manages to pile into a U-wing troop transport and take off, yet rather than outrun the wave with their alleged super-duper sublight drive (would be insanely easy on ICS-level accelerations), they opt for a very dangerous endo-atmospheric hyperspace jump!

So much for that.

On a similar note, despite the Death Star firing the main weapon on a deliberate low-yield when used for the first time, the resulting explosion still causes everyone witnessing the results on the main control room on the station act very impressed by what they see, as if they have never even seen this level of destruction before. The explosion would easily be in the tens of gigatons range by the look of it. Yet this level of planetary destruction should be easy with ICS-level 200 gigaton heavy turbolasers.
-Mike

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by 2046 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 6:24 pm

Such things would be satisfying only in a consistent universe.

I haven't seen TFA or R1 but as I understand the spoilers it is all as dichotomously schizoid as the EU, if not worse. A universe where fighters sling megajoules at best and destroy capital ships that laugh at megatons is just . . . ugh. I have better things to do with my brain than analyze space fantasy.. Voyager is my limit in that regard.

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Re: Rogue One Tech Discussion

Post by Khas » Thu Jan 05, 2017 6:59 pm

2046 wrote:Such things would be satisfying only in a consistent universe.

I haven't seen TFA or R1 but as I understand the spoilers it is all as dichotomously schizoid as the EU, if not worse. A universe where fighters sling megajoules at best and destroy capital ships that laugh at megatons is just . . . ugh. I have better things to do with my brain than analyze space fantasy.. Voyager is my limit in that regard.
Considering that TCW showed AT-TEs doing a hell of a number on Separatist capital ships, RoTS showed Anakin's Jedi fighter causing significant damage to General Grievous' ship, and RoTJ showed the Executor being sent spiraling out of control due to a fucking A-Wing slamming into the bridge... this is different to what we've seen, how?

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