From: mmhazewi@cs.ruu.nl (Maarten Hazewinkel)
Subject: Re: Star Wars vs. Star Trek, tech & tactics, etc.
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 10:39:55 GMT
Organization: Utrecht University, Dept. of Computer Science

In <BruMxE.MBy@watserv1.waterloo.edu> rlbell@babbage.waterloo.edu (Richard Bell) writes:

>In article <1992Jul23.003111.13470@cco.caltech.edu> travis@cco.caltech.edu (Leopold E. Travis) writes:
>>
>>Even if we accept that the Empire cannot fight at FTL speeds, the
>>Federation still has to deal with the Death Star.  As I've pointed
>>out, the energy output required to destroy an earth-type planet is
>>on the order of 10^17 megatons--nearly two weeks' output from the sun.
>>Given this kind of power, it seems difficult to believe that Federation
>>weaponry could penetrate the Death Star's shields.  (And it was my
>>understanding that only small craft such as fighters could slip
>>through the shields like the rebels did).
>>
>
>The SSD passed right through the shields and caused extensive, if local,
>damage to the Death Star.  If the Death Star has holes in its shielding
>large enough to pass the Millenium Falcon, it has holes large enough to
>pass photon torpedoes, anti-matter bombs delivered via transporter, or
>any other destructive device that the Feds chose to use.   

Well, it was my understanding that the external generator of the DS2 shield
was deactivated at this time.

As for small ships being able to penetrate shields, while large ships
can't/don't, I could say this:
Fighter may have onboard a device that allows them to weaken a shield
locally, enough to slip through without damage. This would also account
for the great importance that is obviously attached to fighters in combat,
as they would be able to deliver strikes inside the enemy shields, while
bigger ships first have to pound through them.
To make this plausible, consider a shield to be like a mesh, as is often
used in fences. That is, a series of iron wires woven through each other.
Now, for REALLY small things, this would not present a obstacle at all. This
would explain why you can see relatively well through shields. Single fotons
are not really affected.
A beam, (like a turbo laser) would be disrupted by being partially
intercepted, and also by being bent in lots of different directions by the
fine mesh (I remember that from some lessons about optical physics).
Now, a small object (X-wing), might be able to shift the strands of the mesh
sufficiently to be able to pass through. This would of course only work
temporarly, as likely the shield machinery would detect this, and strengthen
the shield.
Now large ships would require such big holes in the shields that it would be
more efficient to simply pound on them until they give.
As for the DS2 shield, this was apparently of an extraordinary powerful
variety, requiring planet (moon) based machinery. The DS2 might eventually
have gotten an equivalent shielding power, if it had been completed.

And to be ahead of some people, who are bound to ask: why didn't the DS1 have
these powerful shields? Well, there are a number of possibilities.

1. They didn't have these new shields then, they were only invented when the
DS2 was built.
2. They had the basis for the new shields, but they were still so new that
their actual building on the required scale would need lots of scientists,
scientists being notoriously independent minded. This would have presented a
security risk with regards to the rebellion. Remember, the rebels only barely
even learned of it's existence.
3. The shields were available, but either very heavy, or very expensive, or
both, so that it was decided to depend on the surface batteries, armor, and
sheer size/mass of the DS1, for it to survive attack.
4. The writers didn't think of it. :)
.....


Well, that's it for now.

Disclaimer: I'm making this up as I go along.
	    I'm doing it for fun, nothing else.

Maarten Hazewinkel
mmhazewi@cs.ruu.nl
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars