From: MLINDROOS@finabo.abo.fi (Marcus Lindroos INF)
Subject: Re: Why Endor? OR The Economy of Galaxy Farfaraway
Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 10:34:22 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.23

In <1992Oct7.130425.3292@cs.hw.ac.uk> adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk writes:

> In article <1992Oct4.183216.1242@abo.fi> MLINDROOS@finabo.abo.fi (Marcus Lindroos INF) writes:
> >> 
> >> The Death Star was assembled at Endor, but I think it's reasonable to assume
> >> that the materials to build it didn't come from there.
> >
> >Not necessarily. A couple of asteroids a few miles in diameter would be enough
> >for mining the metals and materials necessary to build a 160km space station.
> 
> There is, of course, no evidence in the film for either case.  But if the
> Empire could build Death Stars so easily, why did they not build more?

For the same reason why NASA doesn't build more space shuttles, namely because
it's expensive! 
 
> >Almost all star systems should have minor planetary bodies suitable for the
> >task, and they can be moved cheaply and easily within the system.
> 
> Meaning that the Empire ought to be able to build a Death Star in every
> star system.  Such Death Stars would not need hyperdrives either.  No, I
> believe that building a battle-station of that size is a major undertaking,
> even for the Empire, and requires more resources than can be readily gained
> from one system, or even from a small number of systems.

It is a huge undertaking, true, but availability of raw material and building
location aren't necessarily important. Cape Canaveral was nothing but a jungle
when NASA decided to turn it into America's main spaceport in the late 1950s.
---
The main problem when building spaceships (Saturn moon rockets or Death Stars,
depending on how advanced the spacefaring society in question is!) is that the
components needed are extremely expensive and difficult to manufacture. But you
don't necessarily have to ferry building materials from a thousand or even a
dozen star systems when building a Death Star. More likely, there are probably
several companies specializing in manufacturing military hardware of all kinds
involved in the project. They design and build all the computers, weapon
systems etc. needed on their home worlds (supposedly under tight security, only
higher officials know what the equipment is REALLY needed for), then freight
everything to Endor for final assembly. Meanwhile, the Death Star "skeleton" 
itself is being built from local raw materials mined in the Endor system's 
asteroid belt. Yes, this *can* be done anywhere provided the money is
available! NASA can assemble the space shuttle anywhere in the States as well. 
(As an aside, isn't West End Games' idea that the DS was built
using "slave labor" extremely silly? We are not talking about a Roman fortress
or a medieval castle here. The DS is an extremely complicated machine that can
only be built by highly skilled people).
---
The reason why the Emperor decided to assemble the DS at Endor was of course
to force the rebels to come out of the closet. Doing the job closer to the 
center of the Empire would have been easier, but obviously the Imperials felt 
the risks involved by moving the whole operation were small. 
  
> The Death Star was not intended to blow up planets.
> 
> Someone is missing the whole point behind the Death Star.  Its job was to
> terrorise the citizens of the Empire.  Someone with a book or video handy
> can post Tarkin's little speech to Leia if they want, but the key points
> were that fear of the battle station was to be a key instrument of Imperial
> policy; that this fear had to be inspired by the destruction of a fairly
> central world, so that reports of what had happened would not take too long
> to get round; and that this is why Alderaan, rather than Dantooine, was to
> be the first target.  (The book also indicates that Alderaan had capable
> planetary defences, despite what Leia said about it being a peaceful world,
> making it even more ideal for such a demonstration.)
> 
> >Notice, also, that the entire Civil War seems to be a predominantly human
> >conflict. Only in ROTJ do we see any aliens fighting on either side, and then
> >only for the rebels. The Emperor is clearly human and his Navy is 100% human
> >too.
> 
> Remember, the Empire are the bad guys.  Since the worst crimes that one seems
> to be able to commit these days are racism and sexism, it follows that the
> Empire has to be guilty of both - note that only the Alliance seems to have
> females in its command structure as well.

No minorities either, although there were several black and oriental fighter
pilots fighting for the rebels in ROTJ. Can anyone remember a single
non-Caucasian Imperial officer?
 
> -- 
>  "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott
> 
>  Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
>  UUCP: ..!uknet!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian   |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk

MARCU$
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