(TFA Spoilers) So if Han can exit hyperspace inside a planet's atmosphere....

[MrGoldsilver]

Does that mean the Death Stars are just a waste of resources?

 

Stay with me here, I'll try to not be too confusing.

 

I saw TFA yesterday (A friend dragged me to see it), and one of the bigger problems I noticed is how Han managed to jump past Starkiller Bases's shield directly into the atmosphere.

 

Now you may wonder why that is such a big deal, but think about it this way: If Han could do it, you bet someone else could do it also.

 

So instead of a Death Star, all the Empire would need to destroy a planet would be a fairly large asteroid, and a hyperdrive.

 

Just strap the hyperdrive onto the asteroid, program it to jump out of hyperspeed inside Alderaan's Atmosphere at .999C and alderaan is toast. No need for a super large and fancy Battlestation when you can spend a fraction of the resources on an hyperdrive.

 

 

Now, the fact that no one has ever done that in Star Wars tells me that for whatever reason it is NOT possible to exit hyperspace right next to a planet. So what Han did was either impossible, or they just activated the powers of "Screw Continuity, we got movie logic!":cool:

 

Or is there some fancy explanation that I missed that somehow explains how Han can do that, but no one else can?

[Wolfninjajedi]

1. The Death Stars aren't a waste....why is it everyone just looks at them as planet destroying weapons, when that's not their only function? It also serves as a mobile battle station, keeping resources, ships, troops and the like all in one area and able to travel anywhere and deploy such things. The DS were about instilling fear, not destroying planets as this is said by Tarkin.

 

2. Han...is just one amazing freighter pilot apparently, hence why he tried doing what he did and it worked.

[MrGoldsilver]

1. The Death Stars aren't a waste....why is it everyone just looks at them as planet destroying weapons, when that's not their only function? It also serves as a mobile battle station, keeping resources, ships, troops and the like all in one area and able to travel anywhere and deploy such things. The DS were about instilling fear, not destroying planets as this is said by Tarkin.

 

2. Han...is just one amazing freighter pilot apparently, hence why he tried doing what he did and it worked.

 

1) Yes, but why would you bother to build a Superlaser on a mobile battle station if you could instead use that extra space to house more troops and ships, and resources if you had a different way to destroy planets?

 

Or why didn't any rogue government threaten to drop asteroids on Coruscant if they didn't follow their demands?

 

It's because the ability to drop ships out of hyperspace right on top of a planet doesn't exist, so they can't do that

 

(NOTE: Yes the Expanded Universe has an explanation why the "Asteroid planet killer" doesn't exist. Before seeing the movie, I had assumed that the explanation was still in effect. But Han completely violated the explanation)

 

2) What Han did was manage not to crash into the planet. What the fictional asteroid planet killer would do is crash INTO the planet. MUCH Much easier.

[MadDutchman]

While this is a bit of an open question, it wouldn't be hard to retcon in an explanation.

 

Ex.

What Han did was stupid dangerous and only worked because he decanted at EXACTLY the right moment to prevent the Falcon from getting shredded and had to decelerate to normal speeds very rapidly (part of the hyperdrive function I might add). Had he stayed at near light speed he would have been reduced to spare atoms.

 

 

Also note that the completion of ALL hyperpace jumps involve a near instantaneous reduction in speed to "normal" speeds. Even being dragged out by an interdiction cruiser (which are canon I should mention) causes this same near instant reduction in speed.

 

We really don't know enough about the "science" of hypepace to really say for sure, though personally I'd really like one, though I doubt we'll get much, this isn't Star Trek after all.

[Permaximum]

TFA is full with plot holes and I don't even know where to begin with. You should have get used to it by now. Edited January 14, 2016 by Permaximum

[jauvtus]

There is no science in SW: spaceships can burn without oxygen, when you shoot a ship down, it goes down, but why exactly? there's no gravity there, etc.

But we dont love it because its scientific.

[MrGoldsilver]

I suppose I should clarify where I originally got this line of thought from.

 

From an "Ask the Authors" with Aaron Allston and Timothy Zahn from back in 2011

(It starts around 7:50)

 

Zahn: "I had probably a two hour discussion once with a couple of the West End Games guys back during the Thrawn Trilogy when they where still doing the role playing game, trying to figure out how hyperdrive worked. And, one suggestion was: You get yourself into hyperspace and then you have to decelerate out. And the problem with that is that if you Have to decelerate out as opposed to it happening automatically, you have a railgun you have a Mass Driver, you don't need a Death Star, you just send that asteroid into hyperspace, not decelerate it and have it run into Alderaan at 0.9C or whatever it comes out at and you got your weapon of choice. And it's free. The fact it never happened in the movies means it can't happen, and so that's not how hyperdrive works."

 

So while Zahn's works isn't part of the same universe anymore, his logic remains the same.