Proton Torpedo Question

When Luke fires his two Proton Torpedoes at the Death Stars thermal exhaust port shaft how the heck do the two torpedoes go downwards?they turn down the shaft after entering it and travel all the way down the tunnel into the core and destroy the station but why dont they explode upon entering the hole of the shaft itself? Shouldnt they just continue to go straight and crash into the end of the shaft and create another hole facing the point where the trench continues from the opposing side?

Are they robotically/droid likely guided and carefully go downwards or is it just the Ray Shields that prevent them from exploding right there?if you fired a bazooka missle at it then it would explode on the surface and not turn downwards, even with homing technology it is so close that it would crash into the side and explode, but maybe logical reasons were abandoned in favor of dramatic effect, the entire battle would be for absolutely nothing at all if it went the way i described it.


Butt Edit: It's potato, not potatoe.

 

The torpedoes were locked onto the Death Star's core, and so when they approached the shaft, they changed course and veered downwards. Luke used the Force to know exactly when to fire so the torpedoes could enter at the right angle. Red Leader's attempt was a little off because he fires at the wrong time.

 

If those torpedo's Trajectory Software was accurate enough to turn those torpedoes just the right amount to go down the shaft without prematurely hitting anything and going off, it would be accurate enough to guide those torpedo's into the exhaust shaft in the first place, no force needed.

It's pure LUCAS physics at play here.

Just like how a Trillion-ton 900km wide metal planet pops planet-side (forest moon of Endor) and the Ewoks escape certain Armageddon somehow.

The excuse is its just a movie/s and fantasy one/s at that, the reality is it's just lame.

Sarcasm check on

How Lucas made so much money with such BLATANT and thoughtless inaccuracies, is just a sad showing of what success on this planet has amounted to, or shall i say plummeted to

Sarcasm check off

Nah in all seriousness, i love Star Wars, enough to be a fan even with these issues

 

I think the point is that it's an impossible shot without the force. We saw from Red Leader's attempt that the targeting computer can't do it, only Luke can when he trusts his feelings.

 

Exactly. I 100% agree here. The smart torpedo explanation really diminishes the ending of ANH. I just like to assume it's the same Lucas physics that gave the DS2 a significant enough gravitational pull to make the drifting Executor alter course and crash into it.

 

It could be that Endor's gravity was what pulled the Executor down, and the Death Star just happened to be in the way.

 

Endor's gravity wouldn't make the trajectory suddenly change like that. It would pull Lady Ex into an orbit (either a stable one or an unstable one eventually spiraling towards the planet's surface).

 

The power steering went out, of course.

 

If those torpedo's Trajectory Software was accurate enough to turn those torpedoes just the right amount to go down the shaft without prematurely hitting anything and going off, it would be accurate enough to guide those torpedo's into the exhaust shaft in the first place, no force needed.

Yeah, and if it was that accurate and could turn that deftly, why even bother going that long distance down the trench ? Just shoot the torpedoes from above the Death Star near the shaft amd get the heck away.

 

Because the turbolasers on the surface are more numerous and would be able to shoot the torpedoes down. There were fewer turbolasers in the trench.

 

Nah, if the turbo blasters couldn't hit X-Wings, then they sure wouldn't be able to shoot down torpedoes

 

Well Torpedoes arent going to try to evade laser fire from Turbo Lasers like X-Wing fighter pilots would, he did say that they were evading their turbolasers, if they werent it would be easy to shoot them down, the fighters fly around in evasive manuvers to avoid being hit by fire but they wont fly straight in a straight line because that is stupid and foolish, any fool can pinpoint them and shoot them out of the sky, its logical but by flying around evasively they avoid getting destroyed quickly and easily and are very hard to take out, no effective rebellion is going to survive using stupid exploitable tatics when they can be fast and sneaky, the torpedoes would be shot down by Tie Fighters if fired from far away or by turbo laser gunners.

 

Where do you get that torpedoes would fly in a straight line? Obviously they can turn in mid flight which is why this thread came about in the first place. Also it looked pretty clear to me in the film that, yes maneuvering was a part of the difficulty facing the turbo gunners, but it was also a matter of design as well. The Death Star was built to destroy planets and fleets of capitol war ships, not small fighters and certainly not to shoot down even smaller and faster projectiles. That's what they had shields for (of course the Death Star didn't even have shields because they relied on the strength of the hull for protection). The point is, the Death Star was not designed to deal with small threats because the Empire considered such things insignificant. That goes to main theme of the movie itself.

 

I thought they ran out of gas and just fell in the hole?

 

Contrary to popular belief, the torpedoes were actually sucked into the exhaust port.

 

Contrary to popular belief, Darth Vader fired his own Proton Torpedoes into the exhaust port before pulling out to continue chasing Red Leader. That's why the Death Star exploded almost immediately after Luke fired his....otherwise it would've taken several minutes after he fired them for the Death Star to blow up.

 

According to the movie A New Hope, Vader's Tie fighter didn't even have proton torpedos and Luke used the force to find exactly where to hit the thermal exhaust port. He fired the torpedos and they guided themselves into it. The torpedos obvously found their way because Luke's shot was fully accurate and
they actually hit it not too early or too soon. His shot wasn't even slighty off like Red Leader's was.

 

I can see the smily so don't take this the wrong way... but that is an incorrect assumption or speculation.

And exhuast port no matter what machine it is on is always EXHALING air and burnt gasses or waste, never sucking anything in.

An intake port sucks air and fuel in and we specifically hear them say in the movie that the torpedoes must go into the Exhaust port .

 

Again the problem is that the torpedos were self aligning, self guiding and had capable software which both follow the target (through 450 Kilolmeters of turbulent exhaust port air and searing heat) and adjust the flight path or trajectory efficiently enough to navigate through the small exhaust port (bending rather shaply mind you) on their own to go blow up the core.

If the software can pull that off, they sure can target a 2 meter wide hole (no doubt giving off a very strong and clear HEAT SIGNATURE to a heat tracking missile or torpedo), as well, coming from a trench several dozen meters wide... there is more than enough area for the torpedos to navigate in to align theselves to the perfect angle for exhaust port entry.

Lukes shot aided by the force was the only shot capable of doing the trick because George Lucas just decided it was again time for Luke to save the day and be the hero, no biggie its part of the movie, but its not logical considering what we see the torpedos can do unaided by the force.

Lucas and Logic don't always read from the same script if you catch my proton torpedo drift

 

Haha. I was thinking of suggesting this. Maybe it's an exhaust port that spews waste on the other side of the DS and that side is the intake!!

 

G_M_Jawa's post was meant to be a joke.

usually means that the person is joking or teasing in their statement.

And again, I simply thought they ran out of gas.

^See what I did there?

 

Piett actually took a dump on the reactor, which in turn caused it to shut down, the irony is, this occured just as the bridge was taken out, the combined actions, sent the Ex down hard into the DSII's surface

 

My guess is that they were Heat seeking missiles; the exhaust port was giving off large amounts of heat, the torpedoes locked on, and went it.

 

Mmm, if torpedoes were really capable of such an extreme trajectory change in such a short amount of time, then wouldn't they make for incredibly ideal anti-starfighter weapons? I would've been more convinced if I saw the torps flying near the top of the trench before making the dive down into the little hole.

[image=http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/thumb/6/6e/Protontorpedo-NEGWT.jpg/180px-Protontorpedo-NEGWT.jpg]

By the way, why did Lucas decide to make the warheads little metal cones? Like, like what is this?? Who in their right mind makes a missile shaped like that? How is that aerodynamic? How do the thrusters work? How does it fit into an X-wing's ordinance tubes?

 

They use The Force.