Whats the point of the polar trench on the Death Star?

I don't see why there would need to be a trench on the top of the Death Star leading to the exhaust port...

Does it serve any purpose??


-Mace-

 

Polar trench? Equatorial trench, you mean? I never got it either, but it was needed to make a good-looking chase sequence possible.

 

Other than making it look interesting instead of just a smooth ball from a craetive standpoint, they could serve various functions.
I suppose these could be centralized areas for maintanence, exhausts, heat vents etc etc. The trenches could very well have been jutting out like long ridges rather than trenches.
Also they could serve as a way for a fighter or supply or engineering spacecraft to be able to visually see where they are in relation to the landscape of the Death Star if they fly near the surface, or for approaching craft to have a visual marker so they come in towards the docking areas the right way, providing a visual "up" and "down" while coming in.

 

No, he means the polar trench, where the ANH trnech run took place.

And no, I don't see an reason for it. Maybe it's structural?

 

Well, it does give the Death Star more surface area, allowing more space for guns. Maybe...?

Warrior_of_Mandalore Strikes Again!

 

Other "important" DS questions:

Why is it round? It could have been any shape, it's space after all.

Why does it only have one large laser for planetary bombardment? With thousands of SD size turbolaser batteries, they wouldn't have to piss of civilians by blowing up whole planets.

Why is it gray? If they paint it black and not use transparent windows, then it becomes totally invisible in space.

Why is it called the Death Star? It's not a star, it's a battle station. Shouldn't it be called Imperial Battle Station Alpha or something?

Why does it have an equatorial trench? Other that it being where all the docking bays are, it is completely pointless.

 

Maintenance?

 

<<Why is it round? It could have been any shape, it's space after all. >>

Seems to be based on the Trade Federation's ships, it is a Confed design after all.

<<Why does it only have one large laser for planetary bombardment? With thousands of SD size turbolaser batteries, they wouldn't have to piss of civilians by blowing up whole planets.>>

It does have turbolaser emplacements, but the ship is based around fear.

<<Why is it gray? If they paint it black and not use transparent windows, then it becomes totally invisible in space. >>

Emperor likes gray.

<<Why is it called the Death Star? It's not a star, it's a battle station. Shouldn't it be called Imperial Battle Station Alpha or something? >>

Because Deep Space Mobile Armored Battle Station just didn't roll off the tongue as well as Death Star does.


<<Why does it have an equatorial trench? Other that it being where all the docking bays are, it is completely pointless.>>

If you notice that is where the exhaust port is, including similar exhaust ports, which means that it probably was for waste disposal and other maintence<sp> issues.

 

They need a trench in case the toilets back-up.

 

exhaust/heating and cooling

 

A sphere allows the most surface area for guns, and the most interior area for, um, interior.
Do they not teach geometry in schools anymore?

It only needs one gun do destroy a planet. No one cares about civilians.

The cost of the paint would bankrup the Empire, and the name sounds cool.

 

wiseguy, what the heck is interior area? do you mean "volume"?

 

Apparently not, since a sphere has the least surface area for a given volume.

However, that reason would make it optimal for construction. It's the shape with the minimal amount of materials required to hold a given amount.

The equatorial trench is for docking. It makes sense to centralize all loading and transport areas, and a trench makes it big enough for a Star Destroyer to dock. Also, with the docking bays inset, it provides more defense for them, both for ships trying to get in and out.

Here's something even more puzzling than a single exhaust port capable of destroying the entire station: apparently power to the entire tractor beam array of the Death Star can be cut off by flipping one switch in a completely empty room. Didn't the Empire learn about redundancy? Or security? I mean, I know they were overconfident and though they were impregnable, but that's just insane. At least put a lock on that sucker.

 

I seem to remember there were seven tractor beam switches, but that switching one off would weaken it sufficiently to let them get away... Am I completely off base here?

The Empire were cocky, thought themselves impregnable. Underestimating your enemy is the best way to get beaten in battle. Sun Tzu said something to that effect about 500 BC in The Art of War.

 

I COULD say you are all pathetic nitpickers who would happily sit back and destroy any part of the film for the sake of questions like this, and also say that the reason it had a trench was:
That it made the end of the film exciting, it provided a good chase sequence, it gave us the feeling of speed, the sense of claustrophbia and the daring skill of the rebel pilots was shown because the script required it and having them fly along th surface wouldnt have had HALF the dramatic impact.....

But I wont.....



And if you want to nitpick, then I could say:
Why do the Star Destroyers house thier bridge defletor shields in huge, easily attackable spheres on the top of the bridge?? Why not house the most important deflector shields in much safer, hard to hit regions of the ship?



You could debate the why's and wherefore's of the technology until you are blue in the face, but then that takes away the escapism and fun of the films.



And anyway, Lord Hydronium has it spot on "The equatorial trench is for docking. It makes sense to centralize all loading and transport areas, and a trench makes it big enough for a Star Destroyer to dock. Also, with the docking bays inset, it provides more defense for them, both for ships trying to get in and out".


TLJ Edit: And I COULD say you're completely missing the point of a discussion forum; I COULD say you were insulting fans, discussing them instead of the movies; I COULD say you SHOULD read the rules.
But I won't. Instead I'll just edit the things in this post that went too far, make a note of it, consider this an in-thread-warning and will be watching

 

The most surface area for guns is what I said, not the most surface area.
A sphere allows the most coverage area for the guns, is that better? Meaning there's no zone blocked by corners or right angles.

Picky picky.

Yes, it means volume. I didn't want to use a word that's obviously lost on so many.

 

It's probably an access trench for some of the station's more delicate systems. It's well defended for a reason!

 

I think the whole thing is actually a big hatch that lets the death star open up into two peices revealing a slightly smaller death star inside..

..which in turn has it's own trench, which also splits open, and reveals another slightly smaller death star, and so on.. and so on... and so on...

..until eventually the smallest death star has no trench and is the size of a basketball, this small sphere is actually R4s head that was blown off in the beggining of Episode III, and being the heart of the death star is actually his revenge against obiwon for leaving him floating in space for so long...

...or I made that up

 

Ya know, the more I read the posts here, the more I think that people actually thought the trench run was around the equator. The trench was located near the top of the station, people.

 

Why is it called the Death Star? It's not a star, it's a battle station. Shouldn't it be called Imperial Battle Station Alpha or something?

There you are on your planet. One day you look up and see a very bright point of light that wasn't there the day before, looking brighter then any other star in the sky. Then...KABLOWA!!

Hence, Death Star.

 

IIRC, switching off one of the seven tractor beam stations disabled it entirely.

And the Empire may be cocky, but this is just weird. I mean, it's not even a good principle; why have controls for vital systems just lying about? What purpose would that serve in the first place? Does the Empire routinely ask arbitrary stormtroopers to shut down the tractor beam? It's even labelled "Tractor Beam"! It would be like if pushing one of Vader's buttons killed him instantly, or if the Death Star had a self-destruct button just out in the open, or if Obi-Wan and Anakin had found a switch that shut down the droid army in some random corridor of the Invisible Hand, or if the Rebel shields on Hoth had an off switch in the hangar.

And I know its purpose is for the movie plot, but it's still pretty crazy.

Fair enough. Just teasing.

I should have clarified (for my part, not that you were only referring to me). I was just explaining the equatorial trench, not the polar trench. The polar trench's sole purpose seems to be for fighters to have an easy time getting to the exhaust shaft.

 

...plot devices...

 

Because the artificial gravity which was constructed on the death star made the surface area more of a planet. Thus it needed to have outcroppings and buildings in order for the workers there to function and not get disoriented. A trench was just one of the features of the design.

 

Remember, the Death Star was designed to defend against capital ships, not fighters. If you wanted to protect an exhaust port that important from CAPITAL SHIPS, you could do so by putting it in a trench, making it much more difficult for a CAPITAL SHIP'S turbolaser batteries to land a direct hit on the vent.

 

I think the most obvious answer was, it didn't origionally, the origional concept for the death star was much more complex, and had a large maw for it's planet killing laser,

[image=http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/2641/61104727453c0ffe66bc.jpg]

they were probably going to use that for the 2 final battles, and have the fighters fly through/along the openning, but they couldn't afford 1) to actually have 2 dogfights, 2) couldn't afford their origional death star, so they made a big fiber glass sphere instead


...no trench at all, just a maw/pit
almost like the opening on the DSII, only a lot bigger