Scientific and logical explanation of some Star Wars scenes

I know this may sound stupid as it was said countless times that SW is not sci-fi, but just fantasy, and that there's no blasts sounds in space etc. However several plot's turns have captured my attention and aroused the following question that would be entertaining to hear your answers to, namely:

1. A NEW HOPE: the very beginning. Leia's ship is boarded by the Imperial cruiser. C3PO and R2D2 have managed to hide in some module of the Blockade Runner. We see that the princess was able to do this too, that's why she was able  to put into R2 the diskette with DS plans. Question: why she didn't take an occasion to escape in the lifeboat together with the droids?

2. Tarkin (after the Solo's ship jumped to hyperspace) asked Vader if the homing beacon was secured  on the board of the Falcon adding he took a big risk to fall back on Vader's plan. From this one could draw a conclusion of planned escape, some kind of covert operation organized by design in an attempt to locate the secret Rebel Base. That's ok. But then why they tried to kill Luke, Han, Leia & Chewy in the trash compactor turning on the ramming? I can accept the idea that "the betters" were ready to sacrifice the lives of thousands of poor stormtroopers to  create illusion of  a "chase". But if they were, then what if the stormtroopers succeeded? What's where my confusion comes from for I can't get whether Tarkin&Vader were planning to kill them or to trace them?

Regarding SW presented technologies:

3. The old good debate on "what was the size of DS I&II". There were numerous mathematical attempts to unveil this "secret" even using spheric trigonometry and other maths tools and methodology. However  my approach to the problem is quite simplier: the official SW databank claims  (measured in km, the diameter) 120 for the DS I and  180 for the DS II. At first glance it's WOW. But, guys, think again: both figures is not very giant, in fact a very small for a superweapon capable of destroying entire PLANETS and we're talking not about big asteroids, planetoids or planetesimals. 120&180 km which are diameters, not even radiuses, conforms well to ordinary distances between two cities on the Earth. And even if to take into account the spherical diameters then these DSs were very small. Our planet belongs to the group of the small planets, nevertheless its diameter is being estimated as much as 18 000 (EIGHTEEN THOUSAND) km. How could the supergiant military station of 180 km diameter reduce to dust a cosmic body that is hundredfold the station itself? In James Kahn's novelization of ROTJ Endor was reckoned among the giant planets. I don't know what was meant by this, but if to extrapolate this to our Solar system then the only example it could satisfy is Jupiter: equatorial radius - 71 492 km, polar - 66 854 km. What size MUST any of Death Stars be to blast such a planet? The other aspect: the horizon line curvature. We're too small comparing to the gargantuan Earth's size for the eye to embrace the whole planet. When spaceship approaches it the eyes of astronauts see the edge line of the Earth (as well as that of any huge cosmic body) deforming gradually depending on the extent of the ship's distance  towards the planet at every moment and when the ship lands the curvature is 0  - it becomes a straight line. Now we were shown that effect clearly observed from the board of the Falcon and ESPECIALLY a X-WING approaching DS (Yavin and Endor battles). As the battles raged on all the pilots were able to see the surface being flat for the most of the time only slightly curving  when performing banked turns and other aerobatics. An opinion was spoke out that the DS II actual size had to be  about 900 km, however even this non-impressing number wasn't taken seriously. The first I saw SW I thought DS have to be of the planetary size. Not 120 km, but 120 000 or at least 12 000 km, DS II (twice as large as DS I) 240 000 or 24 000 km with the former numbers being more adequate (I'm serious) to the Imperial super technology that appears as described both in the movies and books. Then of course such a station could easily destroy the giant planet of Endor.   

4. The explosion of DS II at the end of ROTJ. Well, the point is that if the station really exploded in close proximity to Endor its shatters - again considering its enormous parameters and the huge freed energy flow - would cause a global cataclysm on the planet sweeping away the majority of all life forms resulting in catastrophic climate changes, floods and earthquakes.

So, please, feel free to share your thoughts ))

Hmm, my post for some reason contains image defects. To see the shaded line you should mark it with the pointer. 

tl;dr

I will say, though, that I consider Star Wars science fantasy, not strictly fantasy or science-fiction.

How could the supergiant military station of 180 km diameter reduce to dust a cosmic body that is hundredfold the station itself?

E = m c^2

Converting even a small fraction of its mass into energy would be sufficient.

If the station had the same average density as water at 1 bar and you were to accelerate the entire thing to light speed it would have an energy of 2.59 * 10^31 J. To put that another way that is 294,138,058,495,685,800 atomic bombs like the one dropped over Nagasaki.

Merry Christmas

SilverWook said:.

2. Arguably, the trash compactor system is automated. Otherwise, somebody would have overridden Artoo's ability to shut it down, let alone open the hatc

The homing beacon plan could have been hatched and implemented only a short time before the gang got back to the docking bay. The ship was lightly guarded, and the troops present didn't interrupt Vader's duel. Those particular troops may have been the only ones with specific instructions not to hit anything.

 Hmm, this assumption rests on shaky ground: the scene in the novel Star wars where Vader said that he was going to arrange the company's reunion with the princess preceded one in the trash compactor. One could guess the same sequence was predetermined for ANH. Automated compaction didn't fit the logic of the imperials trying to capture or terminate them.

sasuke said:

How could the supergiant military station of 180 km diameter reduce to dust a cosmic body that is hundredfold the station itself?

E = m c^2

Converting even a small fraction of its mass into energy would be sufficient.

 Ok, let's assume I accepted this explanation. But some inconsistency still left: in James Kahn novelization the Emperor gives the instruction to DS 2 chief commander in case the rebels destroy the shield to blast Endor turning DS to it. And this looked quite utopian because if DS 2 managed somehow to destroy the giant planet then DS itself together with the Emperor would be cindered with the enormous hit of detonated body, wouldn't it?

Mavericks said:

Question: why [Leia] didn't take an occasion to escape in the lifeboat together with the droids?

"There goes another one"

"Hold your fire. There are no life forms. It must have been short-circuited."

Better to choose a small chance of survival, even though it is tiny, than choose certain death in the escape pod.

At least one escape pod was jettisoned before... Maybe that one contained another droid with another copy of the Death Star plans. ;)

But then why they tried to kill Luke, Han, Leia & Chewy in the trash compactor turning on the ramming?

Not planned. The trash compactor is automatic.

I don't think that the imperial officers tracked the heroes escape into the trash compactor.

4. The explosion of DS II at the end of ROTJ.

 This has been debated endlessly. Google "Endor holocaust".

Why couldn't R2 switch the Tractor Beam off from the Hanger control room, that would have saved a bit of bother

J

I haven't read the novelization and I don't know if its supposed to be canonical.  I just wanted to respond to the idea that the Death Star was too small to be a planet buster, because its not.

SilverWook said:

Mavericks said:

SilverWook said:.

2. Arguably, the trash compactor system is automated. Otherwise, somebody would have overridden Artoo's ability to shut it down, let alone open the hatc

The homing beacon plan could have been hatched and implemented only a short time before the gang got back to the docking bay. The ship was lightly guarded, and the troops present didn't interrupt Vader's duel. Those particular troops may have been the only ones with specific instructions not to hit anything.

 Hmm, this assumption rests on shaky ground: the scene in the novel Star wars where Vader said that he was going to arrange the company's reunion with the princess preceded one in the trash compactor. One could guess the same sequence was predetermined for ANH. Automated compaction didn't fit the logic of the imperials trying to capture or terminate them.

 I wouldn't take anything in the novels as written in stone.

Maybe that could be a point with EU, but  I'm talking of George Lucas'es/A.D.Foster's novel "Star Wars" upon which ANH was based and the two subsequent novelizations written after the drafts of ESB and ROTJ. Always used to think these belonged to the official  LFL approved canon.

One more thing: why Captain Needa had to come to Vader for a direct report  instead of using hologram connection with him, like the captains of other ships (see earlier scenes of asteroid chase) and adm. Ozzel did ? Vader would successfully use his Force shock remotely with equal ease. Is this blooper or what?

Needa realised the enormity of his mistake and likely knew death was ahead of him, so on a survival instinct he thought he'd apologise to Vader in person.

J

Darth Vader in ROTJ:" Good work, commander. Conduct your search and bring his companions to me". What for? Any ideas. Could that be the reason why the Rebells were not terminated immediately when captured the first time (inside the bunker), and the second time (outside it, just after Leia had been wounded)?

Ok, but still any interrogation is the duty of army, its intelligence, not the President of even the Defense Minister (who equivalent Vader used to be to). He ordered to bring them to him personally. The exactly same moment in ESB made me think a lot when he told Lando to bring Leia and the Wookie to his ship. Ok, so Leia was important cause she knew the rendevouz point, but what could be the use of Chewy?

ITT: Headcanon discussion

1. This has been addressed pretty well. Why would the Imperials go after a couple of random droids when Leia was right there acting as a decoy to get their attention? Since she didn't actually have the plans on board anymore by the time they captured her, she had all kinds of plausible deniability on her side; sending the droids off on their own to reach Kenobi was her best bet to ensure that the Death Star plans got where they needed to go. She had planned this--that's why Artoo's message for Obi-Wan included Leia apologizing for not being there personally.

2. You're going to fault them for having a plan B? Plan A would obviously be 'keeping them all prisoner and not allowing an escape attempt in the first place', of course. The trash compactor thing wasn't part of anyone's plan--not the Empire, and not the Rebels. It was fog of war, Murphy's Law, what have you. The Death Star was so huge, they couldn't keep track of everything that was happening during Leia's rescue and escape--this is made clear by the fact that they didn't know our heroes were in the trash compactor, and therefore didn't shut down the trash compactors and just take pot-shots at them from the hole in the ceiling...and the fact that the Falcon and all its passengers were able to escape in the first place.

3. There are figures that place the DSII at 160 km in diameter, and others that place it at 900 km. If it was closer to 900 km, that puts it on par with Saturn's 'large moons', and if it's appreciably bigger than the original, then that would easily put the original in the realm of Saturn's small moons. Y'know, a large small moon. (Incidentally, if the DSII is 900 km in diameter, and is twice the size of the original DS, that would make the original Death Star the size of Mimas. That makes me smile. Let's all say that the Death Star is the size of Mimas.)

4. That should have happened, yes. Still, the official fuzzy-wuzzy feel-good canon explanation is 'all that energy from the DSII exploding created a wormhole which most of the debris fell into, therefore No Endor Holocaust. Yay!'