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TechStuff

Death Star Weaponry

TechStuff

iHeartPodcasts

Tech News, News, Technology

4.31.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2018

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How did the Death Star's superlaser work? Is such a weapon even possible? And what the heck was up with that ventilation shaft?

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Get in touch with technology with Tech Stuff from How Stuff Works.

0:08.0

Hey there and welcome to TechStuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive

0:16.2

producer here at House to Fork's and I love all things Tech and welcome to part two of how

0:21.6

the Death star works.

0:23.4

In this episode I'll talk about the main purpose of the death star,

0:26.8

which was to act as a super weapon to keep the systems in line,

0:30.5

according to Grandmof Tarkin's cheerful strategy, sometimes called the doctrine of terror,

0:36.4

or slightly less dramatically the Tarkin doctrine.

0:39.5

This reflected Tarkin's belief that fear and domination would keep the more rebellious

0:44.0

systems in the empire in check and the death star would be the ultimate tool

0:48.2

to bring about that fear and domination. The death star was no slouch for weaponry. For one thing

0:56.2

it had multiple vehicle bays with everything from Thai fighters. The

1:00.0

original Death Star supposedly had 20 Thai fighters ready to take off at a moment's notice.

1:05.0

It also had ATATs, or ATATs, if you prefer, and ATSTs.

1:10.0

In fact, according to the Death Star Technical Companion from West End Games, the station

1:14.8

house some 7,200 Star Fighters total, four strike cruisers, 3,600 assault shuttles,

1:22.4

1,400 ATs, and an equal number of ATSTs, and 1,860 dropships for troops,

1:30.3

which is a lot.

1:31.8

Now I want to talk just about one of those because it's my favorite vehicle in Star Wars, that's

1:36.5

the Thai fighter or a twin ion engine fighter.

1:40.2

That was the standard star fighter for the empire during a new hope and in several films after that.

1:45.6

It was the basis for future starfighters and bombers like the Thai bomber, the Thai advance, the Thai

...

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