ON THE IMPLAUSIBILITY OF THE DEATH STAR’S TRASH COMPACTOR

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

The following is exercpted from the book below, which I suggest you check out, enjoy...

Dave Eggers is a literary genius, and him and other writes like Michael Chabon, make up a publishing house they created in San Fransisco for new and more modern styles of fiction and writing to help promote current writesr and authors in today's literary genre. Cheers.

Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney's, Humor Category: 1998-2003 - Author: Dave Eggers

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J. M. Tyree I maintain that the trash compactor on board the Death Star in Star Wars is implausible, unworkable, and, moreover, inefficient.

The Trash Compactor Debate turns on whether the Death Star ejects its trash into space. I, for one, believe it does. Though we never see the Death Star ejecting its trash, we do see another Empire ship, the so-called Star Destroyer, ejecting its trash into space. I therefore see no reason to suspect that Empire protocol dictating that trash be ejected into space would not apply equally to all Empire spacecraft, including the Death Star.

The Death Star clearly has a garbage-disposal problem. Given its size and massive personnel, the amount of waste it generates—discarded food, broken equipment, excrement, and the like—boggles the imagination. That said, I just cannot fathom how an organization as ruthless and efficiently run as the Empire would have signed off on such a dangerous, unsanitary, and shoddy garbage disposal system as the one depicted in the movie.

Here are the problems, as I can ascertain them, with the Death Star’s garbage-disposal system:

1. Ignoring the question of how Princess Leia could possibly know where the trash compactor is, or that the vent she blasts open leads to a good hiding place for the rescue crew, why are there vents leading down there at all? Would not vents leading into any garbage-disposal system allow the fetid smell of rotting garbage, spores, molds, etc., to seep up into the rest of the Death Star? Would not it have been more prudent for the designers of the Death Star to opt for a closed system, like a septic tank?

2. Why do both walls of the trash compactor move toward each other, rather than employing a one-movable-wall system that would thus rely on the anchored stability, to say nothing of the strength, of the other, nonmoving wall, to crush trash more effectively?

3. Why does the trash compactor compact trash so slowly, and with such difficulty, once the resistance of a thin metal rod is introduced? Surely metal Death Star pieces are among the main items of trash in need of compacting. It thus stands to reason that the trash compactor should have been better designed to handle the problem of a skinny piece of metal. (And while I hate to be the sort of person who says I told you so, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that a one-movable-wall system would have improved performance.)

4. Why does the trash compactor only compact trash sideways? Once ejected into space, wouldn’t the flattened, living-room-sized, and extremely solid panes of trash that result from such a primitive, unidirectional trash compactor pose serious hazards for Empire starships in the vicinity?

5. And what of the creature that lives in the trash compactor? Presumably, the creature survives because the moving walls do not extend all the way to the floor of the room, where the liquid is. After all, if the walls reached the floor, the creature would be killed each time trash is compacted. The design employed on the Death Star must allow the organic trash to filter down to the bottom, where the parasitic worm-creature devours it. But what happens when heavier pieces of non-organic trash fall down there? Would such trash not get wedged under the doors, causing them to malfunction? Do storm troopers have to confront the creature each time they retrieve pieces of uncompacted trash?

6. Why not have separate systems for organic and inorganic waste, thus allowing full compaction of the inorganics and a closed sanitary system for the organics?

7. Why does the Empire care, anyway, about reducing its organic garbage output? Are we to believe that the architects of the Death Star, a group of individuals bent on controlling the entire known universe, are also concerned about environmental issues? Would organic garbage rot in space? So what? Furthermore, why has the Empire gone to the trouble of acquiring a frightening parasitic worm-creature and having it eat all organic trash, especially given the aforementioned flaws in the design of the compactor and overall maintenance hassles?

8. Personally, were it up to me, I would have designed special garbage ships instead of employing a crude, cumbersome, and inefficient (to say nothing of unsanitary) compactor-worm combo to deal with the trash.

9. If the Empire insists on ejecting trash into space, why bother compacting it? Space is infinite, is it not? In such an environment, it hardly matters what size the trash is. In fact, a persuasive argument can be made that it’s actually better for the trash to take up more space, so that it appears on radar systems as something for Empire ships to avoid. Compacted trash creates smaller chunks of harder trash that would undoubtedly cause serious damage to Empire starships. And needless to say, damage to starships would, in turn, create yet more hassles and headaches for the Empire.

Please understand, gentle reader, I am all for creating hassles and headaches for the Empire. I just doubt that the Empire would have created so many for itself. q.e.d.

[matrixman]

Brilliant!!!

In defense of George Lucas, it could be said that he made the trash compactor, and Empire technology in general, to be purposefully "implausible, unworkable and inefficient." The AT-AT walkers are another perfect example of this.

[aTOMiC]

While the above commentary is entertaining it does seem to make a few dubious assumptions.
We cannot base any firm conclusion about the Deathstar's Trash Compactor for the simple reason that none of the films, which are the primary resource, give a complete accounting of the technical nature of the compactor or its full purpose. For example. Princess Leia is heard saying "Into the garbage chute, flyboy." Luke is heard screaming like a little girl into the comlink "Shut up and listen to me. Shut down all the garbage smashers on the detention level!" With this factual information we have just established that there is a high probability that the Deathstar's Trash Compactor is in fact a Garbage Smasher. Well, duh! Though I admit it is reasonable to assume that because a Star Destroyer ejects its waste before going to light speed the Deathstar may in fact comply with an Empire standard procedure concerning waste disposal, I have to point out that there is no factual evidence to suggest that the Deathstar (which by the way is a space station not a ship of the line so to speak) uses the same waste disposal protocol employed by the star fleet. It is likely that since the Deathstar is a unique property in the extreme, it probably enjoys a wide variety of atypical modus operandi setting it apart from the norm. Further the design of the Garbage Smasher itself may be influenced by a type of garbage, unseen during the course of the story, that may have required that the machine behave in a particular way, ie two slowly moving walls crushing the offending substances to the center of the room instead of one fixed wall and one moving wall.
The fact is that we simply do not know enough hard facts about the entire Deathstar garbage disposal system to adequately form an opinion one way or another.

[hierachy]

I agree, the AT-AT's are much more stupid.

[aTOMiC]

Brilliant!!!

In defense of George Lucas, it could be said that he made the trash compactor, and Empire technology in general, to be purposefully "implausible, unworkable and inefficient." The AT-AT walkers are another perfect example of this.

That is a real possibility, MM. I think Lucas' disclaimer at the beginning of each film is adequate protection from just about any criticism. "A long time ago and a galaxy far, far away..."

[Revan]

Brilliant!!!

In defense of George Lucas, it could be said that he made the trash compactor, and Empire technology in general, to be purposefully "implausible, unworkable and inefficient." The AT-AT walkers are another perfect example of this.

Also in the defense of George Lucas, I'll say one thing: It's not real, the film, is pretend.

[CovenantJr]

But on that basis, Darth, there would be no need for the existence of Kevin's Watch. See you later, "TC is only a book" boy

Pretty amusing, Fizbanger.

I would have designed special garbage ships instead of employing a crude, cumbersome, and inefficient (to say nothing of unsanitary) compactor-worm combo to deal with the trash

[duchess of malfi]

Wouldn't a permanent space installation the size of the Death Star be recycling its organic waste anyway? At least the purified water portion of it?

[Revan]

Hmmm.. *Watches the hot girl who is diving from a plank and calling it a sport, meanwhile trying to figure out what the hell the Spainish commontator is rambling on about.*

[Seafoam Understone]

Why were there "garbage-mashers" on the Death Star??

IT WAS IN THE SCRIPT! Geez!

[CovenantJr]

I still like that "compactor-worm combo" comment. Personally, I'd go for a compactor-giant hamster combo - much more efficient.

[hierachy]

I still like that "compactor-worm combo" comment. Personally, I'd go for a compactor-giant hamster combo - much more efficient.

And it'd kind of even things out, hamsterwise, I mean.

[ZefaLefeLaH]

The DeathStar itself is a complete impossiblity.

They state in the movie that it appears to be a moon. When they are flying over it, or into it, the mass of that thing appears to be the size of a small moon. It is supposed to be metallic, meaning that it would be larger than all the tanks, planes, ships, subs, ever made on the earth combined. They build it a matter of 2 decades or some such nonsense. Do you realize what it would take to merely ship that mass of metal from a moon or planet into space? I'm not even talking about the refining processes, just shipping it to the place where it would be built.

It shoots 3 rays at eachother that somehow combine and can destroy a planet.

The whole thing is rubbish.



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The only interesting thing is that the person actually spent the time to go through that one specific scene and isolate it. That's what I find interesting. What about the sound of lasers in space? What about the impossible G-forces of entering hyperspace? What about the light-sabers ability to stop light at a certain point above the hilt or that a person could possibly stop a laser blast with a light saber or that laser blasts appear to move through time slower than bullets (It's THE SPEED OF LIGHT!)?

What interested me was that this person would actually isolate something so obscure and people would think he was intelligent when almost every scene of the movie defies basic science in some fashion. For my own part, I'm extremely good at immersing myself into a movie and suspending my belief. What's the point of realizing that the guy's transmission is in "park" during a chase scene? Why even look for that stuff? You're lessening your experience and ruining your own fun. I mean sometimes it can't be helped (cough, Dungeon & Dragons, cough), but most of the time it's just like life, it's what you make of it. If you don't want to enjoy it, you won't. If you do, you will.

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

Zefalefelah, while I understand what you are trying to say in yoru post, it is exercpted from a collection fo short fiction devoted towards humorous tales, and funny comments, and essays of the like, it is all in good fun and its just a joke.... I mean if we did take waht this guy had to say seriously, we could pretty much scrap the whole Star War film, its implausible from the get go. Cheers.

[ZefaLefeLaH]

Oh, then I made a mistake then.

Oh well, I'll leave it as it is instead of editing it.


Meanwhile, here's a picture for Danlo...

[danlo]

Er. what!? I see nothing and I never come into the Star Wars forum unless it's a hot chick

[NOWgirl]

I would like to take a moment to answer some of the questions posted here. First of all, it is not a trash compactor; it is a garbage smasher. Second, Leia is quite clever, and had the plans for the Death Star, so she knew where everything was. Third, the open vents were intended to foul the air in the jail cells; it was used as an extra measure of torture for the prisoners. Fourth, the Empire would have been happy to have used no garbage smashers, but the environmentalist whackos insisted, which brings us to Five. The system had to also be safe for any endangered species that happened to find itself in a garbage smasher, which is why A: there was a large metal grate at the bottom of it for aquatic life-forms to escape through, and B: the weaker (and slower) double-wall method was utilized, so as to give time for non-aquatic life forms to have a reasonable chance of escape. There are better methods of smashing garbage, but the Empire did not wish to spend one cent more on the garbage smasher system than was absolutely neccessary to satisfy the liberal left, who also had a problem with venting full-sized trash into space. The irony is, they had no problem with us blowing up two Death Stars and leaving all that debris in space. But then again, they thought Emporer Palpatine was just going after us for oil.

[aTOMiC]

Well said, Han. You always seem to put your own spin on things. May the force be with you.

[NOWgirl]

Hi, Yoda. We never met (at least, I don't think we have; who knows what Lucas will do in Epi 3), but Luke speaks highly of you.

[aTOMiC]

Though I am quite proud of my avatar I'm no Yoda as you can plainly see from reading the content of my posts. One day I hope to ascend to the level of the master of intergalactic wisdom but alas....