AERODYNAMICS(Or Lack Thereof)

in the Rocket city inside the science of episode I II III IV V VI Holograms AERODYNAMICS (Or lack thereof) Clearly, spacecraft like X-Wings and TIE Fit to be TIE’d fighters don’t exist yet and probably never “it seemed like the little TIE fighters had to will. Yet, at least one expert doesn’t mind fire from the front all the time, and i thought, ePiSoDe iV: talking smack about them. hatch ‘that’s silly,’” says Johnson. “you’re disad- vantaging yourself. cockpit Holograms have been around for decades, but only in “If I wanted to win a space battle in the “if i wanted to attack somebody who was to A New Hope framed formats that only look like they go on forever. Star Wars universe,” says Dr. Les Johnson, my left and i was flying in one direction, what Nineteen years after the formation of the Empire, The trick is to project a holographic image into thin air. you do is have an inner part of your space- Luke Skywalker is thrust into the struggle of the deputy manager of the Advanced Concepts craft that is able to rotate separate from your Rebel Alliance when he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, who An English company called Musion Systems built what Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, direction of motion, and you just turn around has lived for years in seclusion on the desert planet of it calls a 3D holographic projector, but it projects its and shoot at them,” says Johnson. “you don’t Tatooine. Obi-Wan begins Luke’s Jedi training as Luke image onto highly reflective foil. It works only against a “I’d have the real physics working for me, have to do this banking turn. “ joins him on a daring mission to rescue the beautiful dark background. and I could outmaneuver all of them.” Rebel leader Princess Leia from the clutches of the Scientists at Southern Cal have developed a system evil Empire. Although Obi-Wan sacrifices himself in a that looks a lot like Leia’s only hope, here. But it only Like Darth Vader says, the Force is lightsaber duel with Darth Vader, his former looks like thin air. In fact, the image is projected onto strong with this one... apprentice, Luke, proves that the Force is with him a mirror spinning so rapidly that your eye can’t follow it. by destroying the Empire’s dreaded Death Star. For now, it looks like Leia may have to wait a little lon- Laser Directed by: George Lucas ger. Perhaps she could send Obi-Wan a text message. blasters Radiators Released: May 25, 1977 (insides First weekend gross: $1.6 million of panels) Solar array Total domestic gross: $461.0 million (outsides Total worldwide gross: $797.9 million Binary suns Why do cockpit of panels) Going ‘boom’ Academy Awards: Nominated in 10 categories. X-Wings Won six awards, including for film editing, original Laser “When an explosion happens, it wouldn’t look cannons score, visual effects and sound mixing, plus a spe- have wings? like a fireball on earth because everything’s in cial achievement award for alien and robot voices. Astromech motion,” says Johnson. “So when it explodes, “the aircraft in Star The good: Nearly everything about it. This movie droid the explosion would keep moving. there’s Wars have wings, nothing to slow it down. was refreshing and stunning in 1977 and it’s still which would be great fun today. “So, if your spaceship explodes in space, trav- useless in space The bad and the ugly: Some of the changes Lucas eling at however-many thousands of miles since wings are used made to the remastered edition are pretty decent. per hour, it’s not going to suddenly stop and to push against air,” But having poor Greedo fire first in the cantina explode. every bit of the debris has the veloc- says Paul A. Dove, computer scene? That’s out-and-out revisionism, pal. Not only are twin stars possible, they’re actually com- engineer in the Flight computers ity it had when it exploded. And, truly, that mon, says Jeanne Cavelos in “The Science of Star branch of the Avionics lab at nASA would be cooler.” “A bad feeling about this”: 1) Luke, as the Millen- Wars.” The star closest to our sun — Proxima Centauri, nium Falcon approaches the “small moon.” 2) Han, Marshall Space Flight center. for example — is part of a trinary star system. Proton in addition, there would be no sound, in the trash compactor. “in water and air, the reason [vehicles] rely on those torpedo port says cooke. Twin stars would have to be fairly close together for a Limbs chopped off: 1) C-P3O’s arm breaks off banking turns is they rely on lift and they have to use nearby planet to be habitable. A planet needs a stable “Sounds like explosions in space during an attack by Sandpeople. 2) Obi-Wan cuts gravitational pull as well as consistent light and radia- rudders and push against the air to turn,” says Dr. have always amused me. But an arm off a bar patron who is threatening Luke. tion levels, Cavelos says, in order to support even the Johnson. seeing a flash kind of arid life we see on Tatooine. “But when you’re in space, you just fire a thruster to Wings can unfold would be boring Calling Sir Isaac Newton Great quote: go in the direction you want to go and you start to for battle without the ap- “there won’t be any hair speed turns at close Graphics, research by Charles Apple/Special to The Times get a force in that direction,” says Johnson. “Almost propriate ‘ka- “Who’s the more foolish: Interviews, research by Lee Roop/The Huntsville Times immediately, you’re going to start moving in the to the speed of light,” says Dr. William cooke boom,’ so you’ve direction you want to go. it’ll be more of an arc, but it of the Meteoroid environments office at got to cut the the fool or the fool who Sources: “The Science of Star Wars” by Jeanne Cavelos; “Star Wars: Marshall Space Flight center. “the pilot and Where Science Meets Imagination” by National Geographic and the won’t be a banking turn.” entertainment follows him?” Boston Museum of Science; “Star Wars: The Complete Visual Diction- anyone else inside would be splattered up industry some ary” by David West Reynolds and James Luceno; StarWars.com; Inter- against their seats.” slack.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi net Movie Data Base; www.the-numbers.com; Lucasfilm Ltd.; Musion Systems Ltd.; USC Institute for Creative Technology images: Courtesy of Lucasfilm.

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