How is the Death Star laid out?

[Morrus]

Is it layered like an onion with floors descending towards the centre? Or are the floors stacked horizontally from top to bottom?

There appear to be buildings and towers on the surface, which implies the former. But when ships and shuttles land on the Death Star, the landing bays are perpendicular to the surface.

Anyone know?

 

[Janx]

ask the innocent contractors who built it?

I think the problem is they didn't think it out. They built a ball and glued a ton of greebles onto it. Then they made a hole for the landing bay and forgot that this thing is supposed to be like a moon/planet.

 

[tomBitonti]

Found lots of nice images, but nothing with fine detail to answer that.

This is one of the better images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=dea...sAQIHA&biw=1266&bih=657#imgrc=e6eEbQtcAQL0lM:

Based on the internal layout, horizontal slices seem to fit the best.

Given the ability to generate gravity in the SW universe, locally defined orientations seem plausible, so one has a lot of leeway to set it however one prefers.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Morrus]

Thing is the surface buildings are clearly perpendicular to the surface. I suppose some sort of curved passage with a gradually changing artificial gravitational plane could transition between the two though.

 

[Tonguez]

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/death-star3.htm

Most of the space inside the Death Star is devoted to systems required to maintain the Superlaser, propulsion system and hypermatter reactor. Of course the largest space is the main reactor chamber at the core of the Death Star. The rest of the interior is made up of a honeycomb of decks for personnel and equipment. This space is designed with two separate layouts each with a different source and orientation of artificial gravity.
The "layer" closest to the surface is laid out in a series of concentric decks with artificial gravity generators pointing towards the Death Star's core. Below this are thousands of levels of sprawling stacked decks dotted with vast, deep shafts that all link to the reactor's main chamber. This section of the Death Star makes up the bulk of the interior and has gravity pointing toward the station's southern pole.
The two interior sections of the Death Star are divided into 24 zones, 12 per hemisphere. Each zone is organized into six sectors:

• General
• Command
• Military
• Security
• Service
• Technical

 

[Staffan]

Wookieepedia says there are a small number of concentric decks near the surface, but most of the decks are "stacked" north to south.

 

[MarkB]

Thing is the surface buildings are clearly perpendicular to the surface. I suppose some sort of curved passage with a gradually changing artificial gravitational plane could transition between the two though.

That certainly wouldn't be difficult, given that even a small ship like the Millennium Falcon can do the same trick when transitioning from its main deck to the turrets. They probably take care of the whole thing en route in the turbolifts.

 

[Istbor]

It is something that I have never really thought of before, but once you start, you MUST know!

If my Star Wars Death Star Tower game on my phone is any indication, it is stacked decks. Looks like this is partially supported by wookipedia.

 

[Herobizkit]

I hear it was laid out when some rookie pilot shot a tiny exhaust port...

hue hue hue.

 

[Eltab]

Lucas left an Easter Egg for engineers - figure out how this works !

The novel "Death Star" covers construction. It might have some tidbits or nuggets or at least plausible theorizing.
I _do_ remember that somebody on the construction crew figures out the 'exhaust shaft problem' and has the design changed, but the first one was already completed and they never get around to making modifications... (oops)

It seems kind of strange that, if the Death Star is built so "Down" = "South", that the second Death Star is built from the top down, rather than bottom up.
(Note for Death Star Mk 3: do not include pipes that exit to space and are big enough for small starships to steer through.)