How is the Death Star laid out?

[Hand of Evil]

stacked north to south but by wedges around a core.

 

[Silver Moon]

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)

At the end of "Return of the Jedi" my then six-year-old son turns to me and says, "The first one blew up the same way. Why didn't they fix that problem when they built the second one?"

 

[Eltab]

At the end of "Return of the Jedi" my then six-year-old son turns to me and says, "The first one blew up the same way. Why didn't they fix that problem when they built the second one?"

If I Were the Evil Overlord ...
If my prestige construction item (castle, ship, space station, fortress, Unstoppable Superweapon, whatever) is destroyed by the hero utilizing an unexpected flaw in the design, I will order my Engineering staff to figure out how it was done - AND alert me of any other flaws they discover. Once they have come up with solutions, ONLY THEN will I begin construction of a replacement.

You would think that Death Star Mk 2 would have several power generators hooked up in series, with powerful force fields (electricity supplied by the OTHER power plants) surrounding each generator. Instead of one big generator in the center.

 

[Morrus]

If I Were the Evil Overlord ...
If my prestige construction item (castle, ship, space station, fortress, Unstoppable Superweapon, whatever) is destroyed by the hero utilizing an unexpected flaw in the design, I will order my Engineering staff to figure out how it was done - AND alert me of any other flaws they discover. Once they have come up with solutions, ONLY THEN will I begin construction of a replacement.

You would think that Death Star Mk 2 would have several power generators hooked up in series, with powerful force fields (electricity supplied by the OTHER power plants) surrounding each generator. Instead of one big generator in the center.

I guess Star Wars physics doesn't work like that.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I guess Star Wars physics doesn't work like that.

There, you went and used "Star Wars" and "physics" in the same sentence. That's like putting a portable hole in a bag of holding.

 

[MarkB]

You would think that Death Star Mk 2 would have several power generators hooked up in series, with powerful force fields (electricity supplied by the OTHER power plants) surrounding each generator. Instead of one big generator in the center.

Even a generator only large enough to provide, say, 20% of the power required by the Death Star would probably still explode with sufficient force to destroy it - or, at least, to explode the next-nearest generator and trigger a chain reaction. So by using multiple generators, all you're doing is multiplying the station's weak spots.