Power Requirements for Hyperspace

[StarWarsStarTrek]

When browsing some of the recent pages in this stickied thread, I remembered that the quote in regards to an imperial star destroyer consuming more energy than most planetary civilizations in a single hyperspace jump has been contested. Usually, Trekkies admit that this quotation is in agreement with ICS statistics, but instead argue that it is simply an outlier; but now, there are claims that the quote actually supports low reactor power figures!

The idea is that the hyperspace jump's energy consumption is really the total amount of energy consumed in several hours of the actual travel. However, this interpretations runs into two issues:

1. That the word "jump" connotes the singular action of jumping from realspace into hyperspace, as indicated by various statements of making the "jump to lightspeed" in both the films and literature.

2. That no timeframe is given for how long this hypothetical travel took. If the quote is referring to the energy consumed in the duration of traveling in hyperspace from point X to Y, the author would have provided a unit of time. Because no unit of time is given, the above interpretation is incorrect, as it adds in a completely unquantifiable unknown value for no reason at all.

Some may argue that you could simply use an "average" figure for how long an ISD stays in hyperspace, but how would the author have expected anyone to know this figure? Do you take the mean, or the median? Would using an "average" figure not require us to assume that the author is a moron who makes a quantitative statement with an unknown variable? Besides, how long ISDs stay in hyperspace is completely conditional, and may range from a few milliseconds to several hours.

This interpretation of the quote is based on an attempt to nitpick a semantic loophole, and then perform a complex series of mental gymnastics to arrive to a conclusion that holds no advantage over the standard one, yet introduces an unknown variable and makes a host of assumptions as to its value.



----------

The yearly energy consumption of the United States is around 8 * 10^19 joules. If this planetary nation had only the size and energy consumption of the United States and its entire lifespan were 25,000 years (with absolutely no population growth or increase in energy usage), then an imperial star destroyer's peak reactor output would be around 2 * 10^24 watts.

If this planetary nation's population over its entire lifespan peaks at 9 billion, the conservative estimate for when our own population on Earth will stagnate, and your average Wars sapient consumes twice as much energy as a person from the United States, then an imperial star destroyer's peak reactor output would be 1.2 * 10^26 watts.

If this planetary nation's population were fifty billion, the value derived from dividing the 100 quadrillion population figure of The Essential Atlas with the one million star systems of the Empire, and your average Wars sapient consumes ten times as much energy as a person from the United States, then an imperial star destroyer's peak reactor output would be 3.33 * 10^27 watts.


Based on these values, the peak output of an ISD's reactor ranges from 2e24 to 3.3e27 watts. First, it can be duly noted that the reactor's power would likely be far higher during the short burst of a hyperspace jump, compared to even output during combat, and that this output level may not be sustainable. Second, the last calculation is not even the highest figure you could derive, nor is it particularly extreme; none of the assumptions it makes are unsupportable, unreasonable or even particularly high. Third, this values fit with the observation that ships entering hyperspace accelerate to relativistic speeds in a fraction of a second, and promptly deccelerate from said relativistic speeds within a fraction of a second upon returning to realspace.

[Mith]

Wow, it's a pity that with this sort of energy density capability, that those ATs, gunships, and other land vehicles didn't show off their gigajoule level firepower that should have totally leveled the Droid army rather than waste time, money, resources, and lives on fighting battle droids.

It's a good thing that the Jedi are amoral, heartless monsters who can't got to sleep without knowing that hundreds of clones have just been sent to their death. And as we all know of course, the Clones would never, ever question an obviously suicidal order given to them.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Shit, you scared me with your necro.
I saw that thread made by SWST, with so few replies in it, I thought for a moment that someone had allowed him to return and post his nonsense again.

[Picard]

Likewise.

[Mith]

...God damn it, why do I keep doing that?

[Nowhereman10]

Well, whatever else, you nearly gave Mr. O and Picard a heart attack making them think SWST was back. ;D

[Picard]

Not exactly a heart attack but... I didn't take any medication in years, and here I was thinking I'll have to buy some Aspirin.