Star Wars "heavy duty" sensor ranges and strength

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:04 am

With retrospect, I realize that I'm not use sure about their ranges and capacity to see through obstacles.

Do we have any agreement on the range of sensor ranges when it comes to spot a distant star or gravity field, how far they can reach, and what blocks them? (Keep the jamming debate out please.)

I'm trying to think of an example that involves a deep space scanning, but in the movies, we get none I can think of.

At best, it's in-system stuff: Death Star at Yavin, Imperial fleet at Hoth.

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:55 am

You can always use the old Obsidian Order archives, which has a fairly comprehensive listing of some pretty pathetic SW sensor ranges, at least as far as the EU is concerned, and seems to be backed up by what we have seen and heard in the TCW series.
-Mike

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:29 am

I know that in perfect conditions they can sense a ship from 10,000 or more kilometers away. I have no idea how that stacks up against others.

Flectarn · Post by **Flectarn** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:01 pm

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight wrote:I know that in perfect conditions they can sense a ship from 10,000 or more kilometers away. I have no idea how that stacks up against others.

are you sure it's that low?

that's like 5% of maximum trek weapons ranges, to say nothing of sensors.

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:07 pm

That is actually a high end estimate.

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:12 pm

Err... nothing in the light year range?

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:45 pm

No, the 10 kilometer range was the absolute highest I have seen. These were sensors on a brand new SD made almost 40 years after the battle of Endor, so the quality would be much higher than any thing we see in the movies. It was also alluded to the fact that this was not maximum range, but the maximum range capable of giving a visual of the target. It had been detected only a few minutes before(less than 5) and there was no indication of how fast the vessel was traveling, although it is safe to say that it was traveling at far less than lightspeed.

That is all I have for "range"

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:11 pm

The highest range on the Obsidian listings is found these quotes:

"'Small military craft of some sort. It's hard for us to see them now, and if we didn't have the mil-spec sensors, we couldn't see them at all.'" [ "Ambush at Corellia", p. 159 ]

"'They just performed a preprogrammed maneuver, heading straight for us. Except we're a million kilometers back of where we out to be.'" [ "Ambush at Corellia", p. 160 ]

One million kilometers, and then only with military grade sensors.
-Mike

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:16 pm

There is obviously some inconsistency there. These two readings were taken almost twenty years apart, both with top of the line sensors, and the earlier sensors are the most accurate.

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:28 pm

Mr. Oragahn wrote:Err... nothing in the light year range?

Nothing I've ever heard of. Thrawn assembled a fair number ships 2.92 light hours out from the Sluis Van shipyards in "Heir to the Empire" with no concern whatsoever about being detected.
-Mike

Dabat · Post by **Dabat** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:18 am

I'd suspect they are able to detect gravity well and stellar bodies at at least a quarter light year, as these are significantly larger then ships, at least while in Real Space. Otherwise they'd have no way to track rogue stellar bodies that pose a threat to the hyperspace routes through their gravitic pull. Though in all honesty this is just conjecture on my part.

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:59 pm

Wasn't there an outlier with an ISD striking a target, possibly on a planet or orbiting a planet, at a one light-minute range, in the New Jedi Order?

Dabat · Post by **Dabat** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:09 pm

Sorry, doesn't count. Even stormtroopers can see a planet at 11,000,000+- km.

l33telboi · Post by **l33telboi** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:12 pm

Mr. Oragahn wrote:Wasn't there an outlier with an ISD striking a target, possibly on a planet or orbiting a planet, at a one light-minute range, in the New Jedi Order?

There's one I keep hearing about, not sure if it's the one you're talking about. It involves a Vong ship firing on Coruscant from a long distance away... But last thread someone mentioned it was a superweapon of some sort. Curiously enough the others had forgotten about that part.

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:48 pm

l33telboi wrote:
Mr. Oragahn wrote:Wasn't there an outlier with an ISD striking a target, possibly on a planet or orbiting a planet, at a one light-minute range, in the New Jedi Order?
There's one I keep hearing about, not sure if it's the one you're talking about. It involves a Vong ship firing on Coruscant from a long distance away... But last thread someone mentioned it was a superweapon of some sort. Curiously enough the others had forgotten about that part.

So that would be another one, because I clearly recall people saying it was a Republic or Remnant ship doing the trick.

Mind you, even as a superweapon, that would still totally trump the range of the Death Star, which was spotted firing at Alderaan from a distance of 6 Alderaanian diameters away.
Around 76,536 km or some more. If the Vong ship fired from one light second away, at least, its range would be 235 times superior to that of the Death Star.

Dabat wrote:Sorry, doesn't count. Even stormtroopers can see a planet at 11,000,000+- km.

Yes, a spec. Good job! :)
This is not exactly useful for detailed scans.

All these ranges seem fairly stupid. We can spot extremely distant astrophysical objects and even have a good clue what they're made of, thanks to our super telescopes.

Now, these devices are based on light speed transmission of information, so there's lag.