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Here's What Star Wars Gets Wrong About Physics

Here's What Star Wars Gets Wrong About Physics
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National Reporter, HuffPost

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Just how would they power the Death Star? And why are X-wing pilots always firing their afterburners, even when they're traveling in a straight line in the vacuum of space?

These questions and more are addressed in the latest episode of PBS Digital Studios' "It's Okay To Be Smart." Just check out the video above.

In the video, host Joe Hanson examines the physics of space battles and concludes that depictions of space skirmishes like those seen in "Star Wars" clash with even the most basic tenets of Newtonian physics.

Even the weaponry makes no sense, Hanson says in the video, adding that Hollywood-style fireballs would be impossible without an atmosphere.

"In some ways, realistic space combat would be closer to the 18th century than it is today ... imagine days-long communications delays and battles that are fought with cannons and musket balls -- except, it's happening in space," Hanson explains in the video.

How about all those lasers? "Honestly, if you want to destroy a planet, you're probably better off throwing an asteroid at it," he mentions.

Despite his insight, however, even Hanson struggles to explain Jar Jar Binks.

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Before You Go

Lunar Bases And Exploration Concept Art
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(June 1977)--- A painting of a lunar supply base which was displayed during the NASA-sponsored Ninth Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March 1978 in Houston.
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(14 March 1983) --- This artist's concept of lunar mining operations illustrates the production of liquid oxygen. Ilmenite, a fairly common oxygen rich component of lunar soil, is the material actually being mined here.
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(October 1984)--- An artists's rendering gives a possible preview of 21st century lunar base activity. A lunar surface crane removes a newly arrived habitation module from an expendable lunar lander.
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(June 1986) --- This artist's concept of a lunar base and extra-base activity was revealed during a 1986 Summer Study on possible future activities for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A roving vehicle similar to the one used on three Apollo missions is depicted in the foreground. The artwork was done by Dennis Davidson.
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(7 April 1988)--- This painting was used as a visual at an April 1988 Houston-hosted conference titled "Lunar Bases and Space Strategies of the 21st Century." A deep drill team obtains cores for petrological studies of the floor units of the young, 30-kilometers, 4200-meter crater, Aristarchus.
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(April 1988)--- This painting was used as a visual at an April 1988 Houston-hosted conference titled "Lunar Bases and Space Strategies of the 21st Century." Here, a surface exploration crew begins its investigation of a typical, small lava tunnel, to determine if it could serve as a natural shelter for the habitation modules of a Lunar Base.
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An evolutionary approach to settling the inner solar system would begin with an outpost on the Moon. Here, just three days away from Earth, we could become experienced in living and working on another planetary body. The explorer in the foreground, wearing a constant-volume, hard space suit with rotating joints, is a representative of a commerical enterprise that intends to develop and exploit extraterrestrial resources.
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(April 1988)--- This painting was done by Eagle Engineering artists who are working with Eagle and NASA engineers on concepts born from a NASA sponsored project called the Lunar Base Systems Study.
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(April 1988) --- This painting was used as a visual at an April 1988 Houston-hosted conference titled "Lunar Bases and Space Strategies of the 21st Century." Here, two jubilant scientists of an ice prospecting, lunar lander mission examine an ice-encrusted drill stem as they stand in the frigid (60 degrees K), permanently shadowed part of a south polar region crater.
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(April 1988) --- This painting was used as a visual at an April 1988 Houston-hosted conference titled "Lunar Bases and Space Strategies of the 21st Century." Here, a Lunar Base traverese mission crew stands on the northern tip of Vallis Schroteri during an exploration mission to the Aristarchus plateau region.
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(March 1989) --- An inflatable habitat similar to this could represent part of an outpost, forerunner to a permanent inhabited lunar base.
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(July 1989)--- With a number of studies ongoing for possible lunar expeditions, many concepts for living and working on Earth's natural satellite have been examined.
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(July 1989) --- With a number of studies ongoing for possible lunar explorations, many concepts for living and working on Earth's natural satellite have been examined.
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(22 February 1990) --- A model of a baseline lunar surface roving vehicle and accompanying astronauts on Extravehicular Activity (EVA). Part of the scene utilizes actual imagery. This view, as part of a study by the Johnson Space Center's Lunar and Mars Exploration Office does not depict existing or currently budgeted hardware.
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(1991) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) An "Artemis" - class lander, capable of delivering up to 200 kilograms to the lunar surface, has delivered a teleoperated rover to the lunar surface. The rover has surveyed the landing site for an eventual human landing. The piloted vehicle is shown in the background during the final stage of its descent.
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(1992) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) Lunar pioneers will encounter hazards and crises requiring new emergency procedures. Here, an antenna installer fell over a 90-foot escarpment and fractured his right femur. Responding to this situation on a "medivac" hopper, two other lunar base crew members employ a portable CAT-scan device, a holographic display, and helmet-mounted heads-up displays to determine the severity of the injury.
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(1993) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) The lunar crew refills the propellant tanks on their spacecraft with oxygen produced on the Moon. This allows them to return directly to Earth, reentering the atmosphere in the conical crew module, and touching down at a prepared landing site.
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(1995) --- Lunar resources, such as lunar oxygen from regolith or possibly from south pole ice deposits, would increase our motivation to return to the Moon and could significantly enhance the economics of future lunar colonization.
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(1995) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) Just a few kilometers from the Apollo 17 Taurus Littrow landing site, a lunar mining facility harvests oxygen from the resource-rich volcanic soil of the eastern Mare Serenitatis.
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(1993) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) A teleoperated lunar oxygen plant begins production. Remotely driven surface vehicles mine and transport lunar soil to the plant, where the oxygen is extracted, liquefied, and pumped into waiting storage tanks. This image was produced for NASA by John Frassanito and Associates.
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(February 1995) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) As commerce develops on the Moon, tracts of the lunar surface will be dedicated to various industries such as lunar oxygen production, communications and helium 3 production. Artwork done for NASA by Pat Rawlings, of SAIC.
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(February 1995) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) A large Arecibo-like radio telescope on the Moon uses a crater for structural support.
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(February 1995) --- (Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.)
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(February 1995)---(Artist's concept of possible exploration programs.) Earth's Moon, just 3 days away, is a good place to test hardware and operations for a human mission to Mars. A simulated mission, including the landing of an adapted Mars excursion vehicle, could test many relevant Mars systems and technologies.
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(April 2004) --- This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts a crew preparing to leave a work site on the lunar surface.
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(April 2004) --- This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts an observatory in a crater on the dark side of the moon.
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(April 2004) --- This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts crewmembers involved in lunar drilling.
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(April 2004) --- This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts a human tended lunar base.
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(April 2004) --- This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts remote operations with a pressurized rover.
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(April 2004) --- This artist's rendering represents a concept of possible activities during future space exploration missions. It depicts a crew involved in remote sensing on the lunar surface.
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(12 Jan. 2008) --- A joint project among NASA, the National Space Foundation and ILC Dover continues at the McMurdo Complex in Antarctica. Team members drill into the tundra to install a weather station adjacent to the inflatable habitat in the upper left portion of the image. NASA and NSF along with the company that manufactured the prototype inflatabe habitat are using Antarctica's frigid, harsh, isolated landscape to test a new architecture for astronaut housing on the moon.
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(16 January 2008) --- --- A joint project among NASA, the National Space Foundation and ILC Dover continues at the McMurdo Complex in Antarctica. Personnel with ILC Dover, the company that manufactured the prototype inflatabe habitat, work to fasten it down in the harsh environment.
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(February 2009) --- Crew members, attired in suits designed to protect them from the rigors of the environment, traverse the lunar surface along with two Lunar Electric Rovers (LERs) in this art work depicting return to the moon activities.
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(18-31 Oct. 2008) --- During tests conducted for NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) at Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona, engineers, geologists and astronauts came together to test NASA's new Lunar Electric Rover.
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