Ever wondered how Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back stayed afloat? We've got your answer! MayThe4thBeWithYou
Star Wars provides us with a perfect example of a science fiction floating city: Cloud City. Cloud City has an atypical backstory. Floating above the surface of the planet Bespin, the city was specifically designed to harvest tibanna gas rather than to house a displaced population. Tibanna gas is used in all kinds of technology in the Star Wars galaxy, including, but not limited to, blasters and repulsorlifts.
With these assumptions, the city would need to orbit the planet at around 54,000 miles per hour. Satellites orbiting Earth typically travel around one-third of this speed, so that’s fast, but not out-of- this-world fast. The drag force on something the size of Cloud City as it traveled this fast through air would be about 6.74 × 1018 pounds, or about one-seventh the force between Earth and the Moon.
We’ve oversimplified the issue, but still, the force of drag is ten million times less than the lift force. This clearly indicates that it would be easier to have an orbiting city than to have a stationary/hovering city. Of course, an orbiting city introduces its own issues, such as having to find where it is every time you visit.
As gas is mined, the mass and radius of Bespin would gradually decrease as to approximately maintain the planet’s density. During this reduction in the planet’s size, the pull of gravity would become weaker and weaker. As this happened, both the force to support the city and the force to keep it in orbit would decrease. Eventually, the mass of the city would be greater than the mass of the planet, and the planet would orbit the city which in turn would start orbiting the nearest star.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Join our Cloud HD Video MeetingZoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done. Zoom is a publicly traded company headquartered in San Jose, CA.
Read more »
The Cloud 100 List: Submit Your Company To Join The Cloud’s Best And Brightest In 2022Submissions for the 2022 Forbes Cloud 100 list are now open through May 31.
Read more »
Old Russian rocket motor breaks up in orbit, generating new cloud of space debrisSixteen pieces of space debris associated with the event are currently being tracked.
Read more »
Multi-Cloud Storage Center Stage At Dell Technologies WorldSenior Analyst, Storage & Data, Steve McDowell, cover the first in-person Dell Technologies World in three years.
Read more »
City of Austin in need of more police officers, medicsAPD is not the only department facing staffing issues. According to Selena Xie, President of Austin EMS Association, ATCEMS are seeing a 25% staffing shortage.
Read more »
Dublin City Council expected to approve 573-home development in the hillsApproval of a proposal from Trumark Homes is “mandated” by state laws, city reports said.
Read more »