It's funny how sometimes some odd information is hard to find on the web. I have been drawing Star Wars ships lately, and in order to scale things properly, I needed to find out how large the one thing that is common on most Star Wars ships is - the docking ring. They are designed to mate up, so they need to be the same size! I searched under all kinds of names - docking ring, docking tube, ring dock - but could find nothing. Finally I looked at official Millennium Falcon plans. Knowing the actual length of the Falcon (35 meters), I measured the length of the ship and the diameter of the docking rings, and got a diameter of 3.5 meters. So, if you ever need to know, there it is! :D
In many space settings you dont need the docking rings to be the same size. you just need a docking unit that can adjust of a docking arm/umbilical that can cover most any docking port. In say Star Wars you will get rings that are sized to humans, aliens, droids, jawas, etc. So a universal umbilical is likely the standard.
On the other hand in Albedo while its not stated. ALL ships have the exact same docking ports. I got this from Steve while working on a new edition way back.
Theres all sorts of stuff out there like that. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes not. Like the dimensions of a phaser power cell in Star Trek. And thats another setting where a universal umbilical is going to be the norm due to the wide variances in ship and port designs.
It's only a problem if space is a vacuum and it clearly isn't in Star Wars. Though I did have a thought on the bomb's falling: maybe it's just the internal artificial gravity of the ship giving them momentum which is carried forward when they leave the ship.
Quote from: David Johansen;1021259It's only a problem if space is a vacuum and it clearly isn't in Star Wars. Though I did have a thought on the bomb's falling: maybe it's just the internal artificial gravity of the ship giving them momentum which is carried forward when they leave the ship.
Actually, that is very close. The bombs are accelerated by an EM field in the bomb bay. I was curious and dug that up. :D
Quote from: Omega;1021257In many space settings you dont need the docking rings to be the same size. you just need a docking unit that can adjust of a docking arm/umbilical that can cover most any docking port. In say Star Wars you will get rings that are sized to humans, aliens, droids, jawas, etc. So a universal umbilical is likely the standard.
On the other hand in Albedo while its not stated. ALL ships have the exact same docking ports. I got this from Steve while working on a new edition way back.
Theres all sorts of stuff out there like that. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes not. Like the dimensions of a phaser power cell in Star Trek. And thats another setting where a universal umbilical is going to be the norm due to the wide variances in ship and port designs.
Actually, they don't ever seem to
use the docking rings in the films. They dock to the top port and use a tube, or park mandibles in and use some other arrangement entirely... :D
Actually it turns out I was correct to a point. CEC (Corellian Engineering Company) uses a company standard docking ring, so this method only works for ships using the CEC standard. Standards are wonderful things! We definitely need more of them!
Based on how the Millenium Falcon docs with the medical frigate in The Empire Strikes Back, I'd assume the docking ring is the same hatch that they picked Luke down from the bottom of Cloud City.
Quote from: David Johansen;1021355Based on how the Millenium Falcon docs with the medical frigate in The Empire Strikes Back, I'd assume the docking ring is the same hatch that they picked Luke down from the bottom of Cloud City.
Hi David! :D
Actually, this is what I meant when I said "they don't ever seem to use the docking rings in the films. They dock to the top port and use a tube..." The Falcon is docked underneath the medical frigate, with a tube leading up from the top hatch - the one Lando used to catch Luke when he fell from the antenna array under Cloud City. I have no idea why! The docking ring is the large circular hatch on the port and/or starboard side of the ship. There are usually two, but some configurations replace one or maybe both with a large escape pod, - or there is actually an optional tiny mini fighter (the YT-XC) that sits behind a fake docking ring door. The options available as new or aftermarket for a CEC ship are just ridiculous.
The bombs fall by jumping sharks.