Stargate Power Supply

[Aamosis]

On an episode in Stargate Atlantis, they found a planet where a connection all the way back to Earth might have been made. And then it's like 'mushrooms in outer space: everybody ends up in an imaginary-world. A lot of power is required to run stargates--especially for distant targets. Maybe the Goa'uld had some special source of unlimited power?? --risking appearing apocalyptic--Do people have to be sacrificed in order to power up the gate for even a short hop???

[hedwig]

On that planet, it was the mist surrounding the gate and probably the planet that was comprised of living beings that were killed every time the gate was activated. The mist created the imaginary world in order to save themselves and they were willing to let the Atlantis team die in order to save themselves. In the end, it was the team that decided to sacrifice attempting to return to earth from that planet in order to not kill any more of those beings. And the team would not have been willing to sacrifice any more of the mist beings for even a short trip, other than to get themselves back to Atlantis - and they probably locked that planet out of their dialing system when they got back to Atlantis.

And I'm not sure what your reference to the Goa'uld is, since they had nothing to do with that episode.

[maneth]

Hmm, interesting question. The gate on the planet with the living fog got its extra power from the living fog. This would have made it possible for the gate to connect to Earth in the first place. However, using the gate and using the energy apparently also killed the fog beings, so they started to give the team hallucinations to try and stop them from going to Earth. This is the only case when using a gate kills people, as long as you don't get in the way of the kawoosh of course.

[morrismike]

A person has around 500 btu/hr metobilism at rest. If you could tap into something like that on a planetary scale, you'd be into pretty big numbers.
~ 0.15 kW x 6 billion = a whole lot of power

A person can exert nearly a half horsepower on top of that in short bursts

[setacourse]

On an episode in Stargate Atlantis, they found a planet where a connection all the way back to Earth might have been made. And then it's like 'mushrooms in outer space: everybody ends up in an imaginary-world. A lot of power is required to run stargates--especially for distant targets. Maybe the Goa'uld had some special source of unlimited power?? --risking appearing apocalyptic--Do people have to be sacrificed in order to power up the gate for even a short hop???

I believe the Ancients built the Milky Way stargates so the DHD powered the gate, with enough power remaining in the superconducting naquada ring for one manual dial-out.

Intergalactic distances required the 8th chevron and an enormous amount of power, such as the Ancient repository jerry-rigged device in The Fifth Man and Point of View, or a ZPM. Goa'uld never got their hands on these power sources, and so never threatened other galaxies.

On Atlantis' "Home", I'm glad that was one of the few Gilligan's Island-type episodes. I liked the general setup and resolution, though I was disoriented by the lack of even mention of General O'Neill, and disappointed we didn't get to see Aiden's home life.

[RobinB]

Hmm, interesting question. The gate on the planet with the living fog got its extra power from the living fog. This would have made it possible for the gate to connect to Earth in the first place. However, using the gate and using the energy apparently also killed the fog beings, so they started to give the team hallucinations to try and stop them from going to Earth. This is the only case when using a gate kills people, as long as you don't get in the way of the kawoosh of course.

I wonder if over time those fog-beings couldn't have figured out a way to disable the gate altogether, using their high energy somehow, to put an end to this problem. Of course then we'd never have met them...

BTW, love the vortex gif.

[setacourse]

I wonder if over time those fog-beings couldn't have figured out a way to disable the gate altogether, using their high energy somehow, to put an end to this problem. Of course then we'd never have met them...

We might have, with a different story. There's so much about their history and culture we didn't learn about them. How did they evolve or arrive on the planet, as I doubt the Ancients would've situated a device deadly to primarily peaceful sentients.

Did they arrive via the Stargate or through space in an earlier form that could safely leave the atmosphere? Do they have culture and techniques that could benefit us in an information exchange that wouldn't involve killing them? Able to read our minds and construct a fictional dream-like reality is certainly an unusual and valuable ability.

Burying the gate would be simple, though they seem not to be able to control our bodies, only our minds. I'm surprised we didn't propose it, to prevent future needless deaths, though perhaps the episode ran out of time.

[RobinB]

We might have, with a different story. There's so much about their history and culture we didn't learn about them. How did they evolve or arrive on the planet, as I doubt the Ancients would've situated a device deadly to primarily peaceful sentients.

Did they arrive via the Stargate or through space in an earlier form that could safely leave the atmosphere? Do they have culture and techniques that could benefit us in an information exchange that wouldn't involve killing them? Able to read our minds and construct a fictional dream-like reality is certainly an unusual and valuable ability.

Burying the gate would be simple, though they seem not to be able to control our bodies, only our minds. I'm surprised we didn't propose it, to prevent future needless deaths, though perhaps the episode ran out of time.

I was just thinking that if they'd disabled the gate our team would never have gone to that planet, but you're right. They could have gone in many different directions with that planet to make a great story.

[ZPM Odyssey]

Burying the gate would be simple, though they seem not to be able to control our bodies, only our minds. I'm surprised we didn't propose it, to prevent future needless deaths, though perhaps the episode ran out of time.

The fog did not seem to have the abillity to move their physical bodies so they would not be able to bury the gate. And if the team buried the gate how would they get back to atlantis.