Mk. XII Naquadah Generator

[PG15]

It could have a half life, it'd just be extremely long. Some atoms have half lifes in the billions of years or more. Others higher in the periodic table are predicted to have half lifes in the billions of years if they have the right amount of neutrons.

True. I misspoke.

[Lord batchi ball]

It wasn't running the shields just the Holo program and its systems.

[Gate-builder]

They only activated the shields when Sheppard went into stasis so that there would still be some atmosphere left for when he came out.

[Mardius]

It better not, or else the Stargates themselves would've vanished ages ago.

i dont think so, dont the DHDs have a power source in them that feeds the gate?

[Devilogic]

i dont think so, dont the DHDs have a power source in them that feeds the gate?

Yes they do (as far as I can remember), but the Stargate itself is made of naquadah. So if it had any appreciable half-life the gates would have vanished/broken apart in time (which they don't seem to have).

[Xaeden]

Go back a bit earlier in the episode. Mckay said there was not enough power to gate back to Earth, so that clearly shows that it is nowhere near a ZPM. On top of that, Mckay wasn't really even sure it could power the shields at all. He said it theoretically could which suggests that they designed something that they thought could power the shields for a bit, but not something that they thought was anywhere near the level of a ZPM. Also, we don't know that he was refering to keeping the shield over the whole city. He might've been thinking of powering it over just enough to keep Sheppard alive when he said that. It's also likely that a lot of things can power the shield, but the strength suffers. So while a Mark XII might've been able to get the shield up to protect the city from the Sun's heat, it might not have lasted more than a few hits when being fired upon by enemies. The best comparison would be what was said in Echoes. With ZPMs powering the city the Ancients were able to extend the shield to protect most of the planet, but the shield was thinned to the point where it was just powerful enough to protect against the radiation. So for a Mark XII, powering the shields over the entire city might've been the same as 3 ZPMs trying to power the shields over most of the planet.

[2ndgenerationalteran]

its quite odd it can increase stability of the atmosphere around the planet with some help with lantean solar panels through the shields, which would indicate behemoth amounts of power, yet intergalactic gate travel requires more. And the atmosphereic shield lasted like 500-1000 years? Its quite amazing.

[sg1adam]

The MK12 gen would only be on "at the right time", would only have to used for Shep's return, perhaps by sensor activation. When he was in stasis, the shield would be configured around critical areas; gate-room, stasis location, life support generator etc... Plus the solar panels would provide additional power as well. Life support would only be needed as and when necessary.

[The_Carpenter]

its quite odd it can increase stability of the atmosphere around the planet with some help with lantean solar panels through the shields, which would indicate behemoth amounts of power, yet intergalactic gate travel requires more. And the atmosphereic shield lasted like 500-1000 years? Its quite amazing.

Solar panels which are getting a hell of a lot more power due to the sun turning into a Red Giant and about to toast the planet.

[2ndgenerationalteran]

but the additional energy that it provides implies that we should expect the solar pannels doing something for us in the regular time line, atleast providing power for basic primary systems. I was under the impression energy from solar pannels was dependent on light not heat, and the light from a red giant would be less intense.

[PG15]

A red giant is a lot more luminous, so it's actually more intense in terms of just power output.

Though on a photon level, each photon is less powerful since it's redder.

[Justin1693]

The Generator could have been booted up when the gate activated, leaving it dormant all those 48,000 years. But it was conserving power throughout being with Sheppard, hence turning lights on as they walked through hallways, and off again as they left that hallway.