Travelling to Atlantis?

[WraithWarrior]

Because the symbols are different on the stargates in the Pegasus Galaxy, how did the Atlantis team get there? How did they dial Atlantis from Earth?

[Mio]

We didn't dial the normal 7 symbols needed to reach Atlantis from any Pegasus gate. We dialed 8, which is how you always connect intergalactically.

[Erik Pasternak]

Also, every symbol on the Pegasus gates probably has a corresponding symbol on Milky Way gates. So we would have just dialed the corresponding symbols + 1.

[WraithWarrior]

OK Thanks, I know there needed to be 8 symbols but I didnt know about the corresponding symbols

[Erik Pasternak]

OK Thanks, I know there needed to be 8 symbols but I didnt know about the corresponding symbols

You're welcome.

[Jarnin]

Also, every symbol on the Pegasus gates probably has a corresponding symbol on Milky Way gates. So we would have just dialed the corresponding symbols + 1.

The Pegasus gate only have 36 symbols. The Milky Way gates have 39 symbols. You can't have corresponding symbols on both gates.

However, they sort of got by this little problem by saying that in order to dial outside your galaxy, you need a special control crystal in your dialing device. The only way to get to Earth from the Pegasus galaxy is from Atlantis, or by taking the special control crystal from Atlantis to another gate.
Earth's dialing system doesn't need a special control crystal because it's a hacked system built by the SGC.

The interesting thing is, if we didn't have that hacked system, and instead used a normal DHD, we shouldn't ever be able to dial an outside galaxy. I find it interesting that the ancients would limit gate travel for humans to their own galaxy

[Erik Pasternak]

The interesting thing is, if we didn't have that hacked system, and instead used a normal DHD, we shouldn't ever be able to dial an outside galaxy. I find it interesting that the ancients would limit gate travel for humans to their own galaxy

We know that that's the case in the Pegasus galaxy, but it might not be here in the Milky Way. And you still can have corresponding symbols, some Pegasus ones probably have more than one, I guess.

[Jarnin]

We know that that's the case in the Pegasus galaxy, but it might not be here in the Milky Way.

The ancients didn't put power systems (ZPMs) in the DHDs to allow for intergalactic travel. They also apparently didn't put the special control crystals in the DHDs. So they never intended for their fledgling human civilizations to travel between galaxies until they understood how the stargate coordinates worked, and were able to build the technology that would allow them to do that.
The dialing computer in the SGC is such a system, which is the only reason why we could dial the Asgard galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy.

And you still can have corresponding symbols, some Pegasus ones probably have more than one, I guess.

Pegasus gate system was built after the Milky Way gate system. Milky Way gates have 39 symbols. Pegasus gates have 36 symbols. It's a simple numbers thing. You can't have the symbols on the pegasus gates represent more than 36 distinct objects. It doesn't matter what the symbols look like.

It simply means that the gate system in the Milky Way can go to more desintations than the Pegasus gate system can, which makes sense. The Pegasus galaxy is alot smaller than the Milky Way; Pegasus is only about 2% of the size of the Milky Way.
We also know that the ancients were only able to "seed" about 1000 worlds with human life before they encountered the Wraith. That means there are only about 1000 stargates in Pegasus.

Had the ancients not encountered the Wraith, they would have been able to plant alot more stargates on planets in Pegasus, but since there aren't as many worlds there as there are in our galaxy, they didn't need as many symbols on their gates to get to all of the locations.

[LiquidBlue]

They also apparently didn't put the special control crystals in the DHDs. So they never intended for their fledgling human civilizations to travel between galaxies until they understood how the stargate coordinates worked, and were able to build the technology that would allow them to do that.
The dialing computer in the SGC is such a system, which is the only reason why we could dial the Asgard galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy.

Had the ancients not encountered the Wraith, they would have been able to plant alot more stargates on planets in Pegasus, but since there aren't as many worlds there as there are in our galaxy, they didn't need as many symbols on their gates to get to all of the locations.

I don't think the symbols on the symbols on the milky way gates and on the pegasus gates can be corresponded. There really isn't much point, one set of gates work within one galaxy, another set of gates work within another. Since it seems apparent that special controls are necessary to bridge from galaxy to another, it seems unlikely that the addresses from one galaxy to another can be translated simply by adding an area code symbol. It is unlikely that the DHDs in different galaxies communicate with each other, and thus correct the meaning of the addresses to account for stellar movement.

What I mean is that the semantics of a 8 symbol address are likely different from that of a 7 symbol address to the point that unless a stargate has been recently programed with the meaning of the 8 symbol address, manualing dialing the gate (assuming the gate is attached to a sufficient power supply) with an 8 symbol address isn't likely to work.

Since the pegasus gates do not have the same number of symbols as the milky way gates, one must calculate addresses for the milky way gates that would work on the pegasus gates. How then does the atlantis team know the address for earth?

*The address for earth was in the library of gate addresses found at atlantis.
*The message left by the acients including the earth address.
*The Atlantis DHD has a list of recently dialed gates, and presumably the the earth gate was the last gate dialed before the atlantis team arrived.

Notice the danger each one of these alternatives present. Ignoring the technology the Wraith could have obtained by gaining access to Atlantis, the Wraith could have learned the location of earth. The Atlantis team recognizes this risk and is prepared to destroy the city if the Wraith ever seem likely to take it. But what safeguards did the ancients leave in place. Sure the shield was active, but it was going to fail eventually, and the Wraith would have the city then. Futhermore, what prevented the Wraith from gating into Atlantis just as the atlantis team did.




Spoilers from a future episode
When Dr. Weir goes back in time, it could have demonstrated that the earth humans would return to atlantis before the Wraith capture the city. Thus giving them the confidence to leave the city in an operational state.

[WraithWarrior]

If none of the gates correspond, then how did the SGC dial the gate in Atlantis? and if the ancients activated the shield to prevent the Wraith accessing the city, how did they do it after they left and how did the Atlantis team get into Atlantis without being blocked or killed?

[LiquidBlue]

If none of the gates correspond, then how did the SGC dial the gate in Atlantis? and if the ancients activated the shield to prevent the Wraith accessing the city, how did they do it after they left and how did the Atlantis team get into Atlantis without being blocked or killed?

Good questions. I guess I need to clarify my post.

I do not mean to suggest that the gates in different galaxies are not compatible to one another, just that the addresses are. That is to say one cannot take an address from the milky way galaxy, translate the symbols into pegasus galaxy symbols, add a area code symbol and you have the pegasus galaxy address for a milky way galaxy gate. I think one must know the location of a milky galaxy gate then figure out what the 8 symbol pegasus address is for that gate. (Or vice versa pegasus to milky way)

So far we have two known inter-galactic addresses between the milky way and Pegasus. The Milky Way to Atlantis address, and the Pegasus to Earth address. Earth discovered the 8 symbol Atlantis address in antartica. I am suggesting that the atlantis team discovered the earth address in Atlantis, or calculated the 8 symbol address from their knowledge of the position of earth, that there is no simple way of taking an address from one galaxy and converting it to the address in another galaxy without knowing both the actual position of the destination stargate, and the scheme for 8-symbol addresses with the sending galaxy.

The question still remains. What prevented the Wraith from gating into Atlantis as the atlantis team did. The city shield was active, preventing the wraith from gaining access from the outside, but the iris was shield was not active, thus allowing the Atlantis team to arrive.





Spoilers from a future episode
Maybe when Dr. Weir goes back in time, the Ancients know the approximate time that the atlantis team arrives. They could then program the iris shield to activate for every incoming wormhole until about that time. Thus, if the Wriath had ever tried to dial atlantis before that time, they would have encountered a blocked exit.

[WraithWarrior]

Thanks I just couldn't get my head round the fact of the symbols. I couldnt understand how the earth gate could dial the atlantis gate if the atlantis gate has different symbols, but I understand now. Thanks

[Panixs]

Maybe the earth team, looked at the Chevrons that were active as they came through the gate. It was a large group comming through someone whould have had time to got down the cordinates for earth while the rest were coming through the gate. As for the Wraith what are the chances of them sucesfully guessing the coordinates for the Atlantis gate, without knowing it before hand, maybe the world atlantis is on now isn't the origanal world it was on in Pegasus. the Ancients coul'd have moved the city to a world without a stargate already so it woul'd be a compleatly new address not written down on any colanised worlds in Pegasus.

[WraithWarrior]

Maybe the earth team, looked at the Chevrons that were active as they came through the gate. It was a large group comming through someone whould have had time to got down the cordinates for earth while the rest were coming through the gate. As for the Wraith what are the chances of them sucesfully guessing the coordinates for the Atlantis gate, without knowing it before hand, maybe the world atlantis is on now isn't the origanal world it was on in Pegasus. the Ancients coul'd have moved the city to a world without a stargate already so it woul'd be a compleatly new address not written down on any colanised worlds in Pegasus.

The Wraith already knew the address to Atlantis, thats how they drove the ancients out of the pegasus galaxy. The ancients had to activate the shield to stop the Wraith getting into the city. And according to other threads on the General Discussion page, there is no way to tell the address of an incoming wormhole.

[WraithWarrior]

As well the ancients would not go to a new galaxy without any gates if they made it. It would also take them a long time to travel through galaxies.