wormhole opening time

Tar.Aldarion

Do they ever discuss what decides how long the stargate stays open for? Sometimes the stargate closes right after they go through, sometimes it does not etc

Feral Mutant

It stays open as long as there's stuff going through it (and a bit longer, it probably shuts down when nothing's gone through or into the event horizon for x seconds). Also stuff like radio transmissions apparently counts for that.

Tar.Aldarion

ye you would think that but it seems so random in the show, like closing instantly after, or staying open a good while. It must monitor the minds of poeple and see if they want to go through

Redisle

Yeah there do seem to be some inconsistencies with this. The gate often shuts down right after they go through, which following logic from other episodes would mean the wormhole would be cut off and they would not reintegrate/they would die. Take an episode of SG-1 I watched recently where they were trying to get an element into a dying sun, they were timing the gate cut-off so it would stop in the sun.. Surely then if they cut the gate off right after a person goes though.. before they have reached their destination.. then they die..

Tar.Aldarion

I don't think the gate would allow a shutdown, or maybe it would store them in it's buffer until reintegration. It's just something that is inconsistent I think, it certainly takes time to travel places as they show them tracking where they are in the galaxy, in real time, in earlier episodes.

Sarn

The same thing ocurred to me as well. As pointed out, in most cases, the gate closed immediately after they went through shortly after it had been dialled. One possibility is that they have the ability to sever the connection on the Earth side. Otherwise it's just a continuity thing.

My understanding is that transit through the wormhole is supposed to be instantaneous, but I do remember them tracking their position in earlier episodes. I also vaguely remember them saying how long a gate stays open. When the Goa'uld attacked Earth through the stargate it kept having to be redialled at fixed intervals for the attack to resume.

Edit: From the Wiki "The Stargate will remain open so long as matter or energy continues to pass through it, to a maximum of 38 minutes. Beyond this point, massive amounts of power are needed to sustain a wormhole, which ordinary sources cannot provide."

Howlin

I remember in the start we were told that it takes 5ish seconds to go from one planet to the other but some other times we can hear them saying it will reash blah blah in 6-5-4-3-2-1-0 after maybe 5 secs in it

also grand if the earth gate can shut down because of stargate comman but what about gating from offworld to offworld? it ends after the last person goes through even though there might be others in the area of the gate not going to go through, so it cant be sensors

seamus

Howlin wrote: »

also grand if the earth gate can shut down because of stargate comman but what about gating from offworld to offworld? it ends after the last person goes through even though there might be others in the area of the gate not going to go through, so it cant be sensors

Given the scale of the technology, I don't think that can be asserted. If you consider that Destiny can "sense" how its crew are feeling and determine their needs, it's not a massive logical jump to say that a DHD (or indeed the gate itself) scans people and objects in the vicinty of the gate to determine who is and isn't likely to enter it.

humbert

It's obviously determined by how hard you press the last key (in the case it is not closed explicitly by the dialling gate, of course).

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Narrativium

this is why

SirenX

I've always thought this too

there's been a couple of faults I've noticed but have blocked out of my mind to ensure the real-ness of the show isn't tainted