An Imperial TIE fighter entered an anechoic chamber at the European Space Agency

@ElentirENG ES 10·16·2023 · 22:43 0

In this section of the blog I usually talk about issues related to space in the real world, but that is sometimes mixed with science fiction.

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As a fan of topics related to space exploration, I am subscribed to the Agency's Flickr account European Space Agency (ESA). A few days ago I got a surprise while reviewing the latest photos published by the accounts I follow on that multimedia portal: ESA published the photo of an Imperial TIE fighter from Star Wars inside a large anechoic chamber, which is what those rooms full of small pyramids on its walls that are usually seen in sound studios. This coating serves to isolate that chamber from outside sound or electromagnetic waves.

A feeling of happiness had already overcome me when I saw that ESA already had a TIE fighter among its repertoire of spacecraft, and was about to propose to them the construction of a Death Star when I read this in the photo description:

A Star Wars TIE Fighter landed at last weekend’s ESA Open Days at ESTEC in the Netherlands, taking up residence in our Hertz radio-frequency test chamber, where it was seen by more than 8 000 visitors over Saturday and Sunday.

The theme of the Open Days was ‘Science Fiction Gets Real’. As all Imperial recruits would know, the TIE in TIE Fighter stands for Twin Ion Engine, and in real life ESA makes regular use of ion engine technology: the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission is currently cruising to Mercury thanks to its onboard ion thrusters.

The full-sized TIE Fighter appeared courtesy of German fan group Project X-1. To see how it got into the Hertz chamber, check out this time-lapse video.

The video was not linked, so I searched on Google to find out how some Germans had managed to steal a ship from the imperial fleet. On the Project X-1 Facebook page they published these photos of the imperial TIE fighter:

And on ESA's Facebook page I found this picture:

Seeing that the TIE fighter seemed so real, I already imagined bringing that ship to my homeland to do practical things, like roasting chestnuts or cooking some good sausages. But finally, I found this video on the ESA Linkedin page:

What a disappointment. The fighter wasn't real... 😕 I think I'll have to look for another more traditional method to cook the sausages... How about an X-wing rebel fighter?

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Main image: Bandai.