Comments on: How Long Could Luke Survive in a Tauntaun?

By: MillRoad77

MillRoad77 — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:06:05 +0000

Notice that as the snowspeeder flies in to rescue Han and Luke, we don’t actually see their shelter but for a pair of antennae. For all we know, and for all it matters to the story, they both spent the night inside that tauntaun.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:08:04 +0000

C’mon, everyone knows that with standard rebel survival training, you can get that emergency shelter up in 15, 20 minutes tops. So 56 minutes is more than enough.

By: Dana Hawn

Dana Hawn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:36:40 +0000

LMAO! Yes indeed, I can see the mountains in molehills when it comes to having a conversation with the person who writes this blog. Geesh! Next SW convention you will be able to recognize me by the dead carcass of tauntaun I am wearing complete with smell.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:46:44 +0000

How fast could a tauntaun REALLY lose body temperature, given its evolution? Maybe the hypothermia only came to affect its brain knowing how its head sticks out in the cold, and not the central area (which was wrapped with a saddle).
Still, Han having only less than an hour to dig an ice shelter in a blizzard really adds excitement!

By: JediGirlLuke

JediGirlLuke — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:00:43 +0000

I know its just a movie, but i really think that it could work. Pretty cool.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:44:12 +0000

Not much of a survival tent if it takes an hour to put up!

By: Guy

Guy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:27:37 +0000

Well the Tauntauns were not adapted to the cold, that’s why they were working on the snowspeeders, wasn’t it?
Besides, at the Rebellion Picnic, didn’t Han win the shelter building competition with a time of 16 minutes?

By: Val

Val — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:24:09 +0000

A human carcass may become cold in 8 to 36 hours, but a tauntaun is not a human. Larger animals have a relatively small surface area to volume ratio, meaning that more of that warmth is contained deep within the animal, aware from the skin heat is lost to the frigid air. This fact alone would lengthen the time the tauntaun retains its heat, but add to that the thick coat of hair that protects the skin from the convection affects of icy wind, and the tick layers of fat or blubber we see when the creature is slice open, and we see a carcass that will retain its heat far, far longer than a human corpse.

But what is the starting temperature of our hypothermic tauntaun? We can only guess at the normal body temperature of the animal, but humans – whose normal body temperature averages 98.6 degrees F – can die from hypothermia if their internal body temperature drops a mere 12 degrees (polar bears also average 98.6 degrees F). The truth is, though, even if the body temperature had dropped to an unlikely 40 degrees F by the time it collapsed, the animal could still protect the chilled Jedi-in-training. Like a down blanket, as long as the beast hadn’t completely frozen, its body would provide Luke with insulation that would help trap the heat generated from his body. This heat would stay near Luke’s body, slowing the rate of conduction and protect against convection from the wind, dramatically reducing Luke’s rate of heat loss. His own heat would keep the part of the tauntaun that was around him from freezing for quite some time, and even a while after Luke had frozen to death, should he stay all cuddled up in tauntaun guts for too long.

But Luke didn’t stay long. As Dragosmart pointed out, Han said to Luke that the tauntaun’s body would keep his warm until he could get the shelter built. We don’t know how long that took, but even if it were several hours, it’s a fair bet that the tauntaun could keep Luke reasonably toasty to keep him alive in the meanwhile.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:43:26 +0000

my bet is he would get out of it before he froze

By: Dragosmart

Dragosmart — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:27:12 +0000

1. Han’s god => he had the iglu up in less than ten minutes
2. “And I thought they smelled bad…on the outside.” => smell surely provides a ‘warmer coat’
3. damn it’s fantasy… why does anybody even bother explaining temperatures, cariac arrests or whatsoever… does anybody truly think that in the Attack of the Clones Anakin could have survived the jump and fall and ‘catch’ he did in the begining of the movie while chasing Zam Wesell?
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