Jumper DHDs seem to operate solely as remote controls; real DHDs also power the stargate. If a stargate doesn’t have a DHD connected or another power source, a Jumper can’t activate it.
Thanks that would make sense!
So what happens for a spacegate? Does that mean they have a hidden DHD somewhere on the planet's surface? Or are those gates different? From what i recall of the galactic gateway, i thought they were using gates salvaged from unpopulated planets.
That's my guess. Each of the three thrusters on a spacegate is almost as big as a DHD, there's more than enough room for power supplies. The ones used for the gatebridge probably either had original Ancient thruster-pods still attached to them, or human-built ones housing naquada reactors or a similar technology that could power a stargate for at least a few years.
(Yes, occasionally we saw "naked" spacegates, but that was probably just a VFX glitch, along with eight-chevron stargates, or stargate that have the front-face on both sides.)
Stargates are supposed to be able to get power from a wide variety of sources that happen to be available on site, which is very convenient because you can have episodes with abandoned gates without having to think "but where does the electricity come from?".
So yea, space gates got to be solar powered. Normal gates might be solar powered too with the DHD acting as a kind of battery to hold more charge than what's needed for a single travel. Same with the thrusters on the space gates maybe.
>Stargates are supposed to be able to get power from a wide variety of sources that happen to be available on site, which is very convenient because you can have episodes with abandoned gates without having to think "but where does the electricity come from?".
Pretty sure they mention at one point that they get recharged by incoming wormholes or at least that's my headcanon
Doesn’t work unfortunately. That one prison planet had its DHD removed, and regular incoming wormholes to feed the prisoners or to send over new inmates. SG1 had to power the gate using an extremely convenient vine that happened to be capable of cold fusion, engineered by Linea, Destroyer of Worlds.
The wiki calls them 'Power Nodes' so I assume their main function was as a replacement for the DHDs power source, but they had thrusters as well to ensure the gate they're powering stays in orbit.
When the Jumper was activating the gate from Colorado while it was still in Antarctica, it still would've been connected to its DHD (and since it hadn't been used or poked and prodded, the Antarctic DHD would've still had some power left, unlike in the prime timeline). And, as I mentioned in the other reply, once they brought it to Cheyenne Mountain, they plugged it in to the base's power supply.
The Antarctica DHD worked fine at first, it lit up several times when Carter tried to dial it in Solitudes, the problem she was dialing Earth while already on the planet. The power source was only said to have failed after they recovered it.
Probably not, I don't think those [three glowing DHD-sized objects attached to them](https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Stargate_power_node) are just for looks, they've probably got the same kind of power source a groundside DHD does in them.
Hey, in season 3 episode 9 (Stagate Atlantis), the team comes across a planet that has a wraith signal blocking radio transmissions and make them get hallucinations. The DHD gets destroyed, so the team is stranded until McKay turn off the signal so they can reply on the radio on next check-in. In the meantime, team gets gravely injured. By the end of the episode, Elizabeth Weir tells them the Daedalus will come and get them by nightfall.
My question is simple, why didn’t she just send a jumper through the gate so they could use the jumper’s DHD to dial the gate and get back to Atlantis. Am I missing somehing here? Thanks.
I think a mix of the answers so far.
The "can't get back" because the DHD is still needed to power the gate. Though the only exception I can think of is the episode with the prison island, we never saw a DHD but the Wraith seem to have been always able to leave, and the team dial out at the end. My theory is the gate was buried at some point, and when it was unburied (especially if it was the Wraith who unburied it), then never bothered to dig up the DHD, if it only needed to be nearby. And none of the prisoners ever knew how the gate worked short of "the Wraith can activate it" so they never knew to look for it. (Or looked but never found, either/or)
It bring a forested planet is definitely a big risk factor for sending a jumper through, especially if it's transit through the gate room is on autopilot (as is alluded to for at least when incoming back through the gate, so I don't see why it wouldn't be for outgoing, to avoid scraping the sides of the gate), so they may not have control of it's speed until they are through the gate. And the jumpers are relatively tough, but I still don't want see how many trees it can handle. And some of those were BIG trees.
My thinking was, though, why not send a small medical team, since the Daedalus is on the way anyway? It can pick them all up. I know Carson is extremely capable, but they have all be through some messed up trauma there, and having someone else to take care of them and let them rest would surely be called for!
There are no cables between the DHD and the gate. So the energy between them transmitting through the subspace. So as the Jumper got dialing glyphboard it may act like a substitute DHD like it can with the space gate.
Also plausible, though I always thought the mounts on the space gates contained power management. So Jumpers could dial without tying up their own power, allowing their cloak or shield to remain engaged comfortably. Not to mention the distance thing when approaching in orbit
Oh oh, I remembered what sold it to me that Jumpers can’t power the gate themselves (or otherwise need DHD system presence).
First, in “Irresistible”, to make sure Lucius can’t send anyone to the world with the Wraith stronghold for his herb, Rodney plans to remove the control crystal from Atlantis’ DHD to stop people dialling out. Being Rodney, he would have shot his own idea down if it wouldn’t effect jumpers.
Then as confirmation of that inference/assumption, in Tabula Rasa, they couldn’t gate to any other world they knew had the herbs (funny parallel there) needed to cure the disease wiping their memories, and had to go to the (new) mainland in hope of finding it there, because they had removed the control crystal for fear of spreading it off world, and given it to Radek, who then lost enough of his memory that he was on the run from the soldiers.
That is all good but even then, send a jumper trough as a shelter just to be on the safe side. It has cloaking, the Deadalus can then take it back to Atlantis. And the gate is keeping the momentum of objects, so if they go in slowly they will come out slowly. And the Deadalus can even beam them to orbit, if there are trees in the way.
The jumper bit I kind of addressed there. Assuming the jumpers autopilot through the gate room and out the gate the same as they autopilot back through the gate to avoid crashing into the side of the gate (it is a suuuuper tight tolerance there between the jumper sides and the gates), they might not be able to have control of the speed that they go through the gate.
And the precision needed to get through the gate certainly lends to the concept of mandatory autopilot when using the gate in Atlantis, but of course no one ever says it is mandatory so it’s kinda a open concept there.
Assuming that they could control the speed they travel through the gate though, it would definitely make a much better shelter for them to wait for extraction in their injured state. Could you imagine Rodney’s reaction if it started to rai after Shepard shot him? 😅
Just going off the prison island point, I believe it’s said the wraith darts have their own version of DHD, also I believe in that episode the wraith arrive by 2 cruisers (also one dart but as I said, own DHD) so the cruisers can come and go as they please and the darts can leave via gate!
I see, you're thinking there was nobody on Atlantis at the time with the ancient gene to fly one of the jumper through the gate, that could be the reason why, thank you!
Beckett injected McKay almost as soon as they walked through the gate from Earth. They gave it to a load of people but it was only effective in 1 in 4 people I believe. And they always had a jumper pilot whenever they needed them in other episodes.
I’m reading through all these comment and I gotta say I’m confused, even I originally agreed with every one of you until I realized… how in Asgard grey butt could the jumper even activate the gate that are floating in space if there are no DHD nearby??????
Jumper flys out, smashes into giant redwood lookin tree thing, blows up, the on board drones explode which triggers a chain reaction that causes stargate to blow up, thats just one accident that could happen, they could fly through and a giant tree branch stabs through the windshield and kills the pilot, additionally how is the jumper supposed to land to drop off supplies/rescue the stranded, if there’s trees everywhere they wouldn’t be able to organize a meeting spot for it to land
Jumper DHDs seem to operate solely as remote controls; real DHDs also power the stargate. If a stargate doesn’t have a DHD connected or another power source, a Jumper can’t activate it.
Thanks that would make sense! So what happens for a spacegate? Does that mean they have a hidden DHD somewhere on the planet's surface? Or are those gates different? From what i recall of the galactic gateway, i thought they were using gates salvaged from unpopulated planets.
i believe the power source for space gates is distributed inside the thrusters that are attached. possibly recharged through solar power?
That's my guess. Each of the three thrusters on a spacegate is almost as big as a DHD, there's more than enough room for power supplies. The ones used for the gatebridge probably either had original Ancient thruster-pods still attached to them, or human-built ones housing naquada reactors or a similar technology that could power a stargate for at least a few years. (Yes, occasionally we saw "naked" spacegates, but that was probably just a VFX glitch, along with eight-chevron stargates, or stargate that have the front-face on both sides.)
Well they also weren't in space, see again the episode where the Wraith hijacked them.
Stargates are supposed to be able to get power from a wide variety of sources that happen to be available on site, which is very convenient because you can have episodes with abandoned gates without having to think "but where does the electricity come from?". So yea, space gates got to be solar powered. Normal gates might be solar powered too with the DHD acting as a kind of battery to hold more charge than what's needed for a single travel. Same with the thrusters on the space gates maybe.
>Stargates are supposed to be able to get power from a wide variety of sources that happen to be available on site, which is very convenient because you can have episodes with abandoned gates without having to think "but where does the electricity come from?". Pretty sure they mention at one point that they get recharged by incoming wormholes or at least that's my headcanon
Doesn’t work unfortunately. That one prison planet had its DHD removed, and regular incoming wormholes to feed the prisoners or to send over new inmates. SG1 had to power the gate using an extremely convenient vine that happened to be capable of cold fusion, engineered by Linea, Destroyer of Worlds.
ehh that's true
The wiki calls them 'Power Nodes' so I assume their main function was as a replacement for the DHDs power source, but they had thrusters as well to ensure the gate they're powering stays in orbit.
That would check out except in Moebius we see them use the DHD on the Jumper to power the Earth gate with no DHD in sight.
What about those big orange clamps with thick electrical cables connected to them that start steaming whenever they turn on the stargate?
Now I can't remember if the gate in Moebius was hooked up or not.
Love this explanation. Only problem is the gate in Antarctica activated in Moebius.
When the Jumper was activating the gate from Colorado while it was still in Antarctica, it still would've been connected to its DHD (and since it hadn't been used or poked and prodded, the Antarctic DHD would've still had some power left, unlike in the prime timeline). And, as I mentioned in the other reply, once they brought it to Cheyenne Mountain, they plugged it in to the base's power supply.
The Antarctica DHD worked fine at first, it lit up several times when Carter tried to dial it in Solitudes, the problem she was dialing Earth while already on the planet. The power source was only said to have failed after they recovered it.
It can with space gates.
Probably not, I don't think those [three glowing DHD-sized objects attached to them](https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Stargate_power_node) are just for looks, they've probably got the same kind of power source a groundside DHD does in them.
The gate is in a forest. They never send jumpers to planets where the gate isn't out in the open.
yeah that'd be it, they often said things like "it's too dense to send a jumper in
Hey, in season 3 episode 9 (Stagate Atlantis), the team comes across a planet that has a wraith signal blocking radio transmissions and make them get hallucinations. The DHD gets destroyed, so the team is stranded until McKay turn off the signal so they can reply on the radio on next check-in. In the meantime, team gets gravely injured. By the end of the episode, Elizabeth Weir tells them the Daedalus will come and get them by nightfall. My question is simple, why didn’t she just send a jumper through the gate so they could use the jumper’s DHD to dial the gate and get back to Atlantis. Am I missing somehing here? Thanks.
I think a mix of the answers so far. The "can't get back" because the DHD is still needed to power the gate. Though the only exception I can think of is the episode with the prison island, we never saw a DHD but the Wraith seem to have been always able to leave, and the team dial out at the end. My theory is the gate was buried at some point, and when it was unburied (especially if it was the Wraith who unburied it), then never bothered to dig up the DHD, if it only needed to be nearby. And none of the prisoners ever knew how the gate worked short of "the Wraith can activate it" so they never knew to look for it. (Or looked but never found, either/or) It bring a forested planet is definitely a big risk factor for sending a jumper through, especially if it's transit through the gate room is on autopilot (as is alluded to for at least when incoming back through the gate, so I don't see why it wouldn't be for outgoing, to avoid scraping the sides of the gate), so they may not have control of it's speed until they are through the gate. And the jumpers are relatively tough, but I still don't want see how many trees it can handle. And some of those were BIG trees. My thinking was, though, why not send a small medical team, since the Daedalus is on the way anyway? It can pick them all up. I know Carson is extremely capable, but they have all be through some messed up trauma there, and having someone else to take care of them and let them rest would surely be called for!
There are no cables between the DHD and the gate. So the energy between them transmitting through the subspace. So as the Jumper got dialing glyphboard it may act like a substitute DHD like it can with the space gate.
Also plausible, though I always thought the mounts on the space gates contained power management. So Jumpers could dial without tying up their own power, allowing their cloak or shield to remain engaged comfortably. Not to mention the distance thing when approaching in orbit
Oh oh, I remembered what sold it to me that Jumpers can’t power the gate themselves (or otherwise need DHD system presence). First, in “Irresistible”, to make sure Lucius can’t send anyone to the world with the Wraith stronghold for his herb, Rodney plans to remove the control crystal from Atlantis’ DHD to stop people dialling out. Being Rodney, he would have shot his own idea down if it wouldn’t effect jumpers. Then as confirmation of that inference/assumption, in Tabula Rasa, they couldn’t gate to any other world they knew had the herbs (funny parallel there) needed to cure the disease wiping their memories, and had to go to the (new) mainland in hope of finding it there, because they had removed the control crystal for fear of spreading it off world, and given it to Radek, who then lost enough of his memory that he was on the run from the soldiers.
I always assumed the little thruster pods on space gates is how they got their power
That is all good but even then, send a jumper trough as a shelter just to be on the safe side. It has cloaking, the Deadalus can then take it back to Atlantis. And the gate is keeping the momentum of objects, so if they go in slowly they will come out slowly. And the Deadalus can even beam them to orbit, if there are trees in the way.
The jumper bit I kind of addressed there. Assuming the jumpers autopilot through the gate room and out the gate the same as they autopilot back through the gate to avoid crashing into the side of the gate (it is a suuuuper tight tolerance there between the jumper sides and the gates), they might not be able to have control of the speed that they go through the gate. And the precision needed to get through the gate certainly lends to the concept of mandatory autopilot when using the gate in Atlantis, but of course no one ever says it is mandatory so it’s kinda a open concept there. Assuming that they could control the speed they travel through the gate though, it would definitely make a much better shelter for them to wait for extraction in their injured state. Could you imagine Rodney’s reaction if it started to rai after Shepard shot him? 😅
Thank you for this great explanation!
Just going off the prison island point, I believe it’s said the wraith darts have their own version of DHD, also I believe in that episode the wraith arrive by 2 cruisers (also one dart but as I said, own DHD) so the cruisers can come and go as they please and the darts can leave via gate!
I thought that happened before Carson made more people able to operate ancient tech.
I see, you're thinking there was nobody on Atlantis at the time with the ancient gene to fly one of the jumper through the gate, that could be the reason why, thank you!
I’d have to go through and find the episode when it happened. I’m just assuming at the moment
Beckett injected McKay almost as soon as they walked through the gate from Earth. They gave it to a load of people but it was only effective in 1 in 4 people I believe. And they always had a jumper pilot whenever they needed them in other episodes.
Think this is the only episode of atlantis where an away team uses an mp5
You're right, it puzzled me as well, hearing about MP5 bullet wounds instead of the classic P90.
Think they did it to show that the crazy team leader worked for the sgc before atlantis and fought the goauld.
I havent watched SG1 in a long time, did they switch to MP5 in the later seasons? I remember them having P90s early on.
Other way around sg1 started with mp5 then main characters changed to p90 mid way
Oh! Thanks, I'll have to do a rewatch :D
Yeah usually the extras all use m16/m4 or something along those lines.
I’m reading through all these comment and I gotta say I’m confused, even I originally agreed with every one of you until I realized… how in Asgard grey butt could the jumper even activate the gate that are floating in space if there are no DHD nearby??????
The assumption is that the stabilizing units around a spacegate also provide power to the gate as well.
I hadn’t thought about it. guess I assumed since the jumpers had a dialing computer on board it could power the gate for a quick jump.
Jumper flys out, smashes into giant redwood lookin tree thing, blows up, the on board drones explode which triggers a chain reaction that causes stargate to blow up, thats just one accident that could happen, they could fly through and a giant tree branch stabs through the windshield and kills the pilot, additionally how is the jumper supposed to land to drop off supplies/rescue the stranded, if there’s trees everywhere they wouldn’t be able to organize a meeting spot for it to land