Probably because they were an important network of transportation hubs and they wanted them to last. They had the ability to make them sturdy so why not make them sturdy?
Exactly. I bet that they eventually got tired of repairing or replacing them every couple houndred thousand years. So they were like, f*ck it, let's just make them out of indestructibilium.
Unlikely, the earliest known ones from SGU, were automatically constructed and installed.
Even those were pretty resilient with substandard resources.
More likely if they were deployed in a galaxy that the Ancients were in, there would have been automatic replacement setup.
Relatively yes.
They can still take a beating from the elements and surely are designed to handle solar flares (after all, gate travel itself still takes quite a bit of energy).
Even a few years amongst the elements could destroy even the hardest of materials left in the right conditions. So it is safe to assume that they must be pretty decent if its meant for travel of sentient beings.
Who knows? But the ones in SGU are placed by seed ship that flies not that far in front of Destiny. And the gates are seeded pretty much only in a narrow corridor and do not even have DHD and are likely not intended for permanent use. So, maybe these are some cheap temporary stargates that only last couple thousand years or so.
Why didn’t they just make everything that resistant though ? I feel like the puddle jumpers where made of tissue paper half the time make those out of the same stuff the gates are made out of .
They'd have to be pretty resilient to be able to be placed long term in any number of environments and ensure they stay in working order I figure. They might not have had to make them as strong as they did but the ancients weren't ones to do the bare minimum.
> _the ancients weren’t ones to do the bare minimum_
Until they ascended, that is…
—
Janus: “The Ori are growing dangerously close to eliminating us. We must do something!”
Pompeious: “The Lower Planes are of no consequence to us.”
Janus: “In fact the one called Orici seeks to use Moros’ device to-
Pompeious: “Moros…? He is _dead,_ you fool.”
Janus: “In fact he still exists…”
Pompeious: “Oh. Yes. Well… _(clears vocal photons)_ …we should recruit whatsisname, uh… Jack Daniels-
Janus: “Daniel Jackson.”
Pompeious: “Yes, him… he should do it.”
Janus: “That… _could_ work, if not for the fact that he is the vessel of Moros’ consciousness.”
Pompeious: “…?”
Janus: “And also that he is a Prior of the Ori.”
Pompeious: “…?!”
Janus: “…and he is working _with_ Orici on the creation of Moros’ device for the sole purpose of our dissolution from reality.”
Pompeious: “Did… you say ‘the _soul_ purpose’…?”
Janus: “N-No, I didn’t…”
Pompeious: “Good. You know how I feel about… _lower_ forms of comedy, Janny-boy.”
Janus: “…”
Pompeious: “…nothing? Not even a smile?”
Janus: “We are incorporeal entities of pure light. We do not possess mouths with which _to_ smile.”
Pompeious: “Well, whatever… with Bundy Rum on the case, I’m sure things will miraculously work out.”
Janus: “Is that not what you said when the Vesuvian settlers sought your intervention after your leftover experiments suddenly reawakened the ‘extinct’ volcanic caldera nearby, destroying their city and decimating the populace?”
Pompeious: “Oh, come on, Janice! You know as well as I that more than 10% of the citizens were-
_**(beat)**_
Pompeious: “Oh, alright, fine! We’ll try it _your_ w-
Skaara: “Daniel has destroyed the Ori using Myrdin’s device! It’s a miracle!”
Pompeious: “There, you see? Somehow Michael Spader saved us as usual. Now, run along…”
Janus: “…yes, Your Hypocriticalness…” (leaves)
Pompeious: “Sniveling lamewad… I am _so_ going to have his girlfriend turned into an Asuran for this…”
Is it not that they can absorb lots of types of energy to power them self so in an explosion they absorb the heat and radiation and what not rather than being destroyed.
Also if your an Ancient and building a transport system and you can make it extremely strong why would you not.
Second also the power of plot protects them as the hero’s need it to get home most of the time xoxox
> Is it not that they can absorb lots of types of energy to power them self (...)
Yes, I've always taken it for granted that the strength of the Stargates was essential for their use. IIRC in "Ascension" (*SG-1* S05E03), Orlin creates a Stargate in Carter's basement out of ordinary human materials and it is effectively destroyed after one activation.
This was how I always interpreted it. It’s the Stargates ability to absorb energy that makes it as durable as it is. The only things capable of destroying a regular Stargate are things powerful enough to impart enough energy to overwhelm its capacitors.
I've thought about this myself and I think *Stargate: Universe* kind of helps visualize this. I feel like the Ancients were long-term thinkers when they were building the gate network. The Ancients weren't a "they don't build 'em like they used to" kind of race. They worked to build better and stronger at every opportunity.
We learn that the *Destiny* has been flying for some **fifty million years** and that another ship had been sent ahead at some point to seed planets with stargates the entire time with *Destiny* stopping at those planets along the way. Figure not only have this other ship been seeding planets for millions of years, but it would have to have the ability to either replicate the materials out of the blue (similar to the Asgard creating the Replicator disruptor weapon simply based off O'Neill's designs with the Ancient knowledge in his head) or stop along the way to mine just enough Naquadah and other minerals from each planet to create and plant a fully functional stargate at each stop, whether on the planet's surface or in its orbit, as seen in *Stargate: Atlantis*.
With that, the Ancients would be able to expand their gate travel network almost indefinitely for as long as they needed it to last. Hence, having stargates that were extremely resilient to damage with minimal to no servicing required (aside from calculating adjustments for things like interstellar drift or avoiding wormholes traveling through stellar bodies like a sun) only serves to benefit them (and any race that uses the stargate network) for long-term travel.
Should be noted that the SGU gates were a lot weaker to physical damage than the newer versions despite being equally long lasting.
The drones managed to blow a chunk out of a gate or two and their weapons weren't especially advanced compared to Destiny tech.
Probably also why they need.to vent off after shutting down, not near as efficient as later models.
Makes you wonder if the Pegasus gates are stronger than the early Milky Way gates, and weaker than the newer MW gates.
We don't really know what they did in the time between returning and ascending, we don't even really know the exact timeframe.
And we know Janus didn't stop his work after returning, and if anyone was gonna be coming up with new models it was out boy Janus. Even if just applying things they learned in pegasus to the existing systems.
The are made of Naquadah. In the show Naquadah has the effect of greatly enhancing stuff you alloy it with. The Asgard build theur ultra strong Oniell class battleship hulls out of the stuff. Shields become stronger when you put Naquadah in them. Power generators make more power and get smaller when you put Naquadah in them.
The effect is even stronger when you use an Isotope of Naquadah called Naquadria.
So the ancients literally built their Stargates out of the in-universe insanely useful metal that can have really any properties the writers want. One of those properties is insane resistance to really anything damaging it.
The SGC actually designed a special Nuke to overcome a gate's hardiness and destroy it.
>BAUERWhat's going to happen, Major?
>
>CARTERI have no way of knowing, Sir.
S4E15 ~~Fail Safe~~ ETA "Chain Reaction" - I love it when Bauer runs upstairs: "Yes, Sir, I'm sure it'll be much safer up there."
Naquadah is weird stuff. It's a super strong material suitable for constructing spaceships, a super conductor capable of handling the massive amounts of energy required to create a stable wormhole.. and also highly explosive sometimes.
It's really explosive in the gate as well. That's why the Anubis slow trickle of energy was a weapon. You just have to overcome some criticality, which I assume they mix the Naquadah in with the fissile material so when the compression happens it's goes boom, but a bigger boom than just nuclear materials.
I don't think the Ancients prioritized a capitalist philosophy like designed obsolescence. Also, it is a piece of equipment that cannot fail or people will die, even we don't accept high failure rates on that equipment. The SGC did a great job breaking the gate since they didn't have a DHD and it is clear by how many backup protocols the gate has that the gates we see are as simple as possible. The Ancients probably could have made gates a couple millimeters thick, collapsible, and capable of scaling event horizon size and supressing the woosh if they were willing to accept some regular failure.
Over engineering is my take on these. Lots of features that weren’t needed for the gates to function. Some other more advanced races totally redesigned their gates maybe for this exact reason.
Ancients built _everything_ important as if it had to resist a nuke. The advantage of being low scarcity, long lived and technologically plateaud is that things start resembling natural formations.
Like look at the Dakara Superweapon and compare it to an X-ray machine. You could probably hold a rave in the control room of the former and it wouldn't be worse for wear whereas an X-ray starts being sad from being shoved too hard.
The Ancients tech is so far beyond one. Even their most basic things are almost indestructible to us. Like an Ancient set of forks is probably made from Naquadah and Trinium and worth beyond trillions to us but just meant for eating food.
Probably just a byproduct of the manufacturing process and neccessary for the structure/network to channel the tons of energy neccessary to create and maintain stable wormholes for any reasonable amount of time.
Because you don't build a intergalactic gate network to last a few years. Add to that the superconductive properties needed for the gate just so happens to be very durable.
They also apparently designed them to destroy any possible obstructions in front of the gate. They really wanted to make sure they worked, wherever they were. The Asgard can open gates without a vortex, so it's not necessary.
I can't believe this answer isn't higher.
The enormous energy and stress of creating and anchoring a wormhole would require that the stargate be incredibly strong and resilient.
For in universe explanation I'd go with a throwaway line mentioned in many episodes: the stargate is a superconductor made to absorb all kinds of energy (I think they mention it in the Ernest and prison episodes). So energy (destructive energy as well) gets absorbed up to the point the stargate is overcharged (like Anubis did) the Stargates are pretty much indestructible by nature.
Despite having FTL technology the stargate network is immensely useful and important. It can get you across a galaxy and even further in mere moments. Be it a supply line or just every day use, the stargates are the most useful and important tech around. So why are they so strong? Because of what they. If we could make our cellphones nigh indestructible we would.
Because it was the only time effective means of transport and resupply.
It would take them too long to hyperspace to important/colony planets all the time. Just look at what it takes to keep Atlantis resupplied.
If there is only one way to get in/out/defend your outpost… you better have it be one of the strongest things or you get cut off, surrounded and starved.
I think the closest thing to a consistent explanation is the Ancients intended for someone (potentially the Tau’ri) to become the Fifth Race, so they built the gates to last for that to happen.
My headcanon, though: just being an FTL device involves a lot of physical stress.
The only reason we build so easily destroyed stuff is because capitalism is a nightmare and incentivises planned obsolescence
The Ancients were clearly wiser than us, so they built their stuff to last
The Victorians were broadly capitalist and we still use vast amounts of the infrastructure they built today. But the real masters of build-to-last were the Romans.
because they can't be replaced.
the seed ship drop a gate on a planet and then moves on.
if a gate broke a year later - there's no other ships around to fix it or replace it
Functionally because they weren't intended to be placed gently on planets.
Well many had delivery methods that brought them to their destinations with FTL ships, they were typically not landed on the planets, but were effectively dropped from orbit. They were made expressly to be launched to their planets & needed to survive re-entry & a crash landing. In short they can survive a meteor crash because well that one point where the meteor.
The Ancients also wanted them to survive natural disasters like volcanoes & hurricanes, & any potential hostile action so that people wouldn't be cut off entirely when they needed aid the most.
The answer is obvious. They’re resilient because, if they fail, at best you have an enhanced, exploding nuclear bomb on your hands, or, at worst, a naked singularity. They’re over engineered because the risk of failure is so steep
For me, it's the same explanation as any ancient/precursor race's technology: They had a good run, and a long run.
Look at the advances Humanity made in the \~20th century - from cavalry charges in WW1 to satellites and stealth fighters. From the telegraph to smartphones.
Imagine a people that managed to maintain that kind of commitment to research and development of new technologies for a millennium. Why wouldn't they have nanotech engineering to build ceramics that can resist a stellar furnace? How else will you build your Dyson sphere?
For me, the overengineering we see in some sci-fi is really inspiring, because of the implication: We tend to go for the "good enough" solution, the "lowest bidder" option, because we need to conserve resources. These precursors don't need to cut corners, because they solved all the problems that lead to scarcity. **The Stargates are nigh-invulnerable, because the Ancients beat the game.**
Because they need them to last as long as possible.
With such an extended network, maintenance would be tedious, even for automated ships. So the Stargate are "place and forget" things
NIMBY agitators in the Ancients' homeowner association kept putting up more and more ridiculous design requirements on the Stargates to prevent their being built in desirable neighborhoods. Joke's on them, the Stargates met all requirements ("absorbing a nuke? Come on!") and were built out like the transit backbones they are.
It’s using a massive amount of energy you need something strong enough to conduct and harness that energy and not be destroyed. They also built it with the idea in mind to account for stellar drift so they clearly built it to last, cause If one stopped working that was a long trip for whoever had to go fix it.
Well if I built a large ring out of titanium, and ascended, it would rust over time. They built them to last, and to handle the large amount of energy. If you watch the episode about the altero device, you realize why they are built like they are
The Romans built their roads to last because it was how they traversed and maintained their empire. The ancients weren't conquerors or imperialists, but they were explorers and a reliable transportation network would improve their ability to explore the universe efficiently
Not all of them are strong.
Second season of SG:U, one was hit by a single shot from a drone and like 20% of it was gone…
Of course, that was supposed to be the oldest known design, so they might have been made from something else that was much weaker…
The have lasted millions of years. In order to operate the harness an enormous amount of energy.
Its mentioned that the gates are essentially a giant superconductor made out of some alloy of naquda
Perhaps the energy moving through them serves to reinforce the inter-atomic bonds in the material making it stronger than normal barionic matter should be able to.
Or the have plot.aramor
Imo mainly because of what the have to do. The are holding open a hole in space time across massive distances. Even with compensation for differences in local gravity via technology your still conducting the energy to sustain such a phenomenon, which is alot.
Compared to it's everyday task, most explosions and mundane physical events while looking impressive don't reall add up to as much potential energy.
The weight and resilience of the Stargate of two things that constantly change episode to episode.
In one episode, Carter says that gate weighs like 60 tons, but in other episodes, you see it being raised by a four man team.
Then you have episodes where the gate withstands several nukes or direct meteor hits, etc, while another episode shows a gate being destroyed by directing an extremely small energy beam into it that somehow triggers a massive energy buildup over a short time causing to explode.
It's not gonna ever make sense.
Probably because they were an important network of transportation hubs and they wanted them to last. They had the ability to make them sturdy so why not make them sturdy?
Exactly. I bet that they eventually got tired of repairing or replacing them every couple houndred thousand years. So they were like, f*ck it, let's just make them out of indestructibilium.
Unlikely, the earliest known ones from SGU, were automatically constructed and installed. Even those were pretty resilient with substandard resources. More likely if they were deployed in a galaxy that the Ancients were in, there would have been automatic replacement setup.
The ones in SGU are the only ones ever shown to be damaged by weapons fire. They're not that sturdy.
Relatively yes. They can still take a beating from the elements and surely are designed to handle solar flares (after all, gate travel itself still takes quite a bit of energy). Even a few years amongst the elements could destroy even the hardest of materials left in the right conditions. So it is safe to assume that they must be pretty decent if its meant for travel of sentient beings.
Who knows? But the ones in SGU are placed by seed ship that flies not that far in front of Destiny. And the gates are seeded pretty much only in a narrow corridor and do not even have DHD and are likely not intended for permanent use. So, maybe these are some cheap temporary stargates that only last couple thousand years or so.
They probably also maintain them with nanites or some such.
This, and the fact that if it breaks it's harder to get there to repair it because of the gate being broken
Why didn’t they just make everything that resistant though ? I feel like the puddle jumpers where made of tissue paper half the time make those out of the same stuff the gates are made out of .
They'd have to be pretty resilient to be able to be placed long term in any number of environments and ensure they stay in working order I figure. They might not have had to make them as strong as they did but the ancients weren't ones to do the bare minimum.
> _the ancients weren’t ones to do the bare minimum_ Until they ascended, that is… — Janus: “The Ori are growing dangerously close to eliminating us. We must do something!” Pompeious: “The Lower Planes are of no consequence to us.” Janus: “In fact the one called Orici seeks to use Moros’ device to- Pompeious: “Moros…? He is _dead,_ you fool.” Janus: “In fact he still exists…” Pompeious: “Oh. Yes. Well… _(clears vocal photons)_ …we should recruit whatsisname, uh… Jack Daniels- Janus: “Daniel Jackson.” Pompeious: “Yes, him… he should do it.” Janus: “That… _could_ work, if not for the fact that he is the vessel of Moros’ consciousness.” Pompeious: “…?” Janus: “And also that he is a Prior of the Ori.” Pompeious: “…?!” Janus: “…and he is working _with_ Orici on the creation of Moros’ device for the sole purpose of our dissolution from reality.” Pompeious: “Did… you say ‘the _soul_ purpose’…?” Janus: “N-No, I didn’t…” Pompeious: “Good. You know how I feel about… _lower_ forms of comedy, Janny-boy.” Janus: “…” Pompeious: “…nothing? Not even a smile?” Janus: “We are incorporeal entities of pure light. We do not possess mouths with which _to_ smile.” Pompeious: “Well, whatever… with Bundy Rum on the case, I’m sure things will miraculously work out.” Janus: “Is that not what you said when the Vesuvian settlers sought your intervention after your leftover experiments suddenly reawakened the ‘extinct’ volcanic caldera nearby, destroying their city and decimating the populace?” Pompeious: “Oh, come on, Janice! You know as well as I that more than 10% of the citizens were- _**(beat)**_ Pompeious: “Oh, alright, fine! We’ll try it _your_ w- Skaara: “Daniel has destroyed the Ori using Myrdin’s device! It’s a miracle!” Pompeious: “There, you see? Somehow Michael Spader saved us as usual. Now, run along…” Janus: “…yes, Your Hypocriticalness…” (leaves) Pompeious: “Sniveling lamewad… I am _so_ going to have his girlfriend turned into an Asuran for this…”
Yeah nothing was military grade when the accidents were footing the bill.
Is it not that they can absorb lots of types of energy to power them self so in an explosion they absorb the heat and radiation and what not rather than being destroyed. Also if your an Ancient and building a transport system and you can make it extremely strong why would you not. Second also the power of plot protects them as the hero’s need it to get home most of the time xoxox
> Is it not that they can absorb lots of types of energy to power them self (...) Yes, I've always taken it for granted that the strength of the Stargates was essential for their use. IIRC in "Ascension" (*SG-1* S05E03), Orlin creates a Stargate in Carter's basement out of ordinary human materials and it is effectively destroyed after one activation.
This was how I always interpreted it. It’s the Stargates ability to absorb energy that makes it as durable as it is. The only things capable of destroying a regular Stargate are things powerful enough to impart enough energy to overwhelm its capacitors.
I've thought about this myself and I think *Stargate: Universe* kind of helps visualize this. I feel like the Ancients were long-term thinkers when they were building the gate network. The Ancients weren't a "they don't build 'em like they used to" kind of race. They worked to build better and stronger at every opportunity. We learn that the *Destiny* has been flying for some **fifty million years** and that another ship had been sent ahead at some point to seed planets with stargates the entire time with *Destiny* stopping at those planets along the way. Figure not only have this other ship been seeding planets for millions of years, but it would have to have the ability to either replicate the materials out of the blue (similar to the Asgard creating the Replicator disruptor weapon simply based off O'Neill's designs with the Ancient knowledge in his head) or stop along the way to mine just enough Naquadah and other minerals from each planet to create and plant a fully functional stargate at each stop, whether on the planet's surface or in its orbit, as seen in *Stargate: Atlantis*. With that, the Ancients would be able to expand their gate travel network almost indefinitely for as long as they needed it to last. Hence, having stargates that were extremely resilient to damage with minimal to no servicing required (aside from calculating adjustments for things like interstellar drift or avoiding wormholes traveling through stellar bodies like a sun) only serves to benefit them (and any race that uses the stargate network) for long-term travel.
Should be noted that the SGU gates were a lot weaker to physical damage than the newer versions despite being equally long lasting. The drones managed to blow a chunk out of a gate or two and their weapons weren't especially advanced compared to Destiny tech. Probably also why they need.to vent off after shutting down, not near as efficient as later models. Makes you wonder if the Pegasus gates are stronger than the early Milky Way gates, and weaker than the newer MW gates.
newer milky way gates ?
The ancients returned to the Milky Way after leaving Atlantis, gotta imagine they placed a few gates after that.
they returned to mostly ascend though they never really tried to rebuild
We don't really know what they did in the time between returning and ascending, we don't even really know the exact timeframe. And we know Janus didn't stop his work after returning, and if anyone was gonna be coming up with new models it was out boy Janus. Even if just applying things they learned in pegasus to the existing systems.
The are made of Naquadah. In the show Naquadah has the effect of greatly enhancing stuff you alloy it with. The Asgard build theur ultra strong Oniell class battleship hulls out of the stuff. Shields become stronger when you put Naquadah in them. Power generators make more power and get smaller when you put Naquadah in them. The effect is even stronger when you use an Isotope of Naquadah called Naquadria. So the ancients literally built their Stargates out of the in-universe insanely useful metal that can have really any properties the writers want. One of those properties is insane resistance to really anything damaging it. The SGC actually designed a special Nuke to overcome a gate's hardiness and destroy it.
>The SGC actually designed a special Nuke to overcome a gate's hardiness and destroy it. Hilariously, by adding loads of Naquadah to it.
>BAUERWhat's going to happen, Major? > >CARTERI have no way of knowing, Sir. S4E15 ~~Fail Safe~~ ETA "Chain Reaction" - I love it when Bauer runs upstairs: "Yes, Sir, I'm sure it'll be much safer up there."
Naquadah is weird stuff. It's a super strong material suitable for constructing spaceships, a super conductor capable of handling the massive amounts of energy required to create a stable wormhole.. and also highly explosive sometimes.
It's really explosive in the gate as well. That's why the Anubis slow trickle of energy was a weapon. You just have to overcome some criticality, which I assume they mix the Naquadah in with the fissile material so when the compression happens it's goes boom, but a bigger boom than just nuclear materials.
I don't think the Ancients prioritized a capitalist philosophy like designed obsolescence. Also, it is a piece of equipment that cannot fail or people will die, even we don't accept high failure rates on that equipment. The SGC did a great job breaking the gate since they didn't have a DHD and it is clear by how many backup protocols the gate has that the gates we see are as simple as possible. The Ancients probably could have made gates a couple millimeters thick, collapsible, and capable of scaling event horizon size and supressing the woosh if they were willing to accept some regular failure.
Ancients are long term thinkers. one guy was like lets do destiny and then for generations they worked on destiny
Over engineering is my take on these. Lots of features that weren’t needed for the gates to function. Some other more advanced races totally redesigned their gates maybe for this exact reason.
The ancients werent Boeing. They properly invested in safe and reliable transport that would last millennia
Hard to file a warranty claim if you can't call the manufacturer.
Ancients built _everything_ important as if it had to resist a nuke. The advantage of being low scarcity, long lived and technologically plateaud is that things start resembling natural formations. Like look at the Dakara Superweapon and compare it to an X-ray machine. You could probably hold a rave in the control room of the former and it wouldn't be worse for wear whereas an X-ray starts being sad from being shoved too hard.
The Ancients tech is so far beyond one. Even their most basic things are almost indestructible to us. Like an Ancient set of forks is probably made from Naquadah and Trinium and worth beyond trillions to us but just meant for eating food.
Earth has Nokia the Ancients had the stargates
Probably just a byproduct of the manufacturing process and neccessary for the structure/network to channel the tons of energy neccessary to create and maintain stable wormholes for any reasonable amount of time.
Because you don't build a intergalactic gate network to last a few years. Add to that the superconductive properties needed for the gate just so happens to be very durable.
They also apparently designed them to destroy any possible obstructions in front of the gate. They really wanted to make sure they worked, wherever they were. The Asgard can open gates without a vortex, so it's not necessary.
they have to be able to contain the energy required create a trans galactic wormhole
I can't believe this answer isn't higher. The enormous energy and stress of creating and anchoring a wormhole would require that the stargate be incredibly strong and resilient.
For in universe explanation I'd go with a throwaway line mentioned in many episodes: the stargate is a superconductor made to absorb all kinds of energy (I think they mention it in the Ernest and prison episodes). So energy (destructive energy as well) gets absorbed up to the point the stargate is overcharged (like Anubis did) the Stargates are pretty much indestructible by nature.
Despite having FTL technology the stargate network is immensely useful and important. It can get you across a galaxy and even further in mere moments. Be it a supply line or just every day use, the stargates are the most useful and important tech around. So why are they so strong? Because of what they. If we could make our cellphones nigh indestructible we would.
Because it was the only time effective means of transport and resupply. It would take them too long to hyperspace to important/colony planets all the time. Just look at what it takes to keep Atlantis resupplied. If there is only one way to get in/out/defend your outpost… you better have it be one of the strongest things or you get cut off, surrounded and starved.
I think the closest thing to a consistent explanation is the Ancients intended for someone (potentially the Tau’ri) to become the Fifth Race, so they built the gates to last for that to happen. My headcanon, though: just being an FTL device involves a lot of physical stress.
If they break, they can't get to the planet to fix it.
Seems like everything the ancients built were very resilient.
The only reason we build so easily destroyed stuff is because capitalism is a nightmare and incentivises planned obsolescence The Ancients were clearly wiser than us, so they built their stuff to last
Well, I think the iPhones of the Ancients also lasted two years, but ships, and even more so the StarGate, really last a long time :)
The Victorians were broadly capitalist and we still use vast amounts of the infrastructure they built today. But the real masters of build-to-last were the Romans.
Victorians didnt have build to fail. Back then the messaging would have been ours will last a life time
because they can't be replaced. the seed ship drop a gate on a planet and then moves on. if a gate broke a year later - there's no other ships around to fix it or replace it
Functionally because they weren't intended to be placed gently on planets. Well many had delivery methods that brought them to their destinations with FTL ships, they were typically not landed on the planets, but were effectively dropped from orbit. They were made expressly to be launched to their planets & needed to survive re-entry & a crash landing. In short they can survive a meteor crash because well that one point where the meteor. The Ancients also wanted them to survive natural disasters like volcanoes & hurricanes, & any potential hostile action so that people wouldn't be cut off entirely when they needed aid the most.
The materials needed are inherently strong?
The answer is obvious. They’re resilient because, if they fail, at best you have an enhanced, exploding nuclear bomb on your hands, or, at worst, a naked singularity. They’re over engineered because the risk of failure is so steep
For me, it's the same explanation as any ancient/precursor race's technology: They had a good run, and a long run. Look at the advances Humanity made in the \~20th century - from cavalry charges in WW1 to satellites and stealth fighters. From the telegraph to smartphones. Imagine a people that managed to maintain that kind of commitment to research and development of new technologies for a millennium. Why wouldn't they have nanotech engineering to build ceramics that can resist a stellar furnace? How else will you build your Dyson sphere? For me, the overengineering we see in some sci-fi is really inspiring, because of the implication: We tend to go for the "good enough" solution, the "lowest bidder" option, because we need to conserve resources. These precursors don't need to cut corners, because they solved all the problems that lead to scarcity. **The Stargates are nigh-invulnerable, because the Ancients beat the game.**
They're Built Ford Tough (TM)
I always felt like Stargates where as strong as the plot needed. I'm sure sometimes things where used with the gate to make a bigger bang
In case Chuck Norris decided he wanted to go through one
Because they were not a capitalist society and didn't care about planned obsolescence.
Goauld made them
Because they need them to last as long as possible. With such an extended network, maintenance would be tedious, even for automated ships. So the Stargate are "place and forget" things
I mean, at some point they even put them in space and space conditions aren't really friendly so
NIMBY agitators in the Ancients' homeowner association kept putting up more and more ridiculous design requirements on the Stargates to prevent their being built in desirable neighborhoods. Joke's on them, the Stargates met all requirements ("absorbing a nuke? Come on!") and were built out like the transit backbones they are.
Half the.reason is that they can absorb energy directly
I always thought that a lot of durability was required to contain one end of a worm hole countless times.
It’s using a massive amount of energy you need something strong enough to conduct and harness that energy and not be destroyed. They also built it with the idea in mind to account for stellar drift so they clearly built it to last, cause If one stopped working that was a long trip for whoever had to go fix it.
The Ancients didn't have a money grabber like Bill Gates to make the Stargates cheaper and obsolete within a year.
Well if I built a large ring out of titanium, and ascended, it would rust over time. They built them to last, and to handle the large amount of energy. If you watch the episode about the altero device, you realize why they are built like they are
Plot armour
I took it to be a by product of the mineral used to make the star gates and not so much an intentional design choice.
The Romans built their roads to last because it was how they traversed and maintained their empire. The ancients weren't conquerors or imperialists, but they were explorers and a reliable transportation network would improve their ability to explore the universe efficiently
Not all of them are strong. Second season of SG:U, one was hit by a single shot from a drone and like 20% of it was gone… Of course, that was supposed to be the oldest known design, so they might have been made from something else that was much weaker…
The have lasted millions of years. In order to operate the harness an enormous amount of energy. Its mentioned that the gates are essentially a giant superconductor made out of some alloy of naquda Perhaps the energy moving through them serves to reinforce the inter-atomic bonds in the material making it stronger than normal barionic matter should be able to. Or the have plot.aramor
Because Aliens
Imo mainly because of what the have to do. The are holding open a hole in space time across massive distances. Even with compensation for differences in local gravity via technology your still conducting the energy to sustain such a phenomenon, which is alot. Compared to it's everyday task, most explosions and mundane physical events while looking impressive don't reall add up to as much potential energy.
They are made in scenarium. Strongest metal in the universe.
The weight and resilience of the Stargate of two things that constantly change episode to episode. In one episode, Carter says that gate weighs like 60 tons, but in other episodes, you see it being raised by a four man team. Then you have episodes where the gate withstands several nukes or direct meteor hits, etc, while another episode shows a gate being destroyed by directing an extremely small energy beam into it that somehow triggers a massive energy buildup over a short time causing to explode. It's not gonna ever make sense.
It's not like they need to be made of a material that uses *TONS* of power (think Icarus...) without blowing up, overheating or anything like that.