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Thinking about Episode V, ESB, where the Millennium Falcon eludes the star destroyer by dropping out when it releases its garbage...

What if you were a guy in a proper space suit, and you attached yourself to the outside of a ship and the ship went into hyperspace? Your space suit would protect you environmentally, and there's no resistance, so it's not like you'd be thrown off of it from the speed/wind resistance, right? Do you just come out okay at the end? Or is there some extreme heat generated, or some strange extra-dimensional anomaly against which the ship has shielding?

Any level of canon is fine: has anyone ever been outside of and somehow attached to a ship which goes into hyperspace? If so, what happened?

DVK-on-Ahch-To
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Nate
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2 Answers2

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Ships use shields that protect them from the negative effects of hyperspace:

To prevent the relativistic passing of time while in hyperspace, starships used stasis fields attuned to hyperdrive levels to keep organic onboard crews or cargoes "in time" with the standard galactic dimension.
- source

It is unknown exactly how far out from a ship's hull these shields extent, but if the person attached to the ship wasn't close enough to be protected by these shields they would suffer these negative effects.

For more info, see DavRob60's answer to this question.

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RedCaio
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  • Okay, I read DavRob60's answer. I would assume the inertial dampers wouldn't make a difference if you're outside since you're not in the gravity field. Also, I'd assume, like you said, if you're close enough to the ship, you'd be okay staying under the shield. But now I need to know how far the shield extends. Oy. – Nate Dec 17 '15 at 21:02
  • Those negative effects and also the negative effects of accelerating to relativistic velocities in a very short amount of time. Gooification is the likely outcome for any organic matter outside of the statis/inertial-dampening fields. – aroth Dec 18 '15 at 03:51
  • Regarding inertial dampers: they only matter during acceleration/deceleration (think getting sucked into the back of your seat when you gun it in a car, or being thrown forward when the brakes are hit). If you disembark while already in hyperspace and reembark before the ship exits hyperspace, inertial dampers don't factor into the scenario. Unless acceleration happens in hyperspace. – talrnu Dec 18 '15 at 04:10
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In EU/Legends canon, yes.

In Vector Prime (New Jedi Order book #1), Kyp Durron ends up in an X-Wing with a missing canopy (which basically is an equivalent situation) and uses a shield generated by a hyperdrive to protect himself in hyperspace absent a canopy:

The pincers drove through; Kyp pressed and fell into his seat, grabbing a belt with all his strength. The canopy blew away with a tremendous shock that rocked the X-wing violently, knocking its nose down so that it was flying forward in a diagonal posture.
...
Working on his own, with no astromech and only a basic engineering manual to guide him, Kyp altered the power grids of the ion drive, bringing them more completely to his shielding power. Then, holding his breath, he eased it back on-line. It offered no thrust this time, but, rather, created a bubblelike shield about him, one that he hoped might allow him to survive hyperspace. ...
He altered the course accordingly and engaged the hyperdrive, focusing his consciousness on that tentative ion power-plant, attentive to its every sound and pulse.
He came out of hyperspace almost immediately, just an instant before the ion drive fluctuated.....

DVK-on-Ahch-To
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    I appreciate the answer, but he would be inside the ship at that point, and he protected himself with a non-standard shield function, so I don't feel this answers my question. – Nate Dec 17 '15 at 21:03
  • @Nate - I'm not sure if that was not a standard function. Hard to tell from the text. And he was in an X-Wing. However, there's no "inside the ship" - if you look at how X-Wing pilots sit, without the canopy, most of their torso and head ARE outside the fuselage – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 17 '15 at 21:05
  • DVK but if that protective field thing from @RedCaio is legit, he'd still fall within the protective shields the ship is generating, right? – Nate Dec 17 '15 at 21:44
  • @nate not sure. How is it shaped? How far from ship? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Dec 17 '15 at 22:09
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    Preumably it's shaped to include the canopy, at least. – user867 Dec 18 '15 at 02:48