Death Star first appeared in Episode IV.
Today is Star Wars Day and we chose to celebrate it by remembering a pearl: Is it possible to create a Death Star? If that is so: How much will it cost to do this?
Before it is worth remembering what Death Star is. Basically, the “Death Star” it is a massive imperial space station that contains a beam that destroys the planet. Throughout the history of Star Wars there have been two. The first took about twenty years to build and the second, like four.
It appears in five legend films, making it for the first time in Episode IV (1977). In some it is “intact”, in others it is destroyed and in some, like Rogue One, it is the central axis of the plot. And it is inhabited by countless characters: crew, officers, pilots, etc.
In fiction, the first star was built in 20 years.
Is it possible to build it?
Technically yes, but it will take time. According to a study conducted in 2012 by the Centives of Economics blog of students at Lehigh University, in the state of Pennsylvania, USA, everyone depends on having enough iron.
Considering that the first star was 140 kilometers in diameter and made of steel, the students examined it as if it resembled a modern warship, another floating platform.
After conducting some studies, they came to the conclusion that with Earth’s limited iron, more than 2 million Death Stars could be made.
In Rogue One, the star is the engine of the plot.
The problem, they say, is getting iron from the planet’s core, which can be “dangerous.” At the current rate of steel production (1.3 billion tonnes per year), it will take 833,315 years to produce enough steel to start working.
In this sense, and if technology does not change radically, it will take at least 800 millennia just to start building a “Death Star”.
Station assembly is another matter.. With enough steel, using only 7,200kg-per-ship automated transfer vehicles (ATVs) similar to those used to carry cargo to the International Space Station, it will take 10 years. It launches four vehicles to the station per second.
If an ATV were shipped every month, it would take 5,000 million yearswhich means opening the station after the Sun rises.
And how much will it cost?
Factoring in steel prices in 2012, building an entire Death Star cost approximately $ 852,000,000,000,000.
The number is approximately 13,000 times the world’s GDP, and if the CPI index were adjusted to the current date, it would appear at 1,001,950,000,000,000, that is, more than thousand trillion dollars.
More people can travel to the Death Star than the inhabitants of Earth today.
In conclusion, according to this study, starting to build a space station like in Star Wars is now possible only in the science fiction universe created by George Lucas. Will anyone make you happy?
Source: Clarin
