Death Star - cost estimates

[uriah1]

Interesting trivia factoid of the day..........Death star cost estimates

EXTRACT.........

A students’ economics site, Centives.net, a blog post estimates the size of Darth Vader’s spherical death factory to be 140 km in diameter (87 miles). That’s about the size of Baltimore, the home of another famous George Lucas.

There are several logistical problems relating to raw materials: You’re going to need a serious celestial scrap yard. Using a modern warship as a reference, the students counted up the estimated amount of steel: “Scaling up to the Death Star, this is about 1.08x1015 tons of steel. 1 with fifteen zeros,” the blog said

At today’s rate of steel production it would take 833,315 years to produce. To put it another way, we're going to need a lot of drones. Not to mention transporting all that metal from the Earth.

“Oh, and the cost of the steel alone? At 2012 prices, about $852,000,000,000,000,000. Or roughly 13,000 times the world's GDP.*” the blog said.

[Jakedog]

I can't WAIT to show this to my wife. It will insure that I will never again be referred to as "the biggest geek ever".

[Freejack]

Why would we get the steel from earth? There must be a crap load of available iron in most any asteroid belt or uninhabited (or inhabited; they ARE The Empire). Considering the size of The Empire, they likely have a crap ton of smelters and steel workers (or steel working drones). They have to scale up the production levels to what would be available in The Empire at the time vs comparing it to Earth.

I'm more bummed about all the non-combat people who were on The Death Star when it was blown up. How many venues were on The Death Star entertaining the staff? How many bands were wiped out?

Think of the Guitarists!!!




Carl

[Guitarzan]

Why would it be steel?

If one is smart enough to design and build a Death Star, wouldn't he or she be smart enough to figure out the galactic mojo material as a substitute for lowly steel?

[tpaul]

Originally Posted by Guitarzan

Why would it be steel?

If one is smart enough to design and build a Death Star, wouldn't he or she be smart enough to figure out the galactic mojo material as a substitute for lowly steel?

You could make the Death Star out of plywood. But it wouldn't resonate.

[spauldingrules]

Haha. Needs to be made from AlNiCo for vintage tone.

[CyanideJunkie]

Heck, just use paper mâché and be done with it. The Force will take care of the rest.

[Mike Eskimo]

Death Star...?

Ohhhhh...Star Wars.

Really ? Still ?

[mrothe]

Well, that cost is for the original one, it was hand-wired. The re-issue death star probably was much less because the Empire used PCB and also it suffered the same major design flaw as the original, so it wasn't as good.
:)

[KokoTele]

I want to know how they came up with 87 miles as the diameter. It sure doesn't look that big when the Millenium Falcon approaches for landing.

[GigsbyBoyUK]

Just about any spacecraft in sci-fi movies would be impossible to build using today's technology and materials. They are usually stupidly big with lots of unnecessary features, such as long empty corridors, that would add far too much weight for no practical gain.

I guess this is why the 'fi' bit is included in sci-fi.

[Guitarzan]

Originally Posted by KokoTele

I want to know how they came up with 87 miles as the diameter. It sure doesn't look that big when the Millenium Falcon approaches for landing.

Think about the bit where Skywalker flies through the canyon/crevice forever before dropping the whatevers down the shaft to blow it up.

You would think that they would secure the shaft, if they needed to include one in its construction.

[1293]

Maybe the death star was a big ferrous planet and they mined it, carving out the architecture of it. It would be a win-win.

[Justinvs]

Originally Posted by Guitarzan

Why would it be steel?

If one is smart enough to design and build a Death Star, wouldn't he or she be smart enough to figure out the galactic mojo material as a substitute for lowly steel?

Legos.

[beach bob]

Originally Posted by Guitarzan

You would think that they would secure the shaft, if they needed to include one in its construction.

[Tred]

If the FORCE were to have used an extremely large baseball bat, we wouldn't be talking about this now...

[Thorby Bislam]

Originally Posted by GigsbyBoyUK

Just about any spacecraft in sci-fi movies would be impossible to build using today's technology and materials.

Exactly. Any contemporary vehicle would be impossible to build using the technology of a mere hundred years ago.

Originally Posted by GigsbyBoyUK

They are usually stupidly big with lots of unnecessary features, such as long empty corridors, that would add far too much weight for no practical gain.

Weight is irrelevant. You can make them as big and heavy as you like, and one day we will. These ships (will) operate in deep space. In the distances between planets where there is no atmosphere to create friction and drag. It makes sense to build them big. Not only will it require fewer journeys but the more mass in the ship, the safer it is.

Finally, don't forget that in the Star Wars universe, the atmosphere-going craft (X-Wings etc) are small and streamlined.

[Duncas]

who said it was made of steel?

[Open G Tele]

The Death Star wasn't constructed out of steel.
It was made out of an adamantium steel-vibranium alloy.
And if you get that reference... you really are a geek.

[Thorby Bislam]

Originally Posted by 1293

Maybe the death star was a big ferrous planet and they mined it, carving out the architecture of it. It would be a win-win.

An idea some people are seriously considering ...
http://www.archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_20030018908
http://news.yahoo.com/using-asteroid...01800-040.html