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The real Death Star must have really been
murder on the Empire's wallet. This model hanging in the Los Angeles
Convention Center for Celebration IV was probably cheaper.
(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman / CNET)
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Sometimes it seems the world is so screwed up we should just build a
new one from scratch--and now we finally know how much such a project
would cost.
In gloriously geeky fashion, economics students at Lehigh University
tried to estimate how long it would take and how much it would cost to
build the Empire's ginormous man-made planetship if we were to get
started today.
The students started by assuming the Death Star could be made from
steel, and that the ship would be about as steel-dense as a modern
warship, in particular the HMS Illustrious. Applying that steel density
to the Death Star's size--the moon-size weapon was reportedly 140 km in
diameter--they determined that just over a quadrillion tons of steel
(quadrillion comes after trillion) would be required for construction.
That much steel would take more than 800,000 years to produce at
current rates, however, so someone might want to see if the boys at the
smelter are willing to work some overtime, along with the next few
thousand generations.
On the bright side for Death Star fans, that will give us plenty of
time to save the quadrillions of dollars needed to pay for the steel
alone, not to mention contractors. I don't suppose we'll have to worry
about paying very generous benefits given the Empire's track record,
though.
