Nicked this off yahoo, some people have too much time on their hands.

Ever wondered how much your very own Death Star would cost? Now, thanks to some boffins from Lehigh University, you don’t have to.

The students, who run their own blog called Centives, look at the “fun and quirky side of economics” and have estimated that the cost of building the massive space station would be $852,000,000,000,000,000 (£543,511,248,000,000,060).
[Related feature: What happened to the cast of The Phantom Menace?]

Most of the Earth’s core would also be needed to produce the necessary steel for the project.

That’s no moon…. but it’d cost about the same as buying your own one

Sean Goodwin, who wrote the article with Anjan Gupta, said: “The interest in the article from me stemmed from watching space battles in ‘Star Wars’ and wondering ‘Can we really build those things? Is there actually enough metal in the world to make a starfleet?’

“If I’m honest, the price of the Death Star was something of an afterthought to the question of “is it possible?”

They worked the cost out by using the reported measurement of the planet-destroying Imperial base (140km diameter) and comparing it to a modern warship to find the density of steel. The evil Galactic empire would need 1.08 x 1015 tonnes of the stuff.

Even if we could somehow harvest our planet’s own core (some might argue that destroying our planet for the sake of building a Death Star is stupid) it would take 833,315 years to produce the steel required.

Overall the project would cost $352 quadrillion as mentioned, a sum that is roughly 13,000 times the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Who knew ruling the galaxy with an iron fist would be so expensive!

some might argue that destroying our planet for the sake of building a Death Star is stupid

tell them “shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

Hmm – given that it’d be in space, why would it need to be built like a modern warship? And would it not be cheaper to just mine Mars?

In a similar vein of silliness, ever listened to ‘It was a good day’ by Ice Cube and wondered which specific day he was referring to? No?

CLUE 1:
     “went to short dogs house,
       they was watching Yo MTV
       RAPS”
Yo MTV RAPS first aired:
               Aug 6th 1988
CLUE 2:
Ice Cubes single “today was a good day” released on:
               Feb 23 1993
CLUE 3:
      ”The Lakers beat the Super 
       Sonics”
Dates between Yo MTV Raps air date AUGUST 6 1988 and the release of the single FEBRUARY 23 1993 where the Lakers beat the Super Sonics:
      Nov 11 1988    114-103
      Nov 30 1988    110-106
      Apr    4 1989    115-97
      Apr  23 1989    121-117
      Jan  17 1990    100-90
      Feb  28 1990    112-107
      Mar  25 1990    116-94
      Apr  17  1990    102-101
      Jan  18  1991    105-96
      Mar  24  1991    113-96
      Apr  21  1991    103-100
      Jan  20  1992    116-110
CLUE 4:
Dates of those Laker wins over SuperSonics where it was a clear day with no Smog:
                Nov 30 1988
                Apr   4  1989
                Jan 18  1991
                Jan 20  1992
CLUE 5:
     “Got a beep from Kim, and
         she can **** all night”
beepers weren’t adopted by mobile phone companies until the 1990s. Dates left where mobile beepers were availible to public:
                 Jan 18 1991
                 Jan 20 1992
CLUE 6:
Ice Cube starred in the film “Boyz in the hood” that released late Summer of 1991, but was being filmed mid-late 1990 early 1991 and Ice Cube was busy on set filming the movie Jan 18 1991 too busy to be lounging around the streets with no plans. Ladies and Gentlemen..
The ONLY day where:
Yo MTV Raps was on air
It was a clear and smogless day
Beepers were commercially sold
Lakers beat the SuperSonics
and Ice Cube had no events to attend was…
         
          JANUARY 20 1992
      National Good Day Day
-Donovan

to build a death star you don’t need to get the metal from earth – just round up a few decent asteroids. Nickel iron ones – not stoney ones – then you smelt it in space. Much easier than lifting it from earth. You only have to lift the refinery machinery out of the gravity well.

Tuttut – basic stuff. they haven’t read nearly enough science fiction

Is there actually enough metal in the world to make a starfleet?’

Errr! Galaxy a one far far far away. And a long time ago so they economy was probably very different then.

Tuttut – basic stuff. they haven’t read nearly enough science fiction

True – though if they really thought about it they’d just hollow out one of those asteroids, not a great deal of point in building the whole structure from scratch.

just hollow out one of those asteroids

or just get the earth out of it’s orbit?

The technology is out their in sci-fi land;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_in_Flight

I’ve seen the Death Star, it’s in the Seattle science fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. It’s crap, I’d do you a better one for half that price. For the full price I’d even finish the back half the cameras couldn’t see.

When the second Death Star was destroyed it was still full of building contractors.

If I lived a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way I’d be retraining as a welder or plumber.

Also, if I owned a space ship I wouldn’t let a Wookee anywhere near the furniture without it first putting some trousers on. Have you seen the back end of a sheep or other similarly hairy creature? Nobody wants Wookee shit on the pilot’s seat.

When the second Death Star was destroyed it was still full of building contractors.

2nd Death Star?

Sir, will you please leave the thread for the sake of your own good.

This is all very well but I want to know how much it’ll cost to build a full size replica of the Death Star out of Lego?

his is all very well but I want to know how much it’ll cost to build a full size replica of the Death Star out of Lego?

Are you fussy about the colour? You can get mixed kilo bags on ebay but you will need a lot of them.

Are they taking into account the labour cost too? Because all of the work is likely to have been done by robots probably halving the cost and speeding up the build time to around 10 years.

lego death star 3803 pieces $399

Of course we would need a space elevator first to get the refinery, materials and people up there. anyone got a piece of string 22000 miles long?

Surrounded By Zulus – Member
Hmm – given that it’d be in space, why would it need to be built like a modern warship? And would it not be cheaper to just mine Mars?

Or just stick an engine on Mars and drive off in it.

They do two death stars this ones $1075.00 on amazon

Death Star replica perfect for play or display
Assemble this impressive Star Wars battle station
Built to scale with original
3,417-piece set and display stand
25 Inches High

25 Inches High

Wookies clearly aren’t as tall as they look if they can fit in there.

TandemJeremy – Member
Of course we would need a space elevator first to get the refinery, materials and people up there. anyone got a piece of string 22000 miles long?

Hang on….

… nah. The longest bit I have is just 6″ short. Isn’t that always the way?

Drac – Moderator
When the second Death Star was destroyed it was still full of building contractors.
2nd Death Star?

Sir, will you please leave the thread for the sake of your own good.

Death Star 1 was destroyed in Episode 4 (the original Star Wars), Death Star 2 was destroyed in Episode 6 Return of the Jedi.

http://starwars.lego.com/en-us/Products/exclusive/9676.aspx

Not quite full size, but also a bit cheaper than the one Zap mentions above…

Oh and this supports my 10 year build theory.

In Return of the Jedi, set four years later, the Empire is building a new Death Star

From Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Star

Of course we would need a space elevator first

Construction firm aims at space elevator in 2050

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGOVbXF7Iog[/video]

Awwww! Crap i had it in my head the 2nd was the first being repaired.

Ok I’m off. Bye!

Made in china

The death star may be one thing but imagine the size of the hanger it would need to be made in! No that would be expensive.

Couldn’t they build a carbon Death Star?
Lighter and stronger than metal and the carbon would take the sting out of those astral trails.

Made in china

That wouldn’t work, within a month snide death stars would be on the market for half the price and everyone would have one, which makes it all a bit pointless really 😕
I’m going with robots…

Made 3 inches larger in diameter and marketed as the next big must have buy thing, ideal to roll over all those awkward rebel planets for less effort.

iDeathStar. Looks cool, very expensive and not quite as good as a regular Death Star.

do you think our death star would have an unprotected main reactor vent ?

When the second Death Star was destroyed it was still full of building contractors.

Are they taking into account the labour cost too? Because all of the work is likely to have been done by robots probably halving the cost and speeding up the build time to around 10 years.

Nah, it’d have to be slave labour. Even if just to maintain the Emperor’s credibility.

But there must have been a canteen on the Death Star…

[video]http://youtu.be/Sv5iEK-IEzw[/video]

take the sting out of those astral trails.

Surely there’s arse lard for that.

There assumptions about the density are wrong IMO.

Warships have quite small chambers whereas the film shows the DS has many very large chambers. Ergo the density and the amount of metal is much lower.

Plus artificial gravity will not be working on the non-habitable sections i.e. primary weapon, reactor and propulsion, which make up the bulk of the volume. These parts will be built weaker so even less material is needed.

£22,000 and i will be round next wedensday to start foundations.

I believe it was also built with slave labour, again saving money on costs.