HOW MUCH WOULD THE DEATH STAR COST?

We are all in on the new Star Wars film and so is one of our big-time followers.

So let's go ahead and: Ask ARSE...

Thanks, Karl, we're glad you guys are taking your science fiction seriously as it is the playground of great scientific possibility. 

So for the question at hand, how much would it cost to build the Death Star from Star Wars...

We'll say this much, it's a good thing the Empire has many star systems in a forced agreement to keep their economy at a very high standard.

A question that divides ARSE in two is if the Empire built it with an obvious design flaw that can lead to its destruction so simply, did they cut corners?

There is footage in the film of Vader hurrying his admiral to finish the rebuilt station no matter the cost, so we are inclined to say yes.

The first or original Death Star was smaller by comparison at about 120km in diameter. 

To put this in perspective, the Death Star was about 1,200,000,000,000,000 tonnes. 

The sheer materials needed to build a station of that size are mind-boggling and could not be attributed to a single world alone, hence our earlier comment on the multiple world economy under the Empire banner. 

If you collected all the steel on Earth and combine it with the 1.4 billion tonnes of steel we produce annually, it would still take around 800,000 years for us just to collect the materials needed.

A military-style carrier is about 4.5 billion dollars U.S., and is about 11.3 billion times smaller than the Death Star.

So, logically we can say that 11.3 billion times the $4.5 billion is a good starting point for getting a ballpark figure for the Death Star. 

The cost is so large it's just easier to say it would be upwards of...

50 billion-billion dollars.

*Insert Dr Evil gif*

Earth's global GDP is $88 trillion, meaning the Empire would need 568,000 planets with the same global economy of Earth.

And taking the number of planets in the senate into consideration, we'd say the Empire is far short of that mark by a very long shot. 

Plus there's the labour of building the darned thing.

Extrapolating that the Empire has about 2.5 million crew aboard the Death Star, or so sayeth the common knowledge in Star Wars fan sites, the Death Star would cost about $1,370,000,000,000,000,000,000 just to manufacture.

And there you have it.

From all accounts we can tell you that the Death Star is nonsense, but very fun in a franchise we dearly love. 

Thanks for taking the time to Ask ARSE and we'll see you again.

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